NFL DFS Expert Survey: Monday Night Football - Steelers vs. Browns

Our panel of experts is here to give you their NFL DFS picks for the upcoming Showdown slate by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know headChopper’s three favorite Captains? Or squirrelpatrol’s favorite correlation? Find out below!

NFL DFS Showdown Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Expert Survey for Monday Night Football (Steelers vs. Browns)

Editor’s Note: It’s being reported that Amari Cooper might play tonight.

DraftKings

Who are your three favorite Captains, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Nick Chubb, George Pickens, Deshaun Watson
headChopper: Deshaun Watson, Nick Chubb, Najee Harris
kmurray03: Nick Chubb, Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett
Bobby Gomes: Nick Chubb, George Pickens, Elijah Moore

Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite Captain?

squirrelpatrol: CLE D/ST
headChopper: Elijah Moore
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: CLE D/ST

Who are your three highest exposure players in your FLEX position, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Jaylen Warren, Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett
headChopper: Kenny Pickett, Elijah Moore, David Njoku
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren, Elijah Moore, Nick Chubb
Bobby Gomes: Jaylen Warren, Deshaun Watson, David Njoku

Who is your favorite contrarian Captain?

squirrelpatrol: George Pickens
headChopper: George Pickens
kmurray03: David Njoku
Bobby Gomes: Elijah Moore

Who is your favorite contrarian FLEX option?

squirrelpatrol: Chris Boswell
headChopper: Jerome Ford
kmurray03: Calvin Austin
Bobby Gomes: Calvin Austin

What player do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Dustin Hopkins
headChopper: Elijah Moore
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: Dustin Hopkins

What player do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Najee Harris
headChopper: Jaylen Warren
kmurray03: Najee Harris
Bobby Gomes: Najee Harris

FanDuel

Who are your three favorite MVPs, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Nick Chubb, Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett
headChopper: Deshaun Watson, Nick Chubb, Kenny Pickett
kmurray03: Nick Chubb, Deshaun Watson, Kenny Pickett
Bobby Gomes: Deshaun Watson, Nick Chubb, Kenny Pickett

Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite MVP?

squirrelpatrol: CLE D/ST
headChopper: Elijah Moore
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: Elijah Moore

Who are your three highest exposure players in your AnyFLEX position, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Jaylen Warren, David Njoku, Dustin Hopkins
headChopper: Najee Harris, George Pickens, Elijah Moore
kmurray03: Deshaun Watson, Jaylen Warren, Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: Jaylen Warren, George Pickens, David Njoku

Who is your favorite contrarian MVP?

squirrelpatrol: Dustin Hopkins
headChopper: George Pickens
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: George Pickens

Who is your favorite contrarian AnyFLEX option?

squirrelpatrol: Chris Boswell
headChopper: Jerome Ford
kmurray03: Elijah Moore
Bobby Gomes: Chris Boswell

What player do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Dustin Hopkins
headChopper: Najee Harris
kmurray03: Jaylen Warren
Bobby Gomes: Dustin Hopkins

What player do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Najee Harris
headChopper: Jaylen Warren
kmurray03: Najee Harris
Bobby Gomes: Najee Harris

What is your favorite game-script build and why?

squirrelpatrol: This is projected to be a close, low-scoring game, so lineup construction could be extremely important. The clearest choice is a slow game behind Cleveland’s star RB, Nick Chubb, and pairing him with the Browns D/ST, but I’ll also play some lineups in my multi-entry build centered around the passing games being more involved.

headChopper: Tough teams with tough defenses and points aren’t easy to come by. The Browns have a nice, efficient game from Deshaun Watson to set up the run and move the ball that way, and Kenny Pickett is the catalyst with check-downs to Najee Harris to move the ball on Cleveland.

kmurray03: Cleveland and Pittsburgh just screams low-scoring matchup to me. However, usually in these types of games, we see the public build around kickers and defenses, so I like fading that strategy and building as if there’s a bit more scoring than expected.

Bobby Gomes: Classic AFC North rock fight with a total at sub-40. The Steelers are 8-5 ATS on Monday Night Football since 2014, winning 12 of those games outright. A classic running game and defensive game should be on display.

