Rams vs 49ers DFS Showdown: DraftKings Picks for September 10
Our Rams vs 49ers DraftKings Showdown picks for September 10: Puka vs. CMC at Captain, FLEX values, three lineup builds and CPT/FLEX ownership estimates.
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Puka Nacua or Christian McCaffrey at Captain is the easy place to start. The harder decision on this Rams–49ers DraftKings Showdown slate is whether to squeeze both into the same lineup, or let Davante Adams and the midrange give you a different way to win. We like Puka first, CMC right alongside him, and Adams as the strongest alternative to that pairing.
The cheap Rams tight ends are going to matter. George Kittle’s workload is going to matter. Picking a $600 player just because he lets you roster another star? That is not where we want to start.
Rams vs 49ers
September 10, 2026 · 8:35 p.m. ET
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia
Rams designated home team · Midday line: LAR −3.5 · Total: 48.5
The game is a Thursday-evening kickoff in the U.S. and a Friday-morning game in Melbourne. Our starting build is a competitive game with Los Angeles doing more damage through the air, not a five-Rams blowout lineup. The 48.5 total leaves room for both offenses; it does not make every expensive player fit.
Our short list
Kittle’s availability is not the same as a full workload
Kittle does not carry a game designation, but the 49ers’ final report says Kyle Shanahan will be mindful of his workload as he returns from the Achilles injury. That is the difference between a name we respect and a $7,400 player we are comfortable building around. We are not assuming a normal Kittle route load.
That also takes the easy replacement-tight-end case away from Jake Tonges at $4,400. Kittle being available does not prove Tonges disappears, but we prefer the cheaper Rams options to paying for an expanded role that has not been established.
The Rams’ final injury report lists Aaron Donald out, while Myles Garrett and Tyler Higbee have no game designation. San Francisco is without Alfred Collins, with James Thompson Jr. questionable. We are not downgrading Purdy against a fully stocked Rams front, but Garrett’s availability still matters.
Best Rams vs 49ers Captain picks
Puka Nacua · LAR
CPT $16,800 · FLEX $11,200
The appeal is not complicated: 129 catches and 1,715 receiving yards in 16 games last season. Puka can produce a big DraftKings score through sustained volume, rather than needing two touchdowns to make the salary work. That is the profile we want at the top of the Captain pool.
We prefer Stafford with him. A Puka-led Rams passing game is a coherent bet, and McCaffrey is the San Francisco player we most want on the other side. That combination is expensive, which is why Parkinson and the rest of the Rams’ tight-end rotation become important.
The concern is touchdown distribution. Puka can have an excellent real-life game and still lose the Captain battle if Adams catches the scores or Kyren finishes the drives. We are buying the receiving workload, not assuming every Rams touchdown belongs to him.
Christian McCaffrey · SF
CPT $15,900 · FLEX $10,600
CMC’s 2025 season included 102 catches, 924 receiving yards and 17 total touchdowns. His receiving role is what keeps him near the top of our board even in a game where we prefer the Rams. Los Angeles taking the lead is not automatically bad for his fantasy production.
He costs $900 less than Puka at Captain. That is a useful difference on this slate, especially when the alternative is falling from a player with a believable receiving role to a reserve who needs his only touch to break the game.
CMC Captain is our preferred pivot when betting that San Francisco’s points concentrate around one player. Purdy can come along, but we do not need to force him into a lineup built around McCaffrey rushing for multiple scores.
Davante Adams · LAR
CPT $13,800 · FLEX $9,200
Adams finished last season with 14 receiving touchdowns in 14 games. He is our favorite alternative when the Rams passing game is right, but Puka is not the player who gets the decisive end-zone production.
At $13,800 in the Captain slot, he frees $3,000 compared with Puka. That can buy a real improvement elsewhere rather than another speculative punt. We want Stafford with him; Deebo or CMC works well as the San Francisco answer.
We would rather make this deliberate bet than captain a deep reserve purely for low ownership. Adams has a clear route to a slate-winning outcome. The price does not require us to pretend he has Puka’s reception floor.
Brock Purdy · SF
CPT $14,100 · FLEX $9,400
Purdy’s 2025 regular season included 20 passing touchdowns and three rushing scores in nine games. We prefer him at Captain when backing multiple San Francisco receivers to produce, or when his rushing adds points that do not go to a pass catcher.
Evans is our first receiving partner for that build, with Deebo the less expensive option. CMC can still fit conceptually, but a Purdy lineup that also includes Stafford and Puka is going to have a very different salary structure.
