Week 2 DraftKings NFL DFS Picks (2023): Break The Slate With Patrick Mahomes, Josh Jacobs, Calvin Ridley, and more

September 17, 2023

Joe Nicely's DraftKings NFL DFS picks and lineup sleepers for the Week 2 (September 2023) Main Slate. His top daily fantasy football lineups to target for DraftKings DFS contests.

Hi there, RotoBallers, and welcome back to our weekly DraftKings NFL DFS article! If you read this article last week -- or in the last few years -- then you know what we're about here. If you are a new reader, let me quickly summarize our goals with this article. We'll spend each week discussing a few NFL DFS plays at each position for the DraftKings main slate. I'll highlight my favorite players and break down my reasoning behind them in an attempt to help you succeed with your own DraftKings lineups.

To put things into football terms, we got our first hit out of the way last week. As any of you who spent any time playing the game know, things sort of calm down after that first collision. With the jitters officially gone, we settle into the Week 2 Main Slate. We do have a tiny bit more actionable information to work with this week, though we're also still learning what the various teams and players in the NFL are truly capable of.

These DraftKings lineup recommendations are based on matchups, projected DK points and ownership, overall upside/talent levels, and opportunity, as well as factors such as Vegas odds, home-field advantage, and more. There are quite a few great plays available on DK for Week 2. Also, be sure to check out our weekly FanDuel DFS lineup picks and lots of other great NFL DFS articles and NFL DFS tools to help you win big! Good luck with your DraftKings DFS lineups -- let's dominate this slate together!

DraftKings Quarterbacks - Week 2 DFS Picks

Patrick Mahomes - KC @ JAX ($8,300)

While the Week 1 Main Slate felt like a great spot to save salary at the QB position, Week 2 is profiling as a slate to spend up. The prospects of a Josh Allen bounceback game are intriguing, but I prefer to get all the way up to Patrick Mahomes.

The Kansas City superstar is coming off a quiet (by his lofty standards) season opener in which he tallied 226 yards and two TDs in a loss to the Detroit Lions. It's hard to blame Mahomes, as he was without Travis Kelce and endured EIGHT drops by his stone-handed receiving corps.

I expect the Chiefs offense to be sharper as a whole this week and they'll certainly get a huge lift from a trending-to-play Kelce. Mahomes feasted on the Jaguars in the team's two 2022 meetings, totaling 526 passing yards and six TDs while also picking up 47 yards on the ground.

Jacksonville allowed the NFL's fifth-most DraftKings points to the quarterback position in Week 1 against Indy rookie Anthony Richardson and finished bottom-10 in the league against opposing QBs last season. Mahomes will feast in this matchup that has very real shootout potential.

Anthony Richardson - IND @ HOU ($6,300)

There were a lot of question marks surrounding Anthony Richardson in Week 1 (unless you read this article, which recommended him) but the Colts' rookie impressed by almost every metric in the season opener against Jacksonville.

Richardson was a force on the ground (which we expected), rushing for 40 yards and a score on 10 attempts. He was also surprisingly active through the air (which we didn't expect), attempting 37 passes for an Indy offense that operated at the third-fastest pace in the NFL in Week 1.

While DraftKings has bumped the rookie's price point up from $5,600 to $6,300, Richardson is still too cheap in this intriguing divisional matchup against the Texans. Houston finished last week allowing the league's seventh-highest yards per attempt and seventh-most rushing yards to the QB position. Richardson truthers have often described him as a raw Cam Newton and he displayed a Newton-like physical presence in the season opener.

DraftKings Running Backs - Week 2 DFS Picks

Josh Jacobs - LV @ BUF ($7,100)

The NFL's 2022 rushing king returned from a contract-related offseason holdout to find his old job waiting for him just as he left it. Jacobs was the focal point of a Raiders offense that morphed into a run-first unit down the stretch last season and opened 2023 with the league's seventh-highest neutral rushing rate in a Week 1 victory over the Denver Broncos.

