We won't need Taylor Swift to hype up this week's edition of Sunday Night Football, as the 49ers and Cowboys in Santa Clara might be the best matchup of the young season. Today we will go over our favorite single-game tournament FanDuel picks for this NFC clash, and explain our strategies for making some primetime DFS cash.
Who can blame us for putting the 49ers atop our NFL Week 5 power rankings? They have been dominant at just about every level of the game, and they have two of the leading candidates for both MVP (Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy) and Defensive Player of the Year (Nick Bosa and Fred Warner). Kyle Shanahan's squad is a force to be reckoned with, and the biggest challenge of the Cowboys' young season.
Dallas has been pretty awesome in three of the past four weeks, with its only blip on the radar a surprising road upset in Arizona. When Mike McCarthy's squad has been on, it has been almost untouchable — the Cowboys three wins have been by a combined 108-13. Micah Parsons, probably the DPOY if voting occurred today, has led a defense that has surrendered an NFL-low 10.3 points per game.
Which team will prevail in this epic clash of NFC titans? You'll have to check our betting preview to see our final score prediction, but if you're crafting a lineup on FanDuel, you've come to the right place. Like we always do with primetime games, we will unveil our top DFS picks and explain our roster-building strategy below. Good luck, have fun, and enjoy what should be an instant classic of a game!
Before we break down our picks and strategy, here are the most notable scoring rules for FanDuel contests: four-point passing TDs and half-point PPR.
MORE 49ERS-COWBOYS: SuperDraft player props | Betting preview | DraftKings lineup
49ers-Cowboys FanDuel Picks Week 5: NFL DFS lineup for GPP tournaments
$60,000 budget, must include at least one player from each team
MVP (1.5x points) Christian McCaffrey, RB, 49ers ($17,500)
McCaffrey has reestablished himself as the most dominant offensive threat in football both in real life and fantasy land. His four-touchdown, 177-yard performance against the Cardinals last week was a sight to behold, and many of us (rightly) believe he's the most valuable player in the game.
While we picked Brock Purdy as our Captain in DraftKings Showdown lineups, we can't avoid CMC as our MVP in FanDuel contests as his price doesn't go up but his points boost by 1.5 times. Our M.O. in FD lineup construction every week is to pick the best fantasy option of the game, and it's impossible to argue that anyone else in this one has a higher ceiling.
FLEX Brandon Aiyuk, WR, 49ers ($15,000)
In case you haven't been paying attention, Aiyuk is the best receiver in San Francisco. Sure, Deebo Samuel remains an electric, insanely-strong, dazzling playmaker, but Aiyuk is a better overall vertical threat by far. The Purdy-Aiyuk connection has been eye-popping — they connected on 8-of-8 targets for 129 yards and two TDs in the Niners' Week 1 win in Pittsburgh and 6-of-6 targets for 148 yards last week against Arizona. Now Aiyuk gets to go against a Dallas secondary missing top defensive back Trevon Diggs? Yeah, we'll ride with that.
Another strong option in this price range: Brock Purdy, QB, 49ers ($14,500) — Purdy makes for a fine upside play. He's No. 1 in the NFL in QB rating (115.1) and top three in both completion rate (72.3%) and yards per pass thrown (9.1). The Cowboys have allowed 189 passing yards and 326.5 total yards per game in the two contests since Diggs tore his ACL, despite going against Josh Dobbs and Mac Jones in that span.
FLEX George Kittle, TE, 49ers ($10,000)
Dallas has been pretty good against tight ends this season — surrendering the 10th-fewest points to the position — but Kittle in primetime always finds a way to make an impact. In San Fran's only night game of this season, he caught 7-of-9 targets for 90 yards. In 20 career primetime games, the four-time Pro Bowler has averaged 73.4 yards per game, hauled in 78.5 percent of his targets, and scored 12 total TDs. Fire this man up.
FLEX Brandon Aubrey, K, Cowboys ($9,000)
While Jake Moody seems to be getting all the kicker attention so far this season, Aubrey is actually averaging more FanDuel points per game (12.8 to 11.3). The 49ers defense is also dominant at home and much healthier than the Cowboys, so Dallas will likely have more kicking opportunities than San Francisco. We almost picked Brandin Cooks here, but we actually like the upside better with Aubrey's legs. He has converted all 13 of his field goal attempts this season and he's made nine consecutive PATs entering this weekend.
FLEX Michael Gallup, WR, Cowboys ($8,500)
While Charvarius Ward and Ambry Thomas could spend most of their time covering Cowboys wideouts CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks, Gallup could find himself open in a game that will probably see Dallas playing from behind (49ers are -3.5 favorites and the O/U is 45 on BetMGM). This is our favorite sleeper play of this primetime matchup — Gallup has quietly scored 20.7 FanDuel points over the past two weeks.
Best SuperDraft NFL DFS Picks for 49ers-Cowboys
As we have every week, we're also listing our favorite single-game DFS plays on SuperDraft.
For those unfamiliar, SuperDraft's DFS scoring involves point multipliers as opposed to traditional salary-capped or tiered contests. A winning lineup will likely feature a strong mix of stud fantasy contributors with 1x-1.6x boosts, as well as matchup-based sleepers with larger multipliers. Each player is assigned a scoring multiplier based on their value as determined by SuperDraft. Users can roster any player in their lineup with no restrictions.
MORE: Win BIG with SuperDraft! Join now and get a free deposit match of $20!
Here are the most notable scoring rules for SuperDraft NFL contests: Half-point PPR, four-point passing TDs, two-point bonuses for 100 rushing yards, 100 receiving yards, and 300 passing yards.
MORE SUPERDRAFT DFS: How to play SuperDraft
- Champion (+50% points): Christian McCaffrey, RB, 49ers (1.5x)
- Super FLEX: Brock Purdy, QB, 49ers (1.9x)
- Super FLEX: Brandon Aiyuk, WR, 49ers (1.35x)
- Super FLEX: George Kittle, TE, 49ers (1.55x)
- Super FLEX: Michael Gallup, WR, Cowboys (1.75x)
We went with a similar approach with our SuperDraft lineup, but we couldn't avoid CMC as our Champion with the 1.5-times boost on top of the 50 percent bump. Every spot in our lineup has a high floor and a good boost, and Aiyuk has the lowest boost but the highest ceiling.
