3 Thursday Night Football Best Player Prop Bets: Ravens at Chiefs

Player props can be useful in a variety of ways -- from taking advantage of them straight up in the betting market to measuring a player's potential to produce in NFL DFS on FanDuel. Here, we're going to focus on the former.

Using the NFL odds at FanDuel Sportsbook as a guide, here are the best prop bets for this week's Thursday night game.

All NFL projections via our numbers at FanDuel Research, and NFL odds references are to FanDuel Sportsbook. Lines may change after this article is published.

Thursday Night Football Best Player Prop Bets

Xavier Worthy Over 44.5 Receiving Yards (-114)

At long last, the NFL is back. Week 1 will commence with the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Kansas City Chiefs for 2024's first iteration of Thursday Night Football.

The reigning Super Bowl champs topped Baltimore by a score of 17-10 in the 2023 AFC Championship game. Lamar Jackson and company are now seeking revenge as the 3.0-point road 'dogs, but vengeance may be hard to come by against a Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid-led team that comes in with more talent on offense than in 2023. It was brutal to see the back-to-back champs get even stronger this offseason, so Kansas City naysayers better hope the championship hangover adage rings true this go-around.

Arrowhead Stadium will be rocking for a game that features an enticing 46.5-point over/under, making for an ideal environment to hone in on player props.

The first prop on my radar for the 2024 NFL season? Xavier Worthy to cash in on his receiving yards prop.

Worthy was drafted by Kansas City with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The former Texas Longhorns standout ran a record-breaking 4.21-second 40-yard dash at the combine. On paper, pairing Mahomes with a freak athlete sounds straight-up unfair. I have faith that the duo can put their reputations into practice on Thursday night.

We sometimes see rookies get off to slow professional starts, be it due to production, workload, or both. I don't think this will be the case for Worthy.

For starters, he will play an integral role in a Kansas City wideout room that struggled mightily in 2023. Mahomes has already relayed the sentiment that Worthy will "have to be ready to go" from the get.

To add, Marquise Brown (shoulder) has been a DNP in practice this week and is considered doubtful for Thursday. The Chiefs inked Brown to a one-year, $11 million deal this offseason. With "Hollywood" likely out against Baltimore, Worthy's target share potential just got that much brighter for Week 1.

And while we've come to know Baltimore's defense as an intimidating foe, the hammer might not come down as hard in 2024. Not only did the Ravens lose key defensive contributors to free agency, including Patrick Queen and Jadeveon Clowney, but they'll also be working with a new defensive coordinator in Zach Orr after Mike Macdonald took a head coaching job with the Seattle Seahawks.

Let's look for the rookie to make an impact in his first professional primetime game. FanDuel Research's projections -- which are powered by numberFire -- expect Worthy to reel in 53.1 receiving yards on Thursday.

Derrick Henry Over 66.5 Rushing Yards (-114)

Baltimore was home to the league's most booming rush offense in 2023. The team averaged 4.9 yards per carry (third-best in the NFL) and gained 2,661 yards on the ground (most in the NFL) during the regular season.

But the run game was nowhere to be found in the AFC Championship game opposite Kansas City. Baltimore's backfield saw just six carries in that fateful match. We can grant Baltimore's coaching personnel some forgiveness and assume the offense will play to its strengths this Thursday.

It won't be hard to do that when a mighty provision was brought into the backfield this offseason. The Ravens signed Derrick Henry to a two-year deal worth up to $20 million. The workhorse running back has rarely been known to share ground duties, and that will be especially true against the Chiefs. Save for Justice Hill, no other player will be available out of Baltimore's backfield on Thursday. Keaton Mitchell (knee) is on the PUP list and, as a reminder, Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins are both with new teams this season.

In 2023, Henry averaged 68.6 rush yards per game and cleared 66.5 rushing yards in 9 out of 14 games in which he was allotted at least 12 carries. He no longer has the caliber of competition that Tyjae Spears offered on the Tennessee Titans and will play with a Baltimore team that ran the ball at a league-high 49.92% rate in 2023.

numberFire's schedule-adjusted metrics has Kansas City ranked as the third-best defense, though their rush D ranks just 11th. The Ravens are the 3.0-point underdogs, but I'm not too concerned that a negative game script could impact Henry's rushing volume. This one could really go either way.

Our projections are bullish on Henry. They forecast him to eat up 81.2 rush yards on Thursday.

Rashod Bateman Anytime Touchdown (+400)

It pains me to do this, but in a projected high-scoring game where we're seeing some meh odds in the Touchdown Scorers market, Rashod Bateman has emerged as a potential value pick.

Bateman managed just one score via 56 targets in 2023. I'll take a glass-half-full approach to this and note that a 1.7% touchdown rate is unsustainable and leaves plenty of room for scoring regression.

The fact of the matter is that Bateman is the WR2 in an offense that touts a 22.5-point implied total for Thursday. Is he entrenched in a run-heavy offense that also features Zay Flowers at wideout and Mark Andrews at tight end? Yes. However, Bateman's numbers from last season prove that he should've made a bigger impact on the scoring end.

He averaged 1.9 downfield targets per game (third-most behind Flowers and the late Odell Beckham) and held a 14.2 average depth of target (aDOT), the highest on the team. With Beckham gone and the targets up for grabs, Bateman has a chance to finally shine, so I want to strike on his touchdown prop when we can get them at long-shot odds.

Bateman is our Jim Sannes' top sleeper pick for 2024 while he also appears on Brandon Gdula's breakout candidates list.

The Chiefs lost L'Jarius Sneed this offseason, so their secondary could encounter some growing pains in the early days of the season. Bateman's high aDOT and ability to rack up downfield targets make him an intriguing TD play at +400 odds.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.