Wednesday's DraftKings Madden showdown is a single game, LV @ DEN, and it locks at 4:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. PT). The captain slot scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary, and the cap is $50,000.
At the top of our model's ranking sits Ashton Jeanty of LV at $10,400. He carries a ceiling of 40.1, the highest on the slate by a wide margin, against a DraftKings average of 19.3. Fernando Mendoza of LV ($10,200) and Bo Nix of DEN ($9,800) follow, with ceilings of 31.1 and 29.8 and averages of 17.0 and 15.9.
The best value on the board is Evan Engram of DEN at $7,200. His ceiling of 30.3 is nearly level with Mendoza's and Nix's, and he costs far less than either. Brock Bowers of LV at $7,800 offers a 24.5 ceiling for the money, and Tre Tucker of LV at $8,200 has a 21.8 ceiling. Both are cheaper than the top three, though their DraftKings averages of 10.6 and 11.0 sit well below Engram's 15.4.
The crowd is leaning on the quarterbacks and the lead back. Mendoza is projected at 67% ownership, Nix at 54% and Jeanty at 47%, with Courtland Sutton also at 47%. Engram is projected at only 20%, so he gives players a way to separate from the field without giving up much ceiling. J.K. Dobbins of DEN at $8,800 and 30% sits in the middle of the pack.
Our model's top lineup uses $49,400 of the $50,000 cap. It puts Engram in the captain slot at $10,800, then adds Jeanty ($10,400), Nix ($9,800), Sutton ($9,200), Troy Franklin ($5,000) and Wil Lutz ($4,200) at FLEX. The build pairs one high-ownership core with a captain few others will choose.
Lineups lock Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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