FanDuel Single-Game Daily Fantasy Football Helper: Week 8 Sunday Night, Presented by Guinness

Week 8's Sunday Night Football matchup has a great game on tap.

Over at NFL odds, the Dallas Cowboys are 1.5-point road favorites over the Minnesota Vikings in a game with a juicy 55.0-point total. That makes the implied score 28.25-26.75 in favor of Dallas.

The single-game slate on FanDuel should be one filled with fantasy points, but it gets even better, thanks to Guinness' Halloween Challenge (and Last Touchdown Bonus).

In addition to the free-to-play contest with a $20,000 prize pool, there is also a bonus opportunity for rostering the game's last touchdown scorer, and you can read up on all the details here.

As for the single-game format itself, for those unfamiliar, these slates feature five flex spots with identical scoring to the main slate. However, kickers are included in these contests, and there is an "MVP" roster slot. The MVP receives 1.5-times his total fantasy points, making this spot crucial.

Our Brandon Gdula has done a deep dive on single-game strategy. It's worth checking out before you make your lineups.

MVP Candidates

Dak Prescott, Cowboys ($16,000)
Both quarterbacks project well in what is expected to be a shootout. Dak Prescott stands out over Kirk Cousins ($15,000), assuming Prescott's calf ailment isn't an issue.

Dak has scored at least 20 FanDuel points in five of six games, including three games of 27-plus. He's barely running this year, with his 3.2 carries and 11.7 yards per game checking in as career-low marks, but he's putting up several career-best numbers as a passer, including a 7.4% touchdown rate and 9.0 adjusted yards per attempt.

Surrounded by elite weapons and playing in a game in which Dallas should have to keep its foot on the gas, Prescott projects for a slate-leading 20.2 FanDuel points, per our model.

That's not to write off Cousins, though. We have him at 19.3 FanDuel points, and he surely won't see as much MVP love as Dak does, making him a fun multiplier play.

If Dak winds up sitting, it would alter the entire slate and ding the outlook of everyone on Dallas.

Editor's note: Prescott has been ruled out. Cooper Rush ($10,000) will start and offer tons of salary flexibility but reduce projected output for the Cowboys. Rush is the highest projected value play in our projections now, but the Vikings now hold four of the top six overall projected players.

Dalvin Cook, Vikings ($14,000)
Dalvin Cook returned from injury in Week 6 and looked great, racking up 31 total touches (29 carries) on his way to 143 total yards and a touchdown. He's had a bye week to regroup, and he wasn't on Minnesota's first injury report of the week.

In short, it's all systems go for Cook.

In his three fully healthy games (not counting the Cleveland Browns game in Week 4), Cook has produced 21.3, 15.8, and 17.4 FanDuel points. His workload gives him an elite floor/ceiling combination, and our algorithm projects Cook for 18.5 FanDuel points, rating him as the best overall point-per-dollar play on the slate.

Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys ($13,500)
Since his quiet game in Week 1, Ezekiel Elliott has been heavily involved. He's carried the ball at least 16 times in every outing, and he's recorded 9 attempts inside the five, the second-most among all backs. He's also played at least 70% of the snaps in all but one game this season.

Dallas has been leaning on the run, sporting the sixth-lowest pass rate (53.8%), and when you couple that with Zeke's red-zone role in an offense that scores a lot of points, he checks a lot of boxes.

Minnesota's defense has been surprisingly stout so far this year, sitting fourth-best by our metrics, but the volume and high total force us to have Zeke on our MVP radar. Our algorithm forecasts him to produce 15.1 FanDuel points.

Justin Jefferson, Vikings ($12,000)
Justin Jefferson has put up double-digit FanDuel points in every game and is averaging 15.2 per game for the season. He's been really good.

But we haven't yet seen a true high-upside outburst from him this year as he has only one contest -- a 22.3-point game -- with more than 17.4 FanDuel points. He had three such games a year ago, including a high of 30.6 FanDuel points.

We could get a ceiling game on Sunday night.

While the Cowboys' defense has gotten a lot of praise this year, they've been pretty reliant on turnovers and are surrendering the sixth-most FanDuel points per game to receivers (34.2).

Jefferson owns a 25% target share, a 40% air yards share, and a 43.8% red-zone share -- all of which pace the Vikings -- and we project him to score 14.9 FanDuel points. He's my favorite MVP play on the slate.

Flex Priorities

CeeDee Lamb ($12,500) and Amari Cooper ($11,500)
These two are playing about the same number of snaps, and their usage is very similar. Both are plenty viable in this matchup.

For the campaign, CeeDee Lamb has played 14 more snaps than Amari Cooper. Both have a 29% air yards share while Lamb has a slight edge in target share (23% to 19%). Although the unexpected emergence of Dalton Schultz ($10,000) has siphoned some looks away from these wideouts, there's still a lot to like with each of them.

Our model sides with Lamb, projecting him for 13.4 FanDuel points, compared to Cooper's clip of 11.9. Lamb is the slightly better point-per-dollar play, according to our numbers, despite the higher salary. Both are worth getting exposure to, and Lamb is likely to be popular after he erupted for 31.6 FanDuel points the last time we saw him.

Adam Thielen, Vikings ($11,000)
Dating back to the start of 2020, Adam Thielen has 19 touchdowns in 21 games. Going back to Week 1 of 2018, he has 34 scores across his last 47 games.

I came into the season thinking Thielen was due for negative touchdown regression after his 14-tuddie effort a season ago, but it seems like the guy is just an elite touchdown producer. His usage is a big reason why, as he's responsible for 71.4% of Minnesota's targets inside the 10, catching all five of his looks in the split and turning them into three scores.

While I prefer Jefferson, Thielen is a fine play, and the Cowboys have been a friendly matchup for receivers. We have him pegged for 11.7 FanDuel points.

Value/Differentiators

K.J. Osborn, Vikings ($8,000)
K.J. Osborn has carved out a nice little role in the Vikings' offense. He owns a 15% target share and 16% air yards share and has become a reliable third wideout behind Jefferson and Thielen.

On a slate with so many productive players at five-digit salaries, we need to save salary somewhere. Osborn is a great way to do that, and he's flashed with games of 17.6 and 16.8 FanDuel points so far this season.

Michael Gallup, Cowboys ($7,000)
In the event Michael Gallup suits up -- which doesn't seem super likely as of Friday -- he'd be pretty enticing at his salary.

Gallup hasn't played since exiting early in Week 1, but he posted a 17% target share and 26% air yards share in 2020. He actually led Dallas' wideouts in snaps last year, as well. Time will tell how his usage shakes out this season, but he's capable of big plays and is usually out there for a lot of snaps when he plays.

Tyler Conklin, Vikings ($7,000)
Tyler Conklin is a decent low-salary dart throw.

Dallas has allowed the 12th-most FanDuel points per game to tight ends (12.6), and the usage isn't bad for Conklin. He's played at least 71% of the snaps in every game, including two outings with an 85% snap share across his last three, and he's accounted for 12% of the targets this season.

Our model projects Conklin, Tony Pollard ($8,500), Osborn and Alexander Mattison ($7,500) as similar point-per-dollar values.