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 Colts vs. Cowboys (Sunday Night Football, Week 13)
FanDuel Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | D. Prescott IND @ DAL |
40.8 | $16,000 |
| FLEX | J. Taylor IND @ DAL |
22.5 | $15,000 |
| FLEX | C. Lamb IND @ DAL |
19.1 | $14,000 |
| FLEX | M. Gallup IND @ DAL |
11.3 | $9,000 |
| FLEX | J. Woods Q IND @ DAL |
9.1 | $6,000 |
| Totals | 102.7 | $60,000 |
Notes
Fairly chalky lineup with Michael Gallup as an upside play and Jelani Woods as our dart throw. Woods caught eight of his nine targets for 98 yards last week to finish the week as TE4 overall, so there are worse dart throws. At $6,000 on FanDuel, I’m willing to gamble on his usage continuing and/or at least getting a touchdown in the red zone.
DraftKings Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| CPT | T. Pollard IND @ DAL |
21.7 | $12,300 |
| FLEX | J. Taylor IND @ DAL |
17.5 | $10,000 |
| FLEX | D. Prescott IND @ DAL |
21.0 | $10,200 |
| FLEX | M. Alie-Cox IND @ DAL |
3.4 | $800 |
| FLEX | D. Schultz IND @ DAL |
10.3 | $5,800 |
| FLEX | C. Lamb IND @ DAL |
17.7 | $10,800 |
| Totals | 91.6 | $49,900 |
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.
Went with Tony Pollard as the captain to be able to keep Jonathan Taylor and Dak Prescott in the lineup and keep things affordable. Do I love Mo Alie-Cox as a dart throw? No, but it’s worth the gamble to be able to build out the rest of this lineup. All we need is for Alie-Cox to catch a couple of passes and score a touchdown if the rest of this lineup performs as they should. I prefer Jelani Woods, but he is much more expensive on DraftKings.
Yahoo Optimal Lineup (GPP)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| 1.5x | D. Prescott IND @ DAL |
40.8 | $31 |
| FLEX | J. Taylor IND @ DAL |
22.5 | $24 |
| FLEX | C. Lamb IND @ DAL |
19.1 | $25 |
| FLEX | M. Ryan IND @ DAL |
18.2 | $20 |
| FLEX | N. Brown IND @ DAL |
6.3 | $10 |
| Totals | 106.9 | $110 |
Notes
As we have mentioned throughout this series, Yahoo tends to have more favorable salaries that allow you to build strong lineups. This one allows me to get both quarterbacks, Jonathan Taylor, and CeeDee Lamb into the same lineup. I went with Noah Brown here, but Jelani Woods is also $10 and would fit.
OwnersBox Optimal Lineup (PTF)
| POS | PLAYER | PROJ. PTS | SALARY |
| FLEX | N. Brown IND @ DAL |
7.7 | $4,000 |
| FLEX | D. Schultz IND @ DAL |
13.5 | $5,400 |
| FLEX | C. Lamb IND @ DAL |
22.1 | $6,700 |
| FLEX | J. Taylor IND @ DAL |
24.7 | $6,900 |
| SF | D. Prescott IND @ DAL |
27.2 | $6,800 |
| Totals | 95.2 | $29,800 |
Notes
OwnersBox has a superflex contest for this island game, so we’ll go with Prescott, Taylor, Lamb, Schultz, and then again Brown as our dart throw. Parris Campbell at $5,800 is also in play here, as is Michael Gallup at $5,200.
Lineup Builders / Core Plays
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.