The Showdown for Monday Night Football in Week 1 features the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Las Vegas Raiders. My thoughts for Showdown are below, and be sure to check out Rich Hribar’s Fantasy Football Worksheet for a full breakdown of Baltimore at Las Vegas.

Strategy:

With the Ravens as 4.5-point favorites, I expect the prevalent strategy to be 4-2 Ravens builds and Lamar Jackson to be the most rostered player. He is one of the few QBs who can be used without stacking, but I would at least boost his WR/TE. To greatly reduce duplicates, you can simply stack him with two or more pass catchers. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to me if the ravens tilted more pass-heavy with their top 3 RBs all injured. Much of Jackson’s production comes at the expense of his RBs and he tends not to pass to them much, so consider negatively boosting Jackson and his RBs in a group. I really like Ty’son Williams for this slate and Latavius Murray is also worth a look.

Derek Carr has shown a high ceiling and is capable of supporting multiple pass-catchers in the right game-script. Stacking CPT Carr with two or more WR/TE makes sense, though it is tough to know where the RB targets will go. Darren Waller has been his favorite target and projects as the second most popular player. Now without their top WR from last season, there is uncertainty regarding how the target share will shake out which gives us an opportunity to take stands and potentially capitalize. An important injury situation to monitor is the status of Josh Jacobs, who was recently listed as questionable due to illness in addition to a minor injury. If he is ruled out or limited then Kenyan Drake is an awesome play and Peyton Barber becomes a viable cheap option.

My favorite fade is Jacobs, who I won’t play at all even if he starts. I want to stay under or equal to the field on the most popular LV pass catchers, Waller and Henry Ruggs III. For leverage I’ll go overweight on the others in that receiving corps, namely Bryan Edwards and Hunter Renfrow. I like Marquise Brown when comparing his salary and projections to Mark Andrews. Mixing in any WR3 or TE2, especially Ravens, will help differentiate your lineups. Lastly, Waller is projected to be more popular than Carr, but I’d prefer the QB due to expected ownership, salary, and projection.

DK Values:

  • Hunter Renfrow ($2,800)
  • Henry Ruggs III ($5,000) 
  • Josh Oliver ($200) – Dart throw TE2 with decent projection

DK Leverage:

  • Sammy Watkins ($5,200) – At best 3rd option on a low volume pass team
  • Any WR3/4

DK Build Guide:

  • Max 1 DST, Max 1 K
  • If CPT RB, negative boost opposing DST/K
  • If CPT Carr, stack 2+ WR/TE
  • If CPT Jackson, boost WR/TE group, negative boost RBs
  • If CPT WR/TE, force at least 1 QB, boost team QB
  • If using DST, negative boost opposing QB/RB/K
  • Negative boost same-team RBs, especially if one is CPT
  • Leave salary on the table, especially with chalky CPTs
  • Cumulative ownership under 250%
  • Use ownership product to reduce duplicates

FD Values:

  • Marquise Brown ($10,000)
  • Daniel Carlson ($8,500)
  • Bryan Edwards ($7,000)

FD Leverage:

  • Any WR2/3/4
  • Kenyan Drake ($8,500) or Latavius Murray ($8,000) – Overpriced RB2s with uncertain workloads.

FD Build Guide:

  • No K MVP
  • Focus on 3-2 build construction (3 Bears for leverage)
  • Max 1 QB (wins nearly 3x as often)
  • If WR CPT, boost QB
  • Leave salary on the table, especially with chalky MVPs
  • Include more dart-throws when mass entering large-field MME