The first edition of Sunday Night Football features a Week 1 battle between NFC East rivals, as the Cowboys visit the Giants at 8:20 p.m. EDT.
FanDuel and DraftKings both offer DFS showdown contests for the single-game SNF slate. The featured GPP contest on DraftKings is the Sunday Night Showdown, with $15 entries and $250K to first place, while FanDuel's Sunday NFL Primetime Showdown offers $15 entries and $100K to the winner.
Sunday Night Football Starting Lineups
The Cowboys are projected to start:
- QB Dak Prescott ($10,400 DK, $12,600 FD)
- RB Javonte Williams ($9,000 DK, $9,800 FD)
- WR CeeDee Lamb ($10,800 DK, $11,800 FD)
- WR George Pickens ($9,800 DK, $11,400 FD)
- WR Ryan Flournoy ($3,800 DK, $5,800 FD)
- TE Jake Ferguson ($5,800 DK, $8,600 FD)
- K Brandon Aubrey ($5,400 DK, $6,800 FD)
The Giants counter with a starting lineup of:
- QB Jaxson Dart ($9,600 DK, $10,800 FD)
- RB Cam Skattebo ($8,400 DK, $9,200 FD)
- WR Malik Nabers Q ($9,400 DK, $10,200 FD)
- WR Malachi Fields ($5,000 DK, $7,600 FD)
- WR Darnell Mooney ($4,000 DK, $7,200 FD)
- TE Isaiah Likely ($6,400 DK, $8,200 FD)
- K Dominic Zvada ($4,800 DK, $6,400 FD)
For lineup information, keep updated with our fantasy football news page. Always consult our NFL Starting Lineups page for the latest starting lineup information prior to kickoff.
Our RotoWire NFL Optimizer will help you pinpoint top DFS targets, in addition to the players highlighted below.
Showdown DFS Roster Strategy
Both FanDuel and DraftKings have an MVP/Captain slot for showdown slates, followed by five flex positions. The MVP/Captain has a multiplier of 1.5X for both their fantasy production and salary. DraftKings lineups have a salary cap of $50,000, while FanDuel's is $60,000. DraftKings uses PPR scoring with bonuses for 100-yard receiving or rushing performances and 300-yard passing games, while FanDuel has 0.5 PPR scoring.
Paying up for projected top scorers as your Captain/MVP is usually worth it, though doing so requires taking a leap of faith on a bargain-bin option or two to round out your lineup. Taking the road less traveled with a cheaper player in the Captain/MVP slot helps improve the depth of your lineup and can pay off big in large GPP contests by giving your lineup more uniqueness, but this strategy lowers your floor, as a big game out of your Captain/MVP is a prerequisite to success in DFS showdown contests.
Starting QBs typically carry premium salaries, but it's usually worth it to deploy one or both of those options in your lineup. Starting WRs, RBs and TEs generally offer more upside than defenses and kickers, though the high floors of those last two positions can be useful to fill out a lineup if you aren't a fan of a game's skill position sleepers.
Quarterback
Dak Prescott finished third in the NFL with 4,552 passing yards and fourth with 30 passing TDs last season. The Cowboys are expected to have one of the league's best passing offenses again this year, so Dak's likely to be a popular pick, though he may cede the Captain/MVP slot in many Dallas-centric lineups to one of the team's two star WRs. The Giants allowed the most rushing yards in the NFL to QBs last season, but the 33-year-old Prescott isn't much of a runner anymore, as he rushed for just 10 yards per game in 2025.
Jaxson Dart scored at least 18.6 DK fantasy points in 10 of 12 starts as a rookie last season, with a 15:5 TD:INT as a passer and nine rushing TDs. New Giants head coach John Harbaugh knows a thing or two about developing dual-threat QBs, having coached Lamar Jackson in Baltimore for Jackson's entire career through last season.
The Cowboys struggled in all aspects of defending QBs last season, allowing the most passing yards and passing TDs to the position, as well as the third-most rushing yards and a league-high eight rushing TDs to QBs. Given the juicy matchup, Dart's likely to be a popular Captain/MVP pick, even though the Giants are 2.5-point home underdogs.
