Thursday Night Football in Week 15 brings an exciting NFC West showdown as the San Francisco 49ers host the Los Angeles Rams. With playoff implications on the line, both teams will look to exploit favorable matchups. For the 49ers, Brock Purdy’s efficiency in Kyle Shanahan’s offense and the absence of key players in the Rams’ secondary open up opportunities for the passing game to shine. On the other side, Los Angeles will need a strong defensive effort to contain San Francisco’s versatile attack. Below, we highlight the best player prop picks for this marquee matchup, featuring Brock Purdy, Jauan Jennings, and George Kittle.
49ers QB Brock Purdy Over 249.5 Passing Yards (-115, BetMGM)
With Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason out and Isaac Guerendo (foot) banged up, there’s a solid chance that Patrick Taylor will see the lion’s share of snaps at running back in this game. With that being said, I think we’re going to see a major focus put on San Francisco’s passing game for the second consecutive week. On Sunday, Purdy went 20-for-25 for 325 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions en route to an impressive 38-13 win over the Bears. Earlier this season, Purdy went 22-for-30 for 292 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions against the Rams and at 6-7, the Niners need their franchise QB to step up and produce in a must-win game. In his young career, Purdy has gone 4-0 SU (4-0 ATS) on Thursday Night Football and leads the NFL in yards per attempt (8.7) after also doing so last season, a product of playing within Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
49ers WR Jauan Jennings Over 68.5 Receiving Yards (-113, FanDuel)
With Brandon Aiyuk out, Jennings will be a major asset in the passing game once again. The Rams’ secondary is depleted due to injuries (Cobie Durant has been ruled out and Emmanuel Forbes will likely take his place) and ranks in the top third of the league in zone defense usage. Jennings has shredded that coverage this year. Since Week 8, he’s attracted nearly a third of Purdy’s targets and in the five games he’s played without one of Deebo Samuel or Aiyuk this season, he’s racked up 175, 93, 91, 56 (snow) and 90 receiving yards. I think he’s going to continue to crush in this spot and am not going to buy into the narrative surrounding the disgruntled Deebo Samuel getting fed the football this week, especially with how dominant this offense looked last week.
49ers TE George Kittle Over 22.5 Yards Longest Catch (-115, BetRivers)
I expect the passing attack to flow through Jennings and Kittle once again and the tight end ranks 2nd in the entire NFL in EPA per pass attempt (Jennings ranks 6th, by the way). Last week, Kittle caught six passes for 151 yards, so he should have all the confidence in the world heading into this matchup. He’s gone over this in six of his last seven starts with the lone exception of the snow game in Buffalo with 29, 42, 43, 33, 31 and 33-yard longest catches in that span. As mentioned above, the Rams play zone coverage and, like Jennings, he has crushed that defensive alignment this season and last week, he caught a 33-yard pass on the first play of the game! How sweet would that be if it happened again?
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