FanDuel NFL Best Bets: TSN staff picks for Week 1

Each week, members from our betting team will share their best bets from the slate of NFL games in hopes of building the ultimate 8-leg parlay on FanDuel.

This year, we will give you four best bets from our team while also the most popular prop bet, side and touchdown bet of the week.

This week, according to the traders at FanDuel those three props are the following:

Most Popular Side: Houston Texans -2.5 (-120)

Most Popular Touchdown Scorer: Tyreek Hill (-120)

Most Popular Prop Bet: Jerome Ford Over 49.5 Rushing Yards (-114)

You can ride the parlay or play the picks on their own, but we made sure to leave an empty space in the box for you to join in and add your biggest lock for the week! Just save the image below and add your own pick to the middle square if you want in on the parlay.

Let's see if we can cash another 170-1 parlay this year. 

Here’s what we’re rolling with for Week 1.

Domenic Padula: Miami Dolphins ML -176 over Jacksonville Jaguars 

For the purposes of the NFL Squares column, I'll lock in the Dolphins at -176 on the moneyline as a FanDuel Best Bet. Last season, Miami beat up on inferior opponents on their way to making the playoffs in the AFC. The Dolphins were at their best in the first half of the season, and I expect that to continue against the Jags. Miami has covered each of its previous three Week 1 games. Tua Tagovailoa is 18-8 against the spread in his career. I don't want to lay more than a field goal, so I'll take the Dolphins to win outright as my NFL Squares play for Sunday.

Chris Brieda: Detroit Lions -3.5 vs Los Angeles Rams

This one jumps off the schedule as a perfect spot for the Rams to avenge their postseason loss to the Lions from last January. Unfortunately for LA, I think they had their best crack at Detroit back in that Wild Card game.

Aaron Donald’s retirement leaves an irreplaceable void in the Rams defence. Detroit’s top-ranked offensive line should be able to go to work against a relatively inexperienced Rams unit, opening the doors for Goff, Gibbs and Montgomery on offence.

On the flip side, the Rams are missing their starting LT to suspension, and they have a guard playing under centre this week. This should give Aidan Hutchinson and the Lions' pass rush plenty of opportunities to make Stafford uncomfortable.

The biggest upgrade to the Lions roster was clearly their secondary, which they addressed beyond expectation through the draft and free agency. Detroit’s stout run defence also returns with the new addition of DJ Reader on the line, which can limit the dynamic production of Kyren Williams.

Rams star Puka Nacua was the only real offensive threat for last winter's Rams-Lions playoff game. With him banged up heading into the season and the aforementioned sured-up Detroit secondary, I struggle to find very many reasons to dislike the Leos in front of their own fans on Sunday night.

Connor Ford: Tony Pollard Over 9.5 Receiving Yards (-113)

The Tennessee Titans signed running back Tony Pollard to a three-year, $24 million contract this offseason. That should be enough to assume they’ll give him a sizeable workload against the Bears on Sunday. Yet, his receiving yards prop at FanDuel is still only 9.5. This seems too good to be true.

Admittedly, Tyjae Spears also projects to have a role in this backfield and the Bears defence was one of the tougher matchups for running backs last season. That being said, head coach Brian Callahan and the Titans coaching staff haven’t been shy about their offensive plans this season. Callahan was previously the offensive coordinator of the Bengals – one of the most pass-happy teams in the NFL. Expect him to bring that same approach to a Titans offence that was previous one of the most run-heavy in the league.

Callahan said this about Pollard and Spears earlier this offseason: “Any time we can find ways to match those guys up in the passing game on linebackers, it’s a huge benefit for us; they’re hard to cover. They can run routes like receivers, which is unique.” I’m expecting Pollard to see plenty usage in the passing game this Sunday. Let’s start off Week 1 with a bang!

Drew Morrison: New York Jets +4.5

It was only a couple of plays into Week 1 last year when Aaron Rodgers went out with his Achilles injury.  The Jets were barely in the air before crashing back into the ground. 

Super Bowl dreams morphed into a season-long nightmare waiting for Rodgers to return. 

He’ll make his second start in a Jets uniform on Monday.  It’s not an easy matchup in San Francisco, but the 49ers had plenty of distractions to deal with throughout the summer.  Christian McCaffrey is nursing a calf injury, Trent Williams just entered camp, so did Brando Aiyuk, first round pick Ricky Pearsall was recently shot during a robbery attempt, and Dre Greenlaw is still out with the Achilles injury he suffered in the Super Bowl.  Meanwhile, the Jets are healthy and they’ve added talent on both sides of the ball since last season.

If Aaron Rodgers can last longer than a few snaps, I like the Jets to cover four and a half points by the Bay. 

Luke Bellus: Davante Adams anytime touchdown +185

Devante Adams’ grandparents have never seen him play a professional football game.

That changes this Sunday when the Las Vegas Raiders take on the Los Angeles Chargers.

Adams, 31, couldn’t help but smile and cut off a reporter with joy when asked about them being at the game this week.

“Yeah, they’re coming,” Adams said with a grin from ear to ear. “They’re coming to the game. I’m excited.”

We hear about stories and narratives like this all of the time *after* the fact. Usually, you’re sitting on the couch, and the camera pans to his grandmother after he’s caught a touchdown, and you hear the story and think, “Gosh, I wish we knew this before. I totally would’ve bet it."

Well, this is our chance.

Give me Adams +185 to find the end zone this week solely because his grandparents will be there.

Sure, it helps that since being traded to Vegas, Adams has four touchdowns and 494 yards in four games against the Chargers, but who cares about stats and trends when grandma is in town.