The NFL got off to an awesome start with a thrilling Week 1, and Week 2 gets underway with an especially juicy Thursday Night Football game. Thank you, NFL schedulers, for the gift of the matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills this Thursday night as the Bills open their brand new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. To add even more excitement to this great matchup, DraftKings Sportsbook is ready to roll with another massive King of the End Zone promotion.
The King of the End Zone promo will award a massive $2 million in bonus bets. 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 of the night, you win a share of the $2 million in bonus bets. Last week, Jaxon Smith-Njigba claimed the King of the End Zone crown, earning $113 in Bonus Bets from DraftKings Sportsbook for bettors that placed their token on him.
Let’s run down some of the top plays for this year’s kickoff game for this year’s King of the End Zone.
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. The fewer people who have their token on that player, the larger the payout will be, so it’s important to balance out the popularity of the pick with the likelihood of it hitting. Taking a longer shot could land a massive payout, while picking a more obvious choice has a more likely chance of winning, even if the bonus bet is smaller.
Passing touchdowns are ineligible for this promotion, so if you want to pick Josh Allen — for example — he’ll have to run it in himself for the longest score rather than pass for the touchdown. 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, Sep. 17
Players with the shortest odds to score a TD:
- Jahmyr Gibbs (-330)
- James Cook (-175)
- Josh Allen (-145)
- Amon-Ra St. Brown (+100)
- D.J. Moore (+145)
King of the End Zone Picks for Thursday, Sep. 17:
When making King of the End Zone picks, it’s important to consider players who are not only likely to score a touchdown but are also likely to score the longest touchdown of the game. Especially in a higher-scoring game like the one expected on Thursday, many touchdowns could be scored, but longer touchdowns have a better chance of claiming the win. It’s also important to balance the popularity of the player for the King of the End Zone tokens as well, since a user’s share of bonus bets is tied to how popular their pick was.
These three picks are my favorite balance of likelihood to score, potential to score a long touchdown, and not too much popularity.
1. Jahmyr Gibbs (-330 Anytime TD)
There is definitely some strategy to consider with Gibbs at such remarkably short odds to score a touchdown. First off, your actual $5 minimum bet has a very good chance of hitting, although not at big returns. As we saw last week with JSN’s touchdown and King of the End Zone win, the obvious choice isn’t always the wrong choice, and it still offers pretty solid potential payouts. The risk is minimal with using your token on Gibbs, but the payout will not be nearly as high as some of the later options in this post.
In his first game after the departure of David Montgomery, Gibbs had 20 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns against the Saints, while also hauling in five catches for 30 yards. Those numbers are boosted a bit by the overtime, but he’s clearly the lead back and go-to option for the Lions’ offense in almost every situation.
He became just the sixth player in NFL history to reach 50 touchdowns within his first 50 games with his two scores last week, and turned in his 14th multi-touchdown performance. He also has the potential to score long touchdowns. Last week’s scores were each only one-yard runs, but he had a 78-yard run and a 69-yard run last season.
While Gibbs doesn’t offer the biggest possible payout, he is a lower-risk option for this week’s King of the End Zone.
2. D.J. Moore (+145 Anytime TD)
Bills receiver D.J. Moore is a mid-range option that balances the potential for a huge payout with the likelihood of getting to the end zone. He scored in his Bills debut last week, hauling in this 43-yard strike for the longest touchdown of the game. It would also have been the longest touchdown in the Lions-Saints game as well.
Moore had only five catches in his first game with Buffalo, but he led the team with eight targets, even though he was in a tough matchup with the Texans’ secondary, which is expected to be one of the best in the NFL this year. This week, Moore gets a much easier matchup against the Lions’ banged-up secondary, who allowed three receiving touchdowns last week (even though all were short scores).
In his home debut, Moore definitely has the potential to get loose for another big score, and if he does, he’ll likely offer a bigger chunk of bonus bets than Gibbs does since he’ll be a less popular play for King of the End Zone.
3. Jameson Williams (+195 Anytime TD)
Williams is a home-run hitter who can be a solid swing-for-the-fences play this week since he probably will be even less popular but has the chance to score a long touchdown. At the end of the 2024 season, Williams scored an 82-yard receiving touchdown, and he had a 61-yard rushing score in the playoffs of that season. Last year, he had seven touchdowns, including a 44-yard strike in Week 2 against the Bears.
He will look to get into the end zone again in Week 2 of this season and looks ready to play a big role again for the Lions this season. In Week 1, Williams ran 39 routes, the same amount as WR1 Amon-Ra St. Brown, and he had a 23.1% target share with nine targets coming his way, which was the second-most on the team behind only Brown. He hauled in four catches for 45 yards, and his aDOT (average depth of target) remained high at 14.1 yards.
You could definitely find players with fewer tokens on them, like Patriots TE Eli Raridon, who scored the first touchdown in the King of the End Zone contest last week. If you go off the radar like that, a hit will have huge payouts, but Williams has a much better chance of paying off than dart throws. If you want to go with a Hail Mary like that, Joshua Palmer (+550) or the Lions DST (+750) are a couple of the long-shot plays I like.
Since the Lions are still looking to Williams as their deep threat, he has more of a realistic potential to score the longest touchdown in this game. The Bills’ secondary could be more focused on St. Brown, leaving Williams with opportunities to break out for a big play and a chance to claim the title as King of the End Zone.
