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 6 with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Denver Broncos.
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 Chiefs are still looking to find their footing on the offensive side of the ball -- at least relative to the expectations we have for that offense. Travis Kelce briefly left Kansas City's Week 5 win with an injury only to return. He is listed as questionable but expected to play vs. the Broncos. The Chiefs wide receiver group continues to lack consistency but we've seen flashes from rookie Rashee Rice on a limited route basis and they finally got the Fantasy Football community's favorite deep sleeper -- Justyn Ross -- involved with four targets last week. It feels like we're waiting for a breakout game to come for this Chiefs wide receiver room and both Ross and Rice feel most likely to do that. My favorite play in this game is the over on everything Isiah Pacheco. He should have a field day against the worst-tackling defense in the NFL and is likely to score too.
On the flip side, the Broncos may have the single worst defense in the NFL, but they've been slightly more alive on offense in Sean Payton's first month and change trying to establish his system. Russell Wilson's numbers are up but he hasn't leaned on Jerry Jeudy like we saw at the end of his 2022 season. It's high time the Broncos get Marvin Mims more involved so that's something I'll be keeping an eye out for tonight. Mims has been explosive on a per play basis but needs more opportunities.
Sportsline's Jacob Gibbs does the deep dive on the entire Week 6 main slate for DFS with a breakdown of all the players who should be in your captain consideration, a break down of the FLEX plays by tiers and more. Mike McClure has you covered with optimal lineups for the TNF slate on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Or you can lean on former Millionaire Maker winner Jimmie Kaylor for his picks.
Without further ado, here's a look at who our experts are picking on this DFS Thursday Night Football slate:
Dave Richard
FanDuel:
MVP: Patrick Mahomes $18,000
FLEX: Isiah Pacheco $13,500
FLEX: Jaleel McLaughlin $10,000
FLEX: Marques Valdez-Scantling $7,000
FLEX: Justin Watson $6,500
Jamey Eisenberg
FanDuel:
MVP: Isiah Pacheco $13,500
FLEX: Patrick Mahomes $18,000
FLEX: Chiefs DEF $9,500
FLEX: Samaje Perine $9,000
FLEX: Rashee Rice $9,000
Heath Cummings
FanDuel:
MVP: Isiah Pacheco $13,500
FLEX: Patrick Mahomes $18,000
FLEX: Russell Wilson $15,000
FLEX: Clyde Edwards-Helaire $6,500
FLEX: Justyn Ross $6,000
