Sunday Showdown Week 1

Photo: USA Today Sports

Disclaimer

These contests are intended to be fun as you’re watching the game. It’s incredibly difficult to get a real edge as there are so few options and in MME contests there are often many duplicate lineups. One play or one penalty can change the entire outcome of the game.

This article is going to have a heavy DraftKings lean simply because the decision-making process is more interesting with the captain having a salary premium to correspond with the scoring premium. On FanDuel, the pricing is the same for both MVP and flex, so just play either a quarterback or running back in that spot. There are scenarios where a wide receiver can pay off, but it’s difficult with it being the 0.5 per reception.

Game Strategy

This week, the real question is what you believe about the Rams running back room. Both Kyren Williams and Blake Corum are tremendous values that depending on what you want to believe on usage could easily be considered for this game. Also to be taken into consideration is the status of Cooper Kupp. It’s easy to forget that before his season-ending injury in 2022, he was the premier wide receiver in the NFL. Now, what version of him will we get back this week?

On the Lions side, the big question is who can step up as a third option beyond Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta. This is a slate where there are not a lot of great cheap options, so you may need to adjust who you’re playing at captain for example in order to build out a competitive lineup. Or, one strategy could be to just punt one flex position with a low-end player to build out a competitive roster with the captain that you want.

Key Injuries:

Tyler Higbee- Recovering from 2023 ACL/MCL

Captain Consideration:

1. Kyren Williams
2. Amon-Ra St. Brown
3. Jameson Williams
4. Cooper Kupp
5. Jahmyr Gibbs
6. Matthew Stafford

LA Rams

Quarterback

Matthew Stafford- Captain/Flex

Matthew Stafford is extremely affordable at $8,800. This is a quarterback who now has both of his top weapons healthy for the first time if we assume that Cooper Kupp was not healthy for all of last season. Taking a non-mobile quarterback as the captain is always a bit of a risky venture as typically you would want to put the wide receiver in the captain position and with the quarterback at the flex, but with Stafford, because there are at least two options and possibly three with Kyren Williams being a red zone receiving threat. Both Cooper Kupp and Puca Nacua are also significant targets so there is a scenario where Stafford puts up big numbers while spreading the ball around.