On Sunday night, the 6-3 Los Angeles Chargers will host the 4-6 Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
Ahead of this Sunday Night Football showdown, who are the best players to plug in your DFS lineup? Using DraftKings’ prices, let’s build a lineup that could win big on Sunday!
Week 11 SNF DFS Picks
- CAPTAIN: Quentin Johnston, $10,500
- FLEX: Joe Burrow, $10,600
- FLEX: Justin Herbert, $9,400
- FLEX: Tee Higgins, $8,600
- FLEX: Cameron Dicker, $5,400
- FLEX: Will Dissly, $5,200
DFS Strategy: A Contrarian Play at Captain
While most lineups will likely feature Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tee Higgins, J.K. Dobbins, Chase Brown, or even Ladd McConkey as the captain, we’re going with a boom-or-bust option: Quentin Johnston.
If you’re playing in a cash game, it makes sense to go with a safer captain in your lineup. However, QJ is a strong contrarian play for a larger, big-money tournament.
Johnston has scored a touchdown in back-to-back games, and he’s now up to five TDs on the season. Against a Bengals defense that ranks 31st in red-zone efficiency, 29th in touchdown rate, 28th in points per game, and 25th in passing touchdowns allowed per game, the hope is that Johnston can have a big day.
Also, Johnston is much cheaper than the other potential captains, which saves us quite a bit of money and allows us to load up elsewhere.
Selecting Both QBs: Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert
Sometimes it can be tough to get both starting quarterbacks in your lineup since they can be quite expensive, but this squad features both Burrow and Herbert.
Burrow has been red hot as of late, as he has thrown for 679 yards, nine touchdowns, and one interception over his last two games. He’s the first AFC quarterback to throw for four touchdown passes in consecutive games since, well, himself back in 2021. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that Higgins (quad) was sidelined for both games.
Now, Burrow faces a Chargers defense that is much better than the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders units he just torched. However, Burrow is pretty close to matchup-proof, and the Bengals are the top pass-rate-over-expectation team in the NFL. Also, the Chargers have an elite run defense that has allowed the fewest rushing TDs per game of any team in the NFL, so Cincinnati may have no choice but to rely on their passing attack.
Meanwhile, Herbert is clearly getting comfortable in the Chargers’ system. During Los Angeles’ three-game winning streak, he has been a top-12 QB in every game — a major accomplishment for a player who previously didn’t have a single top-15 finish this season.
Over that three-game span, Herbert’s 119.2 passer rating is the fourth-highest in the NFL, trailing only Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Kirk Cousins. He has multiple touchdowns in all three of those games, and now he has a terrific matchup against a struggling defense that boasts the NFL’s third-lowest sack percentage.
The Return of Tee Higgins
As previously mentioned, Higgins has missed the last three games with a quad injury, but he’ll be back for this Sunday Night Football showdown. Assuming he’s 100% healthy, he should be worth every penny of his $8,600 price.
In the last three games that both Chase and Higgins played (2024 Weeks 5-7), Chase averaged 23.7 PPR points (No. 1 among all WRs), while Higgins averaged 20.7 PPR points (No. 5 among all WRs ahead of guys like Justin Jefferson and Amon-Ra St. Brown). During that three-game stretch, Higgins had 29 targets (five more than Chase), and he turned them into 20 receptions, 242 yards, and three touchdowns.
This is an ultra-condensed, ultra-pass-centric offense that features Higgins prominently. Plus, Higgins is easier to trust than Chase Brown against the Chargers’ outstanding run defense or Mike Gesicki, who had 23 targets over the last three games while Higgins was out but just four targets in the previous four games that Higgins was active.
Rolling the Dice With Will Dissly
Over the last four weeks, Will Dissly has been targeted 27 times — the sixth-most targets of any tight end in the league.
The targets, receptions, and yards have been there as of late, but Dissly has yet to score a touchdown this season.
Well, the Bengals are allowing the sixth-most fantasy points per game to tight ends (8.6), in large part because they are giving up the second-most touchdowns per game to the position (0.6). Given Dissly’s involvement and how dreadful the Bengals have been against tight ends, he seems like a decent bet at his price.