After the NFL kicked off the 2025 season with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Eagles and Cowboys, the AFC takes center stage Friday with the Chargers battling the Chiefs. The wrinkle to this matchup is that the game will be played in Brazil.
This game also provides us with a Friday night DFS slate. Let's dig into each position for the single-game contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Quarterback
We have two very different quarterbacks when it comes to their career accomplishments. Patrick Mahomes ($10,000 DK, $13,200 FD) has won three Super Bowls, while Justin Herbert ($9,800 DK, $12,000 FD) has yet to win a playoff game. However, there wasn't a lot of difference between their regular season stats last year: Mahomes finished with 3,928 passing yards and 26 passing touchdowns, while Herbert threw for 3,870 yards and 23 touchdowns. One main difference was that Mahomes had 11 interceptions, while Herbert was only picked off three times.
The Chargers were stingy against quarterbacks last season, allowing the seventh-fewest passing yards per game. Mahomes did not surpass 245 passing yards in either meeting against them, and combined for two touchdown passes and one interception. Herbert didn't perform much better against the Chiefs, combing for 392 passing yards and two touchdowns in their two meetings. Neither quarterback comes with a ton of upside, so if deciding between the two, the right move might be to roll with Herbert at his cheaper salary.
Running Back
The Chiefs allowed the eighth-fewest rushing yards
After the NFL kicked off the 2025 season with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Eagles and Cowboys, the AFC takes center stage Friday with the Chargers battling the Chiefs. The wrinkle to this matchup is that the game will be played in Brazil.
This game also provides us with a Friday night DFS slate. Let's dig into each position for the single-game contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Quarterback
We have two very different quarterbacks when it comes to their career accomplishments. Patrick Mahomes ($10,000 DK, $13,200 FD) has won three Super Bowls, while Justin Herbert ($9,800 DK, $12,000 FD) has yet to win a playoff game. However, there wasn't a lot of difference between their regular season stats last year: Mahomes finished with 3,928 passing yards and 26 passing touchdowns, while Herbert threw for 3,870 yards and 23 touchdowns. One main difference was that Mahomes had 11 interceptions, while Herbert was only picked off three times.
The Chargers were stingy against quarterbacks last season, allowing the seventh-fewest passing yards per game. Mahomes did not surpass 245 passing yards in either meeting against them, and combined for two touchdown passes and one interception. Herbert didn't perform much better against the Chiefs, combing for 392 passing yards and two touchdowns in their two meetings. Neither quarterback comes with a ton of upside, so if deciding between the two, the right move might be to roll with Herbert at his cheaper salary.
Running Back
The Chiefs allowed the eighth-fewest rushing yards per game in the league last year. That could make tough sledding for the Chargers, who will go with Omarion Hampton ($8,000 DK, $6,400 FD) and Najee Harris ($7,000 DK, $8,000 FD) as their top running backs. Hampton will be playing the first game of his NFL career, while Harris is working his way back from an eye injury. Hampton is expected to start over Harris, making him the more appealing option in DFS, especially at his salary on FanDuel. It doesn't help that Harris has never averaged more than 4.1 yards per carry for a season in his career.
The Chargers are also a difficult matchup for running backs, as they gave up just seven rushing touchdowns last season. That's not great news for Isiah Pacheco ($7,600 DK, $9,000 FD), who had only one touchdown over seven games in 2024. After averaging at least 4.6 yards per carry in each of his first two seasons in the league, Pacheco averaged just 3.7 last year while dealing with injuries. His top backup is Kareem Hunt ($3,600 DK, $6,800 FD), who averaged just 3.6 yards per carry himself last year. Still, Hunt's salary is low enough on DraftKings to at least make him worth considering as a cheap option.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
The clear top receiving option for this matchup is Ladd McConkey ($10,600 DK, $12,200 FD). When he faced the Chiefs in Week 4 last year, he caught five of seven targets for 67 yards and a touchdown. He finished the season with an average depth of target of 9.9 yards and accounted for 22.7 percent of the team's targets. The Chargers' wide receivers behind him leave a lot to be desire; Quentin Johnston ($5,400 DK, $5,800 FD) finished with a career high 711 receiving yards last year, but 304 came in two games against the Browns and Raiders. The Chargers re-signed reliable veteran Keenan Allen ($6,400 DK, $8,400 FD), who could step right back into an important role.
The Chiefs will be without Rashee Rice for the first six games of the season as he serves a suspension, which leaves Xavier Worthy ($9,000 DK, $11,600 FD) to fill the role of their top wide receiver. He stepped up when it mattered most, catching eight passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. The speedster averaged 7.0 yards after the catch last season. There's not much else to get excited about at wide receiver for the Chiefs behind Worthy. Hollywood Brown ($5,800 DK, $5,200 FD) was hampered by injuries last season, failing to reach 47 receiving yards in any of the five games he played, including the playoffs. Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster ($3,200 DK, $3,000 FD) shouldn't be considered as anything more than dart throws who can help balance out your budget.
Travis Kelce ($8,600 DK, $10,600 FD) remains one of the biggest names in the NFL, but he saw his production decline last season. His average depth of target was only 6.5 yards, and he averaged just 3.7 yards after the catch. Still, he accounted for 23.2 percent of the Chiefs' targets and should remain busy while Rice serves his suspension. The Chargers have the duo of Will Dissly ($2,400 DK, $4,600 FD) and Tyler Conklin ($2,800 DK, $2,400 FD) at tight end. Even when one of them has a starting job, they haven't been fantasy relevant. Now potentially splitting snaps, they aren't worth considering for this slate.
Kicker
The Chargers have one of the best kickers in the league in Cameron Dicker ($5,000 DK, $7,800 FD). He went 11-for-12 on field goal attempts between 40-49 yards last season, and 9-for-11 on attempts of at least 50 yards. Over the last two seasons, he has missed just five field-goal attempts. The Chiefs also have a reliable kicker in Harrison Butker ($4,800 DK, $7,000 FD), but he hasn't received a ton of opportunities to make long kicks. In 13 games last year, he had a total of just nine attempts from at least 40 yards. Across 17 games in 2023, he totaled just 12 attempts of at least 40 yards.
Defense/Special Teams
This could be a low-scoring affair. The Chargers ($4,000 DK, $6,000 FD) allowed 17.7 points per game last season, which was the fewest in the NFL, and the Chiefs ($4,400 DK, $7,200 FD) weren't far behind, allowing 19.2 points per game. Another noteworthy stat for the Chargers is that they had 46 sacks, which was tied for the sixth-most in the league.