Stafford at CPT $14,700 is viable as well. We generally prefer him in FLEX here because our favorite Rams outcomes concentrate the biggest receiving score around Puka or Adams.
Kyren Williams at CPT $12,900 belongs in the secondary Captain pool, especially for Rams-led builds with fewer pass catchers. We would not make kickers or defenses a central part of our Captain plan on this slate.
The FLEX core
Matthew Stafford · LAR · $9,800
Stafford’s 4,707 passing yards and 46 passing touchdowns in 2025 give us a strong starting point. At just $400 more than Purdy, he is our preferred quarterback when we are already buying a Puka or Adams ceiling game. He is not mandatory in every lineup, but he is the easiest player for us to pair with either Rams receiver at Captain.
Kyren Williams · LAR · $8,600
Kyren produced 1,252 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns last season. We do not view him as a blanket fade. He becomes more attractive when betting on Los Angeles finishing drives on the ground, particularly if the popular receiving combinations are doing most of the spending.
Corum’s involvement does limit how aggressively we project Kyren’s workload. We prefer choosing a Rams rushing story or a Rams passing story rather than trying to pay for every version of their offense at once.
Mike Evans · SF · $8,200
Evans is listed with the first-team receivers on the 49ers’ depth chart. We like him most with Purdy, especially in lineups that leave out McCaffrey and need San Francisco’s touchdowns to come through the air. His first regular-season role in this offense is not something we can simply copy from another season.
The salary is the issue, not whether he has a place in the pool. He is $1,000 cheaper than Adams but still expensive enough to force decisions. He is a tournament priority for us, not an automatic add next to CMC, Puka and both quarterbacks.
Deebo Samuel Sr. · SF · $7,000
Deebo gives us a $1,200 discount from Evans and a less expensive San Francisco receiving partner for Purdy. We prefer that price in more balanced builds. We are not pricing in a specific rushing workload simply because it has been part of his game before.
At $6,600, De’Zhaun Stribling is only $400 cheaper. With Evans and Deebo listed ahead of the rookie receivers on San Francisco’s depth chart, that is not enough of a discount to make Stribling one of our primary values.
The values that make the expensive players fit
Colby Parkinson · LAR
FLEX $3,600
Parkinson caught 43 passes for 408 yards and eight touchdowns in 2025. At $3,600, that established scoring role earns our attention. He is our first cheap Rams pass catcher to try alongside Stafford.
The Rams’ tight-end depth chart has multiple players in prominent slots, so this is not a claim that Parkinson gets every route. We like the price and his demonstrated ability to finish drives. We are not projecting last year’s touchdown rate straight into tonight.
Terrance Ferguson · LAR
FLEX $3,200
Ferguson saves $400 from Parkinson and fits the same expensive-Captain constructions. Our preference is Parkinson first, Ferguson second, with the understanding that the receiving work can be distributed differently than the depth chart suggests.
Using both is viable in a Stafford lineup, but it is an aggressive bet on the Rams’ tight ends sharing productive targets. We are not treating two cheap tight ends as two independent guarantees.
Tyler Higbee · LAR · $2,600
Higbee is the next stop when the extra $600–$1,000 materially improves the rest of the lineup. He has no game designation on the final report, but the crowded tight-end room is still a reason to be restrained. We prefer him as a salary-driven alternative, not a default third Rams tight end.
Blake Corum · LAR · $4,600
Corum’s 746 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 145 carries last season make him a legitimate alternative to the pass-catching values. He is also $4,000 cheaper than Kyren. A productive rushing share is the bet; his eight catches last year do not support treating him as a receiving-floor play.
Kyle Juszczyk · SF · $1,400
Juszczyk has no game designation despite the finger issue. He is a reasonable deep salary saver in a San Francisco passing build, but the bar should stay low: we are making room for the stars, not discovering a hidden target leader. His salary may make him more popular than his expected production deserves.
Davis Allen · LAR · $600
Allen is the extreme salary-release option. His place on the Rams’ depth chart does not prove he will be a featured receiver. We would use him only when the expensive five-player core is worth accepting a very low-scoring sixth spot. He is not part of our preferred first build.
Tutu Atwell at $2,400 is another tournament-only route. We prefer the cheap tight ends for a more plausible steady contribution; Atwell is the alternative when betting on one downfield play. Jordan Whittington at $2,800 and Konata Mumpfield at $1,200 remain secondary options rather than players we need to force into the main pool.
Kickers, defenses and players we are lighter on
Harrison Mevis $5,000 and Eddy Piñeiro $4,800: we prefer Piñeiro slightly on price in our expensive Rams-passing builds. Neither requires us to guess which reserve receiver runs a useful number of routes. One kicker is easier for us to justify than two when the rest of the lineup is betting on a productive passing game.
