The Rams and 49ers meet in San Francisco on Monday Night Football in Week 4, facing off in a massive early-season divisional clash and rematch of the 2021 NFC Championships. After a slow start, Los Angeles is now 2-1 and starting to get more comfortable offensively without Odell Beckham Jr. or Robert Woods. The Niners, meanwhile, are adapting to life after the Trey Lance ankle injury forced Jimmy Garoppolo back under center in the Bay Area. Today we’ll reveal our favorite DraftKings Showdown lineup for this NFC West primetime bout, setting you up for a Monday night payday.
We’ve used multiple strategies so far on Monday Night Showdowns, and this week we’ll try out the ‘Chalk Captain’ approach. By maximizing the value from our points boost, we set ourselves up for a strong baseline of production but simultaneously trim our ancillary budget in a major way. Let’s dive into our lineup picks, and explain why we think these six roster picks will win us some cash this Monday evening.
Before we get into our picks, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests: They’re full-point PPR and there are 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.
MORE DK SHOWDOWN: How to win a Showdown contest
DraftKings Showdown Picks: Rams at 49ers Week 4 Monday Night Football
$50,000 budget, need at least one player from each team.
Captain (1.5x points, 1.5x salary): WR Cooper Kupp, Rams ($18,000)
We usually advise against picking the most expensive player for the Captain spot, but Kupp is so head-and-shoulders better fantasy-wise that he’s unavoidable for the 1.5-times boost. With veteran receiver and first-year Rams WR2 Allen Robinson off to an inconsistent start in L.A., and Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson leading a largely-uninspiring backfield attack, Kupp is the Rams’ offense.
The reigning receiving yards and catches champ — not to mention the Super Bowl MVP — Kupp has been otherworldly since linking up with QB Matthew Stafford. Simply put, he has become the 2020’s version of Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson. And as we learned in the NFC Conference Championship game, the 49ers can only wish to contain him.
Kupp hauled in 11 catches for 142 yards and two TDs again San Fran en route to Super Bowl glory. Now he gets to meet the Niners one week after they allowed Seattle’s Tyler Lockett to amass nine catches for 107 yards. We know the $18,000 is a big gulp, but as far as we’re concerned, Kupp’s up!
WEEK 4 DFS LINEUPS: FanDuel | DraftKings
FLEX QB Matthew Stafford, Rams ($10,600)
It makes all the sense in the world to stack Stafford with Kupp, given that they are the best QB and WR in the game and they have a friggin’ mind-meld like no other duo in the NFL. It’s tempting to go with Jimmy G ($10,000) over Stafford and allow ourselves $600 more on another piece — but we’re far less confident in Jimmy G’s abilities to limit turnovers and accrue lots of yards and/or touchdowns.
The Rams defense looks awful on paper due to a Week 1 bludgeoning by the AFC-favorite Bills. But in actuality, they remain one of the better Ds in the NFC. They still have a premier pass-rush led by Aaron Donald, and a secondary led by elite cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Thus, we will take our chances with Stafford over Garoppolo, even though the Niners defense is just as stout if not better. Stafford is far superior a downfield passer and has a much higher ceiling when it comes to TD-passing.
WEEK 4 DFS: Best values | Best stacks
FLEX WR Brandon Aiyuk, 49ers ($7,600)
With $28,600 of our $50,000 budget going toward Kupp and Stafford, naturally we must trim our spending from here on out. And we want to stay away from Deebo Samuel, who has largely underwhelmed so far this season after netting 2,000-plus scrimmage yards in a breakout 2021 campaign. Samuel also seems destined to draw plenty of Jalen Ramsey, one of the more dominating corners in the NFL. We like Aiyuk to break free in a game that should feature a ton of attempts by Jimmy G, who looks the young wideout’s way plenty in tight games. Aiyuk has garnered eight targets in each of the past two weeks, posting at least 11 DraftKings points in both games. He also came down with San Fran’s lone touchdown in a close loss to Denver last weekend.
WEEK 4 PPR RANKINGS:
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | D/STs | Kicker
FLEX TE Tyler Higbee, Rams ($5,200)
We like Higbee at $5,200 a whole hell of a lot better than Allen Robinson at $6,200, that’s for sure. And judging by the target share in L.A., so does Stafford! The tight end has 24 targets through three games, which he’s turned into 16 receptions for 171 yards and 11.0 PPR points per game. If he finds the end zone, you’re looking at a floor in the mid-to-high teens for a price tag of just $5,200. Let it Higbee!
WEEK 4 STANDARD RANKINGS:
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | D/STs | Kicker
FLEX WR Ben Skowronek, Rams ($4,400)
We are basically monopolizing the Rams’ passing game at this point, minus the underperforming ARob. It’s a worthwhile strategy, with the reigning-champion Rams just starting to hit their stride while Jimmy G and the Niners looked abhorrent against the Broncos last weekend. Skowronek, while an unpleasant name to say and spell out, has been solid this season. He’s caught 10-of-13 passes for 107 yards, and he’s coming off his best game of the season with 4-of-4 for 66 yards against the Cardinals. He’s a boom-or-bust play, but between him and Higbee, one of them could come down with a TD.
FLEX DST Rams ($3,600)
With exactly $4,200, we could have gone with the Niners defense and spent all $50,000 of our budget. But why would we do that, considering we’re stacking our squad with the expectation that Los Angeles will dominate this game offensively? We also don’t want to go with Robbie Gould ($4,000) or Matt Gay ($3,800), as we expect both teams will need TDs to win and/or stay in this game. So we’re going with the Rams, who scored nine fantasy points in each of their first two games against Buffalo and Atlanta. Jimmy G will make mistakes, and he will get sacked a bunch. Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and company should be able to capitalize, and help push this Rams-loaded lineup into the money.
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