Mike’s Player Grid

Mike Johnson (MJohnson86) has racked up over $500,000 in DFS profit as an NFL tournament player with success in all styles of contests

Welcome back to my (Mjohnson86) Player Grid. The format will vary slightly from JM’s Player Grid, as we each see things slightly differently and play in slightly different contests, but should complement his thoughts and content very well for those looking to build their lineups for the week. The format of this article will vary slightly from my FanDuel Player Grid, which will be more direct in terms of which players I like. Enjoy!!

The Core ::

This is a list of players that stand out to me at each position from using my “Checking the Boxes” criteria outlined in my course you can find in our Marketplace. This list is a starting point, from which I build out lineups using game theory and roster construction concepts (which we will also touch on) with the mindset being to find the best plays with big ceilings. Low ownership is a bonus, but not a must. This section will focus primarily on three positions – running back, tight end, and defense – as the other two positions (quarterback and wide receiver) tend to have more dependent tendencies which I try to attack from other angles (which we will get into in the other sections). I like all of these plays on all sites unless otherwise noted:

Running Back::

• Jahmyr Gibbs –  Gibbs is arguably the best running back in the league and is fully healthy and fresh in a huge game for Week 1. I expect the Lions new offensive coordinator to ride his best player. In a week where we can easily afford Gibbs and he is projecting for single-digit ownership, that is enough for me.
• Jonathan Taylor – JT ended 2024 on a heater and has been saved from the Anthony Richardson experience to start 2025. He should have a massive workload in a good matchup and carries a middling salary for his ceiling.
• Bijan Robinson – Another “don’t overthink it” guy, Bijan is the engine of this offense and provides both a high floor and ceiling. There are some concerns about the loss of the Falcons’ best offensive lineman, but if they can’t run, then I would just expect his receiving volume to rise as a result. We can afford him, so play him.
• James Conner – The “concerns” around Conner are about durability over the course of the season. For this week, he should have his normal bell-cow role in what appears likely to be an above-average matchup.
• Alvin Kamara – Similar to Conner, Kamara is a player in a decent matchup for Week 1 and should have a huge role to start the season.
• Travis Etienne // Tank Bigsby – Etienne can be used in a variety of ways and is versatile enough to make plays on the ground or through the receiving game. Bigsby broke a lot of big plays last season and is very cheap. This looks like a great matchup and Liam Coen’s offense generally provides a lot of backfield production. We don’t know for certain where it will come from, but one of these guys scoring 20 to 25 points wouldn’t surprise me at all. I will have some of both of these guys in mid-to-large field contests.
• **Christian McCaffrey** – I may or may not end up playing CMC, depending on the reports around his status/health after being limited in Thursday’s practice (Editor’s note: CMC did not practice on Friday but said his injury was “nothing serious”. Your guess is as good as ours here.) There is a chance he is fine and the concern created by him showing up on the injury report just gives us a nice ownership discount.

Tight End ::