Getty Gallery: 4/5
150-Max Entry Lineup
– CAPTAIN: Stefon Diggs ($16,200)
– Russell Wilson ($11,200)
– Kirk Cousins ($10,200)
– Tyler Lockett ($8,200)
– Aldrick Robinson ($2,200)
– Jaron Brown ($1,400)
The lineup above is based largely around the health of Seahawks wideout Doug Baldwin. I'm still personally fine taking the risk of Jaron Brown with Baldwin playing, as the top wideout missed the whole week due to a hamstring injury. I've provided one additional lineup which goes up to David Moore with a few changes.
If you want to pivot off the top lineup, going down to Tyler Lockett ($12,300) at the captain spot with Russell Wilson, Stefon Diggs, Chris Carson, David Moore, and Aldrick Robinson has some appeal. Moore is less risky than Brown, as he's seen more snaps consistently. Along with that, the second-year wideout received 23 targets in the four games prior to last week when he was blanked across the board.
I also believe that Moore will be lower-owned if Baldwin plays, but I can't envision the team's No. 1 wideout doing a ton with a hamstring injury. In turn, playing Moore as a low-owned option in that spot makes a lot of sense. If you're risky enough to go to Brown, that's an even more interesting spot but does come with obvious concerns.
Baldwin's status is worth monitoring, and if he's out, the ownership of both players (specifically Moore) should increase drastically. I'd still be fine using either wide receiver in place of Baldwin, though, and pairing them up with Tyler Lockett and Russell Wilson makes sense.
I'm a big fan of the spot for both Wilson and Lockett, and even though the Vikings boast solid numbers against opposing quarterbacks and wide receivers, it doesn't tell the whole story. Injuries are going to take center stage for Minnesota in this game, and even their top cornerback has dealt with some issues in recent weeks.
When breaking down Vikings' secondary, they'll be without cornerback Trae Waynes (concussion) and while Xavier Rhodes is playing, he's been battling a hamstring injury. I wouldn't go out of my way to attack Rhodes, but Lockett plays out of the slot quite a bit when Baldwin isn't playing, so this bodes well for him.
Even more important than that when looking at Lockett is the fact that he's been consistent and good over the past four games. Even in the blowout against the 49ers in which he saw just two targets, he still turned one of them into a 52-yard touchdown. Lockett has nine touchdowns in 12 games and I wouldn't be surprised if he adds another one on Monday.
An often overlooked aspect of daily fantasy football is quarterbacks who can run. It helps provide a safe flor, and while Wilson's seven attempts in the past two games went for just 18 yards, he has 45 attempts for 245 yards on the season. Now, he'll draw a Vikings defense who's allowed three rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks, which isn't a mind-blowing number, but was enough to get my attention.
Pair that up with the injury woes on the defensive side of the ball for Minnesota, and I'm a big fan of Willson.
Finally, I do think Vikings wideout Aldrick Robinson deserves consideration in 150-max games. He's not going to see the nine targets he did last game, but he and Cousins have a strong rapport. What's interesting here is that the popular belief is that Robinson saw an increase in snaps last week due to Diggs' injury (although he played), but that wasn't entirely the case. Diggs played 77 percent of the snaps while Robinson played 70 percent (per Football Outsiders).
Robinson not only has big-play potential but has had success in the red zone when his number has been called, catching four touchdowns this season. If he's going to flirt with 60-70 percent of the offensive snaps again, he's a great play at $2,200.
The single entry/cash lineup is more balanced, but there are one or two players worth taking a chance on to differentiate your lineups, and we'll cover that now.