This season marks the third year of our SimLabs tool being available to the public. It’s a powerful feature that allows casual players to build competitive lineups effortlessly — or serious players to leverage their convictions more effectively. We’ve also added the feature of being able to export lineups from SimLabs directly to our models for easy tweaking of lineups.
I broke down some general uses of the tool from an evergreen perspective last season. Moving forward, we’ll be checking out some suggested starting points for building lineups.
The process is simple: from the SimLabs home screen, first select the field size and desired range of outcomes for your lineups. The field size depends on the contest type, while the “results range” allows you to customize how unique you want your lineups to be.
Then, find the box titled “include players” and type your preferred options — then sit back and let the sims do their thing. You can generate as many or as few lineups as you want, then upload directly to DraftKings to be entered into contests.
For more on what SimLabs is and how it works, check out our user guide.
Let’s check out some potential starting points in Week 5.
Kalif Raymond + Lions Defense
This one is a little out there but potentially has a chance to break the slate. That’s because Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond is also their primary kick/punt returner — and he’s a two-time all-pro as a returner.
The logic is straightforward: a return touchdown from Raymond would count as both a touchdown for him and the Lions defense, making them massively correlated. Raymond also has a reasonable role on offense as the Lions’ WR3, averaging a few targets per game.
More importantly, Detroit’s defense is an excellent play in their own right. I highlighted them as one of the top two defenses in my line play article, and they’re a top-five option in the SimLabs Optimal-Projected Ownership metric. They’ve recorded 14 sacks and six turnovers across their last three games, plus the Raymond return touchdown.
Plus, they’re facing Jake Browning and the Bengals. Browning has taken seven sacks and thrown five interceptions in his less than three games as a starter. Detroit’s defense is somewhat expensive at $3,500, but the savings from Raymond at $3,300 make the combined stack cheap, while still allowing SimLabs to include primary team/game stacks from another offense.
Daniel Jones + Adonai Mitchell
Daniel Jones is projected as the second-most popular QB this weekend behind Justin Herbert, which makes sense because the Colts’ 27-point team total trails only the Lions, while the Colts have a much higher Pass Rate Over Expectation (PROE) than the Lions, so more of their points should come through the air.
Plus, the field is anticipating a fairly concentrated offensive attack, with Colts #3 wide receiver Alec Pierce out this week. Pierce has been the Colts’ primary deep threat, averaging just over four targets per game but with a massive 18.6-yard average depth of target (aDOT). His absence has led to strong projections and likely ownership of Michael Pittman and, to an extent, Josh Downs, based on the assumption that the leftover targets get redistributed upward.
However, Adonai Mitchell is the more direct replacement for Pierce. His 17.8 aDOT is similar to Pierce’s, and he was in for 88% of the Colts’ snaps last week with Pierce going down. Prior to that, he hadn’t topped a 40% or so snap share. Mitchell turned four targets in Week 4 into three catches for 96 yards and would’ve more than 5x’d his salary if he had hit the 100-yard mark.
Plus, by locking these two players in SimLabs, the sims have the freedom to include Pittman, or tight end Tyler Warren, or even Jonathan Taylor as part of the Colts stacks, while reducing the combined ownership massively thanks to Mitchell.
Justin Fields + Breece Hall
I’ll preface this section by saying I’m primarily using this roster block in smaller fields and single/three-entry contests. The Jets’ backfield stack is pretty unlikely to win something like the Milly Maker but could very easily make it to the top of tighter contests.
New York has averaged roughly 27 points in the two games Fields has started and finished, with one of those coming against a tough Steelers defense. This week they face the Cowboys, who have allowed the second-most points per game in the NFL this season, at a whopping 33.
On top of that, Braelon Allen is facing an extended absence for the Jets. That means Hall should inch closer to a workhorse role, although he’ll still probably cede some looks to Isaiah Davis. Still, by rostering the Jets QB and main RB, we have a reasonable shot at getting exposure to all of their touchdowns and most of their offensive yardage, at a combined price of $11,200 against possibly the worst defense in the league.
This is another spot where allowing SimLabs the freedom to play with various builds around these two also works out well. For example, setting the contest field selector to “large field” might produce more builds with a Jets pass catcher paired with Fields or a Cowboys bring back, while single-entry builds might lead to a more “optimized” build around the highest projected options.
Pictured: Breece Hall
Photo Credit: Imagn
