Chargers vs. Cowboys Showdown NFL DFS Lineup Advice for DraftKings & FanDuel
Week 6 concludes with our second consecutive Monday Night Football inter-conference matchup, as the Cowboys travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers. The Cowboys are favored by 1.5 points in this game, and it has the highest point total of the week at 50.5. The injury report is fairly clear for this game, with Josh Palmer listed as Questionable but reportedly expected to play, and Donald Parham (also Questionable) getting in full practices this week. This game features some of the biggest names from our season-long and best ball drafts with Austin Ekeler, Tony Pollard, CeeDee Lamb, Keenan Allen, Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert all expected to take the field, and with a high point total it should be a fun one. I’m here with some quick lineup advice on how to get an edge on the field in our FanDuel and DraftKings single-game DFS entries.
Chargers vs. Cowboys Showdown DFS Lineup Advice
How I Plan to Beat the Field
This game features some of the biggest names in fantasy football, and it’s projected to be high scoring, but there is a bit of a discrepancy between the pricing and the game line – Dallas is favored on the road in this matchup, but the prices for the Chargers players are generally more expensive. Justin Herbert is priced ahead of Dak Prescott, Austin Ekeler is priced ahead of Tony Pollard, Keenan Allen is priced ahead of CeeDee Lamb, Josh Palmer is even more expensive than Michael Gallup and Brandin Cooks. The pricing isn’t seeming to impact ownership on the Chargers players, with Austin Ekeler projecting as the highest-owned non-QB on both sites, and with Herbert, Ekeler, and Allen projecting as three of the four highest-owned players on DraftKings.
It may not be an overly complicated game plan, but I’m simply going to aim to be overweight the favored team in this one. If Dallas players are expected to be less owned than Chargers, but the Cowboys are getting a point and a half on the game line, I’ll try to get over the field on players like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Tony Pollard. The expectations for the Chargers might be a bit too high here – Austin Ekeler is priced up as the most expensive player in the game here, and he had an excellent Week 1 of this season (the last game he played) – but a large chunk of his production last season came in Weeks 4-9 of last year when Keenan Allen was mostly out of the lineup. Similarly, Keenan Allen has put up two of the best statistical games of his career over the past two weeks – when Ekeler was out of the lineup.
While the Chargers are the higher-priced team, the Cowboys have the better matchup despite playing on the road. Los Angeles has allowed the most passing yards per game this season, the second-most total yards, and the seventh-most points per game. The Cowboys defense has allowed the third-fewest yards and seventh-fewest points per game. I’ll aim to be overweight the Cowboys, particularly the main pieces of their passing game, starting with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lam and continuing with the secondary receivers like Michael Gallup and Brandin Cooks.
Single-Game Rule I’m Willing to Break
While we’ll want to set some rules in LineupHQ if we’re building multiple lineups, setting our rules too strictly can prevent us from getting to winning lineups. Each week, I’ll aim to hit on “rules that can be broken” for our lineups.
While rule-breaking won’t be a key piece of my strategy tonight – as I wrote above I see this as a slate I’ll be more looking to get different with ownership – tonight, I’ll be willing to play two running backs from the same team in the same DFS lineup. At least on the Dallas side, Rico Dowdle has seen at least 15 rushing yards in four of five games this season, and he’s priced at just $2000 on DraftKings and $7000 on FanDuel. If he is able to sneak in a garbage-time (or anytime) touchdown, he could pay off that price while not impacting the ability of Tony Pollard to appear in the same lineup. On the Chargers side, I’ll likely restrict Joshua Kelley ($6400 on DK and $9500 on FD, still priced up from the weeks Austin Ekeler missed) from appearing in the same lineup as Ekeler.
DraftKings Strategy
The first key difference between DraftKings versus FanDuel is the salary multiplier for the Captain position. It’s not just that a Captain’s fantasy points get the 1.5x multiplier, but his salary counts 1.5x against our cap as well. The next important consideration is the difference in the scoring rules. DraftKings gives a full point per reception instead of a half point on FanDuel, making receivers and pass-catching running backs ideal for the DraftKings format.
On DraftKings, the price for Austin Ekeler is particularly tough if he’s not seeing as much receiving work as last year, and particularly tough if the CPT spot with the salary multiplier. CeeDee Lamb and Austin Ekeler are both capable of being the top-scoring player here and carry about the same projection, but putting CeeDee Lamb in the CPT spot will save you $3300 in salary over putting Ekeler in the top position. Especially factoring in the Chargers defense, and the fact that both of these teams feature relatively concentrated offenses (meaning the value plays are a bit more tenuous than other matchups) I’d much rather take the savings with the Cowboys players with the salary multiplier.
Looking at the pricing list, it’s worth noting that Michael Gallup is an outstanding value on DraftKings priced at just $2800. Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker also breaks the mold of Chargers players being priced up, as is his $4400 salary is $600 cheaper than Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey.
FanDuel Strategy
The flip side to the DraftKings scoring is the half-point awarded for receptions on FanDuel and no salary multiplier in the MVP position. This can make it very difficult to get away from the highest projected player at the MVP spot but makes it critical to have some intelligent differentiation in the AnyFLEX spots.
On FanDuel, there are some interesting differences on the pricing list that are worth a second look. Tony Pollard is priced below not just Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen (as he is on DK) but also below CeeDee Lamb, despite Pollard’s game being a bit more suited for FanDuel scoring. I’ll aim to go a bit heavier on Pollard on FanDuel with the savings. Brandin Cooks is also priced below both Quentin Johnston and Michael Gallup on FanDuel, while he is significantly more expensive than both of those players on DraftKings.
This should be a good MNF matchup that is projected to be high scoring, and it has enough big-name fantasy players and uncertainty to make our contests interesting. Good luck to everyone tonight…and enjoy!