DraftKings NFL Showdown Cheat Sheet: Patriots At Seahawks
By Sam Smith
September 9, 2026
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is my Captain for the Week 1 Wednesday Night Football game, Patriots at Seahawks on Wednesday, September 9 at 8:20 p.m. ET, on DraftKings Showdown. He leads the board's captain exposures at 19.3%, ahead of the Patriots' A.J. Brown (14.0%), and he is the projection leader at 19.8 while only fourth in ownership at 43.7%. The number I keep coming back to is a $4,200 running back, and he is where this build ends.
The Quick Answer
Captain Smith-Njigba, $15,900 in the slot. Jadarian Price is the Captain for a second entry: fifth in captain exposure at 10.7%, but fourth in flex exposure at 44.0% and second on the flex leverage panel at 10.2%, so the multiplier is where that gap pays. George Holani (21.8% leverage, 2.08 value) is the first flex I fill. Rhamondre Stevenson stays in the core build and comes off in the leverage entry. The full board and a $49,900 build are below.
The Wednesday Night Football Board On DraftKings
$50,000 buys six spots, and Smith-Njigba's $5,300 captain tax (1.5 times his salary for 1.5 times his points) takes the first one. The other five are FLEX, one player from each team, kickers and defenses eligible. The Stokastic Sims play this one game out tens of thousands of times on a single shared script, so a back who sits out a blowout's second half is priced into his top-150 exposure, and the Ownership Projections enter as a distribution rather than a point estimate.
| Panel | No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Flex Projections (Proj FP) | Jaxon Smith-Njigba 19.8 | Drake Maye 19.1 | Sam Darnold 16.9 |
| Flex Ownership (Own%) | Drake Maye 53.9% | Sam Darnold 50.0% | Rhamondre Stevenson 46.4% |
| Flex Exposures (Exp%) | Drake Maye 61.3% | Sam Darnold 49.3% | Jaxon Smith-Njigba 46.7% |
| Captain Exposures (Exp%) | Jaxon Smith-Njigba 19.3% | A.J. Brown 14.0% | Rhamondre Stevenson 13.3% |
| Top Values (Value) | DeMario Douglas 2.09 | George Holani 2.08 | Hunter Henry 2.03 |
| Leverage Plays (Lev%) | George Holani 21.8% | Jadarian Price 10.2% | Drake Maye 7.1% |
Holani is the name on this board. He misses the ownership and exposure top fives yet leads the leverage panel at 21.8%, in a Seattle backfield with Kenneth Walker III in Kansas City since March, Zach Charbonnet on reserve/PUP for at least four games, and Holani reported for the third-down and two-minute work behind the rookie Price. A pool of roughly 40 names crowds onto the same five. He is the one it skipped.
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Worked Example: Smith-Njigba To $49,900
Salaries are the DataHub's DraftKings numbers for this slate.
- Captain Smith-Njigba, $15,900, leaving $34,100 for five FLEX.
- Sam Darnold ($9,400) throwing to him, and Price ($7,200) so the Seattle script pays three ways.
- Holani ($4,200), then Stevenson ($8,400) and Hunter Henry ($4,800) as the New England bring-back. The NFL DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub show the cheap Seattle back is what lets the chalk back fit under a $15,900 Captain: $49,900 total.
The leverage entry moves the multiplier and takes the trim: Price at Captain ($10,800) with Maye ($10,000), Smith-Njigba ($10,600), Darnold ($9,400), Holani ($4,200) and Henry ($4,800) lands at $49,800, with Stevenson off and both quarterbacks in. Set beside the Patriots-Seahawks Showdown preview, that is the case in one lineup: a $4,200 back and a rookie at Captain. The cheat sheet is free; code CHEAT takes 15% off your first payment on the Stokastic NFL Sims behind it. 21+, play responsibly.