Ahead of a battle between the Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots, it was announced that Darren Waller would be coming off the IR. In turn, this naturally brings up a question; what exactly should be the approach when evaluating any Darren Waller DFS value for this weekend?
Caution.
Darren Waller DFS Value
Outside obvious jokes we can make about the Raiders under Josh McDaniels this season, Waller is coming off an injury, will need time to return to full form, and might need even more time to acclimate to this system all over again since he’s not played since Week 5.
On the season, Waller has 16 catches, 175 yards and only one touchdown. After inking a massive three-year extension with the franchise near the end of the most recent camp, but following a season marred by issues, Waller has even admitted to being in a position to not question his own value — nevertheless what we think about our Darren Waller DFS value opinions.
“This time, you don’t really question your value or your worth, just because you’re not out there,” said Waller, who has been open about his battle for sobriety, via ESPN. “It’s up to you to know who you are and to feel good about yourself, whether things are going the way you want them to or whether they’re not. I feel like I’ve grown in that.”
From a bigger picture standpoint, it’s clear we should root for Waller as a person, especially given how open he’s been about his struggles. There’s no need to diminish that aspect of his life in the name of some NFL DFS plays.
Editor Note: There are plenty of quality places to get value ahead of Sunday’s NFL DFS slate, but we’d like to highlight the promotions FanDuel is currently running, as there’s plenty of options for a variety of plays today.Â
As for this game, despite the Patriots losing that air of scariness they use to have, now putting as much fear in opponents as you and I (and we’re not even NFL teams, to put that in perspective), New England’s defense is by no means something to scoff at, slotting somewhere in the middle of the league overall, but the Pats pressure opposing QBs with the second best rate in the entire NFL (26.4%).
Couple that with Waller coming off injury and not playing so much, as well as the entire — cough — aura surrounding the Josh McDaniels era, there’s better plays available. In fact, you can use Stokastic’s Player Compare tool to find far better options at the position for Sunday.
For other context, Hunter Renfrow, who is also returning from injury, does believe the Raiders can take last season’s lessons and apply them to the final stretch.
“It was an awesome little run we had but we didn’t win four by trying to win four; we won four by trying to win one and then just piling up on top of each other,” said Renfrow.
And yet, depending on how this weekend goes, we’ll have to readjust how we view any Darren Waller DFS value projections after the game, as he’s simply too talented a player to expect him to not make an impact in the immediate future. Just… don’t expect it today.