It's no surprise that Jacobs carried the water for the Vegas offense. He amassed an 80% snap share while totaling 21 touches against the Broncos in the opener. While Buffalo has been a defense we've wanted to avoid in the past, some cracks are starting to show in their run-stopping ability.

The Bills finished 2022 as a middling unit in fantasy points allowed to the RB position and they kicked off the new season by getting absolutely gashed on the ground by the New York Jets. Buffalo allowed a massive 6.92 yards per carry in Week 1 -- the worst mark in the NFL -- and that was with Zach Wilson at the helm of the Jets offense. While Jimmy Garoppolo is no Aaron Rodgers, he'll do enough to keep the Bills honest, which should give Jacobs some running lanes to attack.

Rachaad White - CHI @ TB ($5,500)

The jury is still very much out on whether Rachaad White is actually good at football. However, the Tampa Bay coaching staff are apparently believers, as White earned true workhorse treatment in the season opener against Minnesota.

The second-year back boasted an elite 79% snap share in Week 1, which was tied for the fifth-highest in the NFL and ranks with the likes of Christian McCaffrey and Josh Jacobs. It translated to 19 touches for White against the Vikes. Not bad for a player that's priced as if he's still Leonard Fournette's backup this week on DraftKings.

If he sees similar volume in Week 2, it should translate to success against a Bears unit that was sliced and diced to the tune of 185 total yards and two TDs by Aaron Jones and the Packers' backfield in Week 1.

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DraftKings Wide Receivers - Week 2 DFS Picks

Calvin Ridley - KC @ JAX ($7,200)

The former Atlanta Falcons WR1 announced his return to the NFL with authority in Week 1. After serving a one-year suspension related to gambling activity and being dealt to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Ridley doesn't appear to have lost a step. He shredded the Indianapolis Colts in the season opener with eight catches for 101 yards and a score.

Ridley was Trevor Lawrence's favorite target by a wide margin, garnering 11 targets on a massive 34.4% target share in Week 1. He draws a terrific game environment to keep things rolling in Week 2, as he'll face a Chiefs secondary that allowed a chunky 8.14 yards per target to Lions pass catchers in Week 1. This KC/JAX matchup carries the highest projected point total on the Main Slate.

Zay Flowers - BAL @ CIN ($5,000)

I grabbed some Zay Flowers exposure on DraftKings in Week 1. After watching the first quarter of the Ravens' season opener against the Texans, I instantly regretted not being all-in on the rookie. In addition to being simply off the charts of the old-fashioned "eye test" thanks to explosiveness and joystick-like moves that jump off the screen, the rookie was immediately a big part of this new-look Ravens offense.

Flowers logged an eye-opening 84% snap share in the first NFL game of his career, a mark that was over twice that of incumbent Ravens WR Rashod Bateman. Just as encouraging as his playing time was the fact that the rookie was actually being schemed touches by new Baltimore offensive coordinator Todd Monken in Week 1 while running nearly half of his routes from the slot.

Yes, there will be a bit of a shakeup to the Baltimore pecking order if Mark Andrews returns to the lineup this week against the Bengals. Yes, DraftKings has increased Flowers' price tag by $1,000. Yes, I'll still have tons of exposure to the dynamic rookie.

DraftKings Tight Ends - Week 2 DFS Picks

Sam LaPorta - SEA @ DET ($3,900)

We expected the Lions rookie to occupy a large role right away and that's exactly what happened with LaPorta in the season opener against Kansas City. The Iowa product logged an 81% snap share, which was 10th in the NFL among tight ends in Week 1 while running routes on roughly half of Jared Goff's dropbacks.

LaPorta earned five targets in his NFL debut, hauling in all of them for 39 yards. The final stat line doesn't blow us away, though the overall takeaway is encouraging...the rookie is the clear alpha TE for what we expect to be a good, pace-up Lions offense.

He draws a juicy matchup against Seattle this week. The Seahawks were one of the league's worst teams against the TE position in 2022 and they allowed an abysmal 14.0 yards per target to the position in the season opener against the Rams last week.

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