24 Exploitable Preseason Player Prop Bets

Footballguys Staff's 24 Exploitable Preseason Player Prop Bets Footballguys Staff Published 05/06/2020

It's early May, but DraftKings sportsbook has already released preseason player prop bets. The downside of these bets is your money will be locked up until the season completes, but the upside is some of these lines are extremely soft.

Link to DraftKings Player Props

To find value, I compared the DraftKings line to projections done by Bob Henry, Jason Wood, and myself. I know I personally have 70+ hours into my early projections and suspect both Jason and Bob have a similar commitment as we have been through multiple iterations already. I only looked at -110 bets (which was the majority of bets).

I looked for situations where all three of us agree on the bet and our consensus projection is at least 4+% better than the line. The table at the end of this article outlines all of the bets that satisfy these criteria (sorted by percentage).

Best Bets

  • Rookie WR Jalen Reagor, PHI - UNDER 750.5 receiving yards
  • Rookie WR Justin Jefferson, MIN - UNDER 775.5 receiving yards
  • Rookie WR Henry Ruggs, OAK - UNDER 800.5 receiving yards

I am grouping these three bets together because they are rookies that have prop lines signaling the expectation that these players will be integral parts of their offenses out of the gate. And although that COULD happen, I think these things are working against that outcome.

  • COVID-19 will limit practice time for these rookies with their new teams. Rookie camps may not even happen. August training camps could be shortened.

  • Only 39 wide receivers achieved 750 receiving yards last season. Only 35 receivers topped 800 yards. The two rookie wide receivers drafted in the first round of 2019 (Marquise Brown and NKeal Harry) both failed to achieve these levels.

  • NFL playbooks are hard to learn. There is a reason fantasy players look to a wide receiver's third season as the likely year that player will breakout. Although each of these players is EXPECTED to be the starter by season's end, they will need to earn that spot by handling getting jammed on the line of scrimmage and running a lot of routes with multiple options based on how they are being defended.

Of the other bets in the table, I prefer betting UNDERs because many factors could derail a player's season. Namely getting hurt, benched, concussed, or even getting COVID-19 which could force a player to miss two games.

Best of luck with your bets this season.

All of the Bets That Fit the Criteria

Pos
Player
Team
Category
DK
Dodds
Henry
Wood
Avg
Value
Consenus Bet
WR
Phi
Rec Yds
750.5
405
500
505
470.0
0.3738
Under
WR
Min
Rec Yds
775.5
509
560
500
523.0
0.3256
Under
WR
Henry Ruggs
LV
Rec Yds
800.5
655
730
445
610.0
0.2380
Under
WR
Pit
Rec Yds
1175.5
1009
920
1040
989.7
0.1581
Under
RB
Ari
Rush Yds
1050.5
917
960
930
935.7
0.1093
Under
QB
Ten
Pass TDs
22.5
23
28
24
24.9
0.1067
Over
QB
Den
Pass TDs
20.5
23
22
23
22.6
0.1024
Over
WR
NO
Rec Yds
1500.5
1379
1385
1310
1358
0.0950
Under
QB
Pit
Pass TDs
27.5
25
25
25
25.0
0.0909
Under
TE
KC
Rec Yds
1225.5
1121
1170
1100
1130.3
0.0777
Under
QB
Den
Pass Yds
3350.5
3482
3750
3590
3607.3
0.0766
Over
QB
Cle
Pass TDs
23.5
24
27
24
25.1
0.0681
Over
QB
SF
Pass TDs
26.5
24
26
24
24.7
0.0679
Under
WR
LAR
Rec Yds
1100.5
1033
1055
1010
1032.7
0.0616
Under
QB
Hou
Pass TDs
27.5
26
25
27
25.9
0.0582
Under
WR
GB
Rec Yds
1200.5
1305
1210
1285
1266.7
0.0551
Over
QB
San Darnold
NYJ
Pass TDs
22.5
21
22
21
21.3
0.0533
Under
QB
Ari
Pass TDs
24.5
25
25
27
25.7
0.0490
Over
WR
Dal
Rec Yds
1100.5
1123
1150
1190
1154.3
0.0489
Over
QB
Pit
Pass Yds
4000.5
3843
3790
3825
3819.3
0.0453
Under
QB
Cle
Pass Yds
3875.5
3814
3640
3650
3701.3
0.0449
Under
QB
Hou
Pass Yds
4150.5
4030
3920
3950
3966.7
0.0443
Under
QB
KC
Pass TDs
35.5
32
35
35
34.0
0.0423
Under
QB
GB
Pass TDs
26.5
24
26
26
25.4
0.0415
Under
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