Bengals-Chiefs DraftKings Picks: NFL DFS lineup advice for playoff Showdown tournaments

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Joe Burrow and the Bengals are doing it again, rampaging through the AFC and heading into Kansas City for the second-straight AFC championship game against the Chiefs with the momentum of a Mack truck. The Chiefs, who flip-flopped from -2.5 favorites to +2.5 underdogs after an MRI confirmed Patrick Mahomes' high-ankle sprain, are home playoff underdogs for just the second time since 1991. How do we even approach this as bettors? It's tough to say, but what we do know is that this epic conference clash gives us a great DFS opportunity to assemble a DraftKings Showdown lineup. 

MORE BENGALS-CHIEFS:
Betting preview | Best props | SGP | FD lineupWhy is Cincy favored?

If you like offense, you'll love playing a daily fantasy lineup for this one. The top-seeded Chiefs finished the regular season as the No. 1 offense in the NFL in terms of scoring and yards and have scored at least 27 points in five of their past six games. The Bengals have won 10 consecutive games and have averaged 28.3 points per game during that winning streak. We don't just have two of the best QBs in football here, we also get to draft and/or watch All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce, two-time Pro Bowl wideout Ja'Marr Chase, and elite No. 2 receiver Tee Higgins. Talk about an embarrassment of skill-position riches! 

Check out my betting preview before you wager on this one because it's way too even a matchup to just blindly bet a 2.5-point favorite or 'dog. In reality, we would probably much rather invest some of our bankroll into a DFS tournament than mess around with this spread! So, let's get into our DraftKings Showdown squad, and explain why each player we drafted made the cut.

Before we get into our picks and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests: They're full-point PPR and there are three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. The Captain pick costs 1.5 times a player's original price, but he also gets his point total multiplied by 1.5.

MORE DK SHOWDOWN: How to win a Showdown contest

Playoff DraftKings Showdown Picks: Bengals at Chiefs

$50,000 budget, need at least one player from each team. 

Joe Burrow
(Getty Images)

Captain (1.5x points, 1.5x salary): QB Joe Burrow, Bengals ($15,900)

I don't know about you, but around here a ton of respected sports minds are starting to come around to the fact that Joe Burrow might be the best quarterback in the NFL. Hell, he's on his second blitzkrieg to the Super Bowl in as many years, he's defeated Patrick Mahomes three times since last January, and he just trounced Josh Allen in the snow in Orchard Park. The kid just has it, regardless of what you consider "it." Confidence, flair, accuracy, strength, clutch gene — basically you name it, he's got it. Oh, and he's healthy, while Patrick Mahomes has an ankle injury that typically removes QBs from the on-field equation altogether. So, naturally, we have Joey Brr captaining our squad for a Sunday night game that's expected to see temperatures fall into the single digits. As I said in my betting preview, you can't freeze Joe Cool! The Chiefs allowed the fifth-most DK points to QBs this season, so we're putting his baseline at his average (23.5 ppg) and his ceiling in the low 30s. Enjoy that 1.5-times multiplier, as well as the customary Burrow victory cigar. 

Travis Kelce
(Getty Images)

FLEX TE Travis Kelce, Chiefs ($11,000)

Week 18 reminded us that Kelce's floor is around eight fantasy points. The Chiefs' divisional-round win last week reminded us his ceiling is in the 32-38 DK range. There are plenty of faster pass-catchers in football and even faster and more aggressive tight ends, but there's nobody as singularly dominant as an overall receiving and scoring threat. Of course, some of that is because he has Mahomes throwing him the ball, but here's a hot take: Kelce will get more looks now that Mahomes' ankle is hurt because he won't have the extra time in and out of the pocket to explore his progressions. We may witness a Mahomes-to-Kelce demonstration of repetition akin to the later Patriots' runs with Brady-to-Gronk. And what a marvelous sight it will be for Kelce DFS owners to behold. Run wild, sir. If you can top 14 catches on 17 targets for 98 yards and two TDs, I'll get a tattoo of you on my butt. 

Ja'Marr Chase
(Getty Images)

FLEX WR Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals ($10,400)

This is shaping up to be one of the sickest DFS lineups of our entire season. Chase almost made the cut on my minimal list of pass-catchers more singularly dominating than Kelce, but I still think Kelce has an edge over him based on overall sample size and durability. Still, what a living highlight reel Chase has been in just two NFL seasons. Even his near-catches are highlights and Sporting News stories! His connection with our captain Burrow is easy to see. They have hooked up for seven completions in nine of the past 10 games they have played together and netted an average of 94.2 yards per game over their past nine. OF course, we can't leave out the touchdown upside. Chase has 11 TDs in just 14 games this season. Even if we had to sign the Chiefs janitor and Andy Reid's mustache as our last two flex plays, we would be drafting this dude. 

Tee Higgins
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FLEX WR Tee Higgins, Bengals ($8,400)

Super-stack! As Eminem said back in the day, "He didn't just do what I think he did...did he?" As Nicki Minaj might respond: "Yes I did, somebody tell the DFS world who the eff I is." Okay, sorry, I'm selling a house right now and have two sick kids three years and younger — getting a little loopy off the sleep deprivation! But Higgins is a sound, logical choice, even if drafting him leaves you with $4,200 to fill your final two roster spots. This is textbook stars-and-scrubs territory here, and I'm here to say it's worth it. Higgins has scored at least 12.5 DK points 11 different times this season, and he's exceeded 26 DK points four times. Considering the Chiefs surrendered the sixth-most DK points to receivers this season, Higgins at $8,400 is worth it for his floor, his ceiling, and his TD upside. Now we can sing "Stacks on stacks on stacks!" as we search for affordable sleepers at the bottom of the barrel. 

FLEX WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Chiefs ($3,600)

What do we know about MVS? He's super fast, and he's made highlight-reel TDs for both Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. He's also kind of a letdown whenever you establish any kind of expectation for him from a production standpoint. So, let's grab him at $3,600, expect absolutely nothing from him, and be happily surprised if he explodes for a big-time play! This game should be a shootout unless the weather sucks or Mahomes' ankle crumbles into a pile of dust, so a couple of long heaves should surprise nobody. If he can't plant well enough to heave a Hail Mary, Mahomes might instead opt for some bubble screens with Kansas City's speediest pass-catchers. Enter MVS opposite blazing rookie back Isiah Pacheco. Hey, Valdes-Scantling has posted consecutive DK scores of 0.0, 4.8, 5.7, and 7.6 — we're on an upward trend! This is the definition of a scratch ticket, but somebody's gotta win 'em, right? 

FLEX TE Mitchell Wilcox, Bengals ($600)

MVS was a scratch ticket/flier; Wilcox is a damn dart-throw/stab-in-the-dark! But hey, the man got two targets and hauled in one catch last week — maybe he surprises us and puts us over the top of a tournament or two. Or maybe he does nothing, and we still win money! We loaded up on the front-end of our lineup because we thought having four of the five or six highest-scoring players gave us the best chance to cash in Showdown tourneys. Any points we get from our riff-raff at the back-end are gravy, baby. Just imagine the story we can all tell if our $600 Mitchell Wilcox DFS investment wins us a ton of money!

Author(s)
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Sloan Piva is a content producer at The Sporting News.