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. 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 and DraftKings via our DFS Lineup Optimizer and share some of my notes and strategies for this particular matchup. Note: these are the current optimal lineups. For updated lineups based on adjusted projections throughout the day, be sure to access the DFS Lineup Optimizer tool.
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 Sunday Night Football (Cowboys vs. Eagles)
FanDuel Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | J. Hurts DAL @ PHI |
41.7 | $17,500 |
| FLEX | Philadelphia (PHI) DAL @ PHI |
12.8 | $10,000 |
| FLEX | A. Brown DAL @ PHI |
19.7 | $13,500 |
| FLEX | T. Pollard DAL @ PHI |
13.5 | $9,000 |
| FLEX | M. Gallup DAL @ PHI |
11.7 | $10,000 |
| Totals | 110.3 | $59,500 |
Notes
You’re going to see a lot of Jalen Hurts in the 1.5x/Captain/MVP slot tonight. It just makes the most sense, and he has the highest ceiling. Most the lineups here will use that as a starting formula, but you should try a few other players in that top slot just to have some contrarian lineups out there. This one has a Hurts – A.J. Brown stack to go with the Eagles defense, and Cowboys RB Tony Pollard and WR Michael Gallup.
DraftKings Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| CPT | J. Hurts DAL @ PHI |
34.9 | $17,700 |
| FLEX | A. Brown DAL @ PHI |
16.9 | $10,600 |
| FLEX | Dallas (DAL) DAL @ PHI |
7.5 | $3,400 |
| FLEX | B. Maher DAL @ PHI |
7.6 | $3,800 |
| FLEX | D. Goedert DAL @ PHI |
12.9 | $6,800 |
| FLEX | D. Smith DAL @ PHI |
14.0 | $7,400 |
| Totals | 93.8 | $49,700 |
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.
Jalen Hurts in the captain slot again. Chalk, but good chalk. Stacking with A.J. Brown again. Also, stacking Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith and going cheap with the Cowboys D/ST and kicker Brett Maher (no relation). This is a GPP lineup that is relying on a pretty specific game script that would need the Cowboys to score a defensive touchdown for this to really cash big. Not sure I love it, but I’ll give it a shot in at least one contest.
I am more likely to dial back some of the reliance on the Philadelphia passing game and utilize Tony Pollard somewhere instead.
Yahoo Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | J. Hurts DAL @ PHI |
34.9 | $37 |
| FLEX | C. Rush DAL @ PHI |
14.3 | $20 |
| FLEX | C. Lamb Q DAL @ PHI |
13.5 | $21 |
| FLEX | D. Smith DAL @ PHI |
11.6 | $19 |
| FLEX | D. Goedert DAL @ PHI |
10.4 | $18 |
| Totals | 84.7 | $115 |
Notes
This is our first lineup with Cooper Rush as he’s been too expensive to be worth it on the other platforms. I like this lineup a lot. Stacking Hurts with Smith and Goedert without paying up for A.J. Brown to go with a mini-stack with Rush and CeeDee Lamb. This should play in both CASH and GPP. For a straight GPP play, I might swap out Goedert for Brown and Lamb for Gallup.
OwnersBox Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| QB | J. Hurts DAL @ PHI |
27.8 | $7,200 |
| RB | M. Sanders DAL @ PHI |
17.4 | $5,800 |
| RB | T. Pollard DAL @ PHI |
15.2 | $5,300 |
| WR | A. Brown DAL @ PHI |
22.8 | $6,400 |
| WR | C. Lamb Q DAL @ PHI |
20.2 | $6,200 |
| TE | D. Goedert DAL @ PHI |
16.6 | $5,000 |
| FLEX | D. Schultz DAL @ PHI |
9.1 | $4,500 |
| FLEX | D. Smith DAL @ PHI |
17.5 | $5,500 |
| SF | Q. Watkins DAL @ PHI |
7.7 | $4,100 |
| Totals | 154.3 | $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.
This is a really interesting lineup. The optimizer is opting not to use Cooper Rush despite the superflex slot. Instead, it’s using the saved salary to load up on playmakers elsewhere and sticking a Quez Watkins dart throw in the superflex slot. I have to say, I kind of love it as a GPP play.
Lineup Builders
Jalen Hurts (QB – PHI): Straight chalk, homie.
Tony Pollard (RB – DAL)
DeVonta Smith (WR – PHI)
Dart Throws
Quez Watkins (WR – PHI)
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.
