Week 3 of the NFL season officially begins tonight, as the Carolina Panthers battle the Houston Texans in a cross-conference showdown. On paper, this isn’t exactly the most exciting Thursday Night Football matchup scheduled this season. That being said, there are still plenty of ways to have some skin in the game. Many will undoubtedly have standard fantasy football involvement and NFL betting picks on this game. Fans are also encouraged to check out the various Panthers vs Texans NFL DFS picks and player props offered at Underdog Fantasy.
The following article provides a brief intro to the phenomenal Underdog Fantasy platform and offers up a handful of DFS picks and NFL player props to consider for the Panthers vs Texans Thursday Night Football matchup.
What is Underdog Fantasy?
Underdog Fantasy might be most known for their live DFS drafts, but they also offer pick’em contests. In essence, making NFL DFS picks on Underdog combines daily fantasy sports and player props into one. Available to those in non-sports betting states, a wide variety of player props exist for tonight’s Panthers vs Texans NFL matchup. The more props a user combines together, the greater their potential payout.
Unlike some other platforms in the market, Underdog Fantasy also allows users the flexibility to pick and choose which props they combine together. You can even combine DFS picks from multiple sports and games! When making Underdog Fantasy NFL picks, the only limitations are truly the user’s own imagination and creativity.
Underdog Fantasy Pick’em Payout
For the pick’em game format, users string player props together to form a parlay. If one pick is wrong, the entire fantasy football parlay fails. However, cashing can give a very nice payout, with more picks meaning a higher multiplier.
- 2 Picks: 3x
- 3 Picks: 6x
- 4 Picks: 10x
- 5 Picks: 20x
Best Underdog Fantasy DFS Picks for TNF | Panthers vs Texans
Much like betting odds move and update throughout the day and week, props at Underdog Fantasy also move. In other words, if there is a prop you like, make sure you place it quickly.
Christian McCaffrey (CAR) Over 141.5 Rushing + Receiving Yards
Dual-threat Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey is officially back. He has reemerged as a fantasy football superstar over the first two weeks, after missing the majority of last season with injuries. Tonight, Underdog Fantasy lists McCaffrey’s total yards prop at 141.5. This is a number that he has split the difference on in the first two weeks. After piling up a whopping 187 rushing and receiving yards in Week 1, CMC finished just under the NFL DFS total with 137 last week. That came against a New Orleans Saints defense that is a whole lot better than the Houston Texans unit the Panthers will face tonight.
Through two weeks, the Texans rank 31st in adjusted defensive efficiency against the run, per Football Outsiders. Houston has been particularly poor at stopping RBs once they break through the line of scrimmage and get to the second level. McCaffrey should be able to accomplish this several times on the ground while also getting out in space as a receiver. We’ll look to play his NFL DFS total yards prop over in what could be a massive game for the Carolina back.
Phillip Lindsay (HOU) Under 20.5 Rushing Yards
Three Texans running backs are featured among the Thursday Night Football props on Underdog Fantasy. For our NFL DFS picks, we are honing in on the least-used of the three thus far, Phillip Lindsay. Over the first two weeks of the season, Lindsay has only carried the ball 13 times. He finished with 25 yards on eight rushing attempts in Week 1 and only managed 2 yards on five carries last week. His disappointing average yards per carry in both games doesn’t figure to help his chances of getting an increased workload in tonight’s game.
Lindsay was on the field for just 23% of Houston’s offensive snaps in Week 2. Both David Johnson (43%) and Mark Ingram (31%) were well ahead of that. Add in a tough Panthers run defense and under 20.5 rushing yards for Lindsay is the way to go.
Brandin Cooks (HOU) Under 73.5 Receiving Yards
Unfortunately, Underdog Fantasy is not offering a prop on total passing yards for Texans quarterback Davis Mills in this Thursday Night Football game. For the bettors out there, several sportsbooks have that number pretty darn low. While Mills may actually wind up passing for more yards than expected, that doesn’t mean we can’t play under 73.5 receiving yards for wideout Brandin Cooks. The 27-year-old has gone over this NFL DFS prop total in each of the first two games. However, he had Tyrod Taylor throwing him the ball for one and a half of those contests.
After Taylor exited last week’s game with a hamstring injury, Cooks saw his production drop in a big way. In fact, only 20 of his 78 total yards in the game came after halftime. Mills’ inaccuracy combined with a stout Panthers run defense are severe handicaps to Cooks’ upside in this Panthers vs Texans TNF matchup. Look to go under on this NFL DFS prop.
Bonus Underdog Fantasy DFS Pick for Thursday
Lance McCullers Jr. (HOU) Over 7.0 Strikeouts
As discussed in the Underdog Fantasy overview, one of the beauties of this platform is the ability to combine DFS picks from multiple games and sports into one. If you are feeling lucky tonight and want to push for a bigger payout than the 6x offered on a combination of the three NFL DFS picks above, consider throwing in this baseball prop as well.
Houston Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. is facing a dead team walking in the Los Angeles Angels tonight. Furthermore, McCullers has recorded strikeout totals of nine, eight and seven in his last three starts against the Angels this season. Add in the fact that he has finished with a minimum of seven K’s in six of his last seven starts overall and this Underdog Fantasy prop figures to be a push at the very worst. Best of all, if this and the three Panthers vs Texans TNF NFL DFS picks above all hit, you could be walking away with 10x your buy-in amount at the end of the night!
Underdog Fantasy is a new type of DFS that combines the fun of season-long drafts with daily fantasy sports. Aside from their fun, addictive draft mode, Underdog Fantasy also has pick’em player props for many different sports and athletes!
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