The Sunday Night Football game this week is more exciting than most, with the Detroit Lions taking on the Kansas City Chiefs. It has been a tough start to the year for the Chiefs, who currently sit at 2-3 after a loss to the Jaguars last week. The Lions, meanwhile, have won four straight games in relatively convincing fashion after dropping their first game of the season to the Packers.
We explain the best Lions-Chiefs props and betting odds for the matchup. Follow the links on this page to check out NFL betting bonuses on DraftKings and FanDuel.
| Lions-Chiefs Props | Odds |
| Tyquan Thornton Longest Reception o15.5 | -115 on DraftKings |
| Jameson Williams Longest Reception o22.5 | -110 on FanDuel |
| Xavier Worthy 6+ Receptions | +116 on FanDuel |
Thornton Continues Hot Start to Season
Tyquan Thornton was somewhat of an afterthought in the Chiefs receiver room heading into the season, but he has quietly been very good for them, especially on deep passes. On the year, he has gone over his longest reception prop of 15.5 in four out of five games. The only game he missed was Week 4 against the Ravens, a game that ended up being a blow out, so the Chiefs did not do as much through the air.
Thornton leads the entire NFL in deep targets, which are targets that are 20+ yards beyond the line of scrimmage. He has 14 of these targets, with the next closest WR at 11. Unsurprisingly, he also leads the entire NFL in total ADOT as well, with an ADOT of 24.7 and the next closest WR is down at 20.7. So, with that all in mind, it comes as no surprise that he also leads the Chiefs in go route and in vertically breaking routes, which both end up being deep targets.
While the Lions defense has been pretty good to start the year, they are banged up at the cornerback spot, missing two CBs for this game. Overall, eight of 15 WRs have gone over their longest reception prop, so they certainly were not a bad matchup even when they were healthy. Thornton catches a long one Sunday night.
Williams Bounces Back After Slow Start to Season
Jameson Williams is a boom-or-bust type of receiver, and he has busted in four out of the five games so far this year. He has only recorded more than 43 yards in one game, a game in which he had 108 yards and a touchdown. That was the only TD he has scored this season, which is not unsurprising for a big-play threat type of player such as Williams.
That said, this longest reception prop specifically he has gone over in three out of five games, so even in two games where he was unable to reach 50 receiving yards, he had a 23+ yard reception in both. He did miss this last week, in what ended up being his worst game of the season with one reception for nine yards on only one target. That was a game the Lions dominated over the Bengals, so Williams ended up being phased out of the game.
That is the risk with Williams, as if he is not used early and the Lions get out to a big lead he might not be involved. Luckily, the Lions are underdogs in this game against the Chiefs and figure to be aggressive most of the game. This is the same Chiefs team that allowed a bunch of deep shots to the Jaguars last week, as three out of their four WRs with a longest reception prop hit their over, including two deep bombs to Brian Thomas Jr and Travis Hunter.
Worthy Heavily Involved in Chiefs Passing Attack
As always, we save the longest odds for last, backing Xavier Worthy to catch six balls. He was limited throughout the week with shoulder and ankle injuries, but the expectation is that he is playing and will not have much of a limitation in the game itself. Worthy hit this prop last week, and we are still getting a nice plus-money price on him to record 6+ receptions once again.
Last week, his second week returning from a shoulder injury and when he was again questionable with an ankle injury, he had nine targets and played 77% of the snaps. This comes after getting 5 receptions on 8 targets and 59% of snaps in his first game back. He should continue to play more snaps and should get a ton of work in this game. The Chiefs are going up against a high-powered Lions offense who are very good at stopping the run but can be had somewhat through the air.
They are not a horrible pass defense, but, as mentioned earlier, are missing two of their top CB options. They are currently allowing the 7th-most receiving yards to outside receivers, which should only get worse as the season goes on. In terms of the coverage grade, they play a ton of man coverage, at the fourth-highest rate in the league, and Worthy smashes man coverage.
He has the highest targets per route run and yards per route run against man coverage. They also play a ton of single-high coverage (which is why their run defense is so good), which Worthy also crushes. He leads the team in targets and yards per route run against single-high coverage.