Best lineup strategy for Cowboys vs. Texans Madden simulation Showdown

The Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans 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

Ezekiel Elliott ($13,800)

The chalk plays here are going to be Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott and DeAndre Hopkins. So naturally we’re pivoting off them to Zeke, who is much cheaper and still has a comparable ceiling. Leverage is so important in these Showdowns because ownership seems to be more volatile than actual NFL DFS. So Elliott is more than capable of putting up the same amount of points as those three, all at a lower price and with lower ownership.

Fade at Captain

Take your pick

You can make a case for playing all four of Zeke, Nuk, Dak and Watson. If you want to get crazy, you can fade one of them. I’d feel most confident fading Prescott at $15,900. Watson is a little more consistent and Hopkins has too high a ceiling to fade. QBs aren’t known for their ceilings in sim land. The problem is the last time I told somebody to fade Dak Prescott, he ran for over 100 yards and a TD. Yes, ran. Then threw for three more TDs. It was awful. To anyone I hurt, I’m sorry.

Bargain Shopping

The easiest value play in this Showdown is Keke Coutee ($1,600). I mentioned this in the Washington-Buffalo writeup people, a player averaging 6.9 FPPG shouldn’t be priced at $1,600. Coutee hits his average and he’s at 4.3x salary value. A little more and we’re at 5x and anything more is a bonus. So Coutee is a very good lineup starter.

Are We Playing a Kicker?

Answer: Naaaaa.

Usually I like mixing in a kicker play every now and then but this ain’t the spot. Kai Forbath ($4,000) and Ka’imi Fairbairn ($3,800) both aren’t consistent enough to play — especially when we have guys like Coutee and Randall Cobb ($4,800) who are affordable.