{"id":269498,"date":"2025-08-07T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/269498\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:12:11","slug":"best-nfl-dfs-preseason-week-1-picks-for-thursday-draftkings-fanduel-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/269498\/","title":{"rendered":"Best NFL DFS preseason week 1 picks for Thursday: DraftKings, FanDuel and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Week 1 NFL preseason schedule opens on Thursday with a three-game slate. The action gets underway at 7 p.m. ET with Colts<\/a> vs. Ravens<\/a> at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. That game is followed by Bengals<\/a> vs. Eagles<\/a> at 7:30 p.m. ET and Raiders<\/a> vs. Seahawks<\/a> at 10 p.m. ET. At this point in the preseason, many of the established starters for each team will play sparingly (or not at all), making it imperative for DFS players to dig deep into the NFL DFS player pool for Thursday to find the top values.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said that his starters, including quarterback Joe Burrow<\/a>, will play against the Eagles on Thursday, but didn’t specify how many series they would see. On the flip side, the Ravens and Seahawks are both expected to give their younger, inexperienced quarterbacks the bulk of the reps on Thursday night. Would you be better targeting a proven veteran like Burrow, or would it be a better NFL DFS strategy to build around a rookie quarterback like Jalen Milroe<\/a>? Before making any NFL DFS picks for Thursday on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel,\u00a0be sure to check out the NFL DFS lineup advice, strategy and player stacks from SportsLine NFL daily Fantasy expert Jimmie Kaylor<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaylor is a\u00a0NFL betting<\/a>\u00a0and DFS expert for SportsLine, who opened the 2022 NFL season by winning DraftKings’ NFL Showdown Thursday Kickoff Millionaire contest. He edged out over 355,000 other entrants in the contest and also has multiple five-figure tournament wins on his DFS resume. Kaylor has covered the NFL and college football<\/a> for close to a decade as a member of the Pro Football Writers of America, and his background as a former college and NFL player gives him a unique perspective when building his fantasy lineups and locking in his betting<\/a> picks. Anybody following his DFS picks over the last three seasons could have seen huge returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Kaylor has turned his attention to Thursday’s 2025 NFL preseason schedule and locked in his top daily Fantasy football<\/a> picks.\u00a0You can only see his picks and analysis at SportsLine<\/a>, also new players can get $50 in Pick6 credits at DraftKings when they play $5:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top NFL preseason DFS picks for Thursday<\/p>\n

One of Kaylor’s top DFS picks for Thursday is Seahawks quarterback Jalen Milroe. Seattle drafted the former Alabama standout in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft in April, and his high-end physical ability has been turning heads during training camp. Milroe is battling Drew Lock<\/a> for the Seahawks’ backup quarterback job, but his athletic ability will make him a prime candidate to be a situational player as a rookie during the regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Milroe is expected to see extended action on Thursday night against the Raiders. His dual-threat ability makes him a threat to rack up DFS points as a runner, especially at this point in the preseason when passing games are still gelling and working on timing issues. If he ends up playing half of the game or more as expected, Milroe is a prime candidate to be the top-scoring quarterback on the slate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of Kaylor’s Thursday NFL DFS strategy includes Colts running back DJ Giddens<\/a>. The former Kansas State standout was one of the top running backs in college football in 2024. In his final two college seasons, Giddens rushed for 2,569 yards and 17 touchdowns, and he caught 50 passes for 581 yards and four scores.<\/p>\n

Giddens was widely considered to be one of the biggest steals of the 2025 Draft, and he has already been generating a ton of buzz during Indianapolis’ training camp. With Jonathan Taylor<\/a> and Tyler Goodson<\/a> both expected to play minimally on Thursday, there should be ample opportunity for Giddens to shine in an extended role against the Ravens.\u00a0You can see the rest of Kaylor’s NFL DFS picks here<\/a>, and new users can see the latest\u00a0FanDuel promo code<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0get $150 in bonus bets at FanDuel if your $5 bet wins<\/a>:<\/p>\n

How to build Thursday preseason NFL DFS lineups<\/p>\n

Kaylor is also targeting another undervalued player who could explode for huge numbers on Thursday. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing.\u00a0You can only see who it is, and the rest of Kaylor’s NFL DFS picks, at SportsLine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So who is Jimmie Kaylor including in his optimal NFL DFS lineups for Thursday, and which under-the-radar NFL DFS picks offer huge value?\u00a0Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NFL DFS picks, rankings, advice and stacks, all from a DFS expert who already won a single-game millionaire maker tournament<\/a>, and find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Week 1 NFL preseason schedule opens on Thursday with a three-game slate. The action gets underway at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2045,7,392,753,6,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-269498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-dj-giddens","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis-colts","11":"tag-jalen-milroe","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-seattle-seahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114988603707465737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}