Cowboys vs. Giants DFS Picks: Best DraftKings, FanDuel lineups and props for TNF primetime showdown — Stackin' Dak

Sloan Piva

Cowboys vs. Giants DFS Picks: Best DraftKings, FanDuel lineups and props for TNF primetime showdown — Stackin' Dak image

Getty/The Sporting News

NFL fans, your two-day breather has concluded. Fresh off the Commanders beating the Bengals on Monday Night Football, the Cowboys will visit the NFC East-rival Giants on Thursday Night Football (8:15 p.m., Amazon Prime). 

These squads suffered polar-opposite results in Week 3, with Dallas falling to the Ravens in a barnburner and the Giants upsetting Cleveland in an ugly slogfest. Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and the Cowboys enter the short-week game 1-2 and in need of a win, which New York typically allows when the 'Boys come knocking. 

Prescott and Dallas have won six straight meetings with the G-Men, and by an average margin of 21 points per game. Micah Parsons and the Cowboys D will probably be gunning for a bounce-back game, too, considering Baltimore hung 28 points and 456 total yards on Jerry Jones' squad. 

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Don't expect the Giants to be pushovers, though. QB Daniel Jones is healthy again, Devin Singletary has been great as Saquon Barkley's replacement, and rookie Malik Nabers has already exploded into the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation. Dallas should win this game, but we also know to expect the unexpected in primetime.

One thing we know: these days, it's easier to build a winning DFS lineup than it is to build a winning parlay. That's why we scour DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft for studs, sleepers, and value plays ahead of every evening game, then relay our optimal lineups and strategy for all three.

Let's get to our optimal lineups for the Cowboys vs. Giants in DFS showdown and single-game contests on DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft.

Cowboys vs. Giants NFL DFS picks: Optimal DraftKings lineup

Before we get into our lineup and strategy, here are the key scoring settings for DraftKings Showdown contests: They're full-point PPR, and they feature three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 100 receiving yards. The Captain pick costs 1.5 times a player's original price, but he also gets his point total multiplied by 1.5.

POSITIONPLAYERTEAM/OPPONENTSALARY
CaptainRico Dowdle, RBCowboys @ Giants$9,600
FLEXCeeDee Lamb, WRCowboys @ Giants$11,800
FLEXDak Prescott, QBCowboys @ Giants$10,400
FLEXDevin Singletary, RB Giants vs. Cowboys$8,200
FLEXJake Ferguson, TECowboys @ Giants$7,000
FLEXTyrone Tracy Jr., RB Giants vs. Cowboys$2,800

Captain: Rico Dowdle, RB, Cowboys ($9,600)

Dowdle has looked better and better with each passing week, while veteran Ezekiel Elliott looks washed up. The younger of the two out-carried Zeke 8-3 in the Cowboys' loss to the Ravens, and it should look more like a 16-6 carry ratio on Thursday. 

The Giants have an underrated pass-rush, but their ability to run-stuff is average at best. New York ranks 15th in DK points per game allowed to RBs – and Dallas is projected to win this game by a TD — so the game script should be much more positive for Dowdle and the the Cowboys' running game.

Why make a sleeper like Dowdle the Captain? So we can afford four other studs in our flex spots. If we put Dak, Ceedee or Nabers in the 1.5-times boost spot, it would cost us 1.5 times their set salaries and would thus diminish our budget for flex players. Dowdle affords us better depth without squandering production or lowering our ceiling. 

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FLEX: CeeDee Lamb, WR, Dallas Cowboys ($11,800)

Dak and CeeDee were apparently yelling at each other on the Cowboys' sideline in the Week 3 loss to Baltimore, which might worry some potential DFS investors. We, however, are all in on both. You want passion from the studs, and these guys are pissed off and ready to rock offensively.

With the Dallas D struggling for the first time in years, it's up to the biggest playmakers (and money-makers) to start earning their checks and reminding the nation that they're among the best in the biz. That happens Thursday with CeeDee, who caught 11-of-15 targets and totaled 165 yards and two TDs the last time Dallas played the Giants.

FLEX 2: Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys ($10,400)

You gotta have that Dak stack, Jack! Prescott put up over 400 passing yards and accounted for five total TDs the last time he faced the Giants. It would be borderline irresponsible to leave this dude off your Showdown rosters on Thursday night. 

