Week 16 Thursday Night Showdown on DraftKings

Saints vs Rams Draftkings Showdown

Showdown Captain mode is a DraftKings tournament where you have $50,000 to create a lineup using 6 players from a standalone single game. One of those players will be your captain. The captain costs 1.5 times their salary and will accumulate 1.5 times the points. As with every slate, GAME THEORY IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. Even more so in Showdown, you want your lineup to tell a story of how the game will go. There are a lot of options based on how you see the game going but ALWAYS make sure there’s correlation between your players.

Saints @ Rams

Spread: LAR -4
Over/Under: 46

 

Injuries to Monitor

Oddly there are no injuries that affect this game.

 

Breakdown

The 7-7 Saints head to Los Angeles to face the 7-7 Rams. Both teams are fighting for the playoffs with the Saints still alive to win the NFC South.

The Saints have won convincingly in back to back games albeit against inferior opponents. They beat the Giants last week 24-6 and the Panthers 28-6. They’ve averaged 26.7 points over their last three games. They’ve only allowed 12 total points over the last two weeks but previously gave up 33 points to the Lions.

The Rams took care of the Commanders last week 28-20. They previously lost a shootout in Baltimore. They’ve been on a roll offensively since Week 12 averaging 33 points per game.

This game has a lot of options for Captain and just expensive plays in general. Choosing right up top and pairing the studs with the correct cheap piece is probably the path to the money. I’m not crazy about the QBs and will likely be underweight on them. In lineups where I use them I’ll mostly pair them with only one of their receivers. Kyren will be in the bulk of my lineups and Olave is the clear number 1 on the Saints. I’ll start a lot of lineups with them. I do think this game could be a little slower paced so I don’t hate mixing in the kickers and defenses sparingly.

 

Captain/Flex

Kyren Williams $16,800/$11,200

Since coming back from injury, Kyren has been a monster. He’s the RB 2 over that span leading the league in carries and rushing yards. Williams is averaging 5.6 yards per carry and 4.25 receptions over that span. He’s tied for the 4th most carries inside the 5 yard line despite missing four games.

 

Cooper Kupp $16,500/$11,000

It’s been an interesting injury filled season for Kupp. There’s been upside and downs but he seems to be healthy and has looked great. He has eight catches and at least 111 yards in back to back games and has scored a TD in three straight games. He has a 25% target share on the season.

 

Alvin Kamara $16,200/$10,800

Kamara’s workload especially in the passing  game provides him with such a safe floor. He also has a ceiling with TD upside. He leads all RBs in receptions despite being suspended for the first three weeks this season. He’s averaging 20.8 opportunities per game.

 

Chris Olave $12,900/$8,600

Olave has a 26% target share, is averaging 12.8 yards per reception and has an ADOT. He has at least eight targets in seven of his last eight games. His target volume is great but it makes it even nicer considering the depth of his targets. He has the 4th most air yards playing one less game than any other WR in the top five.

 

Puka Nacua $14,400/$$9,600

I prefer Kupp at captain but we’ve seen plenty of ceiling games from Puka and he absolutely could be the highest scoring player in this one. He already has over 1100 yards and is averaging 13.4 yards per reception. He has a 29% target share on the season. They’re even involving him in the running game recently.

 

Flex

Matthew Stafford $10,000

Stafford has thrown multiple TDs in four straight games. With at least three TDs in three of them. He’s averaging 22.4 DraftKings points per game over that span. I don’t like him at Captain because I worry about his upside with the Saints only allowing 16 passing TDs which is 3rd least in the league.

 

Derek Carr $9,000

Carr has been rather pedestrian this season but has thrown multiple TDs in back to back games. The Rams are bottom five in points per game allowed to QBs this season. They’ve allowed 19.1 points per game this season but have allowed 21.8 points per game over their last six games.

 

Rashid Shaheed $7,000

The price is a little elevated but Shaheed has huge play upside. Je has a very low floor and is averaging 4.9 targets per game. He does have a ceiling though. He’s averaging 15.8 yards per reception and has an ADOT of 13.9 yards. He’s a volatile boom bust play at an elevated price tag.

 

Taysom Hill $6,600

What can you say about Taysom Hill? In my opinion he’s the most annoying player in Fantasy Football. There’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to his usage and he can get you zero points or break the slate. Sprinkle him in or fade him. Take your pick.

 

Tyler Higbee $5,800

Higbee is your typical TE. He has low target volume and a limited ceiling. As with most TEs you’re hoping for a TD and the Saints are tied for the 2nd most TDs to opposing TEs this season.

 

Demarcus Robinson $5,400

Robinson has scored a TD in three straight games. He has at least 44 yards in each of those games and has been getting some rushing attempts. The last two weeks he’s run routes on 100 and 98% of dropbacks. It’s possible he loses some opportunities if Atwell returns but he’s been too productive for the Rams to go away in my opinion.

 

Jamaal Williams $4,200

Williams hasn’t been very effective but has been getting carries recently. He has carry totals of 8 and 11 in his last two games. He’ll also add a reception or two. He has absolutely zero upside but is guaranteed touches on a slate with very little value.

 

Juwan Johnson $4,000

Johnson hasn’t had much target volume with his season high being seven but averaging 4.5 on the season. He did score a TD last week which was only his 2nd in the season which is odd considering his propensity for finding the endzone last year. The Rams have allowed 12.2 yards per reception and 7 receiving TDs to opposing TEs, both of which are 2nd most in the league.

 

Lynn Bowden Jr $3,000

Value plays are definitely going to be needed in this game and Bowden is probably the safest of the bunch. He has at least three catches and 24 yards in back to back games.

 

AT Perry $3,200

Perry hasn’t topped two receptions in any game this season. He has three straight games with at least 30 yards. If he can outscore these lower priced guys and help you jam some studs in your lineup he could be a good play.

 

Tutu Atwell $2,800

Atwell will be back this week. He’s been ok in spots but the bulk of his good games were earlier this season. He was concussed in Week 14 but had ran less routes than Robinson in each of the previous two weeks.

 

Royce Freeman $2,600

Freeman is an afterthought with Kyren back. He got a couple of carries last week because of fumbling concerns with Kyren but then went right back to irrelevance. Unless Kyren gets hurt or fumbles again I wouldn’t expect much.

 

Jimmy Graham $1,600

Somehow Jimmy Graham is still playing football and somehow he’s scoring TDs. He’s scored a TD in three straight weeks and that’s exactly what you’re hoping for if you play him.