Best NFL DFS Picks for Thursday Night Football: 49ers vs Rams Week 1 DraftKings and FanDuel Lineup

The NFL’s 2026 season kicks off its first Thursday night slate in unusual fashion, with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams squaring off at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia. The Rams are favored by 3.5 points with a total sitting at 48.5, signaling oddsmakers expect a competitive, high-scoring divisional-style clash even on a neutral field halfway around the world. That combination of a tight spread and a healthy total is exactly what DFS players want to see on a single-game slate — it means game script shouldn’t get lopsided early, and both offenses should see plenty of snaps.

Because this is a two-team, single-game slate, roster construction is a little different than a normal Sunday main slate. You’re picking from a shallow pool, salaries get compressed, and stacking matters more. Below are five plays worth building around tonight, a mix of premium studs and salary-relief options that should each see plenty of volume.

Puka Nacua, WR — Los Angeles Rams ($11,200 DK / $12,400 FD)

Nacua is the highest-projected skill player on the board for a reason. He finished second in the NFL in receiving yards a season ago, and he enters tonight healthy after working through a preseason psoas issue — he didn’t appear on the Rams’ first injury report of the week, and Sean McVay said over the weekend he expects Nacua to be available without limitation.

Matthew Stafford leaned on Nacua as his clear No. 1 target last year, and that shouldn’t change against a 49ers secondary that’s still working Nick Bosa back into full health off a torn ACL and just lost run-stuffing tackle Alfred Collins for the season to a torn patellar tendon suffered in practice this week. A banged-up front seven means more opportunities for explosive plays through the air, and Nacua profiles as the player most likely to turn a short target into a long touchdown. At $11,200 on DraftKings, he’s projected around 21 points and is worth paying up for in a game this thin.

Christian McCaffrey, RB — San Francisco 49ers ($10,600 DK / $13,000 FD)

McCaffrey didn’t appear on the 49ers’ first injury report either, quieting concerns about the lower-body tightness that lingered through training camp. That’s a green light for a player who remains the focal point of Kyle Shanahan’s offense whenever he’s healthy — a true three-down back who catches passes out of the backfield as reliably as he runs between the tackles.

With Aaron Donald ruled out and not even traveling to Australia for the Rams, the interior of Los Angeles’ run defense loses its best disruptor. That’s a meaningful crack for McCaffrey to work with, both on early-down runs and on the checkdowns and screens Brock Purdy will lean on if the Rams get aggressive with their pass rush elsewhere. Projected in the 18-21 point range depending on the source, McCaffrey is a fine building block even at a premium price on a slate with only two backfields to choose from.

Brock Purdy, QB — San Francisco 49ers ($9,400 DK / $10,600 FD)

Purdy offers a rare combination on this slate: a top-three overall projection at a price point below both McCaffrey and Nacua. He’s been full participation all week outside a maintenance-related limited session, and with Mike Evans trending toward playing through a groin issue that kept him out of practice earlier in camp, Purdy has his full complement of pass catchers, including George Kittle working back from last year’s Achilles tear.

The 49ers are getting nearly a full field goal in implied team total value relative to the Rams (21.5 to 26.5), which points to a game where San Francisco has to throw to keep pace. Purdy’s rushing upside adds another scoring path that the traditional pocket passers on this slate don’t have. Pairing him with McCaffrey or Kittle in a mini-stack is a logical way to attack a game where the 49ers are likely to be without their preferred game script for stretches.

Kyren Williams, RB — Los Angeles Rams ($8,600 DK / $10,200 FD)

Williams sits in the middle of the pricing tiers, but the profile is appealing for a slate with this few options: he’s the clear early-down and goal-line back in an offense expected to be the more efficient of the two tonight. With the Rams favored and projected for the higher team total of the game, positive game script plays right into more carries and more red-zone work for Williams as the afternoon — or in this case, the Melbourne morning — wears on.

He also chips in as a receiver out of the backfield, which raises his floor on a slate where paying up elsewhere at WR and RB can get expensive fast. Projections have him in the 13-19 point range depending on site, making him a strong bridge play between the two studs above him and the cheaper options below.

Blake Corum, RB — Los Angeles Rams ($4,600 DK / $7,600 FD)

Corum is the clearest salary-relief option on the board relative to his upside. As the clear backup and change-of-pace complement behind Williams, he’s cheap enough on DraftKings to fit alongside two premium plays without blowing the cap, and if the Rams control the game script as their spread and implied total suggest, Corum should see enough work in a run-funnel second half to justify the price. He’s projected around 9 points on a $4,600 DraftKings salary — one of the better points-per-dollar plays on the entire slate — and he adds correlation if you’re already rostering Williams or Stafford in a Rams-leaning build.

Building Your Lineup

With only two offenses in play, correlation is the name of the game on this slate. A Rams stack of Stafford-Nacua-Williams captures the side of the game projected to score more, while pairing Purdy with McCaffrey attacks the 49ers side if you believe San Francisco keeps this closer than the spread suggests — which the 3.5-point number and healthy 48.5 total both suggest is plausible. Corum is the built-in pivot that lets you roster two premium Rams pieces without gutting the rest of your salary, especially useful if you’re checking live NFL odds throughout the day and the line moves closer to kickoff.

Popular DFS builds will lean heavily on Nacua and McCaffrey given their target and touch shares, so consider pivoting off one of them toward Purdy or Williams if you want to differentiate in a large-field tournament. Cash game and small-field players should feel comfortable rostering the chalk here — the injury news this week has been unusually clean for both stars, and the shallow player pool on a two-team slate rewards betting on the players you trust most to see volume. If you’re building your first DraftKings promo code account for tonight’s slate, this game offers a clean, low-variance entry point before the bulk of Week 1 kicks off on Sunday.