There is a great Thursday Night Football matchup as the Vikings go to Los Angeles to face the Rams to kick-off Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season.
The Vikings are looking to bounce back after suffering their first loss of the season last week. Meanwhile, the Rams are looking to build on their win over the Raiders last week.
There are plenty of breakdowns for the game’s outlook, player props, and more, but this article will look at some of the top DFS options to help you build your best Showdown team.
Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $1.5M Thursday Night Showdown [500K to 1st]
Captain Plays
Hitting on your captain (CPT) is essential to having Showdown DFS success on DraftKings. Players drafted as the captain earn 1.5x fantasy points, so they can make or break your slate. Here are my favorite captain plays for this week’s TNF slate:
Cooper Kupp ($16,500)
The Rams’ offense has struggled over the past few weeks with both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua out with injuries. Well, Kupp will return to the field this week and should immediately take the lion’s share of the targets. In the only game where he played start-to-finish this season, Kupp had an astronomical 21 targets against the Lions. He caught 14 of those 21 targets for 110 yards and a touchdown. The Vikings have the best run defense in the NFL by EPA/rush so Matthew Stafford will have to hit Kupp through the air if the Rams want to move the ball on Minnesota.
Aaron Jones ($14,400)
On a short week away from home, Kevin O’Connell will want to lean on the run game and control the time of possession in this game. Especially because the Rams have a bottom-5 run defense in the NFL when measuring by EPA/rush or rushing success rate. Aaron Jones is coming off arguably his best game as a Viking where he went for 116 total yards and a touchdown. Against this vulnerable Rams run defense, Jones should get a healthy dose of touches in both the run and pass game and should be able to break some explosive plays.
Value Picks
Jordan Addison ($7,000)
Since returning from injury, Jordan Addison has been a big play machine. In three games since returning from injury, he has averaged 58 receiving yards per game and has had a catch of 26 yards or more in each game. Addison has two total touchdowns across those three games as well. The Rams’ defense is 26th in EPA/dropback so Sam Darnold should be able to hit some deep shots against this defense.
Jalen Nailor ($6,200)
For many of the same reasons as Addison, Jalen Nailor is another great value pick on Thursday night. With so much attention on Justin Jefferson, Addison and Nailor often get single coverage and that allows them to get open deep down the field. Nailor is averaging 0.5 TDs per game this season despite being the WR3 for Minnesota. He also had a season-high in targets last week and caught four of them for 76 yards. Just like Addison, he has hit a lot of deep shots this season and should get more action in this game against a bad secondary.
Will Reichard ($5,400)
It’s never the most exciting pick to go with a kicker but Will Reichard has been fantastic in his rookie season with Minnesota. He is 12/12 on FGs and 18/18 on XPs this season. Even more impressively, he is 4-4 from 50+ yards including a 57-yard field goal last week against Detroit. Against a struggling Rams defense, the Vikings should move the ball with ease and create many scoring opportunities for Reichard.
Tutu Atwell ($4,200)
The Vikings have the best run defense in football so the Rams should lean heavily on Matthew Stafford in this game. With Cooper Kupp’s return, he will get the majority of the attention from the Vikings’ secondary. That will finally open up some space for the other Rams wide receivers who have been treated like WR1s by opposing defenses in recent weeks even though they are not. Atwell is leading the Rams in receptions and yards this season and has been the best fill-in for Kupp and Nacua. The return of Kupp will take away some targets from Atwell which is why he is at such a cheap price but this should only make defensive matchups easier for Atwell who now has a great connection with Stafford.
Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $1.5M Thursday Night Showdown [$500K to 1st]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is blakekrass) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and cannot access any non-public information.
