Morning Coffee: FanDuel bettors backing Barkley to shine again in NFC Championship

It feels like just yesterday that the 2024 NFL season kicked off with 32 teams and endless possibilities.

With just over 48 hours to go until Championship Sunday, we’re only two days away from finding out which two teams will get their shot at history on the biggest stage.

The Philadelphia Eagles are a 6.5-point favourite against the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship at FanDuel.

The spread is much closer for the AFC Championship is much closer, with the Kansas City Chiefs sitting at -1.5 against the Buffalo Bills this morning.

It’s a bittersweet time of the year for yours truly.

With only three games remaining, we don’t have much more football left before the NFL offseason begins.

At the same time, I’m looking forward to a full reset, with a chance to finally address the burn out I’ve felt in recent weeks, tinker with my model for the 2025 NFL season, and jump right into some critical offseason content.

If you’ve been along for the ride throughout the year, it’s been a season to remember.

Hopefully, we can finish on a high note starting with a long list of FanDuel Best Bets for Championship Sunday.

This is the Morning Coffee for Friday January 24th, 2025.

FanDuel Bettors Backing Barkley To Shine Again In NFC Championship

I didn’t hesitate to jump on Kansas City to win outright when FanDuel posted the AFC Championship number on Sunday night.

I won’t be surprised if either team wins on Sunday.

However, Chiefs over the Eagles was my pre-season Super Bowl prediction back in the summer.

With home-field advantage and an extra day of rest, I’m sticking with Patrick Mahomes and two-time defending Super Bowl champions to take care of business.

At the same time, with Josh Allen at QB for the Bills, I’m tempted to add an SGP with Buffalo on the alt spread.

Earlier this week, I locked in Noah Gray over 13.5 receiving yards as a FanDuel Best Bet.

On Thursday, I added Khalil Shakir over 55.5 receiving yards as another FanDuel Best Bet.

This morning, I’ll add an SGP with Travis Kelce 40+ receiving yards, Hollywood Brown 25+ receiving yards, and Josh Allen 25+ rushing yards at +104 odds.

Brown burned me with a crucial drop last week and Allen didn’t need to be at his best after the Baltimore Ravens turned the ball over three times in Buffalo.

I expect Brown to be more involved in the offence this week and Allen to have to use his legs a little more on the road in Kansas City.

Meanwhile, I didn’t hesitate to jump on Saquon Barkley over 125.5 rushing yards and Jalen Hurts over 29.5 rushing yards as my first two FanDuel Best Bets for the NFC Championship game.

Barkley has gone for at least 119 rushing yards in four straight games dating back to the regular season.

After exploding for 232 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns in last week’s win over the Los Angeles Rams, I’m expecting another big game from Barkley against one of the league’s worst run defences in the winter weather conditions.

Apparently, I’m not the only one on the over.

Per the FanDuel traders, 93 per cent of the bets are on Barkley to go over 125.5 rushing yards.

It’s already the highest rushing yards prop that FanDuel has posted for any player in either the regular season or playoffs.

It’s also considerably higher than any other rushing prop posted at FanDuel for Sunday’s games.

Speaking of which, I locked in another rushing yards prop as a FanDuel Best Bet late last night.

I jumped on Kenneth Gainwell over 8.5 rushing yards.

Gainwell has 10+ rushing yards in three straight games and 11 of his last 15 games overall.

He ran for 43 yards on four carries in his first game against the Commanders.

Then he was held to seven yards on four carries in the rematch.

With the winter weather conditions in place, I expect the veteran running back to get two or three carries in relief of Barkley and hit 10+ rushing yards for the third playoff game in a row.

We only need nine rushing yards from him to hit the over.

Below is a look at my updated list of FanDuel Best Bets for Championship Sunday in the order I released them:

NFC Championship Game

Saquon Barkley over 125.5 rushing yards

Jalen Hurts over 29.5 rushing yards

Austin Ekeler over 21.5 receiving yards

Kenneth Gainwell over 8.5 rushing yards

AFC Championship Game

Chiefs ML -120 over Bills

Noah Gray over 13.5 receiving yards

Khalil Shakir over 55.5 receiving yards

SGP (+110): Kelce 40+ receiving | Hollywood 25+ receiving | Allen 25+ rushing

With most of the public jumping on the rushing props, I’ve been staring down some pretty intriguing receiving yards props for the NFC Championship.

For now, I’ll wait and see what kind of weather we get in Philadelphia this weekend before adding any more plays.

Make sure you give me a follow @Domenic_Padula on X for my full card for Championship Sunday.

Hopefully, we can capitalize with one more memorable weekend in the final stop on the road to the Super Bowl.

Have a great weekend, everyone!