CFB – Power 5 – Week 9 – Evening

With no Tua, DailyOverlay tackles DraftKings’ 8-game late slate

Yes, Tua Tagovailoa is out. And the Tide don’t have Jalen Hurts to fall back on. It probably HURTS a little bit for Saban’s crew to not have a proven QB to trust moving forward (see what I did there?).

I think it’s possible Alabama could be in trouble moving forward, especially with a showdown with LSU looming in a couple of weeks. Tua may or may not be back, but if you read his injury reports, it doesn’t seem likely he will make it back.

So can you play Alabama’s backup this week? Will Alabama switch gears and pound the running game more?

But the ultimate question will be what to do with Memphis’ running backs. You are going to need to know if Patrick Taylor comes back and plays a full load or do we confidently play Kenneth Gainwell?

The UCF running back situation also will be super important for this slate. If Killians is out, Otis Anderson becomes the best value play on the board. If Killians plays, he’s an easy-ish play despite there being a ton of RB options in the evening slate of games, which is much different than the early slate where identifying more than a couple of plays was difficult.

Those answers (maybe) are in this week’s Value Index for the evening slate on DraftKings.

Let’s go!

Najee Harris – RB – Alabama – $6,700

Analysis: OK, I am going to stick with a trend here plus stick with the idea that this passing offense for Alabama won’t be anywhere close to being as efficient with Tua. So that means lots of Najee Harris, who has carries of 20 and 21 and catch totals of 3 and 4 in his last two games. He has accumulated 219 rushing yards and two scores in those two games. Nick Saban is a smart coach, too of course and the best way to attack their SEC rival is on the ground, where the Razorbacks have been gashed for 192.9 yards per game by opposing running games. If Harris is a true bell cow and catching checkdowns from an inexperienced QB, I am so all in.