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 Saints vs. Cardinals on Thursday Night Football
FanDuel Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | K. Murray NO @ ARI |
39.5 | $17,000 |
| FLEX | A. Kamara NO @ ARI |
20.2 | $15,000 |
| FLEX | T. Hill NO @ ARI |
15.6 | $10,500 |
| FLEX | C. Olave NO @ ARI |
15.5 | $11,000 |
| FLEX | J. Johnson NO @ ARI |
7.5 | $6,500 |
| Totals | 98.2 | $60,000 |
Notes
We are going to see a lot of Kyler Murray in these lineups and probably not a ton of Andy Dalton because of his price vs. projections ratio. That’s the case here, too. We have Murray and Alvin Kamara as our two primary lineup builders, Chris Olave as the solid-but-affordable option, Taysom Hill as our high-upside (but also low-floor) dart throw, and an upside play in Juwan Johnson.
DraftKings Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| CPT | K. Murray NO @ ARI |
39.5 | $16,800 |
| FLEX | C. Olave NO @ ARI |
18.1 | $7,400 |
| FLEX | New Orleans (NO) NO @ ARI |
12.6 | $3,400 |
| FLEX | Z. Ertz NO @ ARI |
17.0 | $7,000 |
| FLEX | A. Kamara NO @ ARI |
23.6 | $10,600 |
| FLEX | M. Callaway NO @ ARI |
10.2 | $4,800 |
| Totals | 121.1 | $50,000 |
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.
Murray is our captain again here, and that is the chalk play on all of the platforms, even in GPP. We have Olave, Kamara, and Callaway again and are using the New Orleans D/ST and Zach Ertz to fill things out. I don’t love rolling with a defense here, but it makes some sense, given the pricing and the offense Arizona runs. It doesn’t help that Marshon Lattimore isn’t playing tonight, but I expect New Orleans to be aggressive on defense and slow the game down on offense, which could lead to a positive game script for D/ST points.
Yahoo Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | K. Murray NO @ ARI |
31.3 | $35 |
| FLEX | A. Kamara NO @ ARI |
15.5 | $27 |
| FLEX | A. Dalton NO @ ARI |
13.6 | $21 |
| FLEX | Z. Ertz NO @ ARI |
10.8 | $16 |
| FLEX | M. Callaway NO @ ARI |
6.1 | $11 |
| Totals | 77.4 | $110 |
Notes
Murray is once again our captain, but we manage to use Andy Dalton here because his price tag isn’t as prohibitive on Yahoo as it is on FanDuel and DraftKings. Callaway is our dart throw once again, while Kamara and Ertz are our lineup builders. Dalton is the main difference between this lineup and the other two just because of the salary difference, and I do think there is some sneaky upside there just because Dalton is essentially auditioning for the job tonight. Does that ultimately matter? It might not. But Dalton knows this could be his last chance to earn a starting job in the NFL.
Takeaways
The New Orleans offense is probably going to be the X factor here since they are a mess on that side of the ball. The optimizer is leaning into Marquez Callaway because of his upside and price tag. He’s our main dart throw on all platforms. Kyler Murray has the highest ceiling and highest floor, so he is going to be the most popular pick for the captain slot. Alvin Kamara is probably the best contrarian play there.
We don’t have DeAndre Hopkins in any of our lineups here. I won’t have a ton of exposure to Hopkins just because it’s unclear what to expect, but I’ll sprinkle him into a few lineups. He’s $12,500 on FanDuel, $10,200 on DraftKings, and $26 on Yahoo. Eno Benjamin and Rondale Moore are two players I’ll sprinkle into lineups, but they aren’t enough of a discount as I’d like.
Lineup Builders
Dart Throws
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.