Week 6 NFL DFS Thursday Night Showdown: Bucs at Eagles

The NFL DFS season continues with the Thursday night showdown, and we’ve got the breakdown to help you win big money in the first Week 6 NFL DFS contests!

NOTE: For a refresher on showdown general rules and strategy, see the Week 1 TNF showdown article.

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: Tom Brady (FD $16,500, DK $18,600)

Pivot: Jalen Hurts (FD $15,500, DK $17,700)

Pivot #2: Mike Evans (FD $13,500, DK $15,300)

Contrarian #1: DeVonta Smith (FD $12,000, DK $13,200)

Contrarian #2: Antonio Brown (FD $11,500, DK $12,300)

DK Contrarian #3: Zach Ertz (Don’t CPT him on FD, DK $4,800)

First off, there’s nothing really wrong with Tom Brady or his thumb. He’s the chalk and he’s fine, but Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is a close second and should be popular because of what he can do with his legs — a feature to his game that Brady lacks. If we want to properly stack this game for large-field GPPs, I think we need to think outside the box a little and pick the right value play at captain that lets us get a lot of big names in. That could be a guy like a very affordable Zach Ertz (since Dallas Goedert is doubtful on the COVID list heading into tonight) or the right Bucs skill position player.

Bucs notes: You really can’t go wrong with any of Antonio Brown, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and it’s hard to say who will be the most popular since Godwin was limited earlier in the week but isn’t saddled with an injury designation tonight, and both Evans and Brown are coming off monster games. There’s no Gronk again tonight, and I’m partial to Leonard Fournette in the backfield and Cameron Brate at TE since O.J. Howard has been doing a lot of blocking. And again — as well as Brady spreads the ball around, I think he needs to be in most of our lineups in cash and GPP. The Bucs DST is definitely an option because of Hurts and his propensity to make bad throws, but I have less interest in the kickers in this game since there will be so many TDs scored (judging by the 52.5 expected game total).

Eagles notes: I mentioned that Ertz will be a staple of my builds and is a great cash game option at flex, and I have plenty of interest in DeVonta Smith, Jalen Reagor and deep threat Quez Watkins. I’ll be fading Miles Sanders for the most part but have some interest in rookie RB Kenneth Gainwell since a blowout is on the table and he seems to eat up late-game receptions. There’s a path to GPP success if we follow the right narrative, and that might end up being some two-or three-man combination of Hurts, Ertz, the right WR and/or Gainwell with three or four Bucs.

Week 6 NFL DFS Final thoughts (and some DOs and DON’Ts)

Remember to build your team based on an NFL DFS narrative that makes sense.

DO: Build a trio (or quartet) of offensive weapons for a team that makes sense together

DON’T: Worry about spending every dollar.

DO: Use the projected team totals to shade one way or the other with your selections.

DON’T: Tread too much in the sub-$1K range this week. Not a lot to see here this week, although I did mention Marlon Mack in my last showdown column and he was in the winning milly lineup.

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):

1. Tom Brady
2. Jalen Hurts
3. Mike Evans
4. Antonio Brown
5. Zach Ertz (drop down if Goedert is somehow in)
6. DeVonta Smith
7. Chris Godwin
8. Leonard Fournette
9. Bucs DST
10. Kenneth Gainwell
11. Cameron Brate
12. Miles Sanders
13. Giovani Bernard
14. Ryan Succop
15. Jake Elliott
16. O.J. Howard
17. Ronald Jones
18. Eagles DST
19. Tyler Johnson
20. Greg Ward
21. Jack Stoll (Eagles backup TE assuming Goedert out)

Don’t forget to read the rest of WinDaily’s excellent football articles this week as you prep for Week 6 action!