NFL DFS Expert Survey: Thursday Night Football - Giants vs. 49ers

Our panel of experts is here to give you their NFL DFS picks for the upcoming Showdown slate by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know headChopper’s three favorite Captains? Or squirrelpatrol’s favorite correlation? Find out below!

NFL DFS Showdown Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Expert Survey for Thursday Night Football

DraftKings

Who are your three favorite Captains, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Deebo Samuel, Darren Waller, George Kittle
headChopper: Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Daniel Jones
kmurray03: Christian McCaffrey, Daniel Jones, Deebo Samuel
TJ Zwarych: Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brock Purdy

Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite Captain?

squirrelpatrol: Brock Purdy
headChopper: 49ers D
kmurray03: Darren Waller
TJ Zwarych: Brock Purdy

Who are your three highest exposure players in your FLEX position, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Christian McCaffrey, Daniel Jones, Eli Mitchell
headChopper: George Kittle, Darren Waller, Brock Purdy
kmurray03: Darren Waller, George Kittle, Brock Purdy
TJ Zwarych: Darren Waller, 49ers D, Darius Slayton

Who is your favorite contrarian Captain?

squirrelpatrol: George Kittle
headChopper: Darren Waller
kmurray03: George Kittle
TJ Zwarych: Darren Waller

Who is your favorite contrarian FLEX option?

squirrelpatrol: Wan’Dale Robinson (if active) or Gary Brightwell
headChopper: Jalin Hyatt
kmurray03: Darius Slayton
TJ Zwarych: Wan’Dale Robinson (if active) or Elijah Mitchell

What player do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Deebo Samuel
headChopper: 49ers D
kmurray03: George Kittle
TJ Zwarych: Deebo Samuel

What player do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Christian McCaffrey
headChopper: Daniel Jones
kmurray03: Matt Breida
TJ Zwarych: Jauan Jennings

FanDuel

Who are your three favorite MVPs, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Daniel Jones
headChopper: Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Daniel Jones
kmurray03: Christian McCaffrey, Daniel Jones, Deebo Samuel
TJ Zwarych: Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brock Purdy

Who is your favorite player to correlate with your favorite MVP?

squirrelpatrol: Brock Purdy
headChopper: 49ers D
kmurray03: Darren Waller
TJ Zwarych: 49ers D

Who are your three highest exposure players in your AnyFLEX position, ranked in order?

squirrelpatrol: George Kittle, Eli Mitchell, Jake Moody
headChopper: Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Darren Waller
kmurray03: Brock Purdy, Jake Moody, George Kittle
TJ Zwarych: Darren Waller, Brock Purdy, 49ers D

Who is your favorite contrarian MVP?

squirrelpatrol: George Kittle
headChopper: Deebo Samuel
kmurray03: George Kittle
TJ Zwarych: Darren Waller

Who is your favorite contrarian AnyFLEX option?

squirrelpatrol: Eli Mitchell
headChopper: Eli Mitchell
kmurray03: Eric Gray
TJ Zwarych: Elijah Mitchell

What player do you plan on being most overweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: Eli Mitchell
headChopper: Eli Mitchell
kmurray03: Darius Slayton
TJ Zwarych: Deebo Samuel

What player do you plan on being most underweight on compared to the field?

squirrelpatrol: 49ers D/ST
headChopper: George Kittle
kmurray03: Matt Breida
TJ Zwarych: Juwan Johnson

What is your favorite game-script build and why?

squirrelpatrol: This game brings the first double-digit spread of the NFL season, and it’s hard to argue with the 49ers being strong favorites at home against a Giants team that will be missing their premiere weapon on offense in Saquon Barkley. I can see the 49ers running away with this one literally behind their multi-player rushing attack.

headChopper: I anticipate a one-sided victory for the 49ers in this upcoming game. The Giants’ offense is expected to struggle, leaving opportunities for, even, Eli Mitchell to showcase his skills during this lopsided game.

kmurray03: Giants struggle to move the ball without Saquon Barkley against this tough 49ers defense, the 49ers run away with the game early and control the matchup, but some of the Giants players are able to put up some production in garbage time.

TJ Zwarych: The 49ers dominate the Giants in a convincing victory, with the running game being very heavily involved. Full-out 49ers onslaught.

Which players will you restrict from appearing together often due to possible negative correlation?

squirrelpatrol: I will look to restrict my lineups to one Giants RB per lineup, as well as setting a rule to pair Brock Purdy MVP/CPT lineups with multiple SF receivers.

headChopper: Giants running backs. It will be hard enough for 1 to do well, let alone multiple.

kmurray03: I won’t be using any more than 1 Giants RB, as this likely shakes out to be a committee here with no Saquon.

TJ Zwarych: Maximum 1 Giants running back. Maximum 2 Giants pass catchers unless Daniel Jones is CPT/MVP.

What is your favorite way to differentiate from the field?

squirrelpatrol: The most likely game scenario is the 49ers win easily and the most popular player is Christian McCaffrey, but I’m not sure those two things go together as easily as it appears. McCaffrey gets a good amount of points in the passing game and has an injury history, while the 49ers may not need to pass much in this one and have aspirations to be playing in February. I’ll likely be under the field on McCaffrey and will aim to pair him with multiple Giants players when I use him in lineups.

headChopper: I’m predicting a 49ers blowout, and my strategy hinges on their backup running backs. With them lightening the load for McCaffrey, it opens up the opportunity for Mitchell to shine tonight.

kmurray03: Giants position players and George Kittle. Using Daniel Jones makes plenty of sense with his rushing upside, but if you are using the 49ers onslaught builds and wanted to save some money, I like names like Darius Slayton and Eric Gray as contrarian options. I also think we see George Kittle come in as the forgotten 49er.

TJ Zwarych: I think a lot of people will be playing either McCaffrey or Elijah Mitchell as a pivot. I want to play them both, with Deebo Samuel and the 49ers D alongside them. I think this is a full-on blow out for the 49ers and all of the potential runners are heavily involved.

What is an example of one rule you can program into LineupHQ to capitalize on the above strategies?

squirrelpatrol: Groups > New Group > Conditional Player Brock Purdy MVP/CPT – Use 2 to 3 – Add all SF WR/TEs as players in the group

headChopper: Groups > Max Position Groups > NYG RBs 0-1

kmurray03: Groups > New Group >Max Position Groups > 0-1 players > NYG RBs – Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell, Eric Gray

TJ Zwarych: Groups > New Group > Max Position Groups > NYG RBs 0-1

What is your hottest take for this game?

squirrelpatrol: Darren Waller pulls down more receptions than the rest of his Giants teammates combined.

headChopper: Eli Mitchell outscores all the Giants running backs combined in this game.

kmurray03: Eric Gray finds the end zone.

TJ Zwarych: Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchel and Deebo Samuel all score rushing touchdowns.

Predict the final score of the game.

squirrelpatrol: SF 27 – NYG 17

headChopper: SF 31 NYG 13

kmurray03: SF 31 – NYG 17

TJ Zwarych: SF 38 – NYG 17

Image Credit: Getty Images