While traditional fantasy football formats have dominated the landscape, managers can find numerous ways to play the game they love. Underdog Pick’em contests allow managers to put their player projection skills to the test by predicting player stat lines.
Here are the top Underdog Pick’em plays for Sunday Night Football between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans.
Top Underdog Pick’ems for Sunday Night Football
Underdog Pick’ems allow fantasy managers to predict stat lines and fantasy point totals for almost all fantasy-relevant players. Here, the more selections you add to your entry, the higher the payout.
The levels are two players for 3x, three for 6x, four for 10x, and finally, five for 20x, progressing with each additional pick’em you add to your entry.
With Underdog Fantasy, it’s a brand new season every week, no matter how your other leagues are going at the moment. Sign up today and get a 100% deposit bonus of up to $100. As for my recommendations, below are my top Underdog Pick’ems for Sunday Night Football in Week 9.
Travis Kelce Higher Than 72.5 Receiving Yards and 0.5 Receiving TDs
There is no player other than Patrick Mahomes who is more consistent or as valuable as Travis Kelce. He’s the TE1 overall for fantasy and boasts a 24.1% target share, 22.7% air-yard share, and a 26.5% target per route run rate.
Not only does he lead all tight ends in red-zone targets, but he leads the entire NFL. Kelce has a touchdown in seven of his last nine Sunday Night Football games, and he’s looking to make it three games in a row against Tennessee with seven or more receptions. Tennessee has allowed the fifth most yards to the position and ranks 22nd in DVOA.
I’ll be taking the higher on both his 72.5 receiving yards and his 0.5 receiving TDs against the Titans on Sunday Night Football.
JuJu Smith-Schuster Higher Than 59.5 Receiving Yards
It took a couple of games, but JuJu Smith-Schuster is living up to the lofty expectations that were placed on him when he initially signed with the Chiefs. Over the last two weeks, he’s recorded over 113 yards in each game while finishing as the WR7 and WR4.
Since Week 3, Smith-Schuster is the WR14 in per-game scoring and is on pace for 1,200 yards this year. He also has 75 or more yards in four of his seven games this year. And coming out of a bye week, Andry Reid is one of the best. The pending debut of Kadarius Toney will be something to watch, but Smith-Schuster should clear his 59.5-yard projection on Underdog Fantasy Pick’ems.
Patrick Mahomes Higher Than 36.5 Passing Attempts
If you want to attack Tennessee, you do it through the air. They rank No. 1 in rushing DVOA, No. 7 in rush/EPA, and No. 1 in success rate. Kansas City’s rushing attack has been nothing to write home about, sitting 17th in yards and sixth in attempts, which makes sense because when you have Patrick Mahomes, you might want to use him.
Tennessee is vulnerable via the air. They are 24th in yards allowed, have surrendered the fourth-most TDs, and are 32nd in DVOA vs. deep targets. Mahomes also has another chance at history. With 105 passing yards, Mahomes will surpass Matthew Stafford (21,254) for the most passing yards ever by a QB in the first 75 starts.
If he throws three touchdown passes, he will pass Dan Marino (173) for the most by QB in their first 75 starts as well. With 37+ attempts in three of his last four games, make it four of five as Mahomes goes higher than 34.5 attempts.
Derrick Henry Higher Than 88.5 Rushing Yards
Right now, we have a bit of an issue. At the moment, Derrick Henry is the only player Underdog has listed for Tennessee to choose from for Pick’ems. This is due to the uncertainty of who will be under center. Malik Willis started for Ryan Tannehill, and after a week of mixed participation, head coach Mike Vabrel announced Tannehill will be a game-time decision for Sunday Night.
Depending on who is starting, the projections would drastically change, which is why they are not being posted at the time of writing. In all honestly, I likely wouldn’t have had much interest in them anyway, as Henry is the only consistent producer for the team.
He’s having another absurd season as the RB3 in per-game scoring while averaging 25.7 touches in 127.9 total yards. Henry rushed for a season-high 219 yards and two touchdowns last week, which gave him his sixth game with 200-plus yards and two or more touchdowns. He has a rushing touchdown in five of his last six and is looking to make it six in a row with 130+ scrimmage yards.
In his five games against the Chiefs, including the postseason, Henry has averaged 120.6 yards per game with six rushing touchdowns. He has four rushing touchdowns in his last two primetime games, and even with the Titans significant underdogs, Henry is the gameplan. Even though Kansas City is not as much of a pushover as Houston was, Henry is in full form at the moment, and I’ll take the higher on his rushing yards.
The only other option listed is 0.5 rushing TDs, and while you can only choose one player’s projection per play, I can see value in this as well for an additional option.