Football is back! Every NFL week starts with a Thursday Night Football game for most of the remainder of the 2023 season, and these are our favorite slates to play Daily Fantasy Football. The TNF showdown slate allows you a smaller crop of players to choose from, and if your cheap sleeper pick hits, you can cash big in your tournaments or easily win your head-to-head DFS matchups. Tonight, we kickoff the NFL season with the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions. With uncertainty surrounding Travis Kelce's status for Week 1, the DFS slate has already been turned upside down on its head!
Every week, I'll get the Thursday Night DFS picks from our experts and we'll feature them below. We'll take a mix of lineups from our panel of experts that feature builds from both DraftKings and Fanduel. But first, let's preview the matchup and what we might expect.
The Chiefs enter the 2023 season with another uncertain pecking order with regard to targets in the passing game. Sure, we can expect Kelce (once he returns from a knee injury) to lead the team in targets, but after the star tight end it remains up in the air. The expectation is that second-year wide receiver Skyy Moore could make the jump and be a triple-digit target getter, but we'll have to see it to believe it. The Chiefs kept a lot of interesting wide receivers on the roster alongside Moore and Week 1 will go a long way in helping us figure out where Patrick Mahomes is going with the football.
The Lions weren't as successful as the Chiefs in 2022 but are projected to be one of the NFL's breakout teams in 2023. They have revamped their rushing attack (behind one of the NFL's best run-blocking offensive lines) by adding David Montgomery in free agency and drafting Jahmry Gibbs with their first-round pick.
Without further ado, here's a look at who our experts are picking on this DFS Thursday Night Football slate:
Dave Richard
DraftKings:
MVP Jahmyr Gibbs $12,300
FLEX Patrick Mahomes $12,200
FLEX Amon-Ra St. Brown $10,200
FLEX Jared Goff $9,400
FLEX Josh Reynolds $2,800
FLEX Justyn Ross $1,000
FanDuel:
MVP Jahmyr Gibbs $11,000
FLEX Patrick Mahomes $18,000
FLEX Amon-Ra St. Brown $13,500
FLEX Sam LaPorta $6,500
FLEX Justyn Ross $5,500
Jamey Eisenberg
DraftKings
Captain: Josh Reynolds $4,200
FLEX: Patrick Mahomes $12,200
FLEX: Amon-Ra St. Brown $10,200
FLEX: Jared Goff $9,400
FLEX: Jahmyr Gibbs $8,200
FLEX: Marquez Valdes-Scantling $5,400
Heath Cummings
FanDuel:
MVP Jared Goff $15,500
FLEX David Montgomery $13,00
FLEX Amon-Ra St. Brown $13,500
FLEX Clyde Edwards-Helaire $7,500
FLEX Jerick McKinnon $9,000
