The NFL DFS season continues with the Monday night showdown, and we’ve got the breakdown to help you win big money in the final Week 6 NFL DFS contests!
NOTE: For a refresher on showdown general rules and strategy, see my first showdown article of 2021.
Let’s get to the game!
Week 6 NFL DFS MVP candidates (1.5x points)
Some notes on the differences between MVP on FanDuel and DraftKings: The 1.5x point boost on FD comes with no salary penalty, while and DK also bumps the salary to 1.5x – a crucial factor in deciding who we can and cannot afford on both sites. We can use this to our advantage on FD by occasionally targeting non-QBs to establish more variance and more unique lineups, and on DK it allows us to build more hearty overall stacks when we punt the MVP position with a cheap but high-upside player.
Week 6 NFL DFS Chalk: Josh Allen (FD $17,000, DK $19,200)
Pivot: Derrick Henry (FD $15,500, DK $17,100)
Contrarian #1: Stefon Diggs (FD $12,500, DK $14,400)
Contrarian #2: Ryan Tannehill (FD $14,000, DK $14,700)
Contrarian #3: Emmanuel Sanders (FD $10,000, DK $12,900)
The clear chalk on tonight’s showdown is Josh Allen, who started off slowly the first two weeks but has picked up the pace and is putting up numbers similar to his 2020 breakout campaign — averaging around 33 DK points over his last three weeks. While the standard pivot will be Titans RB Derrick Henry, the stud tailback will have a tough matchup against a stout Bills run defense that ranks fist in the league against fantasy RBs. There’s no standout bargain option under $10K at captain unless we consider a risky Julio Jones or the kicker/defense route.
Bills notes: I’m most interested in the productive trio of Stefon Diggs, TE Dawson Knox and RB Zack Moss, but both Emmanuel Sanders and Devin Singletary are in play for the Bills this week as well — as Allen has done a great job the past two seasons of spreading the ball around to many different skill positions and options. We could see monster games from both Diggs and Sanders, as the Titans defense doesn’t have anyone to keep with either of their route running skills and speed/separation abilities. Slot maven Cole Beasley has ben relatively quiet thus far in 2021, but he could have a breakout at any moment.
Titans notes: The best move is to probably fade Henry in most builds and count on a negative game script for Ryan Tannehill and the Titans passing game, working in shares of Jones, TE Anthony Firkser and stud WR A.J. Brown, who is questionable with an illness but is expected to be available. Aside from that, we have the disappointing but potent Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, a questionable Chester Rogers (groin) and an uncertain backfield after Henry, who could log more receptions than usual this week but will have a tough time returning value at that salary.
Week 6 NFL DFS Final thoughts (and some DOs and DON’Ts)
Remember to build your team based on a narrative that makes sense.
DO: Build a trio (or quartet) of offensive weapons for a team that makes sense together.
DON’T: Feature many shares of the Titans DST, who will have its hands full with this Bills juggernaut offense.
DO: Use the projected team totals to shade one way or the other with your selections.
DON’T: Forget about Westbrook-Ikhine and Beasley.
Now that we’ve established some Week 6 NFL DFS narratives and MVP candidates, the best way to round out this piece is with a list of my favorite options in descending order, based on overall value (a combo of salary and projected points):
- Josh Allen
- Ryan Tannehill
- Stefon Diggs
- Zack Moss
- Emmanuel Sanders
- A.J. Brown
- Derrick Henry
- Julio Jones
- Dawson Knox
- Anthony Firkser
- Bills DST
- Devin Singletary
- Tyler Bass
- Randy Bullock
- Cole Beasley
- Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
- Gabriel Davis
- Chester Rogers
- MyCole Pruitt
- Titans DST
Don’t forget to read the rest of WinDaily’s excellent football articles this week as you prep for next week’s action!