Daily fantasy sports sites are testing the waters with all types of new games, and a prime example of that is DraftKings rolling out their showdown games. These fantasy games are a unique way to play by focusing on just one single game. You're filling out a smaller lineup (six players) which features higher price tags for players and the option to choose one captain on your roster.
While we're now in Week 4 of the 2018 NFL season, DraftKings is still offering monster showdown games for Thursday Night Football. This week's matchup is a good one between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams, which features the daily fantasy site offering a $10 game with $1,111,111 guaranteed. First place in this 150-max game will win $250,000.
Along with the huge headliner game, DraftKings is offering a lower buy-in option with their 20-max game that has $150,000 guaranteed and a $3 entry fee. Other games worth noting include a $12 single entry with $30,000 guaranteed and a $1 option with $75,000 in guarantees.
Before we dive into the action for Week 4 and the Thursday Night Football game let's offer a quick insight into how showdown games work.
– Six total players (one captain, five flex players)
– Captain selection costs 1.5 times standard salary but scores 1.5 times the standard points
– Can choose from any position (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, DST)
– $50,000 salary cap
– You can use more than one quarterback
There are quite a few ways to build lineups that are different from what the overall "chalk" will be, and in certain games, that's what you'll want to focus on. Creating a lineup that's different than others isn't a tough task, especially considering the potential to use kickers and defenses, which most fantasy players will opt against.
I'll break down a few different lineups, here which will include a variety of players in the captain spot. There will be two optimal lineups, a lineup for 150-max games (more risk), and one for single entries/cash games (higher-floor players). Before diving into that, though, I'm first going to hit on showdown strategy for this week's game. Every week the strategy will be different, as choices for captain spots will vary.
DraftKings Showdown Strategy for Vikings vs. Rams
The captain spot can be the difference between a huge payday and failing to cash in certain instances. While often times using a less-expensive player seems appealing so you can potentially fit in two or three stars, choosing whether or not to do that depends on the specific game.
Personally, I select 4-5 players to consider for the captain spot, which feature both expensive and cheaper options. From there, you can spread those players across multiple lineups and mix in the other top plays with them.
Here's a look at the options I'll be targeting for the captain spot in Week 4 (with captain pricing of 1.5x more):
– Todd Gurley ($17,400)
– Adam Thielen ($14,700)
– Kirk Cousins ($13,500)
– Robert Woods ($10,500)
– Cooper Kupp ($10,200)
– Kyle Rudolph ($8,400)
Favorite expensive captains: Adam Thielen, Kirk Cousins
Top value-saving captain: Cooper Kupp
Now, I'm going to break down the lines I'll be using, starting with optimal lineup No. 1, then the 150-max lineup, single-entry breakdown, and finally another all-around optimal lineup.
*Note: In some spots, I will have a lineup with Dalvin Cook included, and an alternate lineup for if he's ruled out.
Optimal Lineup No. 1
– CAPTAIN: Kirk Cousins ($13,500)
– Jared Goff ($10,800)
– Adam Thielen ($9,800)
– Robert Woods ($7,000)
– Kyle Rudolph ($5,600)
– Laquon Treadwell
I'm incredibly interested to find out what type of ownership Kirk Cousins, who costs $1,800 less in regular salary than Jared Goff, garnishes on this slate. While Cousins had a rough game against the Buffalo Bills last week, he'll face a Los Angeles Rams secondary dealing with multiple injuries.
With cornerbacks Aqib Talib (out) and Marcus Peters (questionable) both iffy to play, it not only makes Cousins an intriguing option but also his top pass-catchers as well. In this spot, I'm attacking that with Adam Thielen, who's quickly proven to be one of the most reliable and talented wideouts in the league. Not only that, but he's flashed upside a swell, topping 27.5 DraftKings points in each of the past two games.
Thielen has seen a ridiculous 44 targets over three weeks, so we have a pretty good idea of where Cousins likes to look first when dropping back.
In this lineup, I chose to go with a pairing of Goff and Robert Woods on the opposite side of the ball. While the Vikings have been solid against both quarterbacks and wide receivers, it hasn't been so incredible that I refuse to target players against them, especially in a primetime home game.
I chose Woods over Cooper Kupp in this spot due to his upside, which was wildly apparent last week as he caught 10 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Even if we don't see a performance of that magnitude, his price tag still makes this a solid play. On the season, the Vikings have allowed 35 receptions for 352 yards and two touchdowns to receivers.
Kyle Rudolph is a name I'll likely look to attack quite a bit on this showdown slate. As great as the Rams are as a defensive unit, they've given up the fourth-most yards to opposing tight ends (268) this season. With both Talib and Peters potentially out, the defense will be busy trying to keep Thielen and Stefon Diggs from going wild, which should benefit Rudolph.
For the final spot, I went back-and-forth between Rams kicker Sam Ficken and Laquon Treadwell. Ficken offers the higher floor and is a safer play, while Treadwell has a bit more upside and should bring low ownership. My thought process is similar to what I mentioned with Rudolph about the secondary injuries for the Rams, so I'll take my chance on Treadwell in a few lineups, with this being one.
And for those wondering, don't worry, I'm rolling out plenty of Todd Gurley in lineups, just not this one.
150-Max Entry Lineup
– CAPTAIN: Adam Thielen ($14,700)
– Todd Gurley ($11,600)
– Kirk Cousins ($9,000)
– Stefon Diggs ($8,000)
– Dan Bailey ($3,600)
– Laquon Treadwell ($3,000)
We're talking about upside, right? The key to a 150-max entry is that you need to be different. And let me be incredibly clear when stating that this lineup is the definition of massive boom or absolute complete and total bust. But, honestly, that's sort of what we want here.
