We wrap up the Week 6 action on Sunday with a battle for New York. The New York Giants head upstate to Buffalo for a duel on Sunday Night Football and while this game is shaping up to be an absolute beating, we still indulge in the Showdown slate to build the bankroll or try to hit big with the right game script. With both teams trending in opposite directions, and the fact that primetime games have been weak this year, I’m not quite sure what to make of this matchup. The Buffalo Bills still have the same old upside on offense as we’ve seen the last few years. But defensively they’ve lost Tre’Davious White, Matt Milano, and Daquan Jones in the last couple weeks. The Giants are beat up as well with Daniel Jones declared out and Saquon Barkley questionable for this matchup, and they’ll still be without Andrew Thomas. Let’s dig into Sunday night’s matchup to see how we should construct our NFL DFS Showdown lineups.

 

New York Giants at Buffalo Bills

Spread: Buffalo Bills (-15)

Over/Under: 44 points

Weather: Temperatures will be in the low-50’s, high-40’s with a slight chance of rain. Winds will be moderate between 10-15mph.

Notable Injuries

New York Giants

Buffalo Bills

Note: Matt Milano and DaQuan Jones are also OUT for Buffalo. They don’t appear on the injury report because they were placed on IR.

NFL DFS MVP/Captain

Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills

Josh Allen is a special talent in the NFL. He’s easily one of the premiere quarterbacks in the league and has the kind of passing and rushing volume we like to target on Showdown slates. He’s scored a touchdown on the ground in three straight games, with 30+ points on DraftKings over his last two. The “fantasy” numbers for quarterbacks against the Giants are somewhat misleading. Only one quarterback has popped for more than 25 points against them, but a couple have thrown for 300+ yards. But mind you, the Giants have largely had just one competitive game and that was in their rousing comeback against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2. At a certain point, most teams have just taken their foot off the gas pedal. Could that happen tonight? Absolutely, did you see the spread? Allen can still pick apart and embarrass this defense, so I don’t know how much statistical analysis is needed when we know how good Allen is and how bad the Giants are.

Stefon Diggs, WR, Buffalo Bills

In relatively unsurprising news, Josh Allen’s top pass-catching option is a clear Captain candidate. Similar to Allen, there are concerns that there could be a cap on Diggs’ production. Against the Dolphins last week, the Giants secondary allowed 281 receiving yards to opposing wide receivers and two touchdowns. And they did it all on 19 receptions. Prior to that, no wide receiver group had put up more than 11 receptions against the Giants. So a big enough lead could see the Bills ease up and just run the ball to kill the clock. Remember, Brian Daboll is well respected in Buffalo and I don’t think the Bills want to necessarily go out and embarrass their former offensive coordinator. But Diggs has five touchdowns in as many games with four 100-yard performances on the year already. The other downside to loading up on Diggs/Allen stacks is that it’ll cost you 60% of your budget on DraftKings so you need to get creative with those last four pieces.

Gabe Davis, WR, Buffalo Bills

Davis offers a more manageable price tag compared to Diggs while both have touchdown equity. Davis has found the end zone in four straight games and he hit the 100-yard bonus last week for the first time this season. The Giants played a lot of press coverage last week against the Miami Dolphins and it didn’t go particularly well to the tune of over 280 receiving yards allowed to wide receivers. I’m curious if they try that experiment or if they opt back to playing heavy man coverage. If it’s man coverage, Davis could feast. He hasn’t seen a ton of man coverage but in a small sample size he is averaging over 20 yards per catch against said coverage scheme. The $4,000+ in savings from Diggs is a nice bonus when Davis has been playing like a top 15 option at the position. Through five games, Davis is top 20 in first downs and catch rate while being in the top ten in touchdowns, yards per target, and yards per reception.

