NFL DFS Divisional Round Picks For Sunday's Two-Game Slate On DraftKings
DFS

NFL DFS Divisional Round Picks For Sunday's Two-Game Slate On DraftKings

Joe Metz breaks down how to approach the Sunday-only slate on DraftKings for the Divisional Round, as well as picks for the LAR-CHI and HOU-NE single-game slates.

We’re halfway through the Divisional Round of the 2026 NFL Playoffs, leaving us with a two-game Sunday slate on DraftKings. With only five games left standing between us and the offseason, it’s time to take advantage of every DFS slate possible.

That being said, we have three DraftKings slates to cover—a two-game Sunday-only slate, plus a pair of single-game slates. Let’s dive into the two-game slate and then get into strategy for each of the showdown slates.

RELATED: NFL DFS Projections for the two-game Sunday slate

DFS Picks for the Two-Game Sunday-Only Slate

Building Blocks For The Sunday-Only DFS Slate

Matthew Stafford, QB ($6,600): As things stand, Stafford is the clear top option at the position, given his Fantasy Life projection (19.5) and matchup (Bears rank fourth in QB DvP; 19.8 PPG allowed). With enough positional value on the slate, you don’t need to sacrifice the floor/ceiling combination that Stafford provides to spend up elsewhere, regardless of him checking in as the chalkiest QB on the slate (48.7% projected rostership—you can see those numbers here), and he pairs naturally with ...

Puka Nacua, WR ($9,000): It’s going to be nearly impossible to feel confident in a build on this slate without Nacua. His 22-point projection clears every other player on the slate—QBs included—by 2.5, and if you remove quarterbacks, he clears skill-position players by 8.7. That’s not a projection gap you see often, and one that makes this a near-impossible fade given his role. He gets a +5.0 Xfinity fantasy boost against a porous Bears secondary that got lit up last week by the Packers, and despite his 37.5 DK points last week, he left more meat on the bone with a drop on what would have been a walk-in touchdown. He’s as big a lock as you can get in small field contests. In large-field tournaments where you are playing multiple lineups, any lineup that fades Nacua should have Davante Adams ($6,500) in his place.

Colston Loveland, TE ($5,500): Loveland has taken the reins as Chicago’s go-to option not only in the TE room lately, but in the passing game overall. From Week 16 onward, Loveland has logged 83% of the snaps with an 86% route rate and a 30% target share. He accounted for 34% of the targets in their Wild Card game and has posted a perfect Utilization Score of 100 in each of his last three games. He’s projected to be the second-most popular TE on the slate (32.7% ownership) and comes in as the safest bet at the most volatile position, making him a staple in all lineups this weekend.

Honorable Mentions:

DFS Value Plays For Sunday’s Two-Game Divisional Round Slate

Dalton Schultz, TE ($4,200): The theme of the value plays on this slate is Nico Collins, who’s slated to miss Sunday's game with a concussion. This should thrust Schultz into a more prominent role as the potential No. 1 option for C.J. Stroud. While I prefer Christian Kirk straight up in the FLEX spot, a two-TE lineup won’t be unpopular, with Schultz projecting for over 24% ownership to complement Loveland’s 45.6%. The Patriots rank 13th in DvP against the TE position this season, markedly more appealing than their 20th rank against wideouts, making Schultz a safe TE or FLEX play with his 7.6-point floor and 10.1-point projection, the highest of any Texans pass catcher.

Christian Kirk, WR ($4,100): Kirk was the star of the Wild Card Round for the Texans last week, posting an 8-144-1 receiving line en route to 27.4 DK points. With Nico Collins out, Kirk should assume WR1 duties for Stroud and could even lead the pass catchers (Schultz included) in targets. He comes in as the most popular Houston wideout at 26.7% with a projection of 8.8 DK points, which feels low considering the potential volume.

Xavier Hutchinson, WR ($3,400): With Collins set to miss Sunday’s contest, all of the attention will funnel to Kirk and Jayden Higgins ($4,600), leaving Hutchinson as a potential odd man out in the Texans WR room. He’s appeared in two games this season without Collins, posting route rates of 79% (Week 8) and 94% (Week 18) with target shares of 16% and 32%, respectively. The range of outcomes is wide, given the other mouths to feed in the passing game, but his 11.5-point projected ceiling is 3.5 points more than the next WR under $4,000, and he naturally differentiates you from the field with his projected ownership of 9.6%.

Honorable Mentions:

Texans vs. Patriots Single-Game DFS Picks

DraftKings DFS Captain Pick For Texans vs. Patriots

Drake Maye, QB ($16,800): One strategy note that Matt LaMarca mentioned in last week’s MNF DFS breakdown was to hunt big scores at Captain. Especially with Nico Collins out, high-end ceiling is incredibly lacking among the skill-position players in this game. That leads me to Maye as the only player on the slate I have legitimate confidence in at Captain—considering anyone else in this position would be nothing but a boondoggle. While you’ll have to save some salary in the FLEX positions, Maye’s floor/ceiling combo cannot be matched. He’s scored below 19.3 DK points only once since Week 13 and logged 10 rushing attempts last week, solidifying his floor even more. His 17.7-point projection and 23.4-point ceiling clear the rest of the field, making him the no-brainer Captain selection in this game.

