Levitan’s Solo Pod: Week 1 Results, Sad Underdog News, Listener Questions (Episode 1021)

Adam Levitan (0:15)

Hello, and welcome to episode 1021 of the official establishtherun.com podcast. My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR, and we are coming off of a running backs continue to own the NFL kind of week. Yes, that's right. Week one was a familiar story for running backs. One story that we've seen play out over the last two years repeatedly. If you played the running back position in the NFL in week one, you likely went off. Derrick Henry led all fantasy players in points week one. Jameer Gibbs, Ashen Gentie, DeAndre Swift, Bijan Robinson, Dave Montgomery, Jonathan Taylor, Javante Williams, Juba Hubbard, Bucky Irving. They all went over 20 PPR fantasy points as well in week one. And yes, certainly wide receivers did well too, but it's just easier to find those guys down board. Jalen Coker led all wide receivers in scoring. We were one to two rounds ahead on him all off season. Shout out to us. Christian Watson was not far behind. There was a great round six pick or so that we talked about a ton. But my point is, if you listen to episode 1019, the How To Beat DFS Tournaments in 2026 episode, one of the things that we found in the data over the last couple of years was that the field has not been playing running back in the flex enough on DraftKings.

So yeah, more on that in a little when I get to tournaments.

The other note that I wanted to make on the running back stuff was about injuries. Running backs have stayed healthier than wide receivers the last couple of years. So far this year, the big preseason injuries have been Brock Bowers, Ricky Pearsall, Jordan Tyson, Jaden Higgins, three wide receivers in a tight end. And then in week one, we lost Kyler Murray, Lad McConkey, Ze Flowers left early should be fine though, AJ Brown, Dejan Shribling, Sam Darnold. Meanwhile, all of these injuries at other positions, no running back injuries of note. And so if these things are going to continue at the macro level, defenses playing light, defenses petrified of giving up explosives in the pass game, defenses playing deep safeties. If that stuff is sticky and I tend to generally think that it will be, if that sticky and running backs continue to sustain health at the rate they had the last couple years, you know, running backs are going to rule fantasy again.

As for DFS cash this week, when I say cash, by the way, for anyone new, I just mean head to head, 50-50, any contest where roughly 50% of the field gets paid out and doubles their money. So as for DFS cash in week one, I really only played DraftKings due to the unfortunate site issues that Fandl was experiencing on Sunday morning.

I'll talk about some of the decisions that I made in DraftKings cash. But before I do that, I just want to reiterate that the cash games on DraftKings are not dead. I mean, Jameer Gibbs to me was the lock of all locks in cash for so many reasons. Roll, spot, projection, structure, just so obvious. I opened up the massive $25 double up on DraftKings, and Jameer Gibbs was only 77.3% owned. I was just shocked. 22.7% of people in there decided not to play Jameer Gibbs. They decided to torch their money. But even if they played Derrick Henry or DeAndre Swift or whatever, and they still won, trust me, 22.7% of people did not play Jameer Gibbs in Cash, they torched it. Michael Mayer was $2,900 on DraftKings, another absolute stone cold lock. He was only 72.5% owned in the massive $25 double up. Amon Rush St. Brown was only 36%. So yeah, I understand that it was week one, and early season is when Cash is softest, but I was encouraged by what I saw, for sure.

I don't want to spend too much time on Cash. You know, the biggest decision was the one we spent a lot of time on on Friday night, Establish The Show, Sunday morning, last minute live stream. The biggest decision to me was who to play at Running Back 2 in DraftKings Cash. I think this was a really good example of how ceiling is notable and important in Cash, but not the most important thing. Devon Achan projected pretty well for his price, but as we talked about relentlessly all week, it's just an insanely wide outcome spot.

He's playing with zero talent around him is Achan. We doubt the quarterback will check down. The team is not going to score very many touchdowns. The coach is a mess. I was just never playing Achan in Cash. I did play him some in tournaments, but I was just never playing Achan in Cash. I thought Amaran Hampton was fine and definitely playable in Cash.