We’re back for another NFL DFS Monday Night Football Playbook as we wrap up Week 9 of the 2026 NFL season. The Buffalo Bills head to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Vikings. This is going to be a matchup featuring one of the league’s best offenses against one of the premier defenses. The NFL Trade Deadline is approaching on Tuesday and both of these teams could make moves to improve their rosters as both organizations carry playoff aspirations.

But we have a one-game slate to research in order to close out the week with a little extra money in our DraftKings and FanDuel accounts. From top-to-bottom there are elite playmakers that can break this slate at the Captain position and with injuries for both teams, we’re going to see some value plays present themselves to us as we finalize our lineups. Let’s dive into the latest NFL DFS Monday Night Football Playbook to end Week 9 on a high note!

 

 

 

NFL DFS Monday Night Football Playbook; Bills vs. Vikings Game Preview

We get an interconference matchup for the latest NFL DFS Monday Night Football Playbook with the Buffalo Bills visiting the Minnesota Vikings. Could this be a potential Super Bowl preview? Sure, but the general consensus is that the Vikings offense has so much to figure out because they simply have not looked great with Kyler Murray under center. But while he nurses an injury and gears up for the latest Call of Duty release, Carson Wentz will look to provide a spark for this offense to avoid dropping their second straight game. The NFC North division is highly competitive this year and a loss would drop them into a tie for second with the Detroit Lions as the Chicago Bears would then assume control of the division.

The big matchup everyone is excited for is going to be how the Bills operate against Minnesota’s aggressive pass rush. It’s no secret that the Vikings blitz at absurd levels. They love putting pressure on the opposing team’s quarterback and forcing the offense to make quick decisions. Can they frustrate Josh Allen and Co. on Monday night? Can they continue to get sacks and force turnovers? Perhaps the biggest concern for Buffalo’s offense pertains to the status of two of their starting offensive linemen on the left side. I’ll detail that more in the next section, but we’ll need to keep an eye on inactives leading up to kickoff.

The NFL Trade Deadline is looming Tuesday and both teams could make some moves. The Vikings need help on offense whether they can somehow upgrade at quarterback or running back, but you don’t typically see big name quarterbacks on the move mid-season. The Bills could probably afford some help on defense. For as good as the Bills offense is at running up the score, the defense is allowing 25.9 points per game which is ninth worst in the NFL. But let’s dig in and start building out our winning NFL DFS lineups as we look at the latest MNF DFS picks featuring the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings!

 

 

 

Bills vs. Vikings Notable Injuries & Inactives

The visiting Buffalo Bills have once again ruled out Joshua Palmer for this matchup but the bigger injuries to monitor are on the left side of the offensive line. Left tackle Dion Dawkins is listed as questionable after not practicing all week and Alec Anderson is listed as questionable after only registering a limited practice session on Saturday. That doesn’t necessarily bode well going against a defense that blitzes 70% of the time.

The hometown Minnesota Vikings have ruled out three players on offense: Kyler Murray, Jauan Jennings, and Demond Claiborne. Carson Wentz gets the start at quarterback and some may be viewing this as an upgrade for the offense. Defensively, Theo Jackson and Jay Ward are both listed as questionable after being listed as limited participants in Saturday’s practice.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Showdown MVP/Captain for Monday Night Football, 11/9

Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills – DraftKings: $11,400 | FanDuel: $13,200

A lot will be made of the Minnesota Vikings defense and the constant blitz they’ll utilize to disrupt Buffalo’s offense. Josh Allen is an elite quarterback and a former MVP of the league. He’s talented enough to still reach his ceiling in this type of matchup. On the year he’s completing 62.9% of his pass attempts while being blitzed.

And as we touch on with almost every NFL DFS Showdown Playbook, quarterbacks that have rushing upside are ideal candidates for the Captain/MVP slot on DraftKings and FanDuel. Per DraftKings scoring, he already has four performances of 27+ fantasy points this season.

Among qualified quarterbacks he ranks first in EPA/play (0.35), eighth in completion percentage over expected (4.0%), and he’s seventh in scramble rate (8.0%) according to Sam Hoppen. That scramble rate is a good indicator of a quarterback with rushing upside and as fate would have it, Allen is on pace to become to the first quarterback in league history with 20+ passing touchdowns and 20+ rushing touchdowns.

James Cook, RB, Buffalo Bills – DraftKings: $10,400 | FanDuel: $11,800

Cook may not have the ceiling that Allen possesses. But he still has a great floor/ceiling combination with his overall volume, and he’s scored seven touchdowns in his last six games with a little usage in the passing game as well. Cook has seen 22+ touches in three straight performances and in five of his last six games.

