Thursday Night Football DFS Picks: Vikings at Rams
Week 8 features two coaches who are extremely familiar with one another. Kevin O’Connell will make his return to Los Angeles, where he spent one season as their offensive coordinator. His Minnesota Vikings will look to get back on track after losing their first game of the season this past Sunday against the Lions.
The Rams will get Cooper Kupp back in this one but will be without Jordan Whittington. TJ Hockenson and Puka Nacua both carry a “questionable” tag heading into Thursday night.
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 rank the players according to 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
RB Aaron Jones ($14,400) Even on a week where he wasn’t 100%, Aaron Jones still managed to score over 20 DraftKings points. He’s in full control of this backfield right now and is priced far too low.
RB Kyren Williams ($16,800) He’s had at least 21 touches in four consecutive weeks. The Vikings defense finally got exposed on the ground, allowing over 6 YPC to Gibbs and Montgomery. Williams is getting all of the work in this backfield and it shouldn’t change.
FLEX
WR Cooper Kupp ($11,000) Kupp is a hot name as we approach the NFL’s trade deadline. What better way to showcase your skills than on Thursday Night Football? He was dominant in the two games he played early on.
K Will Reichard ($5,400) Traveling to the west coast on a short week isn’t always the best situation. If the Vikings offense continues to struggle, they could be caught settling for plenty of field goals. Reichard has been a bright spot this season.
DST Rams ($3,800) Same as above. The Rams defense is priced extremely low. It correlates well with a running back in the captain spot.
WR Jordan Addison ($7,000) While it’s tough to fade Justin Jefferson, there just might not be enough room for him if we squeeze both running backs in. Addison is a fair price and holds much more value than Nailor who is priced just below him.
WR Demarcus Robinson ($3,000) Priced just below Tyler Johnson, who led the Rams in receiving this past week. However, Robinson has been the Rams wide receiver who has logged the most snaps. He’s the best value on FantasyData’s NFL Optimizer of any player priced above $200.
If Puka Nacua does make his return tonight, replace Robinson with Colby Parkinson ($4,400).
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