Hittin' The Nuts - SquirrelPatrol's NFL DFS Lineup Advice for Sunday Night Football (Chiefs vs. Falcons)
Want to hit the nuts and take down 1st place in these massive contests posted by FanDuel and DraftKings? Who better to walk you through their favorite NFL DFS picks than SquirrelPatrol! Undoubtedly one of the best DFS players in the game, SquirrelPatrol has accumulated 100+ Live Final seats, took 2nd place in the 2023 DraftKings Fantasy Baseball World Championship for a $600,000 prize, and most recently, took down the NFL Milly Maker in Week 2 of last season.
Our Week 3 Sunday Night Football game brings an interconference matchup between the Chiefs and Falcons in Atlanta. The Chiefs come into the game at 2-0 after their close win against the Bengals in Week 2, while the Falcons are making the short turnaround after beating the Eagles on Monday Night. Atlanta looked better on offense against the Eagles, with Kirk Cousins putting up 241 passing yards and 2 touchdowns after passing for just 155 yards and a touchdown in his Week 1 Falcons debut, but they are still 3-point home underdogs against Kansas City in a game with a 46-point total. The major injury news for the game is that Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco suffered a fractured leg last week, leaving the backfield in the hands of Samaje Perine and undrafted free agent Carson Steele. I’m anticipating Steele to get the early work while Perine functions as a passing-downs back, but be sure to follow the RotoGrinders’ NFL starting lineups page for updated depth chart information as inactives hit for the latest details in case there are any surprises.
Let’s sort through the slate and figure out what to do with our DFS lineups.
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Chiefs vs. Falcons Showdown NFL DFS Lineup Advice
Primetime Game History
Both of these teams have played primetime games already this season, so we have some relevant contest data to look at. The Falcons played this past week on MNF as 5.5-point underdogs against the Eagles, with Philadelphia players dominating ownership in single-game contests. Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, and DeVonta Smith all had higher CPT ownership than any player on Atlanta, with Bijan Robinson (12.3%) and Drake London (6.7%) coming in as the Falcons with the highest CPT ownership. Notably, Kirk Cousins had just 3.2% ownership at the CPT spot, very low for any starting QB. The winning lineup featured Jalen Hurts at the top spot with Drake London and Darnell Mooney representing the Falcons in the FLEX.
Kansas City is no stranger to primetime games, and they opened this NFL season in Week 1 against the Ravens on Thursday night football. Patrick Mahomes was the most popular CPT choice in the DraftKings large-field contest with 15.4% CPT ownership, while Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice were the next most popular Chiefs, ranking 4th and 5th in the game with 10.5% and 10.4% CPT ownership, respectively. The winning lineup featured Ravens TE Isaiah Likely in the CPT spot at just 1.1% CPT ownership, while Mahomes, Pacheco, and Rice were all in the FLEX, along with Lamar Jackson and Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy.
Looking at lineups from these team’s previous primetime games, we once again see a contest where a lower-priced, lower-owned CPT pass catcher lands on the winning roster with a big game that allows multiple high-priced players into FLEX spots. Often, we don’t want to avoid chalk entirely, but it can be critical to find at least one lower-owned but still viable option, even if it is at the CPT spot.
How I Plan to Beat the Field
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