On paper, the Vikings look good against opposing running backs. But just last week we saw a combination of Jahmyr Gibbs and Sione Vaki combine for 218 rushing yards against this defense and that kind of effective rushing attack does neutralize Minnesota’s blitz and constant pressure.

Cook also touts a top five breakaway-run rate (8.7%) and rush success rate (51%). He has some equity to get the 100-yard bonus on DraftKings so he is the perfect kind of running back to lock in as your Captain, but the presence of Josh Allen will always keep his production in check just a bit.

Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $9,800 | FanDuel: $11,400

So there are quite a few things working in Jefferson’s favor for the latest edition of our MNF DFS picks. For starters, Carson Wentz knows the importance of getting Jefferson the football saying “Just get him the rock… I want to get him the rock as much as anybody.” Back in Week 1, with Wentz under center, Jefferson caught eight-of-nine targets for 92 yards and a pair of touchdowns. That was the last time Jefferson went for over 80 receiving yards and he’s scored just twice since then.

Fortunately, the Bills aren’t great at defending the pass as they allow 254.7 passing yards per game (third-most in the NFL). Jefferson also gets 30.4% of Minnesota’s red zone targets and 22.1% of the targets overall. In seven games with Wentz as his quarterback, he averages 89.1 receiving yards per game according to Ian Hartitz, and that drops to 52 yards per game with Kyler Murray under center. It feels like this is a good spot for Jefferson to potentially find the end zone and possibly go for 100+ receiving yards in tonight’s matchup.

DJ Moore, WR, Buffalo Bills – DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $10,000

If I’m putting Josh Allen in this section because I believe he can still have a big game, then by default I should feel a bit optimistic about his pass catchers to play well in this game too. Moore’s had a frustrating season so far due to injuries. He’s left early in two games and missed two more. But in the three games he’s been healthy, he’s averaging 17.1 fantasy points per game in PPR formats. According to Graham Barfield, in those three games he also touts a 27% target share (WR11), 42% air yards share (WR8), 3.23 YPRR and 0.143 first downs per route run, both of which are top five at the position.

Minnesota has been tough against opposing pass catchers, but Josh Allen does like having a preferred WR1 and that appears to be Moore when he’s healthy. Given how popular Allen, Cook, and Jefferson will be at the Captain spot, we might get Moore at a bit of an ownership discount if most of the field is scared away by the matchup. But if Allen’s going to have a big game then you have to imagine he’s able to get the ball to Moore who could go off as well.

But to be objective and present arguments from both sides, only two receivers have gone for over 16 fantasy points against the Vikings this year. The first was Christian Watson who caught two touchdowns against them. The other was Jameson Williams and according to Tristan H. Cockroft of ESPN, Jamo is the only receiver to catch a ball against Minnesota that was thrown 20+ yards downfield.

 

 

 

Mid-Tier & DFS Value Plays for Monday

Carson Wentz, QB, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $9,000 | FanDuel: $10,800

If I have any reservations about Wentz it’s likely due to the fact that the passing volume in his previous two appearances this year was rather low. In Week 1, he attempted just 19 passes against the Green Bay Packers, who were not playing well to begin the season. And then in Week 2, in a game heavy influenced by sloppy weather, Wentz attempted just 20 passes.

I’m hoping that in a neutral or negative game script, Wentz is asked to throw more to keep pace with Buffalo so Minnesota can avoid dropping its second straight game. But for fantasy football purposes, Wentz can be serviceable. We’ve already touched on Buffalo’s struggles to defend the pass. And you have to imagine that a lot of that production is due to the fact most teams play from behind against Buffalo. For Minnesota, that could certainly be the case. It’s awfully hard to plug a guy like Wentz into the Captain/MVP spot but he works just as well as a Flex option especially if the narrative is to help Jefferson have a big game Monday night.

Jordan Addison, WR, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $6,800 | FanDuel: $7,200

I’m sure you savvy people may have recognized that I skipped over Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir and both will make the player pool below. But given how tough Minnesota has been against opposing pass catchers, I really only wanted to “take a risk” by highlighting Moore in the section above. It wouldn’t surprise me if both Kincaid and Shakir each saw at least six targets, but I just have a gut feeling they don’t have the ceiling Moore has tonight.

So I’ll skip right on down to Jordan Addison. Addison doesn’t possess the ceiling Jefferson has tonight especially since Wentz and the coaching staff really need to give Jefferson his “squeaky wheel” game. Addison’s been showcasing his floor more of late with four straight performances of 11+ fantasy points. But he’s a big play threat with a pair of 50+ yard catches already this year and he’s only found the end zone once. But the Bills allow the sixth-most passing touchdowns so there could be enough volume for both Jefferson and Addison to feast.

