San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel enters Sunday's Super Bowl matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs as the top option at his position for fantasy players. While Chiefs rookie wideout Rashee Rice has been the most productive remaining wideout in these playoffs, fantasy managers would do well to combat recency bias by noting that Samuel is the more explosive player in the better offense. Samuel finished as the ninth-most valuable wide receiver in fantasy this year by half-PPR points per game while Rice didn't get it going until late for a 30th overall finish. Rice only had three 15-plus point performances in the regular season to Samuel's seven. It's also worth noting that Samuel will be playing in his second Super Bowl, which may be a factor in a game of this magnitude as evidenced by the fact that only three of the top-50 Super Bowl wide receiver performances by yardage have been produced by rookies. While it may be fair to say that Rice has a higher floor in this game since he's Kansas City's only reliable target at wide receiver, DFS players shooting for upside should consider Samuel.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will have his work cut out for him when the team faces the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII. In the regular season, the Chiefs' defense allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers. In their first two playoff games, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's unit muted the production of their opponent's alpha receivers, limiting Tyreek Hill to 62 yards receiving and Stefon Diggs to 21 yards before allowing 115 yards to Zay Flowers in the AFC Championship Game. It should be noted, however, that Flowers did all of his damage on big plays, nearly half of it coming on one catch out of just five total. Something like Flowers' high-efficiency performance is Aiyuk's most likely path to success in this game as the latter finished second in the NFL with 17.9 yards per reception. Aiyuk will be seeing his fair share of man coverage as the Chiefs played man at a top-10 rate and Aiyuk had a top-5 finish to the the regular season with 3.72 yards per route run against man. In a strength vs. strength matchup and only accumulating five catches in SF's two playoff games, Aiyuk is something of a boom/bust fantasy option in the Super Bowl.

With most NFL teams employing a backfield committee or time-share approach, San Francisco 49ers running back Elijah Mitchell has spent the season as a throwback, one of only a handful of second running backs who are true backups. While Mitchell did score a touchdown in the NFC Championship Game against Detroit -- after McCaffrey pulled himself out following a long run to the goal line -- he only got three other touches for a total of seven yards. In the game before that versus Green Bay, Mitchell posted all zeros while playing only one offensive snap. The probability that Mitchell's usage suddenly changes is near zero when the team squares off against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Putting Mitchell into a fantasy lineup for the Super Bowl would be betting on an early McCaffrey injury, an improbable scenario that would eliminate many competitors. Having started Mitchell in that event could be a difference-maker.

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey will make his first Super Bowl appearance against the Kansas City Chiefs as the top option at running back for fantasy players. The former Carolina Panther and Stanford star has torn up the NFL in his seventh year, averaging a whopping 21.7 half-PPR points in full games while only producing fewer than 15 points twice. There is little reason to believe McCaffrey won't finish the year in a similar vein especially since Kansas City's elite pass defense will probably funnel the 49ers into leaning heavily on McCaffrey in the running game. The Chiefs spent the regular season as a top-10 rush defense but McCaffrey has risen to the challenge consistently against quality rush defenses, most recently in the NFC Championship Game versus the Detroit Lions, who finished the regular season as the single toughest opponent for fantasy running backs. In that game, he went for 132 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. McCaffrey is sure to be expensive for DFS players. Still, he's as close to a sure thing as they come, especially considering it's almost impossible to imagine a game script that significantly diminishes his involvement.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy faces his toughest playoff matchup this year when he leads his team into Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium on Sunday to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. In the NFC Championship Game against Detroit, the former seventh-round pick led a historic second-half comeback but posted mediocre fantasy numbers, finishing with 267 yards passing, one touchdown, and one interception. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has the Kansas City pass defense playing their best football of the season lately, holding some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL to an average of 219 yards passing and one touchdown per game during their playoff run. In the regular season, Purdy has struggled against top pass defenses, getting intercepted four times with no touchdowns against Baltimore and being held to 125 passing yards and one touchdown back in Week 6 at Cleveland. Patrick Mahomes is the better fantasy option at quarterback in the Super Bowl, but there's a chance Purdy's DFS price drops low enough to be worth serious consideration.