Week 2 of the NFL season is here and there is no better time to dip your toes into the DFS waters than with tonight’s NFL DFS Thursday Night Football Showdown slate featuring the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs with their featured NFL Thursday Million contest which costs $9 to enter and pays out $200,000 to first place! Make sure to use our NFL DFS Lineup Generator and NFL DFS Player Projections when building your lineups tonight!

Check out the complete NFL DFS Thursday Night Showdown Playbook for your top plays, values, dart throws and fades from Howard Bender!

 

When it comes to building your Showdown DFS lineups a big part of the puzzle is getting the MVP player correct. With FanDuel the MVP slot earns 1.5x the points as the general flex positions, meaning they scoring is worth more. Check out my top MVP plays for Thursday’s Showdown slate between the Chargers and Chiefs.

MVP (1.5X Points)

Patrick Mahomes, QB $17,000

I know, I know. Not a total shocker here right? Mahomes is coming off a five touchdown performance against the Cardinals in Week 1 of the NFL season. He is the highest priced player on the board but it's for a good reason. Though Tyreek Hill is no longer in Kansas City, the Chiefs offense did not miss a beat with Travis Kelce leading the way and newcomers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling making impacts. This game has a 53.5 game total with the Chiefs as 4.5-point favorites. We should be looking at a high scoring game here with Mahomes leading the way.

Justin Herbert, QB $15,500

A $1,500 price drop from Mahomes to Herbert here and that may make Herbert the more popular option tonight when it comes to the spend up spots for your DFS lineups. Herbert threw for three touchdowns in Week 1 and none of them went to who you would expect them to go to with Keenan Allen out with an injury, Mike Williams no-showing Week 1 and Austin Ekeler under-performing as well. Thought Allen has already been ruled out for Week 2, I think Herbert gets in rhythm with his top options tonight in this expected shootout. The Chiefs have also had no answer for Herbert, since entering the league he has 10 touchdowns with just two interceptions and a QB rating of 108.3 over four starts. 

Travis Kelce, TE $14,000

There has been a lot written about Kelce coming into this week following his monster Week 1 performance which saw him finish with eight catches on nine targets for 121 yards and a touchdown. Believe it or not, some are down on Kelce in this Week 2 matchup because the Chargers have safety Derwin James who, when healthy, has had success covering Kelce in their past meetings. That said, Kelce is still the top target for Mahomes and it would seem unlikely that James is able to shut down Kelce for the entire game, if he does at all. Last week's opponent was the Arizona Cardinals and they were the top team against opposing tight ends last season thanks to Isaiah Simmons and Kelce cooked Simmons all game long.

Mike Williams, WR $12,500

Williams was on the milk carton in Week 1 against the Raiders, finishing with just two catches on four targets for 10 yards. With Keenan Allen out of the lineup, Williams will enter as the Chargers top receiving option in tonight's game. With FanDuel being a half-point PPR platform we need the big yardage and touchdown upside that Williams brings to the table and that gives him the edge over some of the other possession receivers that will be in this game.

Austin Ekeler, RB $14,500

As I mentioned, FanDuel is only a half-PPR scoring platform which takes a little bit of the of the value that Ekeler brings to the table. That said, he should be more involved in the team's passing offense this week than he was last week with the Chargers being able to game plan for Keenan Allen not being active. Ekeler is still a nice threat when running the football as well and the Chiefs are susceptible against the run.