NFL DFS Picks for Lions vs. Seahawks, Dolphins vs. Titans: Best DraftKings, FanDuel lineups & props for MNF

With the 2024 NFL season humming along, we have a second-straight Monday Night Football doubleheader ahead of us. The Titans visit the Dolphins in the earlier game (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), then the Lions host the Seahawks to close out the Week 4 slate (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC). 

The Sporting News typically brings you DFS showdown and single-game tournament lineups for the MNF slate. Since there's bonus football tonight, though, it only makes sense to bring you some bonus DFS content!

For our DraftKings portion of the column, we will highlight our optimal lineup entry for DK's "NFL $1.5M Monday Special." The tournament, which costs $20 to enter, features the player pools from both Monday games. It will award $500,000 to the winner and an additional $1 million in prizes.

MORE MNF BETTING: Lions vs. Seahawks best bets and top props

FanDuel will be running a similar MNF promo tourney, called the "$400K NFL Monday Night Special." It costs $9 to enter and awards $100,000 to the winner, as well as another $300K in prizes. However, we will specifically highlight the best studs and sleepers for Lions-Seahawks single-game tournaments on FD. 

Our SuperDraft lineup will also specifically feature the top DFS picks for Lions-Seahawks. The goal is to get you primed for whichever tournament style you hope to enter this weekend: a combined special, or a single-game or showdown tourney for the better game of the doubleheader.

Let's get right to our lineups for DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft, and briefly explain why we drafted each player to our roster in each format. 

NFL DFS picks: Optimal DraftKings "Monday Special" lineup

Before we get into our lineup and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings contests: They're full-point PPR, and they feature three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. Full-roster tournaments feature lineups with 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1 FLEX (RB/WR/TE), and 1D/ST. The salary cap is set at $50,000. 

QB: Geno Smith, Seahawks at Lions ($5,900)

Many don't realize this, but Smith kind of owns the Lions. He has a lifetime passer rating of 106.1 against Detroit, along with 857 total yards and five touchdowns in three games. He's also never lost a game at Ford Field, where he out-dueled Jared Goff to give Seattle the 37-31 win last September. 

As the lineup suggests, we like the Seahawks a lot in this game. We're saving $500 by selecting Geno over Goff, and we're projecting Geno as the top QB of the night anyway. Don't even think about looking at the Titans' Will Levis or the Dolphins' Tyler Huntley (we project Huntley above Levis, for what it's worth).

Detroit will be running the ball early and often against a Seattle D that's missing defensive tackle Byron Murphy (hamstring) and defensive end Leonard Williams. The Lions, meanwhile, have multiple key defensive backs listed as questionable. Hammer the 'Hawks passing game. 

MORE: How to play DFS | Best NFL betting sites 

RB: De'Von Achane, Dolphins vs. Titans ($7,200)

Achane started the 2024 season with 52.5 DK points through Miami's first two games, but he managed just 8.8 last week with Tua Tagovailoa on IR and Skylar Thompson knocked out of the game in Seattle. With Tyler Huntley under center, expect Achane to get back to business.

Huntley made the Pro Bowl in relief of an injured Lamar Jackson two seasons ago, so he should be more than capable of getting this Miami offense — and Achane — back up to par. This price is cheap because of Miami's ugly 24-3 loss last week, not because Achane can't run over the Titans. (Green Bay ran them over for 188 rushing yards last week.)

RB: Tony Pollard, Titans at Dolphins ($6,000)

Pollard has looked pretty dang good in his first year with the Titans, suggesting that injuries — not lack of talent — were the reason for his oft-frustrating 2023 campaign.

Pollard had impossible shoes to fill in Nashville, as nobody in this era compares to Derrick Henry. But a 4.1 yards-per-carry average and 13.2 DK points per game on a winless team seems pretty good to us. He's well worth $6,000.

WEEK 5 FANTASY RANKINGS
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | D/STs | Kickers

WR1: DK Metcalf, Seahawks at Lions ($6,800)

WR2: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks at Lions ($5,500)

WR3: Tyler Lockett, Seahawks at Lions ($5,000)

Admittedly, this is a bold strategy. We're not just stacking our QB Smith with his top receiver (Metcalf) — we're stacking him with his top three wideouts.

This way, unless Noah Fant really explodes at tight end, we give ourselves a good chance of monopolizing the majority of the passing production in this game — and getting points from both sides of nearly every big catch and TD.