Running Back
Javonte Williams is locked in as the Cowboys' lead back coming off a career-best season in which he posted 1,201 yards and 11 TDs on the ground. He churned out 130 scrimmage yards and a TD in his only meeting with the Giants last season and figures to play a key role against a Giants defense that allowed the second-most rushing yards in the NFL in 2025. Backup Malik Davis (hip) has been ruled out after suffering an injury Friday that will require surgery, leaving Emari Demercado as the change-of-pace option behind Williams.
Cam Skattebo posted 529 scrimmage yards and five TDs in his last five full games prior to suffering a season-ending ankle dislocation in Week 8 of his rookie campaign. The 2025 fourth-round pick showed he can thrive in the lead role for a Giants offense that's projected to be run-heavy, and Skattebo isn't expected to have any limitations to begin the season.
Backups Najee Harris, Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary figure to rotate in as well, with Tracy offering the highest upside of that group after dissecting Dallas' defense for 159 scrimmage yards and a TD in a meaningless Week 18 matchup to wrap up last season.
Wide Receiver
It will be difficult to fit both CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens under the cap since you will likely want to deploy Prescott as part of a Cowboys passing-game stack, so many lineups will pick between Dallas' star WR duo. Both Lamb and Pickens are worthy Captain/MVP options. Pickens led the Cowboys with a 93-1,429-9 receiving line last season while Lamb posted a fifth consecutive 1,000-yard receiving campaign despite missing three games due to an ankle injury. Lamb's best season came in 2023, when he turned a league-high 135 receptions into 1,749 yards and 12 TDs.
No. 3 Dallas WR Ryan Flournoy is a viable dart throw, especially given his affordable DK price. Those who use KaVontae Turpin will be banking on a big gadget play or special teams touchdown from the speedster.
The big story in the Giants' WR room is the health of Malik Nabers (knee), who has been practicing without limitations but hasn't committed to making a Week 1 return from the ACL tear he suffered in Week 4 of last season. The 2024 first-round pick is one of the most talented WRs in the NFL, as he showed in Week 2 last season, when he racked up 167 yards and two TDs against the Cowboys. Nabers could be on a snap count early on even if he plays through his questionable tag Sunday night, making him a high-risk, high-reward option at his lofty price.
The pecking order behind Nabers is uncertain, but all three of Malachi Fields, Darnell Mooney and Odell Beckham ($2,200 DK, $2,600 FD) offer potential bang for the buck against the leaky Dallas secondary, which gave up the most yards and TDs to WRs last year. Fields is a rookie third-round pick out of Notre Dame, while the 28-year-old Mooney had just 443 yards with the Falcons last season but has posted at least 992 twice in six NFL seasons. Beckham managed to make the team after being out of the NFL last year, but he's far from the player who got off to a historic start after being drafted 12th overall by the Giants in 2014.
Tight End
Isaiah Likely followed Harbaugh from Baltimore to New York. Likely failed to fully spread his wings behind Mark Andrews on the Ravens, but he's set for a larger receiving role on the Giants after signing a three-year, $40 million contract and could emerge as the No. 2 option in the passing game behind Nabers. Theo Johnson has been bumped down to second on the depth chart by Likely's arrival.
Jake Ferguson averaged a career-low 7.3 yards per catch last season, serving as a security blanket for Prescott while Dallas' WRs stretched the field, but the 6-foot-5 TE was a go-to option in the red zone and scored a career-high eight TDs. He's a solid supporting option for Dallas-heavy DFS lineups, though the Giants were better than average at defending TEs last season.
Kicker/DST
With all the offensive talent in this game, defenses don't seem likely to be worth deploying, and this game's over/under of 48.5 points on DraftKings Sportsbook is tied for the highest among all of Sunday's games. The Cowboys ($4,400 DK, $6,600 FD) and Giants ($3,400 DK, $6,200 FD) were both bottom-10 defenses from both a real and fantasy perspective last year.
Dallas' Brandon Aubrey is widely regarded as the best kicker in the league, having made at least 36 field goals in each of his first three NFL seasons, with a long of 60-plus yards in each campaign. Kickers inherently lack the fantasy upside of offensive skill players, but Aubrey could prove worthy of a lineup spot if the Cowboys find themselves frequently settling for field goals rather than punching in touchdowns.
Dominic Zvada beat out Ben Sauls in the Giants' training camp kicking competition. There should be opportunities available for the undrafted rookie out of Michigan against a Dallas defense that allowed the most points in the NFL last season, but there is more upside in taking a chance on one of the Giants' similarly priced pass catchers over Zvada to fill out your lineup.
