The Divisional Round of the 2025 NFL playoffs opens with a two-game slate on Saturday. The action starts with Houston Texans vs. Kansas City Chiefs at 4:30 p.m. ET and wraps up with Washington Commanders vs. Detroit Lions at 8 p.m. ET. Both top seeds are in action off their bye week and the majority of Chiefs starters had two weeks of rest with Kansas City clinching the top seed before Week 18, so how should that affect your NFL DFS strategy? Will Kansas City show any rust or should you build NFL DFS stacks around Patrick Mahomes and pass-catchers like Travis Kelce, DeAndre Hopkins, Xavier Worthy or Hollywood Brown when forming Saturday NFL DFS lineups? Before locking in any NFL DFS picks for the Divisional Round on Saturday for Chiefs vs. Texans and Lions vs. Commanders on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, be sure to check out the NFL DFS lineup advice, strategy and player stacks from SportsLine NFL daily Fantasy expert Jimmie Kaylor.
Kaylor is a NFL and DFS expert for SportsLine, who opened the 2022 NFL season by winning DraftKings’ NFL Showdown Thursday Kickoff Millionaire contest. He edged out over 355,000 other entrants in the contest and also has multiple five-figure tournament wins on his DFS resume. Kaylor, who cashed big all season in 2022, has covered the NFL and college football for close to a decade as a member of the Pro Football Writers of America, and his background as a former college and NFL player gives him a unique perspective when building his fantasy lineups and locking in his betting picks on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel.
Kaylor has hit on epic NFL DFS picks for SportsLine members. He was all over slate-breaking performances like Travis Kelce’s (7-25-4), Kirk Cousins (460-4), T.J. Hockenson’s (13-109-2), Ja’Marr Chase’s (15-1923), D.J. Moore’s (8-230-3), and De’Von Achane (233 total yards, four TDs). This season, some of Kaylor’s top picks include Green Bay wide receiver Jayden Reed (4-138-1, 33-1) and James Cook (78-2). Anyone who followed his picks on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel could be way up.
Now, Kaylor has turned his attention to the Divisional Round on Saturday in the 2025 NFL playoffs and locked in his top daily Fantasy football picks. You can only see his picks and analysis at SportsLine.
Top NFL DFS picks for Texans vs. Chiefs and Commanders vs. Lions on Saturday
One of Kaylor’s top NFL DFS picks for Saturday in the Divisional Round is Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs ($7,700 on DraftKings and $9,200 on FanDuel). The second-year running had a tremendous close to the regular season with more than 100 rushing yards and at least one touchdown and more than 150 total yards in his final three games. Gibbs capped that off with 139 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries while adding five receptions for 31 yards and a touchdown in a 31-9 win over the Vikings in Week 18 to give the Lions the top seed in the NFC playoffs and a first-round bye.
David Montgomery missed those final three games with a knee injury and will return for the postseason, but Gibbs played more snaps than the veteran in five of six games before Montgomery missed time. Gibbs’ recent production should translate to an even larger workload in the split backfield and Montgomery’s presence doesn’t scare Kaylor off from making Gibbs a top option for Saturday NFL DFS picks. The Commanders also rank 27th in rushing yards allowed per game (135.4) this season. See who else to roster here.
Kaylor’s Saturday Divisional Round NFL DFS strategy also includes rostering Texans running back Joe Mixon ($6,500 on DraftKings and $7,600 on FanDuel), who could play through an ankle injury. Mixon rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown against the Chargers on Wild Card Weekend after rushing for 1,016 yards this season. Despite playing in just 14 games, Mixon broke 1,000 rushing yards for the third time over the last four seasons. He had his most efficient season since 2021 with his best yards per carry (4.1) and rushing yards per game (72.6) since that year. Mixon (ankle) is questionable though, so that’s a situation to monitor when forming NFL DFS lineups.
Despite being 28 years old and having a heavy workload throughout his career in Cincinnati, Mixon clearly still has the capability of being a top running back. Mixon played 71% of snaps against the Chargers in the Wild Card Round after the Texans lowered his snap percentage over the final few weeks of the season as it became pretty clear Houston would enter the postseason as the No. 4 seed. He played more than 70% of snaps in six of his 10 games through Week 13 and Houston will need him to produce to pull off an upset over the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. See who else Kaylor likes right here.
How to set Saturday NFL DFS lineups