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 12.
Jared Goff + Amon-Ra St. Brown + Jameson Williams
With the Lions losing Sam LaPorta for the season, all of a sudden they’ve become a fairly concentrated passing offense. Their top two receivers combined for roughly 50% of Goff’s targets last week in a negative game script against the Eagles, with Williams having his best game of the season. Goff’s inaccuracy outside in Philadelphia limited the overall production of the stack, but they have a much better situation this week.
They’re back home in the climate-controlled confines of Ford Field this week, taking on the Giants and their 28th-ranked defense. They’re also coming off an ugly loss in which the offense was a let down — which historically has motivated Dan Campbell to run up the score. Detroit is averaging 40 points when coming off a loss this season, despite none of those games being particularly close.
Following consecutive weeks of triple stacks winning big contests, you could also include running back Jahmyr Gibbs in this stack, as he caught five passes for over 100 yards last week. Or you could let SimLabs work him in (or not) to some of the lineups built around the other three Lions. Both Goff and St. Brown lead their position in the Optimal vs. Projected Ownership metric on SimLabs, so the computer is as bullish on them as I am.
Jacoby Brissett + Trey McBride + Michael Wilson
If it’s not broken, why fix it? This stack (plus Greg Dortch) won somebody a million dollars last week, as Brissett attempted a ridiculous 57 passes against the 49ers. While he probably won’t get quite that high again, he’s still just $5,300 in a broadly similar matchup against the Jaguars.
Jacksonville is particularly vulnerable to tight ends, ranking 31st in points allowed to the position. That’s great news for both McBride and Brissett, since Brissett also benefits from points scored by McBride. The Jags rank 27th against QBs anyway, so it’s a very winnable matchup on that front. With Marvin Harrison out for another week, Wilson will again be the team’s top wide receiver and is still underpriced at $4,800.
Plus, the Cardinals have been one of the highest Pass Rate Over Expectation (PROE) teams in the league since Brissett took over and should have a perfect game script as slight underdogs at home. If SimLabs wanted to turn this into another triple stack (with Greg Dortch or anyone else), that’s also a solid option, but I don’t want to lock that build in.
Drake Maye + Treyveyon Henderson + Tee Higgins
The best offense in the NFL remains “whoever is playing the Bengals,” so the foundation of this block is attempting to capture as much of the Patriots’ production as cheaply as possible. By pairing their QB with their RB1, it theoretically locks in the bulk of their touchdowns against the league’s worst defense.
On the other side, I’ll only be including Higgins if Joe Burrow indeed returns this week. Ja’Marr Chase is suspended, and Burrow has historically been fairly locked in to Higgins + Chase, so with half of that equation missing, Higgins should see a massive target share against a pass-funnel defense. Burrow could be a true game-time decision, so keep an eye out for the news on Sunday morning.
If Burrow misses, Chase Brown is a solid alternate option. He’s drawn 22 targets over the past two games from backup QB Joe Flacco, and a trailing game script against the Patriots should keep him in that range. Brown is projecting for high ownership but still leads all backs in Optimal vs. Projected ownership — plus I would guess the majority of the field doesn’t play opposing running backs in the same lineup.
This one is probably better suited for smaller-field/limited entry contests, so I’ll be using the SimLabs settings to adjust for that and build a handful of lineups around this block for single entry/3-max play.
Pictured: Trey McBride
Photo Credit: Imagn
