Greetings, Gamers! Welcome to the Awesemo NFL DFS Single-Game Prime Time series for FanDuel and DraftKings Showdown slates. For each of the featured games, typically Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football slates, we will be providing a free analysis for the single-slate action on DraftKings and FanDuel. This will include team capsules as well as player rankings and comments for all of your daily fantasy needs. We have loads to get into on this Sunday Night Football slate between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, with thoughts on Miles Sanders, George Kittle and more NFL DFS picks for your NFL DFS lineups.
NFL DFS Picks: Sunday Night Football Showdown | Eagles at 49ers -7.0 | O/U 45.0
Philadelphia Eagles: 19.0
Quarterback
Carson Wentz is going to be missing a whole host of receiving options on Monday. Jalen Reagor and Dallas Goedert are both on the IR. Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson and Marquise Goodwin are all out, and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside is doubtful. That leaves a Zach Ertz, Greg Ward, John Hightower and Deontay Burnett as the healthy options. Fortunately, Miles Sanders is a good downfield receiver as well out of the backfield.
The 49ers are running thin on defense and will be without Dre Greenlaw, Ahkello Witherspoon and Emmanuel Moseley on Sunday, which will hurt their pass coverage and keep them from cheating to stop the run. Keep in mind that Richard Sherman, Mark Nzeocha, Solomon Thomas and Dee Ford are all currently on the injured reserve.
Somehow San Francisco kept Daniel Jones in check last week with 179 yards and one interception. He did have 49 yards on the ground, but some of that was escaping pressure in the pocket. Philadelphia is almost as thin as those Giants, and the depleted 49ers had two sacks, two fumble recoveries and the interception, allowing just nine points. Wentz is going to still have his work cut out for him. For perspective, he is a fringe QB20 in most projection systems even with the two postponed games this week.
UPDATE: It was just announced Saturday afternoon that left tackle Jason Peters is now on the injured reserve with a foot/toe issue.
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Running Back
After missing Week 1, Miles Sanders has played on 77% and 78% of the snaps each of the last two weeks. Boston Scott has played on 18% and 14% with Corey Clement chipping in on just nine snaps. In these games it has been Sanders with 38 carries for 190 yards and a touchdown with Scott seeing seven carries for 24 yards and Clement three for eight yards. The targets have gone the same way with Sanders seeing 15 and Scott just four.
With so many key players out, it makes sense to load up on Sanders, who is just inside the top 10 running backs in most projection systems this week. He should approach 25 combined carries and targets on Sunday night.
Wide Receiver
This will be the ninth game for Greg Ward, and that makes the former University of Houston quarterback the most experienced wide receiver on the Eagles who will be suiting up. Fifth-round rookie John Hightower was catching passes last year from Brett Rypien, and now both are playing key roles in Week 4’s prime time games. Hightower played on 86% of the snaps last week with seven targets for three catches and 17 yards, and he should see a similar workload on Sunday.
This will be the eighth game for Deontay Burnett, who has bounced around the Jets and Eagles practice squads the last three seasons. Last week he saw four targets for three catches and 19 yards and played on 43% of the snaps. We should see him on the field closer to 70% of the time as the third wide receiver.
Tight End
Zach Ertz does not have to share targets with Dallas Goedert, who was injured on his sixth play last weekend and is now on the injured reserve. We have seen the eight-year veteran serve as the main pass catching option several times before in Philadelphia, and he should be peppered with targets. This week most projection systems have him as a top-three tight end.
Defense/Special Teams
This season the Eagles have eight sacks but just one takeaway. Backup quarterback Nick Mullens does a decent job taking care of the ball with 11 interceptions and four fumbles lost in his 11 games. He has been sacked 21 times, so there is the potential for the Philadelphia defense to post a counting score in the single-game contests.
San Francisco 49ers: 26.0
Quarterback
Jimmy Garoppolo is still recovering from a high ankle sprain and will be out Sunday and potentially next week as well. Mullens is a capable backup, and we saw him perform well as a rookie in 2018, replacing an injured Garoppolo for the final eight games of the season. While he won’t run much at all, Mullens can capably move the chains and give San Francisco a good chance to win at home. He has tallied a 5-5 record in his 10 career starts.
Running Back
With Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman on the shelf last week, we saw Jeff Wilson play 23 snaps to Jerick McKinnon‘s 48, which represents a 30% and 62% share, respectively. Kyle Juszczyk played on about half of the snaps, which has been typical for him this season. JaMycal Hasty saw his first action, and the undrafted rookie had two carries for nine yards, caught his only target for another nine and was on the field for six snaps.
