Welcome to the locks of the week, where we won’t tell you to play David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell. It’s not that I don’t want to, I really do. But that wouldn’t be very useful to you. The idea of this article is to give you players who aren’t priced through the roof where you cannot afford to play them without putting together a stars and scrubs lineup.

We will choose from players outside the top five at their position who should be considered as locks to produce this week. And in most cases, they aren’t even in the top-10 priciest, because the cheaper we can go, the better. Inside, you’ll find two quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers and one tight end you should have heavy exposure to on in your DFS lineups. They are also players who should be in seasonal lineups, if you are still vying for a championship.

Quarterbacks

Tyrod Taylor, Buffalo Bills (vs. Browns)

I’d like it to be known that I wanted Drew Brees to get into this article, here in this spot, actually. But he was in the top-five highest-priced options, so he didn’t qualify. Taylor is a solid poster boy this week, however. He has a date with a Browns team that is the gift that keeps on giving, as they have allowed multiple touchdown passes in 19 of their last 23 games dating back to last year. Because of that, there’s been just one quarterback to score fewer than 14.4 fantasy points against them this year, and that was Ben Roethlisberger on the road. Even Jets now-backup Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to meet the quota against the Browns, throwing for 228 yards and one touchdown. While five of the last six quarterbacks to face Cleveland have thrown for fewer than 250 yards, it works out quite well for Taylor because he isn’t the type to earn the 300-yard bonus in any week, really. As a matter of fact, he’s topped that number just twice this year, yet has still finished with a minimum of 15.3 points in nine of his 13 games. That is because he has totaled at least 30 yards rushing eight games, including seven of the last eight. The Browns have actually allowed three passing touchdowns in more games than they haven’t. With Sammy Watkins back and playing all the snaps, Taylor should be able to use this game as a “get right” one at home. If for some reason the weather does not cooperate, you can pivot to Alex Smith or Sam Bradford, in that order.

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