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FLEX 3: Devin Singletary, RB, New York Giants ($8,200)

Singletary has enjoyed a bit of a career resurgence between his 2023 season in Houston and his early days with the Giants this year. He's averaging 14.8 DK points per game, and he now gets to face a Cowboys D that has surrendered the most fantasy points to the running back position this season.

Singletary can also catch the ball, having hauled in 9-of-10 targets for 58 yards this season, so don't worry about him getting phased out due to a negative game script. Get him in your lineups and don't think twice about it. 

FLEX 4: Jake Ferguson, TE, Dallas Cowboys ($7,000)

One of Dak's favorite targets, Ferguson yields far more value than any other Cowboys or Giants player in this price range. He's back to full health and is coming off a game in which he caught 6-of-11 targets for 95 yards against a pretty good Ravens D. Fire up Fergie. 

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FLEX 5: Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB, New York Giants ($2,800)

This is a low-key monopoly, as we're expecting the rookie Tracy to wind up exclusively sharing the Giants' backfield with the aforementioned Singletary. If either of them account for a red-zone touchdown or touchdowns, we'll be Riverdancing our way into the weekend. 

Cowboys vs. Giants NFL DFS picks: Optimal FanDuel lineup

Here are the key scoring settings for FanDuel single-game tournaments: They're half-point PPR with three-point bonuses for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, or 100 receiving yards. The MVP pick multiplies that player's total by 1.5 but does not cost 1.5 times their listed salary.

POS.PLAYERTEAM/OPPONENT SALARY         
MVP    Dak Prescott, QBCowboys @ Giants$16,000
FLEX       CeeDee Lamb, WRCowboys @ Giants$14,500
FLEXDevin Singletary, RB Giants vs. Cowboys$12,000
FLEXJake Ferguson, TECowboys @ Giants$9,500
FLEXRico Dowdle, RBCowboys @ Giants$8,000

Our FD single-game lineup construction basically mirrors our DK lineup, only we put Prescott as our MVP since FD's scoring system makes QBs a bit more valuable, and we get the 1.5-times boost without paying 1.5 times the set salary like on DK. 

We checked all three boxes in terms of our core weekly guidelines:

  • Put the player we project to score the most points in the MVP spot, since it doesn't cost us extra to get that 1.5-times boost. 
  • Stack the top QB with his top playmaking receiver (Kelce). 
  • Target multiple high-volume plays and a couple high-ceiling sleepers.

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Cowboys vs. Giants NFL DFS picks: Optimal SuperDraft lineup

For those unfamiliar, SuperDraft's DFS scoring involves point multipliers as opposed to traditional salary-capped or tiered contests. A winning lineup will likely feature a strong mix of stud fantasy contributors with 1x-1.6x boosts, as well as matchup-based sleepers with larger multipliers. Each player is assigned a scoring multiplier based on their value as determined by SuperDraft. Users can roster any player in their lineup with no restrictions.

Here are the most notable scoring rules for SuperDraft NFL contests: Half-point PPRfour-point passing TDs, and two-point bonuses for 100 rushing yards100 receiving yardsand 300 passing yards. SuperDraft lineups feature no D/ST position. The "Champ" position adds a 50-percent boost to the selected player, while the SuperFlex positions are limited to the boost listed for each player. 

POSITIONPLAYERGAMEBOOST
CHAMPDak Prescott, QBCowboys @ NYG 1.75x
SFLEXCeeDee Lamb, WR Cowboys @ NYG1x
SFLEXDevin Singletary, RB Giants vs. DAL1.4x
SFLEXRico Dowdle, RBCowboys @ NYG1.55x
SFLEXJalen Tolbert, WRCowboys @ NYG2.4x

MORE SUPERDRAFT DFS: How to play SuperDraft

Our SuperDraft lineup closely resembles our DK and FD builds, with the only difference coming at the back-end of the lineup with Jalen Tolbert. The Cowboys wideout has demonstrated a clear rapport with Prescott through three weeks, and the touchdown upside we get with the Cowboys' WR2 — combined with his 2.4-times boost — seems too good to pass up. 

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Sloan Piva

Sloan Piva Photo

Sloan Piva is a content producer for The Sporting News, primarily focused on betting, fantasy sports, and poker. A lifelong New Englander, Sloan earned his BA and MA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts and now lives in coastal Rhode Island with his wife and two kids.