Nothing screams Thanksgiving like football, and while fans across America sit down and gobble on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, they’ll have nine straight hours of NFL football to tune into. The Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions will kick off the morning with a 1 p.m. ET clash, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. and the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens finishing off the slate at 8:20 p.m.
Five of the six teams rank among the league’s top 13 in points scored, so there should be plenty of touchdowns across the three games. For example, last season’s Thanksgiving slate saw 15 total touchdowns.
For Thursday’s slate, DraftKings is bringing back the King of the End Zone promotion. If you opt in to the token and place a singles bet of at least $5 on a player in a touchdown market and he scores the longest touchdown across the three games, you win a share of $2 million in bonus bets. The last time DraftKings rolled out this promotion, Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs ended up taking the crown with a 78-yarder.
Below, I’ll take you through my three favorite picks for Thursday’s festivities.
King of the End Zone — What You Need to Know
The rules of the promotion are pretty simple: as long as the player you placed a singles bet on in the “TD Scorers” market scores the longest touchdown of the day, and that bet was worth $5 or more and was placed from either your cash balance or DK Dollars, you will win a share of bonus bets. All qualifying bets must be placed before the start of the Lions vs. Packers game.
Passing touchdowns are ineligible for this promotion, so if you want to pick Lamar Jackson — for instance — he’ll have to run it in himself. Despite not being an individual player, D/ST is eligible to become King of the End Zone.
King of the End Zone Preview & Picks | Thursday, Nov. 27
Players with the shortest odds to score a TD:
- Derrick Henry (-230)
- Jahmyr Gibbs (-185)
- Javonte Williams (-160)
- Josh Jacobs (-130)
- Rashee Rice (-120)
King of the End Zone Picks for Thursday, Nov. 27:
There are a lot of potential directions to go when making King of the End Zone picks, but there are three basic considerations: the player’s likelihood of scoring a touchdown, the player’s likelihood of scoring a long touchdown, and how many other DraftKings users will have chosen that player, since a user’s share of bonus bets is tied to how popular their pick was.
Ultimately, getting into the end zone is most important, so two of my three picks appear on the list above. These players combine touchdown-scoring volume with breakaway speed.
1. Derrick Henry (-230 Anytime TD)
It might be chalky to pick the player with the shortest odds to score, especially given that he had the longest touchdown of the game in four separate games last season, but sometimes the best solution is the simplest one. After a relatively slow start to the season, the future Hall of Famer has regained his form in his last seven games, averaging 92.3 yards per game across that span and finding the end zone five times. It’s worth noting that all five of those touchdowns came from within two yards of the end zone, but he’s also had 28-, 30-, and 46-yard rushing touchdowns this season, the latter of which would have made him the KotEZ if the promotion had been running for Baltimore’s Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Once he gets in the open field, Henry is a 252-pound freight train, and Cincinnati is as likely as any to let him get into space. This season, the Bengals have had among the league’s worst rushing defenses, allowing the second-most rushing yards on the fourth-most yards per attempt. They’ve also missed 35 more tackles than the next-worst team, and although he’s had a down season in tackle-breaking, he’s ranked either near or at the top of the league in that stat for most of his career and looks just as physically imposing as ever. He very nearly scored a 68-yard touchdown against the Cleveland Browns in Week 11, but was just barely caught at the 10 by four-time Pro Bowl safety Denzel Ward in a play I’m not sure any Cincinnati safety can replicate.
2. Rashee Rice (-120 Anytime TD)
Between Rice, Xavier Worthy, and Tyquan Thornton, Kansas City has three of the better deep threats in football. Rice has played just nine games across the last two seasons because of a traumatic knee injury and a six-game suspension stemming from a 2024 car crash, but in that time, he’s already had nine catches of 20 yards or more, plus the longest touchdown of the game in the Chiefs’ Week 8 win over the Washington Commanders.
Since returning from his suspension, Rice has clearly emerged as Patrick Mahomes’ favorite target at the expense of Worthy, whose 4.21-second 40-yard dash was the fastest in NFL history, and Worthy (+185 to score) has neither found the end zone nor recorded a catch longer than 31 yards since Rice returned. Ditto for Thornton (+600), who hasn’t found the end zone since September 28 but is averaging 24.8 yards per catch.
He has a great matchup against a horrific Cowboys secondary. This season, Dallas has conceded the fourth-most receiving yards and the third-most yards per attempt, and it has missed the 10th-most tackles. By Pro Football Focus’ standards, the Cowboys have had the league’s sixth-worst coverage grades, and in particular, outside corners Caelen Carson and Shavon Revel Jr. — who took over for Trevon Diggs after he suffered a concussion in a home accident prior to Week 7 — haven’t lived up to the same standard as DaRon Bland across from them. In 47 career targets, Carson has allowed a 110.4 passer rating and missed six tackles, while Revel has allowed 12.4 yards per completion in his first two career games.
3. Christian Watson (+195 Anytime TD)
Watson has hardly missed a beat since returning from the torn ACL that he suffered in Week 18 last season, amassing 283 yards and two scores in just five games. He’s one of the league’s most notable deep threats, ranking among the league leaders in yards per reception in each season of his career. He had five catches of 20 or more yards in his first three weeks back, and he easily leads the team in average depth of target. League-wide, he’s tied for 13th with his teammate Matthew Golden in receiving grades on targets of 20 or more air yards, and Jordan Love has the sixth-best passing grade on such throws.
That’s exactly the way to beat Detroit. While the Lions have a strong secondary overall, posting the league’s seventh-best coverage grades, missing the fewest tackles, and allowing the third-fewest yards after the catch, they’ve been beatable over the top, giving up the deepest average depth of target and the fourth-most air yards. Detroit has already given up six touchdowns of 20 yards or longer this season, including two last week against the New York Giants, one on a trick play by quarterback Jameis Winston and another on a trick play to Winston. All in all, the Lions are tied with the Giants and the Ravens for the fifth-most explosive passing plays allowed.
