The Cowboys (7-9-1) visit the Giants (4-13) for Sunday Night Football to open the 2026 season at MetLife Stadium. Kickoff is at 8:20 p.m. ET.
Dallas has won 16 of the last 18 meetings in this series, and John Harbaugh makes his regular-season debut as Giants head coach. This Cowboys vs. Giants DraftKings Showdown slate uses Captain Mode: one player receives 1.5x fantasy points and costs 1.5x salary in the Captain spot, with five more players at standard salary in UTIL spots under a $50,000 salary cap.
Cowboys vs. Giants DraftKings Showdown Captain Picks
Dak Prescott ($15,600 CP): The Giants haven’t beaten a healthy Dak Prescott since 2016: 14 wins in his last 15 tries, the longest active streak by any quarterback against a single opponent in the modern era. He’s the highest-projected player in the game, and it’s not close. New York’s secondary just handed real snaps to a rebuilt corner room, and Dallas has too many weapons, including Lamb, Pickens, Ferguson and Williams out of the backfield, for a defense still finding its footing to take away all of them. Pay the 1.5x tax and build around him.
Cowboys vs. Giants DraftKings Showdown UTIL Plays
CeeDee Lamb ($10,800): He wins regardless of coverage. New York’s corner room hasn’t shown it can handle a true No. 1 receiver, and he’s Prescott’s first read no matter what the defense shows him. He’s the safest paired piece to build around under a Dak Captain, because the volume, targets and red-zone work all point his direction every single week.
Javonte Williams ($9,000): Malik Davis is out, so Williams has zero competition for touches. This is as close to a locked workhorse role as Week 1 offers. Pair that with a Giants run defense that traded away Dexter Lawrence and finished bottom-three in the NFL in yards per carry allowed last year, and you’ve got role security stacked on top of a genuinely good matchup. That combination is harder to find than raw talent, and it’s why this is the cleanest play on the board.
Isaiah Likely ($6,400): He’s Dart’s safety valve regardless of who else is on the field. The Giants signed him to a three-year, $40 million deal specifically to be this, and if Nabers is limited or sits, he’s the easiest outlet for extra volume. It’s a cheap way to get exposure to the other side of the game.
Cowboys vs. Giants DraftKings Showdown Fades
Malik Nabers ($9,400): Name value is doing all the lifting here, and the news broke the wrong way Saturday. He was a full practice participant all week and is officially questionable, but New York signing a special-teams receiver to the 53-man roster is exactly the kind of roster move beat writers read as a tell that he sits. Even if he’s active, this is his first live game action since tearing his ACL last September, and there’s no guarantee of a full route count in his return. If DraftKings prices him like a featured piece, you’re paying for a role that may not show up.
Cowboys vs. Giants DraftKings Showdown Strategy and Prediction
Dallas wins this because its offense is simply better: Prescott, Lamb and Williams against a Giants defense that’s still finding itself under a new coordinator. New York’s path to a win runs through Nabers and the pass rush, and both carry real uncertainty tonight.
Final Score: Cowboys 27, Giants 20
