Getty Carson Wentz and the Eagles are looking to turn their season around.
This week’s Sunday night football matchup gifts us with a primetime game littered with star power. The Matt Ryan led Atlanta Falcons will welcome the high-flying Philadelphia Eagles into town.
DraftKings NFL $800K Sunday Night Showdown is open for entry now, and gifts the first place winner with $200,000. Let’s break down the most optimal way to construct your lineup for Sunday night’s matchup.
Rules & Scoring:
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- Six total players (one captain, five flex players)
- Captain selection cost 1.5x standard salary
- Captain scores 1.5x fantasy point values
- Can choose from any position (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, DST)
- You can use as many players at the same position as you’d like
- $50,000 salary cap
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Roster Construction
GettyPhiladelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz high-fives quarterback Carson Wentz.
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- Captain: Carson Wentz $16,500
- FLEX: Matt Ryan $10,800
- FLEX: Zach Ertz $9,200
- FLEX: Mohamed Sanu $5,200
- FLEX: Miles Sanders $4,800
- FLEX: Ito Smith $2,400
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Why this Lineup?
We rolled with Carson Wentz as our captain for Sunday night’s showdown. Wentz carried a hefty price tag, as the second highest-salaried player available behind Julio Jones. However, it will all be worth it when you get to multiply Wentz’s monster game by 1.5 points. Atlanta allowed the sixth-most passing yards and the fourth-most passing touchdowns a season ago.
If we’re going with Wentz, we might as well throw his favorite target into the lineup. Last week Zach Ertz had what many consider a down game by his standards. However, Ertz still finished with 10.4 fantasy points. That’s with Ertz just missing the endzone on a catch and run that brought him inches from scoring. Expect a big game from the all-pro tight end.
Miles Sanders had a quiet NFL debut in week one on the stat sheet. Still, the rookie led all Eagles running backs in offensive snaps. Plus if Sanders 22 yard touchdown scamper wasn’t called back for an illegitimate holding call, his salary would likely be a lot higher than it is. Atlanta’s defense was also extremely generous to running backs a season ago, forfeiting the 6th most fantasy points to opposing fantasy backs on the year.
Matt Ryan is our second quarterback in our optimal DFS lineup. He certainly saw his struggles a week ago but is still a must-play on Sunday night. While he may have tossed two picks last week, he still threw for 300+ yards and two touchdowns. Philly surrendered 380 yards and three touchdown passes to a much less talented Case Keenum in week one.
Mohamed Sanu is mostly the forgotten man in Atlanta’s receiving corps on the outside looking in. However, he is a valued asset to the team that is constantly worked into their game plan. Sanu outpaced Calvin Ridley in receptions a week ago, and was just one behind Julio Jones for the team lead in receptions by a wideout.
We fill our last slot with Ito Smith who’s currently going for pocket change with a salary of just $2,400. Smith led all Atlanta running backs in rushing yards in week one and averaged 2.8 more yards per carry than his Falcons running mate Devonta Freeman.
Final Thoughts & Obvious Omissions
It certainly hurts to leave Julio Jones out of our lineup, but being the highest-priced player it was hard to make space for the wideout.
Jones is also hit or miss in terms of fantasy production. Jones put up just 31 receiving yards in week one. He has now had 31 receiving yards or less in three of his past six games.
Our optimal lineup leaves $1,100 remaining salary, however, there weren’t any players worth shuffling our roster for. Sanders and Smith were both priced as backup running backs, but have the chance to lead each of their teams in rushing.
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