Buffalo Bills D/ST

If you know anything about me, you’ll know how uncomfortable this recommendation makes me. What’s even more ridiculous is that this play costs you nearly 20% of your budget at Captain. And at the end of the day this is a position of variance. But the Giants offense is horrendous and Tyrod Taylor will have to start. I’m sure Taylor can manage the game just fine, but I still think we should at least consider the Bills defense in this spot. Four D/ST’s have put up double-digit fantasy points against the Giants. The Cowboys broke the slate with 35 points in primetime back in Week 1 and even the Seahawks put up 29 fantasy points against this offense. The Giants offensive line is without Andrew Thomas and Evan Neal is showing signs of being a bust. Through five games, the Giants have already allowed 30 sacks. This is a very expensive price for a D/ST and they will be heavily owned. It’s such a donkey move to play a D/ST at Captain, but this is one of the few times where I’ll concede that can work. Here is the one caveat I feel inclined to mention: the Bills D/ST is very beat up. They lost Tre’Davious White for the season. Matt Milano and Daquan Jones have been placed on IR. Dane Jackson didn’t practice Wednesday and Thursday and Greg Rousseau was limited at times as well. I’m mostly listing the Bills D/ST in this section because the Giants are in such rough shape on the offensive side of the ball. But there’s no denying the Bills have taken their licks with personnel going down.

Mid-Tier & DFS Value Plays

Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants

Barkley is an okay option at Captain. He will certainly get volume if he’s active and as of this writing, he’s been logging first-team reps in practice all week. The last time we saw Barkley was in Week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals where he scored a pair of touchdowns. The ankle seems to have healed and he gets an interesting opportunity against the Buffalo Bills. Over their last two games, the Bills have allowed 254 rushing yards and four touchdowns to opposing running backs. Travis Etienne had no issue running on this battered defense last week in London. Barkley certainly has a chance to touch the ball over 20 times and he leads all running backs in red zone snap share. So if the Giants can move the ball, which they can do with Barkley on the field, then he should score well. But while he did practice earlier in the week he is still a gametime decision. If Barkley doesn’t suit up for this game, Matt Breida emerges as a nice value play at $5,800. 

Tyrod Taylor, QB, New York Giants

Update: I initially wrote up this section highlighting both Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor. Daniel Jones has been declared OUT, so Taylor gets the nod. I’m not excited to play either quarterback, no matter who starts for the Giants Sunday night. This passing game has been ugly to watch. Daniel Jones is questionable with a neck injury and given the investment the Bills made in him, you don’t think they’ll be running the risk with that one. So if Taylor gets the start, I guess you could say there’s a bit of a revenge game narrative here even though Taylor last played in Buffalo in 2017. But whoever starts will play behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league and they would be wise to utilize Saquon Barkley as much as possible.

James Cook, RB, Buffalo Bills

Cook was a dud last week against Jacksonville. Most of the offense just looked flat last week in London. But this is a nice bounce back spot for him. The Giants have surrendered 100+ rushing yards on the ground to opposing running backs in each of their first five games while also allowing seven touchdowns. Miami and their explosive rushing attack went for over 200 yards last week. The only thing keeping me from heavy exposure to “Captain Cook” is that he’s only put up over 15 fantasy points on one occasion. But the matchup is great. He likely needs the 100-yard bonus and a touchdown to be optimal at Captain and this is a positive game script for him. He’s a solid play on paper almost every week. We just need to see it translate on the field.

Darren Waller, TE, New York Giants

He’s yet to find the end zone this season and it’s hard to imagine his first one comes this week. But Waller is coming off a game where he had eight receptions on 11 targets. He is dealing with a groin injury, so his status is definitely worth monitoring ahead of Sunday’s slate. Through the first four games of the season, Waller had just a 20% first-read rate with this offense but that jumped to 42% last week against the Miami Dolphins. He had a 37% target share and 57% air yardage share. So that’s the kind of chemistry you like to see with a quarterback. But we likely downgrade Waller depending on the status of Daniel Jones. The Bills have been very tough on opposing tight ends. No tight end has found the end zone this season nor have they put up 50+ receiving yards.

Darius Slayton, WR, New York Giants

I’m skipping over Isaiah Hodgins simply because I don’t love the price at $6,200 on DraftKings. He didn’t run a ton of routes last week and you can get similar production from cheaper wide receivers on the Giants. On 43 quarterback dropbacks in Week 5, Slayton led all wide receivers for the Giants with 34 routes. Unfortunately, timing is a key aspect in the NFL. The Giants offensive live makes it difficult for plays to develop and opposing defenses disrupt the offense rather quickly. Slayton is more of a deeper threat which will always give him appeal, especially on Showdown slates. But when you look at his output you naturally get a little concerned. But he stays on the field and is worth the $1,000 savings from Hodgins.