Rams DST $4,000 and 49ers DST $3,400: both fit lower-scoring alternatives. We are not treating the Rams as a full-strength defense with Donald out, or dismissing their pass rush with Garrett available. We prefer the offensive pieces in our main builds and reserve the defenses for lineups deliberately backing pressure, turnovers and stalled drives.
Our light spots are Kittle $7,400, Stribling $6,600 and Tonges $4,400. Kittle has the workload concern, Stribling is too close in price to Deebo, and Tonges is not priced like a backup who needs Kittle’s role to shrink. None is an absolute fade. They are simply not where we want most of our salary going.
Three DraftKings Showdown lineup builds
Our favorite starting point is the Puka–Stafford–CMC core. The Adams build is our preferred change of direction. The Purdy lineup is a more aggressive bet on the two passing games and a quieter night for CMC.
A · Puka Captain, both offensive cornerstones
This keeps the Puka–Stafford pairing and McCaffrey without dropping to a near-minimum player. Parkinson and Ferguson are the compromise: we need enough receiving production from the Rams’ tight ends to justify both. We are comfortable leaving $1,200 unused rather than buying a less suitable final piece.
The risk: Adams taking the Rams touchdowns, or the tight-end targets concentrating elsewhere, is the obvious risk.
B · Adams Captain, more balanced San Francisco exposure
This is our favorite tournament alternative. Stafford and Adams need to connect for the scores, while CMC and Deebo account for the San Francisco response. The salary structure is cleaner than the Puka build and does not require two Rams tight ends.
The risk: Puka is the deliberate omission. A high-volume Puka game with touchdowns is the result this lineup does not want.
C · Purdy Captain, both quarterbacks
Purdy–Evans and Stafford–Puka are the two passing combinations. Parkinson and Higbee provide the salary relief. This is the most aggressive of the three builds because it leaves out CMC and needs both cheap Rams tight ends to contribute.
The risk: San Francisco leaning on McCaffrey near the goal line, or the Rams finishing drives with Kyren, is the wrong game for this construction.
Rams vs 49ers ownership expectations
Our early ownership read is concentrated at Captain: Puka and McCaffrey lead the board, followed by Stafford and Purdy. The FLEX pool is different. Stafford fits around either expensive Captain, and the cheap Rams tight ends make those constructions affordable.
That puts two decisions at the center of our tournament plan. First, are we happy paying for a popular Captain? With Puka and CMC, yes. Second, can we find a different six-player combination without giving away too much expected production? Adams at Captain is our favorite place to start.
CTS experimental ownership estimates · Large-field DraftKings Showdown · September 10, midday
Deep tournament pool · 10 more players
The chalk we are comfortable playing
Our estimate puts Stafford around 57% in FLEX, CMC around 50% and Puka around 41%. Puka’s Captain share is also close to 29%, so the FLEX column alone does not describe how common he is across lineups. We are comfortable playing those names together when the rest of the build makes sense.
The less obvious concentration is cheaper: Parkinson is near 29% FLEX and Ferguson near 25% in this version of our estimate. A lineup with a popular Captain, Stafford and the same cheap tight ends may not be especially different just because it leaves salary unused.
Our preferred alternatives
Adams lands around 6% at Captain in our estimate. We like the football case independently of that number: multiple receiving touchdowns could outweigh the reception gap to Puka. We would rather take that bet with Stafford than remove the quarterback simply to make the lineup look unusual.
Kyren and Evans offer other ways to get away from the Puka–CMC combinations. Kyren works when the Rams’ touchdowns shift to the ground; Evans works when Purdy’s passing production matters more than McCaffrey’s rushing scores. Their lower estimated popularity is not enough on its own. Those are the specific outcomes we would be buying.
Where the estimate is least settled
Kittle and the cheap Rams tight ends have the widest role uncertainty in our build. Kittle is only around 6% FLEX in the central estimate, but that is not a number we would stake the article on. A less restrictive workload assumption moves him materially higher. Likewise, Davis Allen’s $600 salary can make him much more common if the field starts treating his receiving role as useful.
We are not turning either uncertainty into an automatic play. Parkinson remains our first value, while Kittle is a selective tournament option rather than a cornerstone.
Puka first. Adams for the alternative.
Our first lineup starts with Puka, Stafford and McCaffrey. Our favorite change of direction puts Adams at Captain and gives San Francisco more room in the middle of the salary range. Parkinson is the value we reach for first; Kittle is the price we approach most carefully.