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 10.
Josh Allen + Jaylen Waddle OR De’Von Achane
Josh Allen will likely be fairly popular this week, and he’s projecting well thanks to his rock-solid median projection. Nobody wins tournaments with median scores, however, so if building around Allen, it’s important to think about what would have to happen for one of his patented ceiling games.
Typically those only come when the Bills are pushed by the opposing team. That usually means somebody (or somebodies) from the other team has a big game. The good news is Miami really only has two relevant skill players — Waddle and Achane.
I’d be shocked to see Allen in the GPP-winning lineup without one of those two busting a few big plays and forcing the Bills to keep the ball in his hands. While both Allen and Achance are projecting for fairly high ownership, Waddle is coming in at less than 5%.
That makes the Waddle pairing my preferred option for large-field GPPs, while Achane is the better option for tighter builds. Fortunately, SimLabs allows you to select the contest size you’re building for — so I’ll be running both versions of this block with those settings set as needed.
Drake Maye + Emeka Egbuka
One of the many games with similar totals this week is Patriots/Bucs — which also is the only game that has a spread within a field goal and a total over 40. That makes it a somewhat obvious but potentially overlooked game to stack this week, as the best DFS games are typically close affairs with both teams continuing to attack down the stretch.
It’s also a fairly easy one to build around for DFS. Drake Maye’s closest player comp is Josh Allen, and he does enough with his legs that he doesn’t necessarily need to be stacked with one of his pass catchers — though SimLabs certainly will include them in some of these builds.
On the Bucs side, Emeka Egbuka is the last man standing in their wide receiver room, so will be the focal point of the offense if Tampa Bay needs to attack downfield. While Egbuka will be somewhat popular, Maye likely won’t be, making this a reasonably contrarian “stack.”
Caleb Williams + Wan’Dale Robinson
With both the Bengals and the Cowboys off the Week 10 main slate, the two easiest defenses to attack aren’t available. However, the game between the Bears and the Giants gives us two bottom-six units by DVOA in the same game.
I’m not entirely confident in how to attack this one. On the one hand, the Giants are easier to beat on the ground, but Chicago could have a split backfield after Kyle Monangai broke out last week, but De’Andre Swift is returning this week.
It’s a bit easier on the Giants side, though. Robinson has 25 more targets than any Giant on the season, New York is an underdog, and the Bears are (slightly) worse against the pass and the run. If this one does turn into a shootout, it’s highly likely he has a hand in it.
For that reason, I might look for some lineups built around “Bears running back” and Robinson, while letting SimLabs fill in the details.
Pictured: Caleb Williams
Photo Credit: Imagn
