NFL DFS picks for 49ers vs. Jets: Best DraftKings, FanDuel lineups and props for MNF primetime showdown

With a plentiful array of storylines going into the 2024 premiere of Monday Night Football, reigning Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey and the NFC defending-champion 49ers will host four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Jets (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN).

If you're entering some DFS tournaments ahead of this star-studded matchup, the Sporting News can help point you in the right direction of the top sleepers, studs, and value picks so you can optimize your lineups. And what a buffet of talent you'll have to choose from this evening.

On the Niners' side, it's their usual embarrassment of offensive riches: two legit 2023 MVP candidates in McCaffrey and Brock Purdy, and three game-changing pass-catchers in Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and George Kittle. 

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For the Jets, everyone is hyped to see Rodgers in his first NFL action since four snaps into the 2023 campaign, when he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. The four-time MVP and one-time Super Bowl MVP will be looking to add a Comeback Player of the Year to his trophy case, likely aided in that quest by young studs like wideout Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall. 

Let's get to our optimal lineups for the 49ers vs. Jets in DFS showdown and single-game contests on DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft, with an interesting strategy in our main DK roster build. Good luck and enjoy the show!

49ers vs. Jets NFL DFS picks: Optimal DraftKings lineup

Before we get into our lineup and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests: They're full-point PPR, and they feature three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. The Captain pick costs 1.5 times a player's original price, but he also gets his point total multiplied by 1.5.

Captain: Malachi Corley, WR, Jets at 49ers ($2,400)

Before you try to report me to the authorities for making a relatively-unknown fantasy asset our Captain, hear me out. Corley has been turning heads in Jets' camp, and he has reportedly become one of Aaron Rodgers' favorite young targets. The rookie third-round pick is 22 years old, he clocked 23 miles per hour on the GPS while at Western Kentucky, and he can bench 355 pounds. 

But the biggest reason to make Corley our Captain? It allows us to afford the four biggest stars in this game. If we can roster CMC, Hall, Wilson, and Deebo, it feels like a no-brainer to nominate a rookie with upside at Captain and also draft a kicker as our fifth flex. One home-run TD by Corley and we're in the money — two TDs by the rookie often compared to Deebo and he's probably got us in contention for the millionaire maker.

FLEX: Christian McCaffrey, RB, 49ers vs. Jets ($11,600)

What more is there to say about this guy? He's the best overall player in the NFL and easily the top fantasy option. He dominates on the ground and through the air and has very little competition for goal-line touches. He averaged 26.5 DK points per game last season, while the Jets ranked just 26th in fantasy points allowed to RBs on the campaign (meaning they allowed the seventh-most PPR points in the NFL to the position). Write his name in pen, people.  

FLEX 2: Breece Hall, RB, Jets at 49ers ($10,200)

Hall may not be at quite the level CMC is, but he's still damn good — perhaps one of the top three most effective pure running backs in the NFL. He had nine games with 18-plus PPR points last season, and he went nuclear from Week 14 on. During that stretch, he logged a 43.1-point game as well as a 32, a 27.6, and a 26.6. And that was with backup QBs in front of him. Imagine what this dude can do with a four-time MVP under center. 

FLEX 3: Garrett Wilson, WR, Jets at 49ers ($9,800)

Another incredibly talented skill-position player, Wilson averaged 13 DK points per game last season despite massive volatility at signal-caller. Rodgers has a tendency to take star receivers and turn them into superstars, so don't be surprised in the least if Wilson flirts with All-Pro status this season. The Niners are a tough matchup, but so were Buffalo, Dallas, Kansas City, and Philly when he scorched them with Zach Wilson throwing to him last season. 

FLEX 4: Deebo Samuel, WR, 49ers vs. Jets ($9,600)

Again, if you have the opportunity to put these core four studs together in a lineup, you kind of have to do it. Deebo is the YAC king, and a big reason why Brock Purdy has enjoyed so much success as an NFL QB. He averaged 15.7 DK PPG last year, but he showed us in back-to-back performances against Philadelphia and Seattle that he can launch into a different stratosphere (38.8 and 37.0, respectively). If he flirts with 40 points tonight — and we get close to boom performances from the rest of our team — we're cashing in a major way. 

FLEX 5: Jake Moody, K, 49ers vs. Jets ($4,800)

The temptation was there to select the 49ers' defense at home for more money, but instead we went with a sure thing and chose Moody while saying "whatever" about the final $1,600. Again, fortune favors the bold — why risk playing a defense against Rodgers, Hall, and Wilson when D/ST points are already volatile in DFS, when you can get a kicker that averages 8.2 PPG at home in good weather conditions? We're getting Moody and hoping he puts smiles on our faces as the cherry on top of our Monday night sundae. 

49ers vs. Jets NFL DFS picks: Optimal FanDuel lineup

Here are the key scoring settings for FanDuel single-game tournaments: They're half-point PPR with three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, or 100 receiving yards. The MVP pick multiplies that player's total by 1.5 but does not cost 1.5 times their listed salary.

Out strategy differed a bit with our FanDuel lineup, and not just because it's a bad idea to put all our eggs in the basket of a sleeper like Corley. We still have him, just in a flex spot instead of the multiplier. CMC earns that distinction here, mostly because FanDuel doesn't charge you 1.5 times a player's price to get 1.5 times the points he produces. Since we're drafting CMC wherever we can, we're obviously putting him in the MVP spot if it doesn't cost us extra to do so. Purdy gives us a solid floor as well as a potentially-high ceiling in what could easily be a high-scoring game, and Williams joins Corley as the home-run hopefuls on the Jets' side of the ball. 

49ers vs. Jets NFL DFS picks: Optimal SuperDraft lineup

As we did all of last season, we're also featuring SuperDraft lineups in our single-game DFS contest columns. 

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.

Here are the most notable scoring rules for SuperDraft NFL contests: Half-point PPR, four-point passing TDs, and two-point bonuses for 100 rushing yards, 100 receiving yards, and 300 passing yards. SuperDraft lineups feature no D/ST position. The "Champ" position adds an additional 50-percent boost to the selected player, while the SuperFlex positions are limited to the boost listed for each player. 

MORE SUPERDRAFT DFS: How to play SuperDraft

At this point, it feels like we're diversifying our MNF portfolio and stacking a ton of Jets' difference-makers and under-the-radar sleepers together to (a) give us lineup variance against the masses who will simply plug-and-play the studs and (b) get us higher boosts.

CMC gets the 1.5 plus an extra 50-percent on top of it, and all our other big-play guys from Gang Green carry bonuses from 1.2-times to 2.15-times. It's a bold strategy, but how many times have we seen capable veteran QBs go into enemy territory and lead their team to an upset victory on Monday Night Football? This could blow up in our face, or it could give us a big windfall of cash.