In Sunday night’s Showdown, the Pittsburgh Steelers visit the Los Angeles Chargers. For a breakdown of this game, check out Rich Hribar’s Fantasy Football Worksheet.

The Chargers are currently near 6.5-point favorites and are projecting better overall on DK. The top three projected players are all Chargers, and most of the best value plays as well. Ben Roethlisberger has been cleared to play, but Pittsburgh’s offensive projections did not improve.

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Strategy

Even though the spread is under a touchdown, I’m seeing the largest discrepancy of the season for expected 5–1 onslaught builds; Chargers onslaughts way up at 24% and Steelers under 1%. Additionally, lineups with four Steelers are expected to be used under 5% of the time and even 3–3 builds are under 24%. My preferred strategy for differentiation would be to focus on these lower-used builds (three or more Steelers) and use little to none featuring four or more Chargers.

again we have plenty of leverage focusing on underdogs, though even more than expected. As for individual players, Austin Ekeler (13–17%), Keenan Allen (14–16%) and Justin Herbert (10–15%) look to be the most popular CPTs, with each expected to exceed 58% total rostership. This leaves plenty of great high-upside leverage options to go over the field with, including Diontae Johnson, Mike Williams, Chase Claypool, and Najee Harris.

DK Values

  • Keenan Allen ($9400) – Not cheap but the best points-per-dollar play, slightly ahead of Austin Ekeler
  • Joshua Palmer ($1600)

DK Leverage

  • Eric Ebron ($3200) 
  • Jalen Guyton ($2000) – Both of these players have terrible projections compared to their salary

DK Build Ideas

  • Max 1 DST, Max 1 K
  • Max 2 depth WR/TE/RB
  • Negative boost same team RBs
  • If CPT QB, include one depth option in stack 
  • If CPT RB, negative boost opposing DST/K
  • If CPT WR/TE boost team QB and force at least 1 QB (either team)
  • Focus on builds with 3+ Steelers for differentiation
  • Cumulative ownership under 250%
  • Leave salary unspent 

FD Values

  • James Washington ($7500)
  • Ray-Ray McLoud III ($7000)

FD Leverage

  • Anyone $6500 or less

FD Build Ideas

  • No K or TE at MVP
  • Focus on 3-2 build construction
  • No solo CPT in 1-4 construction
  • Negative boost opposing QBs (Lineups with both only win 30%)
  • If WR CPT, boost QB
  • QB is overused but RB and WR are underutilized at MVP
  • Don’t stack 3 pass catchers from the same team
  • Don’t force the max salary

For more optimizer build rules to consider, check out the list for each DK and FD here.