Wan’Dale Robinson, WR, New York Giants

Robinson is currently questionable with a knee injury and he’s been limited throughout the week. It could be just standard rest and workload management since he’s coming off a torn ACL. In a small sample size he does have 14 receptions on 17 targets in three games. He’s not really getting targeted deep but in a full PPR format like DraftKings I’m fine with volume. Robinson ran 24 routes last week which was more than Isaiah Hodgins, Parris Campbell, and Sterling Shepard. The increase in snap share and consistent targets will likely mean I land on Robinson the most among all Giants wideouts. He’s definitely a longshot to find the end zone and the $4,600 price tag isn’t great given the production. But Robinson is arguably the most talented receiver the Giants have on their roster.

Dalton Kincaid/Dawson Knox, TE, Buffalo Bills

I’m going to list both together. The Bills wanted to run more 12 personnel with two-tight end sets and that’s been the case so far. We’re still waiting on the Dalton Kincaid breakout game considering the Bills traded up to draft him and the kid is an athletic freak. But he’s questionable to play with a concussion. On the other side we have Dawson Knox, who is also battling a wrist injury. If Kincaid doesn’t clear the concussion protocol, then that’s a huge benefit to Knox who likely won’t come off the field. The Giants have surrendered at least 60 receiving yards to opposing tight ends in three of five games this year. They were notoriously awful against the tight end position last year so there is some production to target for both players.

Kickers

The opinion on kickers in this matchup is the same as most weeks. Tyler Bass is the preferred target and I wouldn’t rule out playing the Bills D/ST and Bass together in some lineups. In three of five games this year he’s put up 13+ fantasy points. Strangely enough, volume just wasn’t a luxury for him last week as the Bills just couldn’t get some drives into the red zone. The Giants have allowed four of five opposing kickers to put up at least eight fantasy points. The matchup is clearly tougher for Graham Gano. The Buffalo Bills have allowed a total of 18 fantasy points to opposing kickers in their last four games. Gano has been hit-or-miss this year. Take away New York’s comeback against Arizona four weeks ago and Gano has just one extra point attempt. Fortunately, he could see multiple opportunities if the Giants can move the ball against a weaker Buffalo defense. There’s variance to both but I’m fine getting exposure to both kickers in this game.

NFL DFS Dart Throw Bargains

Latavius Murray and Damien Harris, RB, Buffalo Bills

It’s a good slate to just lump similar players together. We did it for the Giants quarterbacks, the Bills tight ends, and now we’ll do it for two guys you just hope fall into the end zone with the football. Neither Murray nor Harris will see much volume. Cook is likely in line for 15+ touches. But later in the game if the Bills are trying to just eat up the clock, these two may get some work. I’m a little more bias to Murray because I think the Bills prefer using him in short yardage, and goal line situations, plus he has more involvement in the passing game than Harris.

Jalin Hyatt, WR, New York Giants

Remember earlier when I said Darius Slayton ran a route on 34 of 43 drop backs in Week 5? Well Hyatt was second on the team with 26 routes. The kid is incredibly fast, but the Giants just don’t have anyone that can properly get him the ball. Despite all the routes last week he garnered zero targets. In fact, he only has five targets all year. But this is the bargain bin and we should be encouraged by the increase in snaps. He’s only $1,200 on this slate so he’s plenty affordable. I’m not opposed to playing Parris Campbell, but in general, I don’t think he’s very good and I think he’s fallen out of favor with the coaching staff given the snap share trends for Hyatt and Robinson.

Deonte Harty, WR, Buffalo Bills

Harty is easily the top play under $1,000 on DraftKings. He has at least two receptions in every game this season and while we may scoff at that, when a player is $600 for a Showdown slate and they’re getting a pair of catches you can deal with that and hope they can get you at least four fantasy points. Let the studs you spend up for get all the other points. Harty also gets work in the return game so we have a chance to double dip here and he may just correlate well with the Bills D/ST. Khalil Shakir is worth some consideration for $200 more. He is coming off a week where he had a 32% snap share.