The Los Angeles Chargers play host to the Chicago Bears tonight on SNF. We’ll look to take advantage of what should be a decent matchup tonight. With fantasy glory and a hefty $300,000 on the line, it’s now more crucial than ever to assemble a winning DraftKings lineup that can dominate the competition. This article offers DFS insights on who should take the coveted captain slot, which core player should anchor your player pool, a value gem that can boost your salary cap flexibility, a sleeper pick with breakout potential, and one player to steer clear of – the dreaded bust. Get ready for an interesting DFS showdown on SNF.
*Disclaimer: These picks have been constructed with the mindset of building a single lineup. When building large field/multi-entry tournaments, if the player sees the field you’ll want to have a piece of him somewhere, my “busts” included.*
Sunday Night Football Showdown DFS Picks
Captain
Austin Ekeler
DraftKings Salary- $16,800
The last time I recommended that Austin Ekeler occupy your captain slot, he made a fool of me. His 14 carries for 27 yards and 4 receptions for 35 yards was nowhere near enough to cash out any lineups that featured him in the top slot. This time, this time will be different. I promise. Because this time around Austin Ekeler gets the Bears DST, one of the worst units against the run.
The Bears DST has been bad, there’s no way around that. In fact, so far this season they have already allowed 8 touchdowns to the running back position. And let me tell you, they have been just letting everybody score. Don’t believe me? Take a looksie at the chart below. Austin Ekeler is going to light these boys up on SNF tonight.
| Week 1 | Aaron Jones | 127 Total Yards | 2 TDS |
| Week 2 | Rachaad White | 103 Total Yards | 1 TD |
| Week 3 | Isiah Pacheco | 78 Total Yards | 1 TD |
| Week 3 | Clyde Edwards-Helaire | 57 Total Yards | 1 TD |
| Week 3 | Jerick McKinnon | 28 Total Yards | 2 TDS |
| Week 4 | Jaleel McLaughlin | 104 Total Yards | 1 TD |
Core Play
Justin Herbert
DraftKings Salary- $12,000
Justin Herbert had his worst fantasy (and real-life) performance of the season last week against the Kansas City Chiefs. He’ll look to bounce back tonight on SNF after completing an atrocious 17 out of 30 pass attempts. The pass attempts and completions were Herbert’s second-fewest of the year. There’s plenty of reason, however, to expect a bounce back tonight. Have I mentioned how bad the Chicago Bears’ defense is?
The Bears DST has given up a fair amount of yardage to quarterbacks far less talented than Herbert:
| Week 1 | Justin Love | 245 Passing Yards |
| Week 2 | Baker Mayfield | 317 Passing Yards |
| Week 3 | Patrick Mahomes | 272 Passing Yards |
| Week 4 | Russell Wilson | 223 Passing Yards |
| Week 5 | Sam Howell | 388 Passing Yards |
Value
Josh Palmer
DraftKings Salary- $7,000
Joshua Palmer (Knee) is officially questionable for SNF. After missing the first two practices of the week, Palmer was a limited participant during Friday’s session. It was reported that Palmer had been seen wearing a sleeve on his right leg while doing drills on Friday. That’s a fair indication that the injury is at least manageable and that he should be able to fight through it tonight.
Chargers Josh Palmer using his eyes to spin his defender outside.
>Look
>Lean
>Stab
Perfect execution pic.twitter.com/4bukNc3Zgw— JetPack Galileo (@JetPackGalileo) October 27, 2023
Palmer has definitely stepped up since the injury to Mike Williams in Week 3. In terms of targets, nobody is close to the 64 targets Keenan Allen has gotten. However, Palmer does rank second with 35. Joshua Palmer went from seeing snap shares of 64%, 54%, and 61% to shares of 86%, 97%, and 98%. Honestly, $7,000 DK dollars is beginning to sound like it may be a little too cheap for a player who caught 5 passes for 133 yards last week.
Sleeper
Tyler Scott
DraftKings Salary- $1,200
Yesterday was Darnell Mooney‘s birthday. Take that for what it’s worth, perhaps nothing. Tonight on SNF we could see Tyler Scott notch his first career score. That seemingly becomes more and more likely with every snap that Tyson Bagent takes under center. It’s pretty rare that a wide receiver comes to life when the backup quarterback enters the chat, but that seems to be the case for Scott.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus must know that Scott and Bagent share a connection. Because it wasn’t until Justin Fields got hurt in Week 6 that Scott’s playing time began to ramp up. The 59% snap share that he got in Week 6 was his highest of the year. His previous three highs had been 23%, 20%, and 19%. This past week Scott saw 56% which allowed him to accrue 19 yards on a pair of catches. Scott also rushed twice for 14 yards, getting stopped at the one-yard line on an attempt. Scott’s salary of $1,200 may end up being the salary relief that we’ve all been searching for.
SNF Bust
Roschon Johnson
DraftKings Salary- $6,600
SNF will mark Roschon Johnson‘s first game back from the concussion that he sustained in Week 5 against the Washington Commanders. Johnson practiced in full this Wednesday, cleared the concussion protocol on Thursday, and got another full session in on Friday. Johnson had been playing pretty well up to his injury. In that time Johnson is averaging 4.9 yards per tote. He’s been involved in the passing game as well, catching 11 of his 12 targets for 58 yards. The only problem for Johnson is the fact that D’Onta Foreman has been spectacular in his absence. Before the season began, I pegged Foreman as the eventual starter. His production has been hard to argue against. I don’t see Johnson coming back and taking significant carries away from Foreman. He’ll likely slide right back into his usual third down/change of pace role that he was in before injury. A role that has seen him reach double-digit fantasy points only once this season.
Week 8 Fantasy Football Rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End