Welcome in to a new year of Ben’s NFL DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite showdown plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections, Final Thoughts player pool + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
Building Blocks
Josh Allen
Allen needs no introduction – and I love when we have him on showdown slates. He’s pretty much the number one QB that is hard for me to fade in any format for showdown. Even if he is limited passing, he can get there with his legs and he has done that time and time again. He’s among the league leaders in DK PPG – and is a lock for me tonight. I will have him on 100% of my 4-5 lineups – though I may end up underweight on him at CPT.
Garrett Wilson
Wilson looks primed for a breakout season as Aaron Rodgers WR1. He’s coming off a season in which he won Offensive Rookie of the Year — despite getting subpar QB play all season from the likes of Joe Flacco, Zach Wilson and Mike White. He received a quarter of the teams targets last season, along with over 30% of the Air Yards and a sneaky good red zone role as well. I want to know that the volume he saw last season is unlikely to increase — the Jets were throwing the ball 50+ times a game with Mike White at the helm and I’m not forecasting that type of passing volume from an Aaron Rodgers offense. That being said, the quality of the passes are going to be much better and there’s still room for Wilson to grow as a WR in his second year.
He’s one of the best young receivers in football and the reports out of Jets camp are that he’s Rodgers go-to target. No Von Miller will affect the Bills ability to generate pressure on Rodgers, and I think Wilson could get off to a fast start to his season tonight.
Dalton Kincaid
New York played very well defensively against the Bills passing game last season, which isn’t surprising given how good their secondary is. Obviously Stefon Diggs can go off any night, but I personally prefer Wilson to him straight up in this game. With quality outside corner play, we could see more usage funnel to the TE position – and Kincaid is someone I’m really excited to watch. An athletic freak out of Utah, he had a fantastic training camp and looks ready to contribute right away in the NFL. Much like what we saw from Sam LaPorta last Thursday night.
Dawson Knox will still be on the field plenty – and we will see a lot of looks with them on the field together. He’s a fine GPP pivot – but I prefer Kincaid if you can afford him. I even think using them both with Allen is a good build for tournaments.
Value Plays
D/ST’s
Cowboys D/ST was surprisingly popular last night, while they responded with 40 DK points and pretty much the highest scoring D/ST performance in showdown history. Naturally, we could see inflated OWN% of the D/ST’s tonight due to that. There is also weather in the forecast, however it appears that the rain should clear up prior to the game starting, or sometime in the first-half. I’m always fine playing DST in game-script derived builds – but if OWN% gets pushed onto them as we approach lock I will be underweight per usual.
Deonte Harty
Harty will likely be one of the higher-owned value plays tonight due to his expected role as the Bills slot receiver and price of just $200 on DraftKings. He isn’t going to play in 2 WR sets, but he pretty much was the only Bills player logging slot snaps in the preseason and he looks to have a stranglehold on that role. He isn’t a must play in tournaments, but I typically like to be overweight on these mispriced guys that should see targets. One catch and I would feel very good about him at this price tag.
Build Paths
Here are some potential build paths I will be taking tonight:
Garrett Wilson CPT + Aaron Rodgers + Josh Allen
Aaron Rodgers CPT + Garrett Wilson + Allen Lazard
Josh Allen CPT + Jets D/ST
Dalvin Cook CPT + Jets D/ST
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
