Getty Philip Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers
DraftKings NFL $1.11M Thursday Night Showdown is open for entry now. The contest will feature a Los Angeles Chargers team currently riding a two-game winning streak, traveling to Oakland in hopes of jumping the Raiders for second place in the AFC West with a victory.
The first place prize winner of the DraftKings TNF Showdown will receive a wealthy $250K payout. Let’s see how to optimize our lineups below.
Rules & Scoring:
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- Six total players (one captain, five flex players)
- Captain selection costs 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
- Captain: Josh Jacobs $14,100
- FLEX: Philip Rivers $10,000
- FLEX: Hunter Henry $8,400
- FLEX: Melvin Gordon $7,200
- FLEX: Hunter Renfrow $5,000
- FLEX: Michael Badgley $3,800
Why this Lineup?
The Oakland Raiders have become Josh Jacobs‘ offense, and us DFS players are more than okay with that fact. Jacobs has averaged a whopping 27 touches in three of his past four games, giving us guaranteed usage from our Captain position. Over those games, the rookie averaged more than 26 fantasy points per game. The Bolts allow the 10th-most fantasy points to opposing RBs this season with an average of 23+ points per game.
Philip Rivers has not played very well of late, failing to eclipse 11.76 fantasy points in back-to-back weeks. However, if he can’t produce on Thursday night against a horrendous Oakland secondary, his time as an NFL quarterback may be quickly dwindling away. Oakland surrenders the most passing yards per game, as well as the second-most passing touchdowns, and second-most fantasy points to QBs this season.
Hunter Henry has seemingly eclipsed Keenan Allen as the go-to target in the Chargers offense. Henry has averaged 21+ fantasy points in three of his four games this season since returning from injury. We’ve already touched on how terrible the Raiders secondary has been. That fact carries over to defending the TE position, as they allow the third-most points to tight ends this season. Two of their last three opponents at the position have scored 14.5+ fantasy points and scored three touchdowns combined against them.
Don’t look now, but Melvin Gordon is beginning to come into his own. The running back has scored three touchdowns over the past two weeks and has averaged 20.5 touches in two of his last three games. The Raiders have surrendered four touchdowns to opposing running backs over their past three games.
Not that we should be surprised, but Hunter Renfrow is emerging as a go-to safety net for quarterback Derek Carr. The rookie pass-catchers has averaged 18.1 fantasy points over the past two weeks and comes in with an extremely generous price tag, currently sitting as the 15th highest-salaried player in the contest.
Yes, we’re going with a kicker with our final roster slot. Yet, not any kicker, this is the “Money Badger” we’re talking about. Michael Badgley racked up 16 fantasy points in his 2019 debut one week ago. Chargers kickers have averaged 13 fantasy points in two of their last three games. Since their Week 6 bye, the Raiders have surrendered a total of 22 fantasy points to the kicker position.
Final Thoughts & Obvious Omissions
Our two obvious ommissions for this Showdown would have to be Derek Carr and Keenan Allen. Carr is the QB7 in fantasy over the last three weeks. However, opposing QBs have failed to reach 13 fantasy points in four of their last five games against the Bolts, including three performances of just 9.08 points or less.
Allen, on the other hand, has been abysmal as of late. While I do expect him to perform better on Thursday than he has over the past month-plus, a $9,000 price tag is a bit hefty for a player who’s failed to reach double-digit fantasy points in four of his last six games.
Reminder, the game kicks off Thursday night at 8:20 pm ET. Be sure to set your lineups, and good luck!
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