You can watch Thursday Night Football: Cowboys vs. Watch Giants at 8:20 PM ET/5:20 PM PT on Amazon Prime Video.

Thursday Night Football takes us from the AFC East last week to the NFC East in Week 4 as bitter rivals the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants go head-to-head in primetime.

Of course, rivalry can put a bit of a strain on it; the Cowboys have been an NFC East powerhouse for much of the Dak Prescott era, while the Giants have been anything but. Anyway, there are plenty of fantasy angles here – let’s get to the story of the tape. And speaking of stories…

A tale of two WR1s

CeeDee Lamb was in line for the No. 1 pick for much of the summer (and in retrospect, he may have been the safest option of all, considering Christian McCaffrey has been on the shelf with a serious Achilles injury and Tyreek Hill is his starting quarterback for the near future). Malik Nabers came out of the mid-round with most of the community accepting the foregone conclusion that Daniel Jones would limit Nabers’ otherwise high ceiling.

For three weeks, Nabers has been the WR1 in all of fantasy football. Lamb is all the way down at WR19.

My colleague Scott Pianowski predicted that the Giants would target Nabers this season as soon as he got off the bus. That prediction has so far come true; Nabers leads the league in WR targets. In my opinion, this is what has held Lamb back this season: goals. He has just 24 total and just 13 catches through the first three weeks. That’s not nearly enough for the 2023 overall fantasy WR1. And considering the Cowboys aren’t exactly on par with pass catchers — not to mention Jake Ferguson has been hampered by injuries — it’s no surprise that the Cowboys offense hasn’t gotten going so far (Certainly excluding waste time in week 3).

The Cowboys, no doubt upset about their Week 3 loss to the Ravens — Lamb himself has apologized for his performance and frustrations in that game — should win this game. If the Giants have any chance of pulling off the upset, they will continue what they have been doing this season: shower Nabers with targets. But maybe Dallas should take a page out of New York’s book and do the same with their All-World superstar receiver.

I expect Lamb to put in his best performance of the season in this match.

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Is Rico Dowdle starting to walk away with the RB1 job?

The Cowboys have been criticized by fans and talking heads for their negligence in addressing the running back position this offseason. After all, they could have signed Derrick Henry (who tore through Dallas’ defense in Week 3) or drafted Braelon Allen (who looks like he could be a starter if there wasn’t a Breece-Hall-shaped obstacle in his way). Instead, the team decided to go with the unproven Rico Dowdle and the ghost of Ezekiel Elliott.

Things haven’t exactly worked out for Dallas in that respect. Surprisingly, Dallas averages the third-fewest rushing yards per game in the N.F.L.

Now, given the heading of this section, you might think I’m going to set up the scenario where Rico Dowdle is going to save the day. That’s unlikely. This offense, at least this season, should live and die by Dak Prescott’s arm. But Dowdle has at least shown some improvement in the backfield and, if given the keys, could serve as a solid addition to the passing game. And those tests might have gone further in Dowdle’s direction in Week 3. He outscored Zeke 8-3 and added three more receptions for 53 yards.

Sure, the Cowboys spent most of the day playing catch-up. We’ll see how the backfield distribution plays out against the Giants, which should be a positive game script for Dem Boys. But Dowdle has now done more backfield work than Elliott for two straight weeks. If he completely takes over this backfield, Dowdle will jump from fringe flex option into RB2 territory.

His workload and subsequent production will be something to watch on TNF.

Start: Devin Singletary

It’s not exactly the sexiest suggestion to start with Devin Singletary if you’re debating a flex option, or to continue with him if you haven’t had a choice. After all, it feels like he’s a journeyman at 27 and he was a running back you could select around 100.

Yet he does nothing but produce, in 2024 and throughout his career.

Singletary has scored a touchdown in back-to-back games and he is producing at a clip of 4.7 yards per carry. Sure, the Cowboys will no doubt try to address their run defense issues after Derrick Henry crushed them for 174 yards and two touchdowns — the Cowboys have the worst defense through three weeks — but it would behoove the Giants to feed Singletary and run out the clock to burn. to keep Prescott and the Dallas offense off the field. And given the way Jones and Nabers connected, Singletary has a great chance for a third straight touchdown. Light it.