Best lineup strategy for Vikings vs. Chiefs Madden simulation Showdown

The Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs will face off in a Madden sim Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET. We break down the ideal Showdown lineup strategy for the DFS contest that will be played in the snow. You can set your lineup and play in the DraftKings contest before kickoff.

Captain’s Pick

Travis Kelce ($11,100)

The options at Captain for this Showdown are Chef’s kiss. So assuming ownership will be high on guys like Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Adam Thielen, I like going to Kelce. He’ll also have high ownership but it should be distributed a bit more evenly. Even Dalvin Cook and Stefon Diggs should get some ownership at Captain. So Kelce generally has a high floor and has double-digit DKFP in five of his past six simulations.

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Kyle Rudolph ($9,900)

On the other side of the TE spectrum is Rudolph, who is really overpriced and doesn’t give us much to work with at the Captain. I mean, you would have been crazy to be Captaining him to begin with and now this solidifies it. So don’t Captain him. Don’t even play him in the FLEX. Rudolph rarely goes over double-digit DKFP and only offers some OK leverage.

Bargain Shopping

Just looking at the pricing for this Showdown and it screams “Stars and Scrubs” from the get go. So if we’re going to do a power stack with four studs, we need two really cheap players to make it all work. This may be tough in these Madden simulations because, well, any guys in this low price range are generally going to be risky.

Blake Bell ($2,100) and David Morgan ($1,500) are two TEs that are low on the depth chart that you’ve probably never heard of before. Both are very volatile plays. Both could bust entirely. Who really knows in these sims. So with that, both Morgan and Bell aren’t supposed to score a lot of fantasy points. We only need them to give us the salary necessary to stack the hell out of the Chiefs and/or Vikings.