Week 4 -- and, by proxy, Week 4 daily fantasy football contests -- are not set to get off a roaring start. Jets vs. Broncos shapes up as an even uglier Thursday Night Football game on paper than last week's Dolphins-Jaguars matchup. There's also all sorts of quarterback uncertainty, from whether Sam Darnold is any good to who Denver will use at QB during the game. That creates some unusual difficulties in creating a DraftKings Showdown DFS lineup.
For the first and probably only time this season, we've faded both quarterbacks We've gone for an even more unique lineup by utilizing the Denver D/ST at captain after the Jets allowed the Colts to score two defensive touchdowns last week. There's also only one New York player in our lineup because of that D/ST captain, so this is about as boom-or-bust as a Showdown lineup gets.
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DraftKings Showdown Picks: Jets vs. Broncos
Captain (1.5x price, 1.5x points): D/ST Denver Broncos ($8,400)
Maybe it's chasing the pick-sixes of last week, but it really can't be a bad idea to use a defense against Sam Darnold and Frank Gore. The bigger risk here might be Denver's offense not staying on the field long enough to prevent the defense from tiring out, but we'll take that shot in this Broncos-heavy lineup.
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FLEX: RB Melvin Gordon, Broncos ($11,000)
He's Denver's lead running back, and it's as simple as that. A classic DFS stack is a defense with a running back, assuming the game flow shapes up for defensive stops and the rusher running out the clock. That's what we've got here.
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FLEX: TE Noah Fant, Broncos ($9,000)
Fant is one of three Denver passing-game options we've chosen here. In some ways, that hopefully covers us for not having used a Broncos QB. Fant also has the potential to match the two-touchdown game Jordan Reed dropped on the Jets in Week 2 as a similarly big, athletic tight end.
FLEX: WR Jamison Crowder, Jets ($8,200)
Check on Crowder's status before kickoff, but he's expected to make his return from a hamstring injury. Darnold has a tendency to force feed Crowder, and in DK's PPR scoring, that's perfect for our lone Jets selection. Crowder doesn't have to so much as sniff the end zone to be worth playing here with a heavy volume.
FLEX: WR Jerry Jeudy, Broncos ($7,800)
Despite battling a ribs issue last week, Jeudy caught five-of-nine targets as the new No. 1 WR in this offense with Courtland Sutton (knee) out for the season. He could see a solid amount of attention from New York's defense, but Jeudy will still win his individual matchup more often than not.
FLEX: WR KJ Hamler, Broncos ($4,800)
Hamler might be the most explosive player in this game, and the only reason his price isn't higher is that he underwhelmed in Week 3 in his increased role. The Jets could allow Hamler to flourish the way he did playing for Penn State rather than in the tough matchup he had last week against the Bucs.