The Chargers and Bears, two teams with just two wins through seven weeks, face off at Soldier Field in this week's edition of Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). Today we will reveal what we project to be the optimal DraftKings Showdown roster for this interconference clash, and hopefully make you some daily fantasy cash.
Justin Herbert and the Bolts have suffered another injury-plagued season, with key impact players like Austin Ekeler and Mike Williams both missing multiple games through the first half of the campaign. The Bears can sympathize — Matt Eberflus's squad enters Week 8 with star QB Justin Fields out (thumb) and starting running back Khalil Herbert on IR (ankle).
Both of these squads rank in the bottom 25th percentile in the NFL in scoring defense. The Bears have allowed 26.9 points per game (fifth-most), while the Chargers have surrendered 27.3 points per road game (sixth-most). Even with Tyson Bagent starting under center for the Chi, this game should feature plenty of offense. That makes entering a DraftKings Showdown lineup even more fun than usual.
Before we get into our lineup and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests: They're full-point PPR and there are three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. The Captain pick costs 1.5 times a player's original price, but he also gets his point total multiplied by 1.5.
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Chargers-Bears DraftKings Picks: DFS lineup for Week 8 Sunday Night Football
$50,000 budget, need at least one player from each team.
Captain (1.5x points, 1.5x salary): DJ Moore, WR, Bears ($13,800)
We're going with a contrarian play at the Captain spot, as the majority of Showdown entries will likely feature Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, or Keenan Allen in the 1.5-times boost. Moore comes in $4,200 cheaper than Herbs, a price difference that will afford us more studs in our flex spots. Unique lineup variance also gives us a better chance of emerging from the pack like a wolf amongst DFS sheep.
If Moore pops off in his second full week with Tyson Bagent under center — a distinct possibility given how promising Bagent looked last week — he will be a huge value at this price. No defense has allowed more DK points to the wide receiver position than the Chargers have this season (46.4 PPG), and no Bears pass-catcher had more opportunities than Moore with Bagent at QB last week (Moore caught 8-of-9 targets for 54 yards).
MORE DK SHOWDOWN: How to win a Showdown contest
FLEX Justin Herbert, QB, Chargers ($12,000)
While we didn't want to spend up to make Herbert our Captain, we definitely want him included in one of our flex spots. The star QB will look to rebound after a disappointing Week 7 effort against the division-rival Chiefs, who picked him off twice and limited him to a season-low 68.6 QB rating. Chicago won't be nearly as tough on Herbs — the Bears have allowed 28-plus DK points to four different QBs this season. We have Herbert listed with a 22-point floor and 32-point ceiling.
FLEX Austin Ekeler, RB, Chargers ($11,200)
Ekeler missed multiple weeks with his high-ankle sprain earlier this season, and Brandon Staley and Kellen Moore clearly wanted to ease him back in over the past two weeks. The dynamic RB maxed out at 14 carries in each of the Bolts' past two games, a span that saw Ek only produce a combined 15.8 DK points. This week should be his "get-right" game, as Chicago has allowed the eighth-most DK points per game to RBs this season.
FLEX D'Onta Foreman, RB, Bears ($8,000)
Foreman broke out in a major way against the Raiders last week with both Khalil Herbert (ankle) and Roschon Johnson (concussion) on the shelf. The veteran power back rumbled, stumbled, and even hurdled his way to 120 all-purpose yards and three TDs for a grand total of 33 DK points. Johnson will be back on the field this weekend after a two-week absence, but the Bears would have to be crazy to give their rookie back the majority of touches after Foreman's impressive performance last week. Lead backs have averaged 18.3 DK points per game against the Chargers this season.
FLEX Darnell Mooney, WR, Bears ($4,000)
We spent a ton of money — $45,000 of our $50,000 budget — with our first four roster picks. Therefore, we need some good value plays at the back-end of our flex positions. We're good at that sort of things, as can be attested in the weekly DFS sleepers and values column yours truly has been publishing every Tuesday for three years. Well, Mooney makes the cut this time around, as Los Angeles has surrendered the most DK points to wide receivers this season and Bagent connected with his veteran receiver on all four targets for 32 yards last week. Even if Mooney scores the 7.1 points he has averaged over the past two weeks, it's a decent enough showing for a $4,000 bargain. The majority of our production will come from the four high-ceiling plays atop our lineup — we just need our last two spots to avoid goose eggs.
FLEX Derius Davis, WR, Chargers ($800)
With just $1,000 left for our final roster spot, we took a dart-throw approach and drafted Davis. The Chargers have consistently tried to get the speedy rookie involved, even working him into three designed running plays in two of L.A.'s past three games. Davis put up 8.7 points against Las Vegas a few weeks ago and then an underwhelming 3.4 points last week in Kansas City. Here's hoping he breaks a long run for a score and wins us a boatload of DFS cash.
Best Chargers-Bears DFS Picks
As we have every week, we're also listing our favorite single-game DFS plays on SuperDraft.
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.
MORE: Win BIG with SuperDraft! Join now and get a free deposit match of $20!
Here are the most notable scoring rules for SuperDraft NFL contests: Half-point PPR, four-point passing TDs, two-point bonuses for 100 rushing yards, 100 receiving yards, and 300 passing yards.
MORE SUPERDRAFT DFS: How to play SuperDraft
- Champion (+50% points): DJ Moore, WR, Bears (1.9x)
- Super FLEX: Justin Herbert, QB, Chargers (1.5x)
- Super FLEX: Keenan Allen, WR, Chargers (1.6x)
- Super FLEX: Austin Ekeler, RB, Chargers (1.65x)
- Super FLEX: D'Onta Foreman, RB, Bears (2.1x)
Our approach in SuperDraft lineup construction was similar to our DK build, but we couldn't get away from stud Chargers receiver Keenan Allen. We absolutely love the value we're getting with Moore at a 50-percent boost on top of his 1.9-times listed boost. We're also ecstatic to get Foreman at a 2.1-times boost, as we have a gut feeling he will continue to be the featured back in Chicago against a very beatable Bolts run D.