Metcalf is the big stud here, obviously. He has 233 total yards and two TDs over the past two weeks, and he joins Achane as the other player on our roster averaging over 20 DK points per game.

Smith-Njigba had a 26.7-point day in Week 2 against the Patriots, so we know his ceiling. And the veteran Lockett destroyed the Lions when these teams met last September, catching eight balls for 59 yards and two scores. Again, it's a weird strategy, but we're ready to Lockett in. 

TE: Sam LaPorta, Lions vs. Seahawks ($5,700)

LaPorta has experienced a bit of a sophomore slump this season, shocking his DFS and season-long fantasy investors who spent up to secure his reigning All-Pro services.

Well, here's betting his big season breakout comes under the bright lights of Monday Night Football. Through three games, Seattle sits among the 10 most generous defenses to opposing tight ends in fantasy. LFG, SLP!

FLEX: Tyjae Spears, Titans at Dolphins ($4,900)

Similar to our wide receiver strategy, we're flexing Spears in addition to rostering Pollard at RB2. This way, if the Titans get out to a big lead and hand off a ton — or if either Pollard or Spears find the end zone a combined total of 2-3 times — we're getting big-time production for a total of under $15,000.

Spears is not a glamorous fantasy name, but he's far from just a handcuff/injury insurance for Pollard. He has hauled in all 10 of his targets for 76 yards this season, and he's coming off a double-digit PPR performance. 

DST: Seattle Seahawks at Lions ($2,800)

Seattle is missing a couple key defenders, but Mike Macdonald should still have his squad ready for this one. Detroit will be without All-Pro center Frank Ragnow, which means Goff could succumb to the Seahawks' underrated pass rush at times and maybe even get picked off by Seattle's elite secondary.

Through three games, the 'hawks have allowed the fewest WR points, the third-fewest QB points, and the ninth-fewest RB points on DraftKings. It seems like a miss by DK to make Seattle the cheapest D/ST of the four Monday night teams.

Lions vs. Seahawks NFL DFS picks: Optimal FanDuel single-game lineup

Here are the key scoring settings for FanDuel single-game tournaments: They're half-point PPR with three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, or 100 receiving yards. The MVP pick multiplies that player's total by 1.5 but does not cost 1.5 times their listed salary.

Our FD single-game lineup construction utilizes many of the same players we used in the DK special. We decided to make Smith our MVP since FD's scoring system makes QBs a bit more valuable, plus we get the 1.5-times boost without paying 1.5 times the set salary like on DK Showdown tourneys.

We were also ecstatic to be able to afford Gibbs while still being able to roster high-floor, high-ceiling options in Smith, Metcalf, LaPorta, and Smith-Njigba. Gibbs remains one of the most electric young running backs in the NFL, and his combination of speed, strength, and pass-catching has helped him score 14-16 FD points in each of Detroit's first three games of the season. 

We checked all three boxes in terms of our core weekly FD guidelines:

• Put the player we project to score the most points in the MVP spot, since it doesn't cost us extra to get that 1.5-times boost (Smith)
• Stack the top QB with his top playmaking receiver(s) (Metcalf/JSN). 
• Target multiple high-volume studs (Smith, Metcalf, Gibbs) and a couple high-ceiling value plays (LaPorta and JSN). 

Lions vs. Seahawks NFL DFS picks: Optimal SuperDraft lineup

For those unfamiliar, SuperDraft's DFS scoring involves point multipliers as opposed to traditional salary-capped or tiered contests. A winning lineup will likely feature a strong mix of stud fantasy contributors with 1x-1.6x boosts, as well as matchup-based sleepers with larger multipliers. Each player is assigned a scoring multiplier based on their value as determined by SuperDraft. Users can roster any player in their lineup with no restrictions.

Here are the most notable scoring rules for SuperDraft NFL contests: Half-point PPR, four-point passing TDs, and two-point bonuses for 100 rushing yards, 100 receiving yards, and 300 passing yards. SuperDraft lineups feature no D/ST position. The "Champ" position adds a 50-percent boost to the selected player, while the SuperFlex positions are limited to the boost listed for each player. 

MORE SUPERDRAFT DFS: How to play SuperDraft

Again, we're making sure we utilize at least three of the studs we really like from our DK lineup. We also love the upside with the speedster Williams, who has a massive ceiling with his big play-ability.

Fant, who caught six balls for 60 yards his last time out against Miami, also seemed alluring with the 1.85-times boost. A sleeper, Fant gives us red-zone upside as well as lineup variance.