What to know ahead of Thursday Night Football
(Photo by Danny Karnik / Associate Press via tampabay.com)
Congratulations folks! You’ve made it! You successfully survived the NFL off-season and are about to be rewarded with what seems to be a fun Thursday night game to watch for the opener of the 2021 NFL season. The Cowboys ride into Tampa to take on the reigning Super Bowl Champions, and the ever immortal Tom Brady & Company. I’m going to give you a quick rundown of what I think the outcome will be as well as a few Fantasy tips for your lineups and DFS.
I don’t see a scenario here where the Cowboys come out on top of the dog pile. I fully expect the Bucs to win by at least 10 points here, if not 14. I apologize in advance to the Cowboy fans out there, but just be prepared to choke down a loss by the end of the game, start mentally preparing yourselves now.
The ‘Boys are using a new scheme on defense, and they should, last year they allowed 473 points, ranking 28th in the NFL. Not. Great. But, I’m not entirely sure you go out and test the new defensive system against the greatest quarterback to play the game; seems ballsy, and hey, I can get behind risking it for a biscuit. But it seems this biscuit is inevitably last in the package and full of mold.
Expect the Bucs to come out slinging, I think Tom Brady is an absolute smash play this week in Fantasy, as well as DFS. If you’re doing DFS, and you start Brady, you have to start AT LEAST one of his pass catchers. Tonight my top choices would be Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin. Not that I don’t like Mike Evans, but if there is one thing the Cowboys Defense can cover, its the long ball. So plug in Brown and Godwin. If you need to use a rusher on Tampa, the choice should be Ronald Jones over Fournette. Rojo has the ability to break a big play. Even if he doesn’t, I expect the volume to go to him. Especially with a possible positive game script. SLEEPER ALERT – I can honestly see Gronk getting a redzone TD tonight, but don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret.
The one thing the Cowboys have going for them tonight is that they should have plenty of opportunities to put up some fantasy points. I see a negative game script here, so expect Dak, Cooper, and Lamb to all be viable plays. Zeke makes me nervous, you’re obviously starting him because you paid an insane amount of draft capital to get him, but temper those expectations. He’s going against one of the best rush defenses in the game, which takes me to the decision of not using him in DFS tonight, but fine in regular fantasy due to the ability of him catching the ball, and again, draft capital spent.
If you’re as excited as I am for the NFL regular season to return, you’ve already set 3 DFS lineups, and that’s something that I can 100% get behind.
The best time of the year is about to begin. Go get an adult beverage, or 6, you’ve earned it.
Cowboys 24, Buccaneers 38
SKOL
- JD