USATSI
We’re finally here as Super Bowl LIX weekend has arrived. The waiting is over, and now we get to see the Chiefs and Eagles in action Sunday in New Orleans.
I spent all week breaking down each position from a DFS perspective on DraftKings and FanDuel. You can read about the quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends.
You can see the matchups that make sense, especially from a pricing standpoint, including the history between these teams. Now, it’s time to build some lineups.
As a reminder, with only one game, these are showdown lineups, so you don’t have to fill position requirements. On DraftKings, you have a captain spot, and the pricing is more expensive for that position because the scoring is 1.5 Fantasy points. For FanDuel, you also get 1.5 Fantasy points for your MVP, but the pricing is the same for that spot.
The players I’m most excited about in the Super Bowl are Travis Kelce, Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith. Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are obviously going to be heavily involved, as well as Saquon Barkley, and you’re going to have to be creative with your budget to get all the stars in your lineup.
The fun will be guessing which role player or players step up in the Super Bowl — guys like Marquise Brown, DeAndre Hopkins or JuJu Smith-Schuster — and if you want to use either defense or kicker. It gets tricky when putting the puzzle together, but hopefully you’ll get a big reward if your lineup cashes Sunday.
Here are some examples of lineups I’ll use for Super Bowl LIX.
DraftKings
Lineup 1
CAPTAIN: Jalen Hurts $15,600
FLEX: Saquon Barkley $12,000
FLEX: Travis Kelce $9,000
FLEX: Dallas Goedert $5,800
FLEX: Harrison Butker $5,000
FLEX: JuJu Smith-Schuster $2,000
This is an Eagles-heavy lineup with Hurts, Barkley and Goedert. Hurts comes into this game averaging 22.0 Fantasy points per game on DraftKings, and he just had a huge game against Washington in the NFC Championship Game with 246 passing yards and a touchdown and 16 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Hurts has faced the Chiefs three times in his career, and he’s 1-2 in those matchups. He scored more than 30 Fantasy points in the two losses and fewer than 20 Fantasy points in the lone victory.
Barkley is averaging 25.4 Fantasy points per game on DraftKings, and he’s been unstoppable in the past two games in the playoffs against the Rams and Commanders with a combined 41 carries for 323 yards and five touchdowns and five catches for 31 yards on six targets.
Barkley has never played Kansas City in his career — he missed the 2021 matchup with an ankle injury when he was with the Giants — and the Chiefs are the lone opponent he has yet to face. His birthday is Super Bowl Sunday when he turns 28.
Goedert comes into the Super Bowl averaging 11.4 Fantasy points per game on DraftKings, and he has a good history against Kansas City. He had six catches for 60 yards on seven targets against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, and he had five catches for 56 yards and a touchdown on five targets against Kansas City in 2021.
I’ll counter the Philadelphia stack with Kelce, Butker and Smith-Schuster. For Kelce, he is averaging 12.8 Fantasy points per game on DraftKings, but he has picked up his production of late.
He had eight catches for 84 yards and a touchdown on 11 targets against the Steelers in Week 17, which was his final regular-season game. And he had seven catches for 117 yards on eight targets in the wild-card round against Houston.
Kelce had six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown on six targets against the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. And in four Super Bowl appearances Kelce has 31 catches for 350 yards and two touchdowns on 37 targets.
Butker is 9-of-10 on field goals in four Super Bowl appearances, and 10-of-10 on PATs. Against the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, he was 1-of-2 on field goals, which was the game-winner in a 38-35 victory, and made five PATs.
Smith-Schuster set up Butker’s game-winner against the Eagles when he drew a defensive holding penalty on James Bradberry. Smith-Schuster finished that game with seven catches for 53 yards on nine targets against Philadelphia.
He had a quiet season for the Chiefs, but he made an impact in the AFC Championship Game against the Bills with two receptions of 31 and 29 yards. Hopefully, he can be a difference maker in this matchup as well.
Lineup 2
CAPTAIN: DeVonta Smith $11,100
FLEX: Saquon Barkley $12,000
FLEX: Jalen Hurts $10,400
FLEX: Dallas Goedert $5,800
FLEX: Marquise Brown $5,400
FLEX: Harrison Butker $5,000
I wanted an Eagles-heavy lineup without Hurts or Barkley as the captain, so let’s go with Smith, who is averaging 14.3 Fantasy points per game on DraftKings. The Louisiana native has a great history against the Chiefs.
