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 16 with the Los Angeles Rams hosting the New Orleans Saints.
This is a battel for one of the last potential wild-card spots in the NFC but also an opportunity for the Saints to position themselves to win the NFC South division.
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.
On the Rams side, since Matthew Stafford's return to the lineup, we've seen a rebirth of their pass game. Stafford even got Cooper Kupp going last week with one long touchdown and several other receptions. The Stafford to Kupp connection is back and Kupp looks healthier than he did earlier in his return this season. However, this offense now runs through Kyren Williams and he's getting top-five RB volume. He'll be the most popular play on this entire slate.
On the flip side, the Saints are going to look to throw the ball early and often in this game. The Rams run defense has been too dominant this season to suggest otherwise. The Rams are however allowing an 87.1% catch rate to running backs so Alvin Kamara is likely to be one of the most popular plays on the slate.
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: Derek Carr $14,000
FLEX: Cooper Kupp $14,500
FLEX: Chris Olave $12,500
FLEX: Rashid Shaheed $9,500
FLEX: Demarcus Robinson $8,500
Jamey Eisenberg
FanDuel:
MVP: Derek Carr $14,000
FLEX: Cooper Kupp $14,500
FLEX: Chris Olave $12,500
FLEX: Rashid Shaheed $9,500
FLEX: Lucas Havriski $9,000
No lineup from Heath this week, so he deferred to me, and here's my take on the matchup:
Dan Schneier
FanDuel:
MVP: Cooper Kupp $14,500
FLEX: Derek Carr $14,000
FLEX: Chris Olave $12,500
FLEX: Rashid Shaheed $9,500
FLEX: Demarcus Robinson $8,500
