The Lions and Chiefs will clash on Sunday Night Football this weekend, a highly-anticipated battle of perennial powerhouses. It's a great game for fantasy football and DFS enthusiasts, with Detroit brimming with confidence and Kansas City hungry for a bounce-back victory at home.
Who's hotter than the Lions right now? The Sporting News has them No. 2 on its power rankings but it wouldn't exactly take mental gymnastics to talk them into the top spot. Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown both look like Offensive Player of the Year candidates. Jared Goff has been on fire, and sits sixth in DraftKings' MVP odds. Is this finally the year for Motown!?
Not if Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have anything to say about it. Kansas City has been to five of the past six Super Bowls — winning three — so count Andy Reid's squad out at your own risk. Xavier Worthy has been electric since returning from his Travis Kelce shoulder-slam, Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt have quietly been solid and even Tyquan Thornton looks good. Let''s not overreact about a loss to the red-hot Jaguars.
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This sure feels like a must-see TV matchup, and most GPP tournament enthusiasts will be constructing lineups for this one. Our job: to help shine a light on the best DFS studs, sleepers and value plays for both DraftKings Showdown and FanDuel single-game tournaments.
Let's get to it. Here's our favorite fantasy picks and optimal lineups for Lions vs. Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.
Lions vs. Chiefs NFL DFS picks: Optimal DraftKings Showdown lineup
➕ Sign up for DraftKings to play Showdown cash and GPP contests.
Before we get into our lineup and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests:
They're full-point PPR, and they feature three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. The Captain pick costs 1.5 times a player's original price, but he also gets his point total multiplied by 1.5.
POS | Player | TEAM/OPP | SALARY |
| Captain | Xavier Worthy, WR | Chiefs vs. DET | $13,500 |
| FLEX | Jahmyr Gibbs, RB | Lions at KC | $11,000 |
| FLEX | Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR | Lions at KC | $10,800 |
| FLEX | Patrick Mahomes, QB | Chiefs vs. DET | $10,000 |
| FLEX | Tyquan Thornton, WR | Chiefs vs. DET | $4,400 |
| FLEX | Nikko Remigio, WR | Chiefs vs. DET | $200 |
Captain: Xavier Worthy, WR, Chiefs ($13,500)
Our DraftKings' mission this weekend: load up on value in our Captain spot and top four flex slots. So, to afford four guys at $10K-plus, we opted for Worthy as our boosted buy.
Don't sleep! The speedy second-year wideout has 28.2 PPR points since returning from his shoulder injury in Week 4. Now he faces a Lions D that has surrendered the seventh-most DK points to wide receivers this season. He's a Worthy captain.
FLEX 1: Jahmyr Gibbs, RB, Lions ($11,000)
If David Montgomery didn't play running back for the Lions, Gibbs might be running away with Offensive Player of the Year honors right now. He's still in the running with D-Mont, with five TDs and well over 20 PPR points per game over the past month. Look to the man in Jahmyr!
FLEX 2: Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR, Lions ($10,800)
Throw away St. Brown's underwhelming Week 1 line (4-of-6 for 45 yards), and we're talking about a borderline MVP candidate. He's averaging 23.7 DK points per game on the season despite scoring just 8.5 in the season-opener.
The Sun God has caught 31-of-35 targets for 362 yards and six TDs over Detroit's four-game winning streak, and he probably won't be slowing down for a crucial primetime game in Week 6. Leave ARSB in the player pool at your own peril.
FLEX 3: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Chiefs ($10,000)
Mahomes remains one of the most potent signal-callers in the game, and he's dropped 58 DK points over the past two weeks. He's doing whatever he can to guide Kansas City through the suspension of Rashee Rice, which finally ends after this weekend.
The two-time MVP has three games with 57-plus ground yards and a rushing TD this season, and he put up four passing TDs against Baltimore in Kansas City two weeks ago. In a (basically) must-win situation, Mahomes should be running wild tonight.
FLEX 4: Tyquan Thornton, WR, Chiefs ($4,400)
Thornton has quietly enjoyed a stellar season, averaging 11.6 DK points per game. His touchdown streak ended at three games last week, but he made up for the lack of TDs with a cool 90 receiving yards. He's got the respect of Mahomes, so he and fellow speed demon Worthy seem like an amazing 1-2 stack with the post-Brady King of QBs.
FLEX 5: Nikko Remigio, WR, Chiefs ($200)
We had $300 left to spend, so welcome to our roster, Nikko Remigio! Hey, weird no-name guys seem to score every damn primetime game, so maybe this is one of the nights we predict a surprise TD. He's scored 0.8 DK points per game, so he's not exactly of zero worth. Give us a shot at the prize, Remigio!
MORE: How to play DFS
Lions vs. Chiefs NFL DFS picks: Optimal FanDuel single-game lineup
➕ Sign up for FanDuel to play cash and GPP single-game contests.
Here are the key scoring settings for FanDuel single-game tournaments: They're half-point PPR with three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, or 100 receiving yards.
The MVP pick multiplies that player's total by 1.5 and, for the first time, the MVP pick also costs 1.5 times that player's salary.
POS | Player | TEAM/OPP | SALARY |
| MVP | Patrick Mahomes, QB | Chiefs vs. DET | $18,000 |
| FLEX | Jahmyr Gibbs, RB | Lions at KC | $12,800 |
| FLEX | Jared Goff, QB | Lions at KC | $12,200 |
| FLEX | Hollywood Brown, WR | Chiefs vs. DET | $5,800 |
| FLEX | Kareem Hunt, RB | Chiefs vs. DET | $5,400 |
| FLEX | Tyquan Thornton, WR | Chiefs vs. DET | $5,000 |
We took a different route with our FanDuel lineup, opting for Mahomes in the MVP chair, stacking him with Brown and Thornton to diversify our Chiefs receiver portfolio, and grabbing Goff and Hunt for some high-ceiling half-PPR options.
We feel like we're getting the best of both half-PPR worlds here. We have both QBs, including Mahomes at home in a huge game in our boost spot. We also have both of the top upside running backs in Gibbs and Hunt. And, we have two of the top three KC receivers with some big-play and TD upside. Let's go!