In three career meetings, Smith has 20 catches for 321 yards on 27 targets. He scored at least 15.9 PPR points in each game.
Smith has been quiet in the playoffs with four catches on four targets and no touchdowns in each of his three games against Green Bay, the Rams and Washington. His best outing was 55 yards against the Packers.
Prior to the playoffs, Smith scored a touchdown in three of his previous four games, with four total touchdowns over that span. He finished with 27 catches for 317 yards on 33 targets during that stretch.
As for Brown, he missed the majority of the season with a shoulder injury sustained in training camp. He returned in Week 16 and averaged 7.5 targets per game prior to the playoffs. He hasn’t done much in the postseason, but he did have three catches for 35 yards on five targets against Buffalo in the AFC Championship Game.
In his career, Brown has faced the Eagles twice as a member of the Ravens (2020) and the Cardinals (2022). He has 12 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown on 16 targets in those outings.
FanDuel
Lineup 1
MVP: Patrick Mahomes $14,000
FLEX: Jalen Hurts $13,500
FLEX: Travis Kelce $12,000
FLEX: Dallas Goedert $10,000
FLEX: Jake Elliott $9,000
I wanted a lineup with the quarterbacks and tight ends, and I’ll use Mahomes in the MVP spot here. As you would expect, he typically comes up big in the Super Bowl.
This is his fifth Super Bowl, and he’s 3-1 coming into this game. He has scored more than 25 Fantasy points in three wins against the 49ers twice and Philadelphia and less than 10 Fantasy points in the loss against Tampa Bay.
Mahomes has faced Philadelphia three times in his career, including Super Bowl LVII when he beat the Eagles 38-35. He passed for 182 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in that game, along with six carries for 44 yards. In 2021, Mahomes topped Philadelphia 42-30 with 278 passing yards, five touchdowns and one interception and five carries for 26 yards. And in 2023, he lost to the Eagles 21-17 with 177 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception and six carries for 38 yards.
Along with his record against Philadelphia, Mahomes also has a great track record against Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Mahomes is 8-0 against Fangio during his time as the head coach in Denver (2019-21) and the defensive coordinator in Miami (2023).
If you remove the first meeting of Mahomes against Fangio in 2019 when Mahomes left early with an injury, he’s averaging 251.2 passing yards in seven games with nine touchdowns and two interceptions and 28 carries for 168 yards and a touchdown. He’s scored more than 20 Fantasy points in five of those meetings.
Elliott finished the season 28-of-36 on field goals and 47-of-48 on PATs. He struggled from 50-plus yards, going 1-of-7 from that distance, and he was 6-of-7 on field goals in the playoffs and 9-of-12 on PATs.
Lineup 2
MVP: Travis Kelce $12,000
FLEX: Patrick Mahomes $14,000
FLEX: A.J. Brown $12,500
FLEX: Xavier Worthy $11,500
FLEX: Jake Elliott $9,000
I wanted a FanDuel lineup without a quarterback in the MVP spot, so we’ll use Kelce here. I’ll stack him with Mahomes again, but I also put Worthy in this lineup.
Worthy is averaging 10.2 Fantasy points per game on FanDuel, but he’s hot coming into the Super Bowl. Since Week 11, Worthy has scored a touchdown in five of his past nine games. He’s averaging 7.6 targets and 5.6 receptions per game over that span, and he has three outings with at least 65 receiving yards in his past four contests.
I also wanted at least one lineup with Brown, who is averaging 13.8 Fantasy points per game on FanDuel. Brown had a quiet playoffs until the NFC Championship Game against Washington when he caught six passes for 96 yards and a touchdown on eight targets. Prior to the playoffs, Brown scored a touchdown in three games in a row, including two outings over that span with eight catches and at least 97 receiving yards.
In Super Bowl LVII against the Chiefs, Brown had six catches for 96 yards and a touchdown on eight targets. But in 2023 against Kansas City, Brown was held to one catch for 8 yards on four targets.
Brown might see a lot of Chiefs’ cornerback Trent McDuffie, but it’s hard to shut down Brown. Hopefully, he’ll deliver a big performance against Kansas City on Sunday.
