Commanders vs. Bears DFS Advice: Optimal Lineups, Targets, Strategy (2022 Fantasy Football)

Daily Fantasy Contests require a different strategy than what you use to set your weekly lineups, and that’s even more true for these “island” or “standalone” games (Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, etc.). In these contests, you typically have only a handful of lineup spots and players from just two teams to choose from. Just as importantly, everyone else playing in those contests is also choosing from those limited options. If you want to win money (or at least win “big” money in GPP contests), you have to be savvy and take some risks.

I’ll walk you through the current optimal lineups for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and OwnersBox via our DFS Lineup Optimizer and share some of my notes and strategies for this particular matchup. Note: these are the current optimal lineups, and I sometimes take some liberties based on recent news and my personal preferences and projections. For updated lineups based on adjusted projections throughout the day, be sure to access the DFS Lineup Optimizer tool and create your own lineups.

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup, based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant – that allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and by how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

Feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher with questions or feedback anytime.

Optimal Lineups for Thursday Night Football: Commanders vs. Bears

FanDuel Optimal Lineup (GPP)

Week 6
POS PLAYER PROJ. PTS SALARY
1.5x C. Wentz
WAS @ CHI
24.5 $17,000
FLEX J. Fields
WAS @ CHI
16.0 $16,000
FLEX C. Samuel
WAS @ CHI
11.0 $12,000
FLEX D. Mooney
WAS @ CHI
9.0 $9,500
FLEX J. Bates
WAS @ CHI
3.6 $5,500
Totals 64.1 $60,000

 

Notes

I don’t know that I have ever seen an optimal lineup projected to score this few points, but everyone is predicting this to be a pretty gross game. The winning lineup (perhaps even this one) will likely score significantly more than 64.1 points, but the projections for this game are all very mediocre. Wentz is projected to lead the scoring at just 16.4 points (multiplied by 1.5 above), while Fields is right behind him at 16. This lineup is a classic double stack with a backup TE (John Bates is replacing the injured Logan Thomas). It’s playable in CASH as well as GPP. Another option at his price in GPP is Cam Sims.

DraftKings Optimal Lineup (GPP)

Week 6
POS PLAYER PROJ. PTS SALARY
CPT C. Wentz
WAS @ CHI
29.9 $10,600
FLEX T. McLaurin
WAS @ CHI
16.8 $9,000
FLEX Chicago (CHI)
WAS @ CHI
11.7 $4,000
FLEX C. Samuel
WAS @ CHI
17.3 $8,200
FLEX C. Sims
WAS @ CHI
6.7 $1,400
FLEX J. Fields
WAS @ CHI
18.4 $10,000
Totals 100.9 $48,500

 

Notes

DraftKings makes you declare two players before it lets our lineup optimizer provide your best lineup. So, unlike FanDuel, this lineup won’t be universal because it depends on your initial choices.

I opted to stack Wentz and Terry McLaurin and avoid paying up for Justin Fields to see what the optimizer would give me. Well, it gave me Justin Fields anyway because he’s cheaper on DK relative to his price on FanDuel. So here we have Wentz stacked with McLaurin AND Curtis Samuel, plus Cam Sims as a cheap dart throw (he’s also significantly cheaper here) to go with Fields and the Chicago defense. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. And this lineup has some game script factors that could mesh well (i.e. the Commanders airing the ball out, resulting in a lot of work for their receivers and the possibility of mistakes by Wentz for that defense to take advantage of).

Yahoo Optimal Lineup (GPP)

POS PLAYER PROJ. PTS SALARY
1.5x J. Fields
WAS @ CHI
27.7 $21
FLEX D. Mooney
WAS @ CHI
12.3 $16
FLEX T. McLaurin
WAS @ CHI
14.4 $17
FLEX Chicago (CHI)
WAS @ CHI
12.2 $15
FLEX Washington (WAS)
WAS @ CHI
10.2 $11
Totals 76.8 $80

 

Notes

Here we see Justin Fields in the MVP/Captain/1.5x slot for the first time, and we roll with BOTH defenses. The optimizer had Curtis Samuel in over Darnell Mooney, but I swapped in Mooney so that I was able to add a WR to stack with Fields. This is an even more ideal lineup if Carson Wentz gets hurt or benched, which are both possible tonight (he’s dealing with an arm injury coming into the game).

OwnersBox Optimal Lineup (GPP)

POS PLAYER PROJ. PTS SALARY
QB C. Wentz
WAS @ CHI
20.0 $6,700
RB B. Robinson Jr.
WAS @ CHI
10.0 $4,700
RB D. Montgomery
WAS @ CHI
18.0 $6,000
WR C. Samuel
WAS @ CHI
18.0 $5,700
WR E. St. Brown
WAS @ CHI
7.8 $4,700
TE J. Bates
WAS @ CHI
6.9 $4,100
FLEX T. McLaurin
WAS @ CHI
17.0 $6,000
FLEX D. Mooney
WAS @ CHI
14.5 $5,800
SF J. Fields
WAS @ CHI
18.4 $6,300
Totals 130.6 $50,000

 

Notes

Unlike the other platforms, OwnersBox still uses full lineups for island games. So, this lineup will be different from the others, and you are almost forced to use a couple of dart throws in order to affordably build your lineup. OwnersBox also defines the positions and includes a superflex slot, as opposed to the MVP/Flex setup.

OwnersBox is superflex, so we’re starting both QBs. We finally get to start Brian Robinson Jr. in a lineup, which is great considering the news that he is expected to start tonight for Washington. I still think we’ll split time with Gibson and McKissic, but he should get those high-value touches in the red zone, assuming Washington makes it there tonight. Our dart throw here is Equanimeous St. Brown. If we can get a big play or two out of St. Brown, this lineup should be sitting pretty. Bates is our lineup building as mentioned before, especially in a larger lineup with a TE slot. The rest is pretty chalk.

Lineup Builders

John Bates (TE – WAS) – With Logan Thomas out, the price is right for Bates.

Curtis Samuel (WR – WAS)

Dart Throws

Equanimeous St. Brown (WR – CHI)

Cam Sims (WR – WAS)

Feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher with questions or feedback anytime.

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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.