For each of the featured games, typically Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football slates, we will provide free analysis for the single-slate action on DraftKings and FanDuel. This will include team capsules, player rankings, comments and NFL DFS picks for today. There are loads of information and NFL DFS Showdown picks to get into for both DraftKings and FanDuel on this Week 8 Monday Night Football slate featuring the New York Giants at Kansas City Chiefs.
NFL DFS Showdown Picks: Week 8 Monday Night Football
New York has been dealing with quite a few injuries this season. Saquon Barkley (ankle) and Kenny Golladay (knee) are out, while Sterling Shepard (hamstring) and Kadarius Toney (ankle) are on track to return to action. Kansas City is without Clyde Edwards-Helaire (knee), though the rest of their skill players are healthy for the most part.
New York Giants: 20.75
Quarterback
Daniel Jones has not been able to cover all the gaps in the Giants offense left behind by Barkley, Golladay, Shepard, Toney and Darius Slayton all missing significant action. In Week 5 against Dallas, Jones had his afternoon cut short with an injury, and New York ended the game with understudies at every single skill position. Including that game, Jones has 97 pass attempts with just one touchdown against three interceptions. There is hope on the horizon, with at least a couple of his receivers likely to return, along with a tasty matchup against a Kansas City defense that is second-to-last in both run and pass DVOA.
Running Back
Devontae Booker has never rushed for more than 90 yards in a game, and he run for 60-plus yards only six times in 72 games across six seasons with three different franchises. He is still serviceable in both the run and pass game, but he is far from a dynamic option and is lucky to get whatever the defense is allowing him. There is no salary discount on FanDuel where he is $500 more than his counterpart Darrel Williams, and while he is $800 less on DraftKings, he is still sixth on the salary list. The volume will be there, though the production may not follow. Elijhaa Penny is the backup who will be on the field for 25-30% of the snaps and see half a dozen opportunities.
Wide Receiver
Slayton is the healthiest regular, having come back from his injury last week. Shepard and Toney are likely to return tonight, which will lead to one of John Ross, Dante Pettis and Collin Johnson being inactive tonight. Toney looked like he was in the midst of a rookie breakout in Weeks 4 and 5 when he had 16 receptions for 267 yards and two carries for 8 yards. Injury struck in Week 6, so he may have taken a step back, and Slayton and Shepard were out in those games. This looks like a game of musical chairs for the lead trio, who all have similar salaries. Let person preference, projected popularity and any potential health news be the deciding factors leading up to kickoff.
Tight End
Evan Engram (29 targets) is the clear lead receiver at the tight end position, with Kyle Rudolph (15 targets) seeing half the target opportunities on similar snap counts. Kaden Smith was limited in practice, though when healthy he has been on the field in the 30-40% range and has just three targets on the season.
Defense/Special Teams
While the Giants defense has been solid against weak quarterbacks, the two above-average quarterbacks to face them — Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford — had a combined 553 yards passing and seven touchdowns. Tonight the Giants are tasked with going into a prime-time matchup against one of the best offenses in the league in a stadium that provides a tremendous homefield advantage.
Kansas City Chiefs: 31.25
Quarterback
Though Patrick Mahomes has not been otherworldly this season, with 14 sacks and nine interceptions through seven games, he is still just two seasons removed from being a Super Bowl MVP and three from being the NFL MVP. The Giants have an adequate defense, though they have been boat-raced by competent quarterbacks.
Running Back
Darrel Williams is getting a lot of love from the DFS salary algorithms, coming in at $11,500 on FanDuel and $9,000 on DraftKings. He was excellent against Washington in Week 6, with 21 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns and three receptions for another 27 yards. Last week the wheels came off the wagon for Kansas City, and they were crushed by Tennessee 27-3. In that game Williams had just five carries and four targets. While he is projected for 20 to 23 opportunities tonight, there are a lot of other ways coach Andy Reid can direct the offense. Jerick McKinnon will see action on around a third of the snaps and get around 6 to 8 opportunities. Of course, if something befalls Williams, McKinnon is the next man up, and there is value in that in the single-game format.
