The Perfect Monday Night Football DFS Showdown Lineup With Emeka Egbuka & C.J. Stroud
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It is Monday Night, as we are blessed with a doubleheader on the slate. For showdown formulation purposes, we are going to select just one of the two games, and that will be the earlier matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans. This matchup provides for two interesting, dynamic, and explosive offenses. I see tremendous value between both rosters and so we will play this perfect MNF Showdown Lineup.
Buccaneers vs Texans Game Preview
As I always state, football is a game of matchups within the matchup. If we dissect this correctly, we may be able to leverage the best players with the best matchups. The Texans are favored by two points, and I do project this game as a tossup, for the most part. Houston is a very tough, loud place to play, especially in primetime.
My favorite matchups are going to include Emeka Egbuka above all. Derek Stingley projects to shadow cover Mike Evans, leaving Emeka Egbuka to shift around and see every aspect of this secondary. Kamari Lassiter is a good, but not elite corner. Jalen Pitre is a sub-par slot corner. The Texans have done a good job of shelling up opposing offenses, but that will be hard to do today with the threat of Bucky Irving in the flat and the rushing potential.
The depth levels of this Buccaneers offense makes them very hard to gameplan, thus proving them among the best offenses in the NFL. The only two Buccaneers players I am hesitant on tonight would be Mike Evans (vs Derek Stingley) and Cade Otton (depth piece in the passing offense vs good linebackers).
As for the Texans, they are looking to spread the ball around a bit more this year. They obviously have Nico Collins to shred defenses, but as they pay too much attention to Collins, it opens up role players that of Jayden Higgins, Xavier Hutchinson, Jaylen Noel, and Justin Watson. I expect each of them to get a 2-4 targets and one big play makes the day in DFS.
Nick Chubb and Dameon Pierce will have a moderately good rushing matchup, but I find limited upside in the talent of either player. The Texans are meant to be an above-average pass rate team, thus selling more optimism to the pass game when in close to the endzone.
THE PERFECT MNF SHOWDOWN ROSTER
MVP - 1.5X PTS - Emeka Egbuka
The goal is to always try to avoid the highly owned players. This has me fading Baker Mayfield and Bucky Irving in this slot. Emeka Egbuka should have relatively high ownership, but not quite as dominant as the others. If Mike Evans is taken away, Egbuka can see a high target share upwards of ten. I would not be totally surprised if he had another two touchdown game. I project the Buccaneers to score about 25 points tonight with a high floor.
how it feels to have drafted Emeka Egbuka: pic.twitter.com/X1PmjA77Ip
— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) September 7, 2025
FLEX - Baker Mayfield
My highest value play tonight is Baker Mayfield. I project him to close in on 3X salary tonight. He has plenty of options, too many to fail in the passing game. The Texans will try to get after him, but it should fail with the drop down, short-pass potential of Emeka Egbuka, Cade Otton and Bucky Irving. They own the entire football field. Not to mention, Baker is fully capable of rushing for 30-50 yards in any game. He had 39 rushing yards in Week 1.
FLEX - Bucky Irving
Yes I know, he is another highly-owned player tonight, but we need certain guys with high-floors. Bucky Irving has an advantageous rushing matchup and will have pass-game usage. For a player that may well exceed 20 touches tonight, his touchdown opportunity is massive, that of maybe scoring twice. In fact, I am projecting Bucky Irving to have 130 total yards of offense tonight.
FLEX - CJ Stroud
Okay, we now find ourselves to our first Texans player. In no way do I see the Texans getting into a run-script. CJ Stroud will have to sling the football tonight and as a much cheaper option to Baker Mayfield, I would love to own the other quarterback as well. He passed the ball only 27 times last week, but the Rams matchup was a brutal one of Houston that I never liked them to win, ever.
I am projecting CJ Stroud to have 242 Passing Yards and 1.34 Passing Touchdowns tonight. In an ideal world, a couple explosive plays make this game a true shootout and all of a sudden we look up and see CJ Stroud over 300 yards and multiple touchdowns. I see a high ceiling. He is a 4/5 on my risk level (good) and 5/5 on my upside level (great).
FLEX - Dalton Schultz
Dalton Schultz is essentially the 2nd passing option in this offense. Jayden Higgins is still earning his role, and no one else is a threat. Antoine Winfield Jr, Tykee Smith, and Lavonte David are a moderate matchup for Dalton Schultz. In volume, he should payoff at just $5,200 of salary. One touchdown may make him hit 3X rather easily.
FLEX - Jayden Higgins
Going top heavy, we will invest very cheap in Jayden Higgins. At $3,000, we just need nine points to hit 3x, and 6 points for 2x. Higgins had 3 targets in Week 1, but that was over a 10% target share. As the weeks go on, he will only increase in workload.
PLAYER | POSITION | SALARY |
|---|---|---|
Emeka Egbuka | MVP - 1.5X | $14,700 |
Baker Mayfield | FLEX | $13,200 |
Bucky Irving | FLEX | $12,200 |
CJ Stroud | FLEX | $11,200 |
Dalton Schultz | FLEX | $5,200 |
Jayden Higgins | FLEX | $3,000 |
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.