Morning Coffee: Which NFL stars will shine brightest on Thursday?

The fourth College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday.

For the third straight week, the top four remained unchanged. Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, and Penn State remained in their respective positions at the top of the rankings.

The big news is that a couple of ACC teams are in excellent position to make the College Football Playoff heading into conference championship weekend.

No. 6 Miami and No. 12 Clemson should be able to survive ACC Championship Game losses and get in.

On the flip side, Alabama, BYU, and Ole Miss all dropped out of the projected College Football Playoff following upset losses this past weekend.

It’s also important to remember that the updated rankings don’t equally represent the updated seeding.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will get the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff and the important byes that will come with them.

The Buckeyes remain the favourite to win the FBS Championship at FanDuel this morning at +260. Georgia (+350), Oregon (+390) and Texas (+450) round out the list of teams with shorter than +1400 odds to win the College Football Playoff National Championship.

All eyes will be on the Longhorns when they visit rivals Texas A&M on Saturday night.

Football fans have been blessed with a loaded slate of games this week in both college and the NFL.

The action begins with a highly anticipated American Thanksgiving Day slate at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.

In addition to a wide range of player props and game markets, FanDuel is celebrating the football extravaganza with some unique specials for Thursday’s action.

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday Nov. 27, 2024.

Which NFL stars will shine brightest on Thursday?

Three games, three battles, one unique tradition.

While the American Thanksgiving is a holiday unique to our friends south of the border, Canadians get to celebrate with an annual triple-header of football.

I’ll never forget ditching classes to catch the games with my buddies every year.

Now I’m the guy that produces FanDuel NFL content for TSN, which makes it a little more difficult to spend the day watching football from my couch at home.

On the bright side, I’ll get to watch the games with the TSN betting crew at the office.

Hopefully, we can find some winners at FanDuel to add to the spectacle of the day.

In addition to a long list of game markets and player props, FanDuel is celebrating Thursday’s games with a long list of specials featured on their app.

Jared Goff, Jordan Love, and Tua Tagovailoa to combine for six touchdown passes on Thursday is +185.

Each team to score at least two touchdowns in all three Thanksgiving Day games is +410.

What about any four of Jahmyr Gibbs, Rico Dowdle, Tyrone Tracy Jr., D’Andre Swift, or Christian Watson to score a touchdown at +1000 odds?

In addition to those specific specials, FanDuel has introduced a unique Triple Crown market exclusive to their app that allows its members to bet on which players will lead the league in passing yards, rushing yards, and receiving yards on Thursday.

It's essentially a trifecta of the leading passer, rusher, and receiver from Thursday’s triple-header.

For example, the combination of Goff to lead all quarterbacks in passing yards, Josh Jacobs to lead all players in rushing yards, and Amon-Ra St. Brown to lead all players in receiving yards could be found at +4400.

Goff to lead the league in passing yards, Jacobs to lead the league in rushing yards, and Jameson Williams to lead the league in receiving yards on Thursday is 100-to-1. A $10 bet will pay $1000 if that trifecta hits.

I’d love to know if any of you like one of those NFL Thanksgiving Special Triple Crown bets.

Give me a follow @Domenic_Padula on X and let me know your thoughts if something stands out.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of FanDuel Best Bets to consider for Thursday.

I’ll lock in Miami Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith to go over 40.5 receiving yards.

Smith has been a personal favourite of mine in recent weeks with three or more receptions in seven straight games and at least 45 receiving yards in six of those seven contests. The veteran tight end has 15 receptions for 188 yards and three touchdowns over the previous two weeks.

He’s been Miami’s most consistent weapon in the passing game, and now he gets a Green Bay defence that has allowed an average of 5.5 receptions and 57.5 receiving yards to tight ends this season.

The Packers run a ton of zone coverages and two-high coverages, which should open the middle of the field for Smith to put up some big numbers again this week.

Smith has gone over 40.5 receiving yards in four straight games. I like him to make it five straight in Green Bay on Thursday.

On the other side, this could also be a good spot to target the Packers starting tight end Tucker Kraft.

Kraft finished with only 26 receiving yards on two receptions in last week’s blowout win over the San Francisco 49ers.

He’s registered at least 25 receiving yards in four of his previous five games.

We know Green Bay wants to run the football, which we saw in Sunday’s win over the 49ers when they ran for 169 yards on 42 carries. 

With Romeo Doubs sidelined with a concussion, and Jacobs limited in practice due to resting ahead of Thursday night’s game to keep him fresh, I think we see a little more Kraft in Thursday night’s game.

I’ll lock in a Same Game Parlay with Kraft 25+ receiving yards and Jacobs 40+ rushing yards at -114 odds as a FanDuel Best Bet this morning.

Hopefully, we can go 2-0 in Thursday’s late game.

In the meantime, it’s time to get back to work trying to find some winners for a busy NBA and NHL slate tonight.

Have a great day, everyone!