Stacking Strategy For Texans vs. Patriots Single-Game DFS

When it comes to stacking/roster construction in single-game DFS contests, I tend to first look at what the implied odds are for each team to get an idea of the projected game script. As LaMarca also mentioned in last week’s breakdown, it’s important to tell a story with your lineup and build accordingly.

The Patriots are three-point favorites over the Texans tonight and our NFL Game Model projects them as 4.5-point favorites, a full 1.5-point edge in favor of New England. Based on this alone, building a lineup that tells the story of the Patriots winning and the Texans playing catch-up makes sense. This would likely lead to a 4-2 build (four Patriots, two Texans) or a 3-3 build.

With Drake Maye as my preferred captain, pairing him with at least one pass catcher (Stefon Diggs, Hunter Henry or Rhamondre Stevenson) makes sense. The value on this slate comes from the Houston side without Collins, so it’s going to be hard to get away from rostering at least one of Christian Kirk, Dalton Schultz or even Xavier Hutchinson for some salary relief.

A hypothetical 4-2 build where you expect the Patriots to win—and potentially dominate—would look something like this …

While fading one of the quarterbacks can be a risky proposition in single-game contests, C.J. Stroud has demonstrated a low floor worth leveraging, making the Patriots DST a strong lever to pull in a Stroud fade. This lineup gives you access to the two most productive skill-position players on New England, as well as the value that opens up in Collins’ absence on the Houston side.

If you wanted to level out your lineup a bit and play both quarterbacks, a 3-3 build like the following makes sense …

While this 3-3 build allows you both quarterbacks and a relatively stable floor with the Patriots kicker, Andres Borregales, it fades (good) chalk in Christian Kirk and pivots to a more volatile Xavier Hutchinson to save salary. Between the two builds, the 4-2 build is my preferred stacking route, as I’m expecting C.J. Stroud to look every bit the disaster that he did in the pocket last weekend.

Bears vs. Rams Single-Game DFS Picks

DraftKings DFS Captain Picks For Bears vs. Rams

Unlike the previous game, where ceiling feels hard to come by, there are numerous routes you can go at the Captain position in the Bears-Rams game.

There are two players I have my eyes on at Captain in this game, both creating different build styles on the slate …

Puka Nacua ($18,000): Nacua is the obvious top choice at Captain, given his unmatchable floor-ceiling combination, but you’ll have to pay a pretty penny for it. While he unlocks the highest ceiling for you at captain, you’ll be scraping the bottom of the barrel for value if you Captain Nacua and want to target one, or both, of the quarterbacks. In small-field or SE contests, Nacua makes the most sense given everything outlined previously in this article, but if you want to unlock a bit more spending power in your lineup, then looking for a ceiling further down the board makes sense.

Colston Loveland ($11,400): The ceiling I’m choosing to chase with some salary savings is Loveland, who, as illustrated earlier in this piece, has been sun-running over the last four weeks and over the last three weeks in particular, has averaged north of 12 targets per game while posting at least 21 DraftKings points in each of those three games. The $6,600 discount on Nacua allows you to spend a bit more at the FLEX positions, making Loveland my preferred Captain.

Stacking Strategy For Bears vs. Rams Single-Game DFS

With so much offensive firepower on both sides of the ball in this game, my initial lean is to build out a 3-3 stack and get as much exposure to scoring upside as possible.

That said, the Rams sit as 4.5-point favorites with an implied team total of 26.5 points, so if you’re telling a story about the game script, it would make sense to build out a 4-2 Rams-Bears lineup.

Both of these work with either Nacua or Loveland at Captain, as a 4-2 Rams build where you are telling the story of the Rams scoring a lot and winning the game caters to both Nacua (would likely put up a big score in this scenario) as well as Loveland (if the Bears fall behind and are playing catch-up, they’ll need to air it out, leading to more dropbacks for Caleb Williams and pass-game opportunities for Loveland).

Example builds are below.

Is it pretty? Not necessarily, but to squeeze in Nacua and both quarterbacks—this is a game where I fully encourage rostering both QBs and not looking back—you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel somewhere. Luckily, these teams have value options with upside. 

Blake Corum comes as a natural pivot off of the more expensive Kyren Williams, and the two are still splitting carries (Corum’s rushing attempts prop is listed at 10.5). The same could be said for Kyle Monangai as a lever off of D’Andre Swift. Monangai checks in at +210 to score a touchdown, and you could do much worse at that price. Tyler Higbee operates as a touchdown-dependent dart throw in a crowded TE room, but his 6.6-point projection and Xfinity best 11-point ceiling are more than enough at only $3,200.

If you want to use Loveland at Captain …

This build fades Caleb Williams, but adding DJ Moore gives you another bite at the apple with this Bears passing attack, and adding Harrison Mevis on a Rams team with an inflated team total provides a more secure floor than relying on value like Monangai or Higbee.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Puka Nacua
    PukaNacua
    WRLARLAR
    PPG
    15.03
    Proj
    16.82
  2. Matthew Stafford
    MatthewStafford
    QBLARLAR
    PPG
    13.10
    Proj
    16.56
  3. Xavier Hutchinson
    XavierHutchinson
    WRHOUHOU
    PPG
    4.12
  4. Rhamondre Stevenson
    RhamondreStevenson
    RBNENE
    PPG
    9.43
    Proj
    12.37