In Sunday night’s Showdown, the San Francisco 49ers visit the Los Angeles Rams for their third matchup of the season. For a breakdown of this game, check out Rich Hribar’s Fantasy Football Worksheet.

The Rams are favorites of just over a field goal, and offer most of the best value plays too, so rostership should skew more towards them. This should allow for underdog leverage, as I usually recommend taking advantage of. 

Strategy

Onslaught lineups with five 49ers project for only 2% of all entries, while those with five Rams are over four times that. Four 49ers is >17% with four Rams nearly double at >32%. That leaves 3-3 even builds expected for almost 40%, which I'd recommend going underweight on.

Cooper Kupp will certainly be the most used CPT (>22%) and flex (>80%). Some strong leverage off of him would be Odell Beckham Jr. (>5% CPT, <33% flex) or a lower-priced Rams pass-catcher. The next popular CPT choices should be Deebo Samuel (13%) and Cam Akers (>10%). Akers has been brutally inefficient since returning from injury but has been given tons of touches. If choosing to fade him, you could do so by pivoting to Sony Michel or building as if the 49ers win. Matthew Stafford, George Kittle, and Eli Mitchell are in the 8-10% range for CPT projections and anyone else will be very contrarian. All three of these are viable options to go over the field with, but my favorite would be Stafford while making sure to stack him with one or more depth options. Omitting Kupp from the stack would allow for great differentiation. While Jimmy Garoppolo has failed to produce in every playoff game of his career, it isn't impossible that he could appear in the optimal, even as CPT.

DK Values

  • Jauan Jennings ($2200)
  • Cam Akers ($7000)
  • Tyler Higbee ($5200)

DK Leverage

  • Sony Michel ($4800)
  • Kyle Juszczyk ($1600)

DK Build Ideas

  • Max 1 DST, Max 1 K
  • Max 2 depth WR/TE/RB
  • If CPT QB, include one depth option in stack 
  • If CPT RB, negative boost opposing DST/K
  • If CPT WR/TE boost team QB and force at least 1 QB (either team)
  • Cumulative ownership under 250%
  • Leave salary unspent 

FD Values

  • Cam Akers ($11,000)
  • Tyler Higbee ($8000)

FD Leverage

  • Robbie Gould ($9000) – for once, FD has much better values in this range
  • Sony Michel ($8000)

FD Build Ideas

  • No K or TE at MVP
  • Focus on 3-2 build construction
  • No solo CPT in 1-4 construction
  • Negative boost opposing QBs (Lineups with both only win 30%)
  • If WR CPT, boost QB
  • QB is overused but RB and WR are underutilized at MVP
  • Don’t stack 3 pass catchers from the same team
  • Don’t force the max salary

For more optimizer build rules to consider, check out the list for each DK and FD here.