Aaron Jones, RB, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $7,000 | FanDuel: $8,200

Jordan Mason, RB, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $6,400 | FanDuel: $9,400

While I’m not overly optimistic about either running back tonight, their price points are certainly not prohibitive. And if you believe the Vikings are playing from behind this evening then you may want to lean more on Jones because he has the pass-catching role in this offense while Mason is the better pure overall rusher, even though he lacks efficiency.

But the issue is that if this game stays close, it’s possible the Vikings split this committee into three parts along with DeeJay Dallas who I’ll get to in the next section. According to Mike Clay of ESPN, Jones has not cleared 10 fantasy points this season when Mason has been active. And last week, with a three-headed backfield, none of them cleared 20+ snaps on offense.

But the good news is that this Buffalo defense can be beaten through the air as we’ve already discussed but also on the ground. They’re only allowing 97.4 rushing yards per game but they’ve allowed the third-most touchdowns and fantasy points to opposing running backs so you have to imagine that might play more to Jones’ strengths as a pass catcher in a trailing game script.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Dart Throw Bargains

Keon Coleman, WR, Buffalo Bills – DraftKings: $5,800 | FanDuel: $5,200

Coleman’s going to take a backseat to DJ Moore whenever the latter is healthy but that doesn’t mean Coleman can’t produce. In fact, while I don’t love many of the Buffalo pass catchers in this game, I do like Coleman but it’s mostly because of the price point. No matter the slate, I’ll always believe Coleman has a higher ceiling than Shakir. Shakir will see more short yardage targets to move the chains, but Coleman has the big play upside and more touchdown equity.

Now I will note that he’s recently been plagued with a shoulder injury and he was a limited participant in practice on Saturday. But for this matchup he doesn’t carry an injury designation and he’s a high upside tournament play.

If you’d prefer to go with T.J. Hockenson on the Minnesota side, I wouldn’t fault you. He’s found the end zone in back-to-back games and opposing tight ends against Buffalo average about nine targets per game, which is fourth-most in the NFL.

Minnesota Vikings DST – DraftKings: $3,800 | FanDuel: $6,400

I haven’t mentioned too many DST’s in my NFL DFS Showdown Playbooks this year because I try to highlight the skill position players with higher ceilings. But at the end of the day we are looking for points and production. I cover the NFL DFS DST Coach every week and I’m sure you’re all sick of me hyping this defense up ad nauseam.

But I can’t help that this is a DST that doesn’t simply sit back waiting to make a play. According to Sam Hoppen they rank first in blitz rate (70.6%), pressure rate (48.1%), and sack rate (10.6%). They’ve held their last six opponents to under 20 points and they have at least four sacks in all but two games this season, and they have a dozen takeaways on the season.

While I normally wouldn’t correlate them with too many Buffalo stacks, they can deliver points. And when you consider who is priced immediately below them (Ty Johnson, Dawson Knox, Ray Davis, Greg Dortch) do you feel better about those options possibly getting seven or eight fantasy points, or do you think Minnesota has a better chance of getting there?

Another way to get exposure to this DST is by playing Myles Price, who is the team’s kick/punt returner on special teams. He may also get to run a few additional routes since Jauan Jennings is inactive for this game.

Ty Johnson, RB, Buffalo Bills – DraftKings: $3,400 | FanDuel: $4,800

It’s hard to find a punt to get exposure to the Buffalo Bills but Ty Johnson is certainly worth mentioning. Ray Davis is a name to keep in mind in case he does find the end zone, but Johnson’s been involved in the passing game regardless of the game script. Johnson has recorded at least two receptions in each of Buffalo’s last five games, but he doesn’t have any touchdowns to show for it. There’s some potential here but we also have a lot of value available to us on the Minnesota side so Johnson may not see a ton of ownership. Both he and Davis should see an uptick in usage if this game is somehow a blowout in Buffalo’s favor.

DeeJay Dallas, RB, Minnesota Vikings – DraftKings: $1,400 | FanDuel: $2,600

It’s not pretty, but it never is when you’re talking about the NFL DFS Dart Throw Bargains section. But as I alluded to in the Jones/Mason section, the Vikings mostly utilized a three-man rotation for the backfield last week. It may not have seemed like it because Dallas had just one carry for four yards. However, he was on the field for 17 snaps which is more than Jordan Mason, who saw 15. And the important thing for Dallas was that he saw the field for a lot of passing situations, but he just didn’t get anything to come his way.

Now if you need a $200 true punt for this game, then take a shot or two on Odell Beckham. The Vikings are a little short-handed for this game since Jauan Jennings will be ruled out. And while I do like Tai Felton and Myles Price at their price points, it’s hard to beat a $200 price tag for a veteran like Beckham, who was signed to the active roster over the weekend.

 

 

 

Bills vs. Vikings DFS Player Pool, 11/9

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