Clearly the ever-fragile McKinnon is looking like the lead back, and he has found the end zone in each of the first three games. However, the 14 carries for 38 yards and a touchdown and four targets for three catches and 39 yards last week does not exactly have me doing cartwheels. On half the snaps, Wilson had a very similar volume with 12 carries for 15 yards and touchdown and three receptions for 54 yards and another score, making this a bit of a coin flip in my opinion.
Wide Receiver
Deebo Samuel should be back in action, though who really knows what coach Kyle Shanahan means when he said that the second-year receiver would be “…eased back into the team’s offense.” Front and center, DraftKings has him priced at $200, so he is very much in play there because you can get nearly every other player of consequence on your roster. Rookie first-rounder Brandon Aiyuk has played on 72% and 73% of the snaps the last two weeks. Veteran Kendrick Bourne has been the main option, playing on 74% and 83%. Of course this duo will be impacted with the return of both Samuel as well as tight end George Kittle.
Trent Taylor, Dante Pettis and Mohamed Sanu have combined for 50-60 snaps each of the last two weeks, but one will probably be inactive if Samuel does indeed get the green light. This trio has five combined targets over the last two weeks, so there is not much to see here.
Tight End
Kittle will be back after being knocked out in Week 1 with a knee injury. On a fun note, Mullens has been the quarterback for Kittle’s two best single-game performances. The connected for seven catches, 210 yards and a touchdown in 2018 on Week 14 against the Broncos, all of it in the first half. Then, in Week 17 against the Rams, the duo hooked up nine times for 149 yards and a touchdown.
Defense/Special Teams
Losing left tackle Jason Peters certainly is not going to help the Eagles pass protection. Washington got them for eight sacks in Week 1. The Rams did not get to Wentz in Week 2, but they did have three takeaways. Finally, last week the Bengals had three sacks and two interceptions. Even depleted, the 49ers D/ST is very much in play at home.
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Sunday Night Football Showdown + Single Game Strategy
The rankings below are best utilized for building out single-entry and three-max lineups and also for head-to-head and three-man formats. They provide a nice barometer for player value, but for those of you who are taking the MME approach, remember that correlation with your lineups is key. This means matching a receiver or two if you have a quarterback in the Captain/MVP slot. This also works conversely with pairing a Captain/MVP pass catcher with their signal-caller.
Yes, on DraftKings players are “too expensive,” but we all have the same options, so we need to get over that. Even though this game is an absolute disaster, there is still plenty of nuance and strategy that we can employ while constructing our single-game contest rosters.
EMac’s Sunday Night Football NFL DFS Rankings
Notable Inactives: no surprises PHI DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Hakeem Butler, SF Jimmy Garoppolo, Raheem Mostert, Daniel Helm
Sunday Night Football Top 10
- Miles Sanders: Should be the engine that moves the Eagles.
- George Kittle: His two best performances of his career have been with Mullens under center.
- Zach Ertz: We have seen him step up to fill the receiving void time and time again.
- Greg Ward: Favorably priced and should be the targeted as frequently as Ertz.
- Deebo Samuel: Very much in play at $200 on DraftKings even if he is out there are a quarter of the snaps. On FanDuel he drops to the bottom of this section at $10,000.
- Carson Wentz: Could be on the hot seat soon for the winless Eagles, but has rushing upside.
- Nick Mullens: Is a statue in the pocket, but he knows to throw to Kittle.
- John Hightower: The pivot away from Samuel on DraftKings at $1,200, very solid punt on FanDuel at $5,000.
- Kendrick Bourne/Brandon Aiyuk: Giving Bourne the slightest of nods over the rookie on DraftKings. The FanDuel savings of $2,000 makes it an easy choice to go with Bourne.
- Jerick McKinnon/Jeff Wilson: Similar workload, but McKinnon has been on the field for double the snaps the last two games.
Sunday Night Football Secondary NFL DFS Plays
- Robbie Gould/Jake Elliott: Not much of a discount on FanDuel. They are both priced up on DraftKings.
- Philadelphia D/ST: They get the slight nod for the price break, but going against a decent game manager backup and a run-first team.
- San Francisco D/ST: This unit would have been in the top 10 section if they were not missing half of their key players.
Sunday Night Football Lottery Tickets
- Boston Scott: Will not be unlocked without an in-game injury to Sanders or complete blowout.
- Richard Rodgers: How crazy is it when you realized his last game with Green Bay was in 2017?
- Kyle Juszczyk: He will be on the field for half of the snaps. In 42 regular season games as a 49er he has 19 carries for 75 yards. Over the last three seasons he averages 2.5 targets for 1.9 catches, 22.0 yards and two scores in 28 games.
- Ross Dwelley: At least he should be on the field for a third of the snaps.
- Trent Taylor, Dante Pettis and Mohamed Sanu: If Samuel is a go, at least one of these guys will be inactive.
- Corey Clement: No.
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