Which players will you restrict from appearing together often due to possible negative correlation?

squirrelpatrol: I’ll be limiting the number of offensive players against my own defense more strictly than I would a normal single-game slate and will limit my rosters to one RB per team. I’ll also make sure I pair QB MVP/CPT lineups with multiple receivers from their team.

headChopper: RBs from the same team. Both Cleveland’s and Pittsburgh’s backfields are better served using only one guy from each team per lineup.

kmurray03: I’ll be restricting the amount of kickers and defenses I have in the same lineup. Not necessarily only due to negative correlation but also in order to differentiate, as there’s a strong chance we see more lineups with multiple kickers and defenses tonight compared to other slates.

Bobby Gomes: I will likely group away Pittsburgh RBs from one another. I am fine with getting Cleveland RBs together, but not if Nick Chubb is Captain because I believe it could potentially cap his ceiling.

What is your favorite way to differentiate from the field?

squirrelpatrol: I’ll be using lineup construction to make sure each of my rosters makes sense. If I’m using a WR or TE in the MVP/CPT spot, I’ll be more likely to pair them with their QB and vice-versa. I’ll also aim to pair some of my lineups with a RB as a MVP/CPT with the same-team D/ST.

headChopper: Seems like the general consensus is the running backs are the plays from this game, so I like taking a chance on some pass-catchers. I like a contrarian build in GPPs where the passing games actually light it up.

kmurray03: Jaylen Warren season. Warren will likely have higher upside games in spots where the Steelers are trailing, so using that sort of game-script in your builds is very helpful. Warren is going extremely overlooked, and I think he is the best RB play from the Steelers on this slate by far.

Bobby Gomes: Getting massively overweight on kicker and D/ST; I really doubt this game shoots out.

What is an example of one rule you can program into LineupHQ to capitalize on the above strategies?

squirrelpatrol: Groups > New Group > Conditional Player Kenny Pickett > Use 2 to 3 > Add Steelers WRs and TEs as players in the group

headChopper: Groups > New Group > Use between 0-1 > List Browns RBs (then Steelers RBs)

kmurray03: Groups > New Group > Use (0-1) > Steelers D/ST, Browns D/ST, Chris Boswell, Dustin Hopkins

Bobby Gomes: Groups > New Group > Use between 0-1 > List Pittsburgh RBs

What is your hottest take for this game?

squirrelpatrol: Calvin Austin leads the Steelers in receptions for the second week in a row.

headChopper: George Pickens catches 2 TDs of 40+ yards each.

kmurray03: Jaylen Warren outscores Najee Harris by 5+ fantasy points.

Bobby Gomes: Elijah Moore gets in the end zone for the first time as a Cleveland Brown and also exceeds his receiving prop.

Predict the final score of the game.

squirrelpatrol: CLE 17 – PIT 14

headChopper: CLE 23 – PIT 20

kmurray03: CLE 21 – PIT 13

Bobby Gomes: CLE 17 – PIT 13

Image Credit: Getty Images

Our panel of experts is here to give you their NFL DFS picks for the upcoming Showdown slate by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know headChopper’s three favorite Captains? Or squirrelpatrol’s favorite correlation? Find out below!

NFL DFS Showdown Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Expert Survey for Monday Night Football

What is your favorite game-script build and why?

squirrelpatrol: This is projected to be a close, low-scoring game, so lineup construction could be extremely important. The clearest choice is a slow game behind Cleveland’s star RB, Nick Chubb, and pairing him with the Browns D/ST, but I’ll also play some lineups in my multi-entry build centered around the passing games being more involved.

headChopper: Tough teams with tough defenses and points aren’t easy to come by. The Browns have a nice, efficient game from Deshaun Watson to set up the run and move the ball that way, and Kenny Pickett is the catalyst with check-downs to Najee Harris to move the ball on Cleveland.

kmurray03: Cleveland and Pittsburgh just screams low-scoring matchup to me. However, usually in these types of games, we see the public build around kickers and defenses, so I like fading that strategy and building as if there’s a bit more scoring than expected.

Bobby Gomes: Classic AFC North rock fight with a total at sub 40. The Steelers are 8-5 ATS on Monday Night Football since 2014, winning 12 of those games outright. A classic running game and defensive game should be on display.

Which players will you restrict from appearing together often due to possible negative correlation?

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About the Author

  • John Britt (jmbwngfn)

  • One of the top baseball and hockey analysts in the DFS industry, John Britt is a family man hailing from St. Louis, Missouri. A proud graduate of the University of Missouri, John’s passion is hockey but he excels at multiple DFS sports. He has been nominated multiple times for awards for his written work in both baseball (best MLB series) and hockey (3x NHL Writer of the Year nominee) and is now the Lead Editor at RotoGrinders. John can be found on Twitter at the username JMBWngFn.

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