Last NFL season, our new SimLabs tool went live to the public. It’s a powerful new feature that allows casual players to build competitive lineups effortlessly — or serious players to leverage their convictions more effectively. This week, 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 earlier in the year. 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.
Jalen Hurts + AJ Brown
I’m surprised to see such low ownership projections on both Hurts and Brown throughout the industry. They have the best possible matchup on the board against the Ravens, who face the highest opponent Pass Rate Over Expectation in the league by a wide margin.
Plus, it’s an elite game script. The Eagles are slight underdogs in the highest total game on the slate.
Hurts obviously provides plenty of production with his legs, so it makes more sense to pair him in single stacks than with multiple pass catchers. However, by letting SimLabs generate the lineups, you’ll get a decent amount of builds that feature one of the Eagles other weapons.
You’ll also get a good mix of Ravens bring-backs, as I’m interested in both Derrick Henry and Zay Flowers, with some fringe interest in their tertiary weapons.
Check out how our SimLabs Lineup Generator works:
Taysom Hill (Exclude Alvin Kamara)
I could probably just leave a section on Hill in this article every week. He’s tight end eligible but also throws passes and occasionally serves as the Saints’ goal-line running back.
It feels a little like chasing points to include Hill this week after he just erupted for 46 points last week. However, he makes a lot of sense from a strategy standpoint this week. The Saints are taking on the soft defense of the Rams — and Alvin Kamara is projecting for the highest ownership on the slate.
Hill isn’t exactly sliding under the radar, but he’s still an interesting leverage play from Kamara. Given that the most valuable production from Hill is in the running game, he directly cannibalizes Kamara’s opportunities.
That makes this a good time to use the “exclude player” feature on SimLabs. I’ll actually be running some builds with the inverse setup (Kamara, exclude Hill) as well — with the broader point here being that it’s one or the other.
Be sure to check out all the pick ’em Sleeper has to offer with Sleeper promo code LABS1 for a $1500 deposit match.
Joe Burrow (Exclude Ja’Marr Chase)
This one is getting a bit off the board, and I’d only consider it for massive tournaments like the Play Action or Millionaire Maker.
The market seems fairly low on the Bengals this week, due to the perceived difficulty of the matchup against the Steelers. Pittsburgh is a great defense, after all. They’ve allowed the fewest points to quarterbacks in the NFL and the sixth-fewest to wide receivers.
However, if we dig a little deeper, something interesting emerges. The Steelers are one of just two NFL teams that have faced more pass attempts from opposing WR2s than WR1s, with the other being the Dolphins.
That’s the Joey Porter Jr. effect. Pittsburgh’s top corner has shut down his opponents’ best options this season, forcing targets elsewhere. Given Burrow’s salary ($7,000) and lack of rushing production, we’ll probably still end up on double stacks.
Beyond WR2 Tee Higgins, Chase Brown has seen 18 targets over the past two weeks, tight end Mike Gesicki has popped up for some big games, and Andrei Iosivas is somewhat involved. Those players paired with Burrow provide even more leverage on top of an already low-owned player.
