Vikings vs. Redskins has the potential to be just as ugly as Monday Night Football was between the Patriots and Jets, and for Week 8's Thursday Night Football DraftKings Showdown lineup, I'm taking a valuable lesson from that MNF game. My NFL DFS lineup construction for that single-game contest was centered around the idea that the Jets were a decent enough team with good skill players and would hang around, and I went with a 3-3 split in my lineup. We're getting extreme in the other direction for Minnesota against Washington -- it's gonna be a 5-1 split, with only our cheapest player coming from the Redskins.
That construction is made possible by using Irv Smith Jr. in the captain slot. He's coming off five catches for 60 yards and was buoyed by Adam Thielen's early exit Sunday. With Thielen (hamstring) unlikely to play Thursday, Smith makes for a good value captain pick to allow big spending the rest of the way through.
WEEK 8 NON-PPR RANKINGS
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker
DraftKings Showdown Picks: Vikings vs. Redskins
CAPTAIN (1.5x points, 1.5x price): TE Irv Smith Jr., Vikings ($7,200)
We already covered Smith a bit in the paragraph above, but it's pretty straightforward. He's an athletic rookie tight end who's gotten some playing time throughout the season and should see more targets Thursday without Thielen. If you're wondering -- yes, Kyle Rudolph still plays, but he doesn't catch as many passes anymore.
WEEK 8 PPR RANKINGS: Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end
FLEX: RB Dalvin Cook, Vikings ($13,000)
If we're going all-in on the Vikings, we can't do it without one of the best running backs in football. Minnesota should grab control early and allow Cook to easily reach 20 carries and 100 yards.
Week 8 DFS Lineups:
Y! Cash | Y! GPP | FD Cash | FD GPP | DK Cash | DK GPP
FLEX: QB Kirk Cousins, Vikings ($12,000)
Cousins has proven that, when given a good matchup, he can still deliver fantasy points. The Redskins might be the best matchup he'll have the rest of the season, so at least for one more week, we can count on him. Besides: Revenge game!
WEEK 8: Waiver wire | FAAB planner | Trade values | Snap counts
FLEX: WR Stefon Diggs, Vikings ($11,000)
Diggs has had big games in back-to-back weeks, and there's no one on Washington who will stop him from a three-peat with Thielen out. (If you're wondering: Josh Norman isn't good anymore.)
FLEX: WR Olabisi Johnson, Vikings ($6,200)
Johnson steps in as the No. 2 WR with Thielen out, and he had eight targets and a touchdown on Sunday. I tried to make him my captain, but then I wound up stuck with someone like Paul Richardson of the Redskins, which was no fun.
FLEX: WR Kelvin Harmon, Redskins ($200)
Harmon gets enough snaps each week to speculate on a few catches as the Redskins play a lot of garbage time in this one. Note: With Adrian Peterson and Chris Thompson battling injury, RB Craig Reynolds would become the more appealing $200 option only if both of those RBs were out.