This NFL season, our new SimLabs tool went live to the public. It’s a powerful new feature that allows casual players to build competitive lineups effortlessly — or serious players to leverage their convictions more effectively. This week, we’ve also added the feature of being able to export lineups from SimLabs directly to our models for easy tweaking of lineups.
I broke down some general uses of the tool from an evergreen perspective earlier in the year. Moving forward, we’ll be checking out some suggested starting points for building lineups.
The process is simple: from the SimLabs home screen, first select the field size and desired range of outcomes for your lineups. The field size depends on the contest type, while the “results range” allows you to customize how unique you want your lineups to be.
Then, find the box titled “include players” and type your preferred options — then sit back and let the sims do their thing. You can generate as many or as few lineups as you want, then upload directly to DraftKings to be entered into contests.
For more on what SimLabs is and how it works, check out our user guide.
Let’s check out some potential starting points in Week 13.
Brock Purdy + AJ Brown
Purdy was one of my SimLabs Building Blocks in Week 11. That week, I floated the idea of combinations of Purdy stacks, or lineups with Purdy naked. As it turned out, a non-stacked Purdy lineup won the Milly that week. Another naked quarterback lineup did it again last week.
I want to give SimLabs the opportunity to spit out a few more of those lineups this week, again centered around Purdy. However, his salary has risen to the point where he probably needs to be pushed a bit from the opposing team — especially since he lacks Josh Allen’s rushing upside.
Enter AJ Brown. The Eagles’ alpha receiver has been quiet for a few weeks, making him a solid buy-low candidate.
Of course, you could also play around with Smith (or De’Andre Swift) in place of Brown here. The story we’re telling is, “Philadelphia pushes the pace, but Purdy spreads the ball around to his pass catchers.” Or, SimLabs is able to land on the one or two 49ers options that hit along with Purdy.
Tyreek Hill + De’Von Achane
The case for Purdy without forcing a stack is that the 49ers passing attack is so evenly distributed that Purdy can get there without any individual player coming with him. Miami is the polar opposite. Tyreek Hill provides the majority of their fantasy value, oftentimes without a great game from Tua Tagovailoa.
With both Tua and Hill priced up, it’s hard to fit both players in a traditional stack. And it’s probably unnecessary. Tua has just two games over 30 DraftKings points, while Hill has five. It’s hard for Tua lineups to win if much cheaper quarterbacks keep pace with him.
However, there’s an underrated correlation between Hill and De’Von Achane. Achane has just three games with double-digit snaps this season. In those, he’s topped 25 points in all of them. In two of those games, Hill + Achane combined for 60 or more points.
That would be good for nearly 4x their Week 13 salaries, keeping you close to tournament-winning pace. The story makes sense, too. A couple of early scores from Hill shift the Dolphins into a run-heavy approach — where Achane takes over with increased carries.
If the simulations give us some lineups that also feature Tua, that obviously works, too. But I’m not going to force it, as there are other viable ways to build.
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“No Zack Moss”
Zack Moss is a great play this week. I’m playing Moss in cash and a good chunk of my GPP lineups. So should you, especially if only playing single entry or 3-max contests.
With that said, he will have massive ownership against a pass-funnel Titans defense. Even if he has a solid game from a Pts/Sal standpoint, you probably need 20 or more points to help you win a GPP.
This is certainly not a guarantee, as he’d need a touchdown AND the 100-yard bonus to get there without a bunch of receiving work. Moss can certainly do it but could be less of a lock than the field is.
I’m not advocating for just excluding Moss and clicking build. However, if you have some other angles you like, experiment with keeping Moss out of those lineups. That should provide some unique builds for massive GPPs.
