Daily Fantasy Contests require a different strategy than what you use to set your weekly lineups, and that’s even more true for these “island” or “standalone” games (Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, etc.). In these contests, you typically have only a handful of lineup spots and players from just two teams to choose from. Just as importantly, everyone else playing in those contests is also choosing from those limited options. If you want to win money (or at least win “big” money in GPP contests), you have to be savvy and take some risks.

I’ll walk you through the current optimal lineups for FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo and OwnersBox via our DFS Lineup Optimizer and share some of my notes and strategies for this particular matchup. Note: these are the current optimal lineups, and I sometimes take some liberties based on recent news and my personal preferences and projections. For updated lineups based on adjusted projections throughout the day, be sure to access the DFS Lineup Optimizer tool and create your own lineups.

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup, based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant – that allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and by how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

Feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher with questions or feedback anytime.

Optimal Lineups for Giants vs. Packers in London

Notes

Most of the lineups I tried included Saquon Barkley for obvious reasons. This one is a big contrarian and includes all Packers and just TE Daniel Bellinger for the Giants. With so many Giants’ pass catchers slated to miss this game, Bellinger could play a larger role. In Cash contests, you’re probably going to want to find a way to include Barkley in your lineup. But in single slate GPP? I like this as a big swing contrarian play.

Notes

DraftKings makes you declare two players before it lets our lineup optimizer provide your best lineup. So, unlike FanDuel, this lineup won’t be universal because it depends on your initial choices.

We pivot to Barkley as our MVP here but still load up Aaron Rodgers, A.J. Dillon, and Romeo Doubs. Darius Slayton is an extremely affordable big swing dart throw who could see an increased role this week. Slayton has been buried under new HC Brian Daboll, but he has served as the de facto WR1 for the Giants in the past. He’s somehow cheaper than Bellinger, who we include again here. I wouldn’t include Bellinger in all of my lineups, but he’s going to be a popular lineup builder for us today because of his price and potential.

Yahoo Optimal Lineup (GPP)

Notes

I love this lineup from the optimizer and won’t change a thing. Barkley again as MVP, Rodgers and Jones as our high-end flexes, and then affordable Doubs and Richie James Jr. lineup builders.

OwnersBox Optimal Lineup (GPP)

Notes

Unlike the other platforms, OwnersBox still uses full lineups for island games. So, this lineup will be different from the others, and you are almost forced to use a couple of dart throws in order to affordably build your lineup. OwnersBox also defines the positions and includes a superflex slot, as opposed to the MVP/Flex setup.

Because of the large lineup and superflex format, this is the only lineup where we include Daniel Jones. Jones is a true wild card this week because of his ankle injury, but you almost have to include him in at least one GPP lineup because superflex encourages you to. This larger lineup includes Doubs, Christian Watson, Robert Tonyan and Bellinger. None of those are extreme dart throws, but all are cheap enough and will have low enough roster % numbers to make it worth the risk in GPP.

Lineup Builders

Daniel Bellinger (TE – NYG) – Could also be considered a dart throw, but including him as a lineup builder because of the rosters and prices here.

Saquon Barkley (RB – NYG)

Aaron Rodgers (QB – GB)

AJ Dillon (RB – GB)

Dart Throws

Pretty much anyone on the Giants other than Barkley, plus Christian Watson.

Feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher with questions or feedback anytime.

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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.