The first official week of NFL preseason action has arrived. Our NFL Hall of Fame game DFS picks were scorching hot and should have helped you win. We’re back for more, as Thursday offers a bigger six-game slate to work with at DraftKings.
Not sure who to play? I’ll highlight my favorite play at each position to build out a strong NFL DFS Core. Let’s build!
NFL Core Plays for Thursday Night
- Anthony Richardson, QB, Colts
- Eli Heidenreich, RB, Steelers
- Kyle Williams, WR, Patriots
- Jackson Meeks, TE, Lions
Anthony Richardson, QB, Colts
AR15 is the top quarterback play. If you want to target the guy with the most expected playing time, that might be Lions QB Luke Altmyer. The problem there is he’s not very good and Detroit also just signed Joshua Dobbs. If they split playing time Altmyer loses steam.
Nobody else on this slate is guaranteed to be a better play than Richardson, who should start and play the entire first half. This is likely a showcase game for the former 1st round pick, and his rushing floor makes him a very compelling play.
Other options include Trey Lance, Altmyer, and Tommy DeVito, but Richardson is the play for me.
Update: It sure sounds like Altmyer may play the whole game, or at least most of it. I think he’s the safest QB pick, but he’ll be super owned. I will personally play AR15 more.
Eli Heidenreich, RB, Steelers
When looking for who to play in NFL Preseason DFS contests, I want guys with clear playing time or something to prove. I think Eli Heindenreich could offer a little bit of both.
He’s been banged up, but he returned to practice recently and said he should be able to suit up. Keep an eye on his status, as he’s obviously a bad play if not active. If he gets the green light, however, his elite athleticism and versatility make him a smash.
Other options I am high on include Khalil Herbert, Nick Singleton, and Lan Larison. These guys should all benefit from injuries and/or starters being rested. I like Larison the most, but I’d get to them all a good deal.
I also have eyes for MarShaw Lloyd. Josh Jacobs won’t play for the Packers tonight, and Green Bay appears intent on testing the DFS gods with the brittle Lloyd. He is super explosive, though, so I’ll sprinkle him into lineups in GPPs.
Update: I also like Noah Whittington. The Texans running back has the highest rushing yardage prop bet of the night. Houston has no reason not to play him a ton, plus he’s pretty fast and flashed big play upside in college.
Kyle Williams, WR, Patriots
I also really like Keion Burks and a number of burners on this slate, but my main priority is Kyle Williams. Reports out of camp are that last year’s impressive rookie, well, hasn’t impressed. He made some huge plays last year, but apparently he needs to work on the finer details.
With New England sitting their main guys, we could see more work than usual for Williams as he fights for a key role in his team’s passing game.
Wide receiver is pretty volatile. Ja’Marr Chase could get up to a quarter of action and is going to be in play, while explosive guys like Malik Benson and Brenen Thompson are going to be very hard to turn away from. I think we have a lot of exciting options on this slate, and will be stacking four WRs in more of my NFL preseason DFS lineups.
Jackson Meeks, TE, Lions
Tight end is pretty bad on this slate. You can take a shot on key starters who get the nod, but they should be limited. The Lions won’t be rolling their main guys out there, though, so former preseason darling Jackson Meeks looks like one of the better plays.
Not only did Meeks cook last year in games that Didn’t Matter, but the former Syracuse wide receiver is trying to make the full-time switch to tight end. He wasn’t a good WR prospect, but at tight end his speed and athleticism could allow him to cook.
Meeks should be chalky since tight end is cheeks, so I’ll definitely look to pivot to guys like Eli Raridon and Marlin Klein.
Defense is a crapshoot. I think you can play anyone blindly, so long as you don’t target the same teams you’re using players from. I am very interested in targeting the Lions with Bengals. That sounds counterintuitive on paper, but if a good chunk of the field is playing the Detroit QB, we can leverage that pretty easily.
Noah Simpson is a New England-based DFS writer who has spent the better part of a decade obsessing over MLB DFS. He got his start playing DFS recreationally before realizing he was spending more time building spreadsheets than actually watching games, and decided to make it official. At DFSBuild, Noah covers MLB DFS strategy with a focus on finding edges that casual players overlook. When he’s not staring at Statcast data, he’s somewhere on a hiking trail in Maine with his two dogs, Sandboy and Johnner, who are undefeated at ignoring his lineup advice, because they are dogs. They don’t have the cognitive or motor skills required to operate a computer, let alone process complex theories and information.
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