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Welcome to Week 5, which we can officially dub as the week Julian Edelman saves the New England Patriots passing game. Maybe. The NFL has given fans a solid Thursday Night Football game this week between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. In turn, DraftKings made sure to offer up plenty of great options for their showdown slate as well.
For those who haven't played a DraftKings showdown game, they can be incredibly exciting and there are ways to find unique edges, but there is also a lot to consider when building lineups. These fantasy games are a unique way to play by focusing on just one single game. The price tags on players on showdown slates are far different than normal games, and you'll also select a captain who costs 1.5-times the salary but also earns 1.5x the points.
DraftKings has continued offering monster showdown games for Thursday Night Football, a trend which stands true again in Week 5. This week the daily fantasy site will offer a $10 game with $1,250,000 guaranteed. First place in this 150-max game will win $250,000.
Along with the huge headliner game, DraftKings is once again offering a large $33 option which features $80,000 guaranteed and $20,000 to the eventual winner. There are also quite a few large single entry events, including $3 ($15,000 guaranteed), $5 ($25,000 guaranteed) and $12 ($30,000 guaranteed) options.
Before we dive into the action for Week 5 and the 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
I'll break down a few different lineups, here which will include a variety of players in the captain spot. There will be one optimal lineup, 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.