This season marks year four 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.
Tyler Shough + Chris Olave + Chuba Hubbard
Despite two games with higher totals, my favorite game of the week for DFS is Panthers-Saints. I discussed much of the logic as to why in my Trenches Report earlier this week, which has this as an elite matchup for the Saints’ passing game and the Panthers’ run game. That’s especially important for a receiver like Olave, whose deep aDOT means plays to him take longer to develop.
If Olave is hitting, that probably means Shough is also having a solid game relative to his modest price tag. Pairing them with Hubbard runs slightly counter to the spread, which has the Saints favored, but with it currently less than a field goal, it’s not a major concern.
Shough is the top QB in optimal-projected ownership score on SimLabs, with Olave leading the metric at WR and Hubbard second at RB. The nice thing about running this block through SimLabs as opposed to hand-building is the ability for the Sims to mix in another player from either team, as there’s a good chance somebody else comes along for the ride. Or, you could check out our new Portfolio Sim tool, which produces lineups based on the overall correlation across rosters.
Dak Prescott + CeeDee Lamb + George Kittle or Christian McCaffrey
The more obvious top game on the slate is 49ers-Cowboys, which features a 55.5-point total. That’s the highest I can remember seeing this season, and the 4.5-point spread suggests the game should be close.
What makes it even better for tournaments is the relatively concentrated offenses from both teams. Lamb leads the NFL in targets and is second in target share, while CMC and Kittle have been the drivers of the 49ers’ offense since all of their receivers got taken out by the substation.
It’s probably a bit cost-prohibitive to pair McCaffrey and Kittle in this block – and would make more sense with Brock Purdy at QB, but we’ve got options. You could run the Sims multiple times with each grouping, or lock Prescott and Lamb while boosting the 49ers’ pieces. I prefer the latter, as I’m not necessarily opposed to rostering them together, and that way SimLabs can decide on the best approach.
Kirk Cousins + Justin Jefferson.
I won’t have a ton of exposure to this group, but what if Cousins and Jefferson can recapture the magic? They played three full seasons together at the start of Jefferson’s career, with Jefferson winning an Offensive Player of the Year award and never finishing with fewer than 1400 receiving yards. Both are coming in with positive Optimal-Projected Ownership scores.
It’s probably a week too early for this grouping, as they have a tough matchup at Lambeau Field – but what if it’s not? I’d much rather be too early than too late.
Pictured: CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott
Photo Credit: Imagn
