Which 49ers and Rams are worth a place in your £140m FanTeam squad: the two quarterbacks, the mid-priced receivers, the McCaffrey and Nacua prices, and the players to leave alone, with what to expect from them in Melbourne.
A season game, and the first game already gone
FanTeam's Regular Game locked for gameweek 1 at the Patriots-Seahawks kick-off, so whoever you own from this game is already in, and anyone you want from it is a transfer for gameweek 2. That is not a problem. You get two free transfers a gameweek, unused ones bank with no cap, transfers are provisional until each deadline, and prices do not move until gameweek 3. A player you buy after watching him in Melbourne costs exactly what he cost on Monday.
So this piece is about the season: who from San Francisco and Los Angeles is worth his price over 18 weeks, on the Statz PPR projection, which uses the same scoring FanTeam does. The bar is the one the optimiser sets: the best legal £140m squad projects about 2,500 points, roughly 18 per £1m. And the two rules that bind are the £140m cap and the limit of three players from any one club, defence included.
The short version: this game has no Jadarian Price. Nobody on either roster is a bargain the way Seattle's lead back is. What it has is two properly priced quarterbacks and three receivers in the £14m to £17.5m band who return better than the stars above them.
The quarterbacks: both worth owning
Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford both cost £18.0m, and both are among the better quarterback buys on the list. Purdy projects 294 season points, 17.3 a game, 16.4 points per £1m, with a small rushing floor (18 yards a game) that Stafford does not have. Stafford projects 283, 16.7 a game, 15.7 per £1m, in the league's number one offence. Against Drake Maye at £21.0m (302, 14.4 per £1m), both are the cheaper route to a top-eight quarterback, and Purdy is the better of the two by the projection.
For Thursday night the model has Stafford at 262 yards and 1.9 touchdowns and Purdy at 248, 1.7 and 18 on the ground, about 17 points each, in a game it makes Rams 25, 49ers 23. The 49ers' pass rush finished last in the league for sacks and the Rams' pass defence ranked 20th, which is why both projections are healthy.
- Brock Purdy — QB, SF · £18.0m · 294.3 projected — at £18.0m — The better value of the two, £3m under Maye for eight fewer season points. A first-choice quarterback at a second-choice price.
- Matthew Stafford — QB, LAR · £18.0m · 283.1 projected — at £18.0m — The league's best offence at the same price. A Rams slot, which matters if you want Nacua and the defence too.
The receivers: pay for the middle, not the top
Puka Nacua is the joint most expensive player on the list at £22.0m, alongside Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and like Smith-Njigba he is the higher scorer and the worse value: 253.5 projected, 14.9 a game, but only 11.5 points per £1m. Davante Adams at £17.5m projects 237.7, 14.0 a game, 13.6 per £1m: 16 season points behind Nacua for £4.5m less, and the model has him as the more efficient target on Thursday (72 projected receiving yards against a 49.5 line, the softest number in the game). If you want one Rams receiver, it is Adams.
The 49ers give you two. Mike Evans at £14.5m projects 211.7 and 14.6 per £1m, Deebo Samuel at £14.0m projects 199.6 and 14.3 per £1m, and with Brandon Aiyuk not reporting (knee), Ricky Pearsall on injured reserve and Christian Kirk on IR designated to return, those two are the passing game. Both are listed possible or fit for Thursday, and both are the kind of £14m receiver that lets you afford a £22m player somewhere else. Evans, Samuel and Purdy would be a legal three from San Francisco, and a good one.
Leave the rest. De'Zhaun Stribling at £9.0m is the third receiver on a thin depth chart and projects like it; Pearsall and Kirk are cheap for a reason; Aiyuk at £7.5m is not on the field. The same safety-net caveat as Wednesday applies: the net only swaps a player who plays and scores nothing, so a player who is not active is a zero in your nine.
- Mike Evans — WR, SF · £14.5m · 211.7 projected — at £14.5m — The 49ers' lead target with Aiyuk out. Better points per pound than any receiver in this game.
- Deebo Samuel Sr. — WR, SF · £14.0m · 199.6 projected — at £14.0m — The second 49ers target, priced like a third. A 65% over on his Thursday receiving line.
- Davante Adams — WR, LAR · £17.5m · 237.7 projected — at £17.5m — The Rams receiver to own. Sixteen season points behind Nacua for £4.5m less.
- Luxury: Puka Nacua — WR, LAR · £22.0m · 253.5 projected — at £22.0m — The top scorer at the top price. Only if the rest of the squad is cheap enough to carry him.
The backs and the tight ends
Christian McCaffrey at £22.0m is the best back in the game by season projection, 284.4 points and 16.7 a game, but that is 12.9 per £1m, and the weekly projection for Thursday gives him only 8.6 carries and 2.9 catches, which is a model expecting a managed workload rather than the 2024 version. Over a season he is a fine player to own if he stays on the field; at the price he is a luxury in the same bracket as Nacua, and Price at £8.5m returns nearly twice the points per pound. Kyren Williams at £20.0m is the one to avoid: 197.9 projected, 9.9 per £1m, a workhorse role priced as if it produced elite numbers. Blake Corum at £14.0m is the second back and is not worth the price of a starting receiver.
At tight end the value is the cheap one. Tyler Higbee at £9.5m projects 109.3, 11.5 per £1m, and the model has him catching three passes for 36 yards on Thursday against a line of 11.5, the softest number on the board. He is listed second on the Rams depth chart behind Colby Parkinson (£11.5m, 89.4 projected, 7.8 per £1m), and the model prefers him anyway. George Kittle at £15.0m projects 197.2 and 13.1 per £1m, a good number, but he is questionable with an achilles for Thursday and the safety net will catch a zero, not a half-fit game.
- Tyler Higbee — TE, LAR · £9.5m · 109.3 projected — at £9.5m — The cheap tight end the model rates above the starter. A budget TE slot that frees £5m elsewhere.
- Watch: George Kittle — TE, SF · £15.0m · 197.2 projected · questionable, achilles — at £15.0m — The best tight end in the game on the season number. Buy after Thursday, once the achilles has played a game.
- Avoid: Kyren Williams — RB, LAR · £20.0m · 197.9 projected — at £20.0m — The workhorse role at a price that needs elite production. Under ten points per pound.
The defences, and the verdict
The Rams defence at £9.5m ranks 11th on the season projection, 112 points and 11.8 per £1m; the 49ers at £7.5m rank 24th at 94 points but 12.5 per £1m. Neither is Seattle at £10.0m, and if you own the Seahawks defence there is no reason to look here. If you do not, the Rams are the better unit and the 49ers the cheaper one, and the difference over a season is about a point a week.
From this game, then: Purdy or Stafford at quarterback, Evans and Samuel as the mid-priced receivers who return the best points per pound on either roster, Adams if you want a Rams receiver, Higbee as the budget tight end. McCaffrey and Nacua are the luxuries, Kyren Williams is the trap, and Kittle is a buy in a week's time. That is a lot of players worth owning from one game, and the three-per-club limit means you will have to choose: Purdy, Evans and Samuel is the 49ers three the projection likes, and Stafford, Adams and Higbee the Rams three, but Stafford and Adams together only make sense if your quarterback is not already spoken for.
Bank the transfers you do not need this week. The heavy bye weeks come from week five, and the squad that keeps its two free moves in September is the one with six to spend in October.
Put it to work
- FanTeam Optimiser Every FanTeam price against the season projection. Lock the players you own and it builds the other slots.
- How to play FanTeam The rules, the scoring, transfers, the wildcard and the safety net.
- Fantasy SoS Points allowed by position, gameweek by gameweek, for the transfers to come.