Thursday Night Football DFS Picks: Bucs at Falcons
Apparently, Thursday Night Football is now designated for divisional matchups. This time around, we get the Falcons hosting the Buccaneers, who hold a one game lead in the NFC South. The Falcons are slight favorites at home, coming off of a last-second win against the Saints this past Sunday. Both Bijan Robinson and Mike Evans were limited early on in the week, but neither of them will carry an injury designation into Thursday night’s game. However, the Buccaneers will be without both Jalen McMillan (hamstring) and Trey Palmer (concussion).
When it comes to building a showdown lineup, it’s important to make sure that it correlates. If your captain is a wide receiver, you want his quarterback as one of your FLEX players. Same goes for if you have a quarterback as your captain. In this case, you’re going to want 2-3 pass catchers to go along with the quarterback.
In this article, I will be putting the players in order of how much exposure I’m going to have. Each game will feature 2-3 options at captain, which are high-priority plays, followed by flex options to round it out.
Captain
WR Drake London ($13,200) London is slowly becoming Kirk Cousins’ go-to option in this Falcons offense. He’s seen his targets increase every single week, with a season-high 12 this past Sunday. Amon-Ra St. Brown was the only true WR1 the Bucs have faced this year, and he posted 11/119 on 18 targets. The breakout is coming.
WR Chris Godwin ($15,000) Basically a coin flip between Godwin and Evans but it seems like a Godwin game. They’re only separated by $200, so price shouldn’t make all that much of a difference. Evans saw quite a bit of A.J. Terrelle last year, who held him to just one reception in their most recent matchup. Godwin has also had a hot start to his season, averaging 20 DraftKings points per game.
FLEX
RB Bijan Robinson ($9,800) While he isn’t having the start that fantasy managers had hoped for, he’s still been consistent. Robinson has yet to score more than 17 DraftKings points through four weeks. His “hamstring” injury that limited him this week might be enough to push the ownership down. He is projected the second most points in FantasyData’s DFS projections and is priced behind both Bucs wide receivers.
TE Cade Otton ($4,000) As thin as the Buccaneers are at wide receiver, Otton should remain the clear third target for Baker Mayfield. He was right with Godwin and Evans this past week when it comes to the number of routes run. Otton has also out-snapped both of them over the course of the season. He’s my favorite value on the slate.
K Chase McLaughlin While he struggled early on in his career, McLaughlin has had success in his time with the Buccaneers. He’s a perfect 7/7 this season with a long of 56. With kickers being so unpredictable, roll with the cheaper option.
QB Kirk Cousins ($8,600) Should be a FLEX on all teams that have London at the captain spot. If you expect the game to be slower, he is a fine fade if you don’t have a Falcon up top.
QB Baker Mayfield ($9,600) Same as above, but with Godwin in the captain spot. This is not a game where rostering both quarterbacks is a must. It’s okay to fade the other and leave some salary on the table.
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