Thursday Night Football DFS Showdown Analysis: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles

Daniel Jones and the New York Giants visit a banged-up Philadelphia Eagles unit led by Carson Wentz in a division game with a total of 45. For a breakdown of this matchup, check out Rich Hribar’s Fantasy Football Worksheet. Here are my thoughts for Showdown:

With both offenses injury riddled and under performing, we’re left with an ugly slate and plenty of uncertainty. Darius Slayton has been the only good receiving option for the Giants this year, but he is banged up. If he has a full go, he should still be very popular because he seems like the only high ceiling receiving option. Sterling Shepard is set to return but I expect him to play reduced snaps. Evan Engram has been unimpressive so far but has a nice matchup against an Eagles secondary who has given up spike weeks to multiple TEs so far.

He has been terrible to start the season and will likely need a big rushing performance to pay off, which the Eagles have been susceptible to. Devonta Freeman is the only Giant I feel good about, as he is dominating the touches and goal line work. Dion Lewis gets some passing down work and is a cheap punt option.

Although Wentz has been mediocre in real life, he has gotten the job done for us in fantasy via increased scrambling. He is passing to mostly backups at this point, but DeSean Jackson is set to return for this one. He’s not projecting for many points because he may not run a full allotment of snaps, but he still possesses huge upside as a deep threat and should boost their overall offensive potential. Travis Fulgham has become a fantasy stud in recent weeks, but Greg Ward has a great matchup in the slot where the Giants have been weak.

Richard Rodgers will be the main guy at TE for tonight with Jason Croom behind him. Neither guy is exciting but both are viable one offs or stack options. My favorite player on the slate is Boston Scott who projects to lead the backfield for Philadelphia with Miles Sanders missing time. Scott excelled last season as a starter in both games against the Giants, and should get decent volume. Corey Clement will work in behind him, projected for around a third of the total RB work. I don’t think he will be popular, and if he ends up with a TD at Scott’s expense it could make a huge difference on this slate.

For lineup construction, this is a good slate to keep plenty of salary on the table since there are so many value options and the field will go stars and scrubs. Jones seems overpriced and if his ownership approaches that of an average QB, I’ll be very underweight.

There are significant differences between the salaries of Scott and Clement on DK and FD. It looks like FD decided to leave them priced as backups in spite of Sanders being ruled out. They will be chalk on FD, especially Scott, but you can find ways of differentiating such as using them at MVP.

(Updated) Ownership:

Jones is projected as the second or third most popular choice, depending on your source. With how bad he’s been, I don’t hate the idea of going well underweight on him if he’s going to be so highly owned (12-13% CPT, 49-60% overall).
My favorite lower owned CPTs are Jackson, Clement, Ward and Tate.
With Jackson and Shepard returning from injury, the depth options Mack and Hightower will likely go lower owned than they would have otherwise. They still project as strong values and if the returning players split some snaps, there will be opportunities for these ancillary receivers to pay off big.
I’m seeing very different projected ownership for the DSTs, but either way I’ll go overweight as usual. The QB play from each team has been rough. I especially like the Eagles due to Jones’ turnover woes, but they will be the more popular option and the Giants have been a solid unit.

DK Values: