Week 5 of the NFL season is here and there is no better time to dip your toes into the DFS waters than with tonight’s NFL DFS Thursday Night Football Showdown slate featuring Matt Ryan, Michael Pittman and the Colts against Russell Wilson, Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy and the Broncos. with their featured NFL Thursday Million contest which costs $9 to enter and pays out $200,000 to first place! Make sure to use our NFL DFS Lineup Generator and NFL DFS Player Projections when building your lineups tonight!

Check out the complete NFL DFS Thursday Night Showdown Playbook for your top plays, values, dart throws and fades from Howard Bender!

 

When it comes to building your Showdown DFS lineups a big part of the puzzle is getting the MVP player correct. With FanDuel the MVP slot earns 1.5x the points as the general flex positions, meaning they scoring is worth more. Check out my top MVP plays for Thursday’s Showdown slate between the Dolphins and Bengals.

MVP (1.5X Points)

Denver Broncos D/ST - $10,000

Sure, the Denver defense didn't look great last week against the Raiders in Las Vegas but prior to that game they hadn't allowed an opponent to score more than 17 points in a game this season. The Colts being without Jonathan Taylor tonight will force Matt Ryan to throw a ton in this game and that is not something I am expecting to be an overly successful venture given the Broncos secondary and pass rush. The Broncos have allowed the fifth fewest total yards and only three total touchdowns through the first four weeks of the season.

Melvin Gordon RB - $12,500

With Javonte Williams out the Broncos will lean on Melvin Gordon to be their lead running back. The Broncos offense has been out of whack for most of this season but with Williams out there should be a bit more consistency with who will be carrying the football in this game. Last week we saw Derrick Henry run all over this Colts defense and linebacker Shaq Leonard has already been ruled out for tonight which is a big blow to Indy.

Russell Wilson QB - $16,500

The Colts defense ranks 27th in DVOA against the pass despite the fact that they do have a pretty good group of corners. The Broncos passing attack has not looked very good but last week we did get a few touchdowns out of Wilson. If Melvin Gordon's struggles continue we may see the Broncos let Wilson air it out in an effort to get the win here on Thursday night.

Brandon McManus K - $9,000

Any time we have a game in Denver the kickers have to be in play. Brandon McManus has already attempted 10 field goals through four weeks, hitting eight of them. He has hit two 50+ yard field goals already this season as well. The Broncos have only scored six touchdowns on offense this season leading to plenty of field goal tries. If McManus knocks home two 50-yarders tonight in your captain spot he could be competing for the highest scoring player on the board.

Phillip Lindsay RB - $7,500

Who doesn't love a good revenge game narrative? Lindsay has been on the Colts practice squad all season so it's not as if he was pulled off the street here. Broncos defense ranks 20th in DVOA against the run this year and we just saw Josh Jacobs tear them apart in Week 4. While everyone is grabbing themselves shares of Nyheim Hines and Deon Jackson, Linsday is the darkhorse play tonight.

Mo Allie-Cox TE - $8,000

The Broncos have had some trouble against opposing tight ends this season and Cox is coming off his best game of the year where he caught six passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns. I don't love the Colts passing attack tonight but with Jonathan Taylor out we should expect Matt Ryan to be dropping back more than usual and therefore a potential for more targets going to Cox here tonight.

Be sure to check out the rest of the NFL DFS Coaches and DFS Watch List throughout the week!

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