Tonight’s early clash for the top of the NFC West between the 3-1 San Francisco 49ers and the 3-1 Los Angeles Rams will go down under the bright lights of Thursday Night Football. Even with San Francisco’s injury crisis — Brock Purdy, Jauan Jennings, and Ricky Pearsall won’t suit up, in addition to George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk on Injured Reserve — it promises to be a pretty good one with plenty of scores.
In honor of the marquee event, DraftKings is bringing back the King of the End Zone promotion. If you opt in to the token and place a singles bet of at least $5 on a player in a touchdown market and he scores the game’s longest touchdown, you win a share of $2 million in bonus bets. The last time DraftKings rolled out this promotion, Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery ended up taking the crown with a 31-yard score in the fourth quarter.
Below, I’ll run you through my three favorite picks to be King of the End Zone in tonight’s Rams-49ers contest, which begins at 8:15 p.m. ET. Los Angeles is an 8.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the point total set for 43.5.
King of the End Zone — What You Need to Know
The rules of the promotion are pretty simple: as long as the player you placed a singles bet on in the “TD Scorers” market scores the longest touchdown of the day, and that bet was worth $5 or more and was placed from either your cash balance or DK Dollars, you will win a share of bonus bets. Passing touchdowns are ineligible for this promotion, so if you want to pick either Matthew Stafford or Mac Jones, they’ll have to run it in themselves. Despite not being an individual player, D/ST is eligible to become King of the End Zone. For instance, if the KotEZ promotion was active during the Rams’ Week 3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Jordan Davis’ 61-yard walkoff field goal block return would have actually won.
King of the End Zone Preview & Picks | Thursday, Oct. 2
Players with the shortest odds to score a TD:
- Kyren Williams (-175)
- Christian McCaffrey (-110)
- Puka Nacua (+100)
- Davante Adams (+105)
- Kendrick Bourne (+300)
King of the End Zone Picks for Thursday, Oct. 22:
In part because of San Francisco’s injury list, it’ll be difficult to predict how high-scoring it could be. This season, both teams have had average offenses: Los Angeles has scored the 13th-most points, and the 49ers the 10th-fewest.
One might assume that San Francisco would score fewer points given all the injuries on its offense, but it has actually scored more in the two games that Jones has quarterbacked than in the two that Purdy has been under center. The Rams’ offense, meanwhile, has scored 26 or more points in each of its past three games. Since Los Angeles is favored by more than a touchdown, it’s no surprise that two of my three picks to become King of the End Zone play for the home side.
1. Puka Nacua (+100 Anytime TD)
The case for Nacua is pretty simple: though he’s only found the end zone once through the air, his volume is just so staggering that he’s always going to be the best bet to become King of the End Zone. Through four games, he’s on pace for the greatest wide receiver season in NFL history, leading the league with 50 targets, 42 catches and 503 yards so far — seven targets, eight catches, and 101 yards more than any other receiver. In the only game this season in which he failed to reach 100 receiving yards, he left the game repeatedly to be evaluated for injuries. He would’ve already been the King of the End Zone once this season, as his 45-yard rush in Week 2 was the longest score of that game.
There’s pretty much no weakness to Nacua’s game. After struggling mightily with drops in his rookie season, he dropped just one pass last season and has dropped one pass so far in 2025, and because the Rams have so many other targets, including Adams and deep threat Tutu Atwell, whose 88-yard touchdown in the closing seconds of Week 4 was the longest score, he can’t be double-covered. Plus, despite ranking in the bottom half of the league in average separation among receivers with at least 13 targets, he’s made up for it by generating yards after the catch at an above-average rate. He already leads the league with eight 20-plus-yard catches.
He should have a good matchup tonight. While the 49ers have had elite coverage grades so far, that’s mostly because linebackers Fred Warner and Dee Winters are so good at coverage. Deommodore Lenoir, who ranks just 47th of 103 qualified corners in coverage, is the best defender in San Francisco’s secondary, and slot corner Upton Stout has been particularly poor. Nacua’s ability to line up either in the slot or outside should make him unstoppable, especially since Lenoir and Stout have both struggled as tacklers this season.
2. Christian McCaffrey (-110 Anytime TD)
As much as Nacua will be the focal point for Los Angeles’ offense, McCaffrey will be even more vital for the 49ers. The 2023 Offensive Player of the Year leads the league in touches by a wide margin, ranking second in targets, third in catches, eighth in receiving yards, sixth in rushing attempts, and 23rd in rushing yards. He’s led San Francisco in targets in three of the four games, with Jones throwing to him 15 times in the Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals. McCaffrey has been responsible for 76.2% of the team’s rushes inside the 20-yard line and 40% of its targets, so this is a Nacua-esque volume play to the extreme.
Still, while the 29-year-old has put up gaudy numbers, he hasn’t been quite as good this season as he has in years past. His 3.3 yards per carry would be the lowest of his career, as would his 15-yard longest run and his 66.3 overall offensive grade at Pro Football Focus. He actually ranks fourth-to-last in rush yards over expectation per attempt, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. With the Rams understanding full well that he’s the focal point of the offense, they could slow him down, just as they did Saquon Barkley and Jonathan Taylor. Los Angeles is the only team not to allow a touchdown to a running back this season and one of just two teams not to allow a 20-plus-yard run. His best chance might come when he lines up in the slot: the Rams have allowed 12 20-plus-yard catches, including one by slot corner Quentin Lake.
3. Rams D/ST (+500 Anytime TD)
Inherently, defensive touchdowns tend to be long, because they often occur on field goal blocks, kick returns, or interceptions in which a cornerback jumps a sideline route. Because teams’ average drives tend to start at their own 30-yard line thanks to the new kickoff rules that disincentivize touchbacks, defensive touchdowns are most likely to be longer than 30 yards, which could easily be enough to be the longest touchdown of the night. These two teams both kick touchbacks at top-three rates, so expect many drives tonight to start at the 35-yard line.
While neither team has scored a defensive or special teams touchdown yet this season, the 49ers lead the league with eight turnovers and Los Angeles is tied for fourth with seven takeaways, so it’s only a matter of time. The Rams have also had the second-most sacks, and Jones has lost 14 fumbles in his career. San Francisco is only one of just six teams to have allowed a punt return touchdown, which was the longest score of the game in its Week 4 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