The ownership on the Vikings trio of Adam Thielen, Kirk Cousins, and Stefon Diggs will likely be fairly high. But rolling out a triple-stack with those three and then adding Laquon Treadwell won't be a popular decision. The injuries to Talib and Peters are the big selling point here, as I believe the Rams secondary will have a tough time chasing around Minnesota's talented wideouts.
And if we're looking for strictly high upside, there's no better choice than Todd Gurley. While the Vikings defense has allowed just 72 rushes for 263 yards and no touchdowns to opposing running backs, they have given up 10 receptions for 153 yards.
If the Rams fall behind (which is the hope with this lineup) then Gurley could catch quite a few passes. Through three weeks, the young star has already hauled in 11 passes on 14 targets. This lineup is based on a game flow expectation, and it's unlikely to be a popular one, which I'm a fan of for huge tournaments.
My final spot came down to kickers and I chose to stick with the thought process of the Vikings moving the ball quite a bit and scoring points. In turn, I'll stick Dan Bailey in here to round out the five-player Minnesota lineup.
Personally, I envision there being very few (if any) other players who have this lineup, even in the massive $10 game. If they do, then kudos to them for getting incredibly unique, even if it doesn't pay off.
Single Entry/Cash Lineup
– CAPTAIN: Cooper Kupp ($10,200)
– Todd Gurley ($11,600)
– Adam Thielen ($9,800)
– Kirk Cousins ($9,000)
– Kyle Rudolph ($5,600)
– Sam Ficken ($3,200)
When creating single entry or cash lineups, you want plays which are fairly safe and have high floors. This is exactly what we have in Rams wideout Cooper Kupp. While Robert Woods has a higher ceiling, Kupp has become a go-to target for Jared Goff. Through three games, he's seen 21 targets, hauling in 15 of them and finding the end zone twice.
Kupp has scored at least 16.8 fantasy points in two of the three games, and the other was a 12.3-point outing. His floor is high, he's going to receive his fair share of targets and he's all but a lock for 4-6 catches in this game. While the Vikings have a strong defense, they've given up 35 receptions for 352 yards and two scores to wideouts, so I'm fine with Kupp's spot.
The Kirk Cousins-Adam Thielen stack is about as straightforward as you can go. Yes, it's going to be highly-owned, especially due to the Rams injuries, but a quarterback with as much upside as Cousins is hard to pass on. In single entry games, you just have to eat the chalk of this stack and hope the Vikings quarterback looks more like he did in the first two games than his mediocre showing in Week 3.
Todd Gurley is, well, Todd Gurley. High floor, high ceiling, a boatload of touches and a super high price tag. That all works out just fine in single entry games and I love getting him in this lineup with Cousins, Thielen and Kupp.
And then there's Kyle Rudolph, who I touched on previously. One of the few areas the Rams have struggled is defending tight ends. In turn, I'll have quite a bit of Rudolph in my lineups, as you've noticed by now.
He's cheap and his targets seem to be rolling in at this point. Although Cousins threw the ball 55 times last week and Rudolph just five catches for 48 yards and one touchdown, he saw eight targets the week before and hauled in seven of them for 72 yards.
To round it out, I'm sticking with the Rams kicker, Sam Ficken, as a nice way to give myself a filler who'll receive quite a few chances if/when drives stall out short of the end zone. I can see a handful of field goal opportunities in this game, as the two defenses aren't bad.
Optimal Lineup No. 2
– CAPTAIN: Kyle Rudolph ($8,400)
– Todd Gurley ($11,600)
– Jared Goff ($10,800)
– Kirk Cousins ($9,000)
– Dalvin Cook ($7,600)
– Tyler Higbee ($2,600)
**Lineup if Cook sits:
– CAPTAIN: Kyle Rudolph ($8,400)
– Todd Gurley ($11,600)
– Jared Goff ($10,800)
– Adam Thielen ($9,800)
– Cooper Kupp ($6,800)
– Tyler Higbee ($2,600)
Any casual fantasy football player is going to pull up Tyler Higbee's game log, look at his price of $2,600, think about it and then click off. That's fine because I'll take the risk they're going to opt against. It's not a safe play, or a sexy play or even one with a tremendous amount of upside, but Higbee absolutely has talent.
The young tight end found the end zone in Week 1 and has played at least 75 percent of the team's offensive snaps in each week, per Football Outsiders. Higbee didn't catch a single pass in a Week 3 blowout against the Oakland Raiders, but it's worth noting only one Rams player had more than 52 receiving yards (Brandin Cooks).
I'd use very little of Higbee, but if you want an intriguing red zone target and player who's going to be on the field often, roll him out a bit. The $2,600 price tag won't hurt you.
This is the captain Kyle Rudolph lineup, and after I've spent the entire breakdown talking about how great of an option is, there was no question I'd find a spot at the top for him. If we hit the lottery and Rudolph finds the end zone twice and he's in our captain spot, it differentiates this lineup quite a bit.
The top lineup here has the two-quarterback set with Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins. This offers up a unique stack of Goff with Higbee, and in lineup two – adds Cooper Kupp to the mix. But regardless of which lineup we use here, Todd Gurley is getting the nod in one of the top optimal lineups after tallying at least 26.7 DraftKings points in each of the first three weeks.
Now for the interesting topic of Dalvin Cook, who I'm expecting to at least attempt to play. If that is the case, the Vikings running back may garnish lower ownership than he would have if not returning from a hamstring injury. The matchup isn't ideal, but the Rams have given up 24 receptions to opposing running backs (for a brutal 106 yards), so at the very least we could rack up catches here and potentially a touchdown.
Cook isn't my favorite play on this showdown slate for a variety of reasons, but I'm locking him in largely based on ownership projections.
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