Wide Receiver
Tyreek Hill has been dominant this season and leads the team with 72 targets. He can score from anywhere on the field, and he already has two games with 185-plus yards receiving. Demarcus Robinson has run the next most routes, but he has only 20 targets to show for his wind sprints. By comparison, Mecole Hardman has double the targets (40) on 30 fewer plays. Even Byron Pringle has more targets (23) while generally seeing half the snap share as Robinson. Anything can happen in one game with Mahomes as the quarterback, though there is a clear pecking order among this crew.
Tight End
Travis Kelce continues to be the 1B option to Hill, and he has 10-plus targets in four of his last five games and is second on the Chiefs with 65. The other tight ends have combined for 12 targets on the season, and while that includes two touchdowns by Jody Fortson, it is Kelce or bust at this position.
Defense/Special Teams
Kansas City is a poor defense by all the advanced metrics, and they are averaging one takeaway per game and a league-low eight sacks. One pick-six or strip-sack can result in a splash play in the single-game contests, but that is a big ask from this group, even against a shaky quarterback.
Monday Night Football Single-Game NFL DFS Strategy
The rankings below are best utilized for building out single-entry and three-max lineups and for head-to-head and three-man formats. They provide a nice barometer for player value, but for those taking the MME approach, remember that correlation is key. This means matching a receiver or two with a quarterback in the Captain/MVP slot. This also works conversely with pairing a Captain/MVP pass catcher with their quarterback.
Week 8 Monday Night Football NFL DFS Rankings
Top 10 NFL DFS Showdown Picks
- Patrick Mahomes: Should top his receivers unless one has a multi-touchdown game.
- Tyreek Hill: Potential game breaker on every play.
- Travis Kelce: Steady producer, similar projections to Hill, though needs more targets to get there.
- Daniel Jones: Likely scenario is that the Giants will be forced to abandon the run early. Jones also has rushing upside on broken plays or if the defense loses containment of the pocket.
- Mecole Hardman: Healthy and provides salary discount when compared with his Giants counterparts.
- Darrel Williams: Absolutely must get a touchdown to justify his salary.
- Sterling Shepard: Dominates target share when he is healthy.
- Kadarius Toney: If active, assume he is fully healthy since there is no reason for New York to risk their rookie.
- Darius Slayton: Though his teammates are more dynamic, he has health on his side … for now.
- Devontae Booker: If the Giants go to the air, he is going to be left out of the mix.
Secondary NFL DFS Showdown Picks
- Graham Gano: Two field goals could have him being a factor if the rest of the scoring is consolidated with just a couple players.
- Harrison Butker: 90.1% career success rate; has only seven field goal attempts due to Kansas City’s ability to score touchdowns.
- Evan Engram: Did not do much when all the receivers were hurt; hard to see that changing with most now healthy.
- Jerick McKinnon: Cheap salary, and the savings are a necessity.
- Byron Pringle: Not quite as discounted as McKinnon but still provides cap flexibility.
Lottery Ticket NFL DFS Showdown Picks
- Demarcus Robinson: DraftKings ($800) and FanDuel ($6,000) salaries make his snap share tempting since his targets are slightly trending up: two, four, two, two, six and four since Week 1.
- Kansas City D/ST: Jones could have the Eli Manning face tonight.
- New York D/ST: Could something be wrong with Mahomes, or has this just been bad luck?
- Eli Penny and Kyle Rudolph: Will at least see the field on 25-30% of the plays.
- Dante Pettis, John Ross and Collin Johnson: One or two will be inactive if Shepard and Toney are both able to play.
- Noah Gray, Kaden Smith, Blake Bell: Backup tight ends, meh.
- Josh Gordon and Marcus Kemp: Four combined targets and 60 combined snaps.
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