Welcome back to Week 2 of the Thursday Night Football Showdown Build here at Aaron Torres Online. The season kicked off well for us last week with great performances from Tom Brady, Chris Godwin, CeeDee Lamb and Antonio Brown, who were all in this article last week. We also did miss on Ronald Jones though who ended up in Bruce Arians’ doghouse after a costly fumble. I hope you were able to use the information in the article to build out a winning lineup and cash in last Thursday night!
As you know, I will be coming to you weekly with a column specifically focused on one type of DFS contest, the Showdown style on DraftKings. I will be here every Thursday, specifically giving you players and strategy for the Thursday Night Football Showdown contests.
Showdown Style is a DFS contest, also referred to as "Captain Mode" contests, where your roster consists of only six players and must include players from both teams. The positions in this type of contest are a “Captain” and five “Flex” players. This means that you can play a QB, RB, WR, TE, K or Defense in any of those roster spots with no minimum or maximum at any position. The player you select as the captain will score 1.5 time the standard fantasy point value for every statistic but drafting a player in the captain spot will also cost you more salary than if you were to draft them in a flex spot. With that, let’s build out our week 2 Thursday Night Football Showdown Slate Lineup!
The Captain Spot
As I mentioned, the player you use in this spot is going to cost you more salary by being the captain, but it will also score you 1.5 times the standard point value earned. In this week’s contest the clear-cut captain to me is Antonio Gibson. Gibson isn’t even the highest priced option on the slate. In fact, he has the 4th highest salary behind both quarterbacks and Saquan Barkley. Saquan is still easing his way back from last season’s injury and I expect the Giants to still limit his usage especially on a short week. Washington goes to backup Taylor Heinicke on the short week after he had to relieve Ryan Fitzpatrick after his in-game injury last week. On the Giants side, we have the turnover prone Daniel Jones up against one of the best defensive fronts in football. None of these other 3 options are captain spot picks for me and I think Gibson will get 20+ carries like he did last week and add some receptions to that as well. In a game that could be an ugly, low scoring affair, the defenses are in consideration for the captain spot as well, but I am going with the playmaker in Gibson since I believe he will have a ton of volume and should be able to find the end zone at least once. He is my captain at a captain salary of $14,400.
Flex Spots with value
In last week’s article I started with the high salary players I wanted in my lineup since it was such a star-studded matchup with so many weapons. This week, it is the exact opposite. I think the defenses will control this game for the most part and I see this one as a low scoring divisional matchup.
For this reason, I want to put BOTH defenses in my showdown slate lineup. The Washington defense at $5,600 is likely going to be a chalk pick with them being one of the best defenses in the league and facing Daniel Jones who is known for his propensity to turn the ball over. I am also going to use the Giants defense at $4,200 because they do have a sneaky good secondary and that price gives us a lot of salary relief. James Bradberry is one of the best corners in the game and he will likely shadow Terry McLaurin for most of the game. Both other starting corners are also good players and I think this secondary can make some plays against the backup quarterback Heinicke getting the start this week. I just mentioned that Bradberry is likely to shadow McLaurin and the Football Team is already without Curtis Samuel so that is going to leave Heinicke limited in who to throw the ball to.
I think the guy who will lead Washington this week will have to be tight end Logan Thomas at his $7,400 salary. That is a very low price to pay for a guy who can lead his team in targets and find the end zone. He will also be in my lineup.
Flex Spots with high salaries
I want to at least get one of the quarterbacks into my lineup and it’s tough to pick which one out of these two options. I do believe both will have some struggles this week, so I am going to go with the one I anticipate having the most volume, and that is Daniel Jones. I believe Washington will run the ball a lot and I already talked about Heinicke being limited in weapons to pass to. Daniel Jones, as long as he can stay upright long enough, has three receivers he can use, and the Washington secondary is beatable. I am going to put Jones in my lineup at $10,400 and hope that he limits his turnovers and can get us points with both his arm and his legs like he did last week.
The only other considerations here for me would be some of the wide receivers. McLaurin is $9,000, Golladay is $8,200 and Shepard is $8,000. I am going to fade McLaurin this week myself since I think the WR/CB matchup is bad for him and that the defense will be keying in on stopping him. I also think he will be a popular pick in lineups so not using him gives me some differentiation. Which Giant WR you use will depend on which QB you decide to use. If you are like me and use Jones, then Shepard is the one that you can afford to round out your lineup. If you go Heinicke, then you can afford Golladay, who I prefer a little more over Shepard this week. Both Golladay and Shepard are fine options, but I like the matchup better for Golladay on the outside this week. Both will get targets, both will catch passes, and both can score, so I am comfortable with either of them in your lineup.
This is a matchup that could be a defensive battle with multiple turnovers. A divisional showdown on a short week without a star quarterback on either side usually equates to a slugfest. It might not be the most exciting game to watch, so let’s get a winning lineup in and give us some rooting interest in what could be a sloppy game. The key to winning in DFS is paying up for the right players while finding value plays that will give you a good return on investment and I believe we have done that here with this lineup. Let’s go out and crush this first week and I will see you all in the winner’s circle!
Week 2 Thursday Night Football Showdown Style Lineup
Captain – Antonio Gibson
Flex – Washington Football Team Defense
Flex – New York Giants Defense
Flex – Logan Thomas
Flex – Daniel Jones
Flex – Sterling Shepard
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