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
Jalen Hurts + Kirk Cousins
The Quarterbacks are often the highest-owned players on showdown slates — especially when we get players with the rushing ceiling of Jalen Hurts. Hurts and the Eagles offense struggled to get going in Week 1 against the Patriots – but that could be more attributed to the Patriots having multiple months to prepare for Hurts and the Eagles offense, then the offense itself. I prefer building with a shootout game-script tonight – this total is ticking up as the day goes on – now to 49 points and with the Eagles missing some key players on defense – I think Cousins and the Vikings offense will find more success than in W1.
Hurts is on another level for showdown slates than pretty much anyone else in football. I would find it hard to fade him tonight, while he isn’t a must at captain he is tough to avoid there as well.
Cousins is primed for a good game here with the Eagles secondary banged up. Minnesota outgained Tampa Bay in total yardage last week, but somehow lost the game due to untimely turnovers on the Bucs side of the field. I don’t anticipate that happening again. While I think Philly wins the game, I think we could see this game soar over 50 points and I even think Cousins is in play at CPT in GPPs.
TJ Hockenson
Hockenson is one of the most popular player prop bets tonight – but I think he’s in a smash spot. Philadelphia has long-struggled against opposing Tight Ends due to their defensive scheme – and Hockenson is one of the most dynamic weapons at his position in football. He’s coming off a game in which he caught 8 passes – and provides a safety net to Cousins who was often under duress from the Bucs pass rush in Week 1. Minnesota’s starting center is out tonight, and against a vaunted Eagles defensive front it could be more of the same. Hockenson should be involved early and often – and is my favorite pick to find the endzone tonight.
I want to note here that we obviously have some dynamic WR’s in Justin Jefferson, AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. I think for cash games, we could see sneaky high ownership on Smith due to how much cheaper he is than the aforementioned duo. I also wonder how high Jefferson’s ownership will climb, when he priced at almost $13,000 and the most expensive player on the slate. Historically he has been much better indoors in his career, and was held to under 50 yards by Darius Slay when these teams met last season. It’s a different situation, however, with Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson commanding more attention from the defense as a whole than Adam Thielen and Irv Smith in 2022. I’m going to debate these two up until lock, but for now I’m leaning AJ Brown in cash games and Justin Jefferson in tournaments.
Value Plays
PHI RB’s
We were gifted some really loose pricing on the early NFL slates – while this one tonight is priced much tighter. There is clear value tonight in the Philly backfield – with D’Andre Swift, Rashaad Penny and Boston Scott all expected to see work. I would rank them in that order personally, and think they will end up there in terms of ownership as well. I imagine that most will be playing two of them together in cash builds tonight on DraftKings.
I want to take an aggressive route in GPPs given that I think we see a shootout and fade the RB’s. I will be going heavy pass catchers / kickers over the RB’s in my tourney builds tonight.
Build Paths
Here are some potential build paths I will be taking tonight:
CPT Kirk Cousins + Jalen Hurts + 2 MIN Pass Catchers
CPT Jalen Hurts + PHI Onslaught (5-1 PHI)
CPT AJ Brown + Jalen Hurts + TJ Hockenson
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
