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 Week 15 with the Las Vegas Raiders hosting the Los Angeles Chargers.
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 on Fanduel. But first, let's preview the matchup and what we might expect.
The whackiest TNF games between two losing teams can sometimes turn into the most fun Daily Fantasy slates and although the public is expecting a low scoring game with two quarterbacks starting this one who were not expected to start at the beginning of the season.
On the Raiders side, after some speculation that we might see a quarterback change, Vegas will go back to rookie Aidan O'Connell in Week 14 against the Chargers. Davante Adams (illness) is expected to play but it's hard to get too excited about his Fantasy outlook given his lack of rapport with O'Connell this season. Josh Jacobs (quad) appears to be a game time decision trending in the wrong direction. The Raiders will likely turn to a committee behind him with Ameer Abdullah on pass downs and Zamir White as the early downs grinder.
On the flip side, the Chargers offense will have a brand new look this week. Justin Herbert is out for the remainder of the season and Easton Stick will draw his first start of the year. Stick got better as the game went on last week and now has a full week of practice and reps with the first-team starters. However, he'll be down his No. 1 receiver Keenan Allen who has already been ruled out for this game. Look for a heavy Austin Ekeler-based game plan in this one. They'll use Ekeler both as a runner and receiver.
Sportsline's Mike McClure has you covered with optimal lineups for the TNF slate on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Milly-maker DFS winner Jimmy Kaylor also has his lineup in for the Chargers-Raiders.
Without further ado, here's a look at who our experts are picking on this DFS Thursday Night Football slate:
Dave Richard
FanDuel:
MVP: Austin Ekeler $14,000
FLEX: Jakobi Meyers $11,000
FLEX: Josh Palmer $5,000
FLEX: Chargers DST $8,500
FLEX: Raiders DST $9,000
Jamey Eisenberg
FanDuel:
MVP: Easton Stick $13,000
FLEX: Austin Ekeler $14,000
FLEX: Aidan O'Connell $13,000
FLEX: Davante Adams $12,500
FLEX: Ameer Abdullah $7,500
No lineup from Heath this week, so he deferred to me and here's my take on the matchup?
Dan Schneier
FanDuel:
MVP: Austin Ekeler $14,000
FLEX: Easton Stick $13,000
FLEX: Aidan O'Connell $13,000
FLEX: Jakobi Meyers $11,000
FLEX: Raiders DST $9,000
