NFL DFS Expert Survey: Thursday Night Football - Chargers vs. Raiders
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 Thursday Night Football
DraftKings
Who are your three favorite Captains, ranked in order?
squirrelpatrol: Davante Adams, Austin Ekeler, Zamir White
headChopper: Davante Adams, Austin Ekeler, Zamir White
kmurray03: Davante Adams, Austin Ekeler, Zamir White
TJ Zwarych: Austin Ekeler, Davante Adams, Zamir White
Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite Captain?
squirrelpatrol: Aidan O’Connell
headChopper: Aidan O’Connell
kmurray03: Aidan O’Connell
TJ Zwarych: Aidan O’Connell
Who are your three highest exposure players in your FLEX position, ranked in order?
squirrelpatrol: Easton Stick, Jakobi Meyers, Daniel Carlson
headChopper: Jakobi Meyers, Josh Palmer, Quentin Johnston
kmurray03: Easton Stick, Jakobi Meyers, Josh Palmer
TJ Zwarych: Aidan O’Connell, Davante Adams, Alex Erickson
Who is your favorite contrarian Captain?
squirrelpatrol: Josh Palmer
headChopper: Gerald Everett
kmurray03: Josh Palmer
TJ Zwarych: Josh Palmer
Who is your favorite contrarian FLEX option?
squirrelpatrol: Michael Mayer
headChopper: Ameer Abdullah
kmurray03: Gerald Everett
TJ Zwarych: Alex Erickson
Who do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?
squirrelpatrol: Austin Ekeler
headChopper: Austin Ekeler
kmurray03: Gerald Everett
TJ Zwarych: Austin Ekeler
Who do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?
squirrelpatrol: Raiders D/ST
headChopper: Easton Stick
kmurray03: Aidan O’Connell
TJ Zwarych: Easton Stick
FanDuel
Who are your three favorite MVPs, ranked in order?
squirrelpatrol: Easton Stick, Aidan O’Connell, Davante Adams
headChopper: Austin Ekeler, Davante Adams, Aidan O’Connell
kmurray03: Austin Ekeler, Easton Stick, Davante Adams
TJ Zwarych: Aidan O’Connell, Austin Ekeler, Easton Stick
Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite MVP?
squirrelpatrol: Austin Ekeler
headChopper: Easton Stick
kmurray03: Easton Stick
TJ Zwarych: Davante Adams
Who are your three highest exposure players in your AnyFLEX position, ranked in order?
squirrelpatrol: Zamir White, Daniel Carlson, Josh Palmer
headChopper: Zamir White, Jakobi Meyers, Josh Palmer
kmurray03: Zamir White, Josh Palmer, Zamir White
TJ Zwarych: Davante Adams, Zamir White, Alex Erickson
Who is your favorite contrarian MVP?
squirrelpatrol: Jakobi Meyers
headChopper: Zamir White
kmurray03: Zamir White
TJ Zwarych: Gerald Everett
Who is your favorite contrarian AnyFLEX option?
squirrelpatrol: Cameron Dicker
headChopper: Jalen Guyton
kmurray03: Gerald Everett
TJ Zwarych: Alex Erickson
Who do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?
squirrelpatrol: Austin Ekeler
headChopper: Austin Ekeler
kmurray03: Austin Ekeler
TJ Zwarych: Austin Ekeler
Who do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?
squirrelpatrol: Raiders D/ST
headChopper: Hunter Renfrow
kmurray03: Raiders D/ST
TJ Zwarych: Raiders D/ST
What is your favorite game-script build and why?
squirrelpatrol: This game is a mess with injuries. A week ago, we would have thought this is a matchup between Justin Herbert with Keenan Allen against Josh Jacobs and the Raiders. Now, it’s likely Easton Stick and Josh Palmer against Zamir White and the Raiders. This should be a close game, but I like the offenses to look surprisingly good despite the unknown names, and I’ll stick heavily with the remaining big names standing, like Davante Adams and Austin Ekeler.
headChopper: Ugly game with not much consistent offense but not a ton from the defenses either. The Chargers will have to rely on Austin Ekeler finding his groove and dominating the ball, and the Raiders will have to rely on Davante Adams being a target hog.
kmurray03: This game is riddled with injuries, as top fantasy producers like Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, and Josh Jacobs all are tracking to miss this game. I think naturally the public will gravitate to a low-scoring game because of this, but my favorite build will be a shootout.
TJ Zwarych: This game has to be one of the biggest toss-ups we’ve had so far this season. A multitude of the best players for each team are out, and neither of these teams were very good to begin with. I think this one is likely quite ugly with some turnovers, but I think there’s still a relatively large amount of scoring centered around Austin Ekeler and Davante Adams in a tight game.
What is your preferred tournament format (e.g. large-field, single-entry) to play on this slate? How do you plan to beat that field of opponents? What tactic or strategy will set you apart?
squirrelpatrol: I’ll play the largest-field tournaments on both sites, looking to take advantage of the pricing discrepancies to go overweight on the bigger-name players who could be the focus of their respective offenses. Easton Stick is still minimum-priced on FanDuel and makes for an interesting MVP choice so far down on the player list, while Zamir White is too cheap on DraftKings for a likely role as the Raiders’ primary back.
headChopper: I’ll play 20-entry-max contests and get exposure to plenty of players. I’ll be severely overweight on both starting running backs and overweight on the fringe WRs/TEs for the Chargers that others will be skeptical of.
kmurray03: Single-Entry – This stands out as a great slate for single-entry tournaments, as there are a few second tier MVP/CPT options who could easily make their way to the top of the scoreboard as contrarian options, such as Zamir White and Josh Palmer.
TJ Zwarych: 3-Entry-Max – I want to play a ton of Zamir White, Austin Ekeler, and Davante Adams, while mixing-and-matching different cheap plays in my small-field lineups. I’ll pair some Chargers D/ST and the kickers with Austin Ekeler at CPT/MVP in one, while loading up on cheap pieces from both offenses in the other two.
What is an example of one rule you can program into SimLabs or LineupHQ to capitalize on the above strategies?
squirrelpatrol: LineupHQ > Groups > New Group > Players to use: 2 to 3 > Conditional Player Aidan O’Connell MVP/CPT > Raiders WRs and TEs as players in the group
headChopper: SimLabs > [set your Contest Field setting] > [set your Results Range setting] > Include Players: Austin Ekeler, Zamir White > Get Lineups
kmurray03: LineupHQ > Groups > New Group > Players to use: 1-1 > Conditional Player = Davante Adams CPT/MVP > Add Aidan O’Connell as player in group
TJ Zwarych: LineupHQ > Groups > New Group > Players to use: 1-1 > Austin Ekeler, Austin Ekeler CPT/MVP
What is your hottest take for this game?
squirrelpatrol: Easton Stick and Austin Ekeler both score rushing touchdowns for the Chargers.
headChopper: Gerald Everett gets the 100-yard bonus.
kmurray03: Gerald Everett scores twice.
TJ Zwarych: In the absence of Keenan Allen, Austin Ekeler catches 10 passes.
Predict the final score of the game.
squirrelpatrol: LAC 24 – LV 21
headChopper: LV 20 – LAC 16
kmurray03: LAC 28 – LV 24
TJ Zwarych: LV 27 – LAC 24
Image Credit: Getty Images