In the first matchup of Week 2, the Philadelphia Eagles (-7) face the Minnesota Vikings (O/U 48.5). This DraftKings Showdown Worksheet helps you build successful Showdown lineup(s). Each section is explained in detail on the sheet, but I will also provide high-level overview and Showdown strategy here.
SIMILAR ROSTER CONSTRUCTION
I review every game for each team over the time period corresponding to when they have fielded a “similar” offensive lineup, purely from a fantasy perspective. Of course, this is slightly subjective. However, it also helps ensure a large enough sample size is considered.
HIGHEST-SCORING POSITION
This section highlights how often each position has finished as the top scorer over the entire duration of “similar roster construction” (outlined above), which helps identify which position to put into the Captain (CPT) spot. It also shows, on average, how many other positions were included in the top four and the top two scorers for that team. The purpose of these charts is to help identify the optimal CPT position and what other positional team stacks to target.
Vikings: Of course, Justin Jefferson dominates as the Vikings’ top finisher, but I think it’s interesting that Kirk Cousins is only a top-two option 50% of the time when a Vikings WR finishes No. 1. Potentially, a spot to fade the “Cousins in Primetime” narrative.
Eagles: The inclusion of Jalen Hurts as a top-two scorer in basically every single Eagles scenario really jumps out to me. It makes sense to think of a WR as in the Captain spot, but you must add Hurts in the Flex.
PERCENT OF GAMES AS TOP X SCORER
The section helps identify how often each specific player or position finished as the top one through six scorers on their team in any given game for their similar roster construction. It also compares to the 2023 season results to highlight any players/positions who were specifically performing better last season.
This section aims to identify players to include in your top four or top two stacks when building your lineup. For example, if a team’s RB2 is only finishing as a top-four scorer 10% of the time and the team’s WR3 is doing it at a 30% rate, it probably makes more sense to fill in a receiver in the fourth spot.
Vikings: No need to even worry about the Vikings RB2 because they have largely been a non-factor. In 4-2 Vikings builds, I think it makes a lot of sense to ensure TJ Hockenson gets it into your lineup. He doesn’t have the greatest top-two percentage finishes, but 60% as the No. 4 scorer or better is great.
Eagles: All the focus generally falls on AJ Brown as the Eagles WR1, but since Brown has joined the team, DeVonta Smith has actually had more top-one and top-two scores. I think CPT DeVonta is how I’m starting most of my lineups on Thursday night.
DRAFTKINGS SCORING CORRELATION
This section shows how each player does relative to one another in DraftKings scoring. If the number is closer to 1, both players generally perform similarly (bad or good). If the number is closer to -1, both players usually do not perform similarly. This should help solidify some of your choices when completing your stacks and may be critical when determining mid-range players to include with some of the studs you started your lineup with.
Vikings: The strong negative correlation between Alexander Mattison and Hockenson makes a lot of sense, as they typically switch off as the secondary scoring option after Jefferson. Depending on whether you think Jordan Addison carries over his Week 1 debut performance decides how strongly you want to carry Adam Thielen’s correlation over to him.
Eagles: The running back position is really in flux this week because Kenneth Gainwell was declared out (ribs) on Wednesday. For purposes of this chart, I think we can fit D’Andre Swift into the Miles Sanders historical profile. Choosing between Boston Scott and Rashaad Penny (Week 1 healthy scratch) will be a pure ownership play for me.
LINEUP STARTING POINT
Typically, I am always building 4-2 lineups. This means four players from one team and two players from the opponent. Here is a strong four-player shell I am starting my build with on Thursday night! Good luck, and I hope to see you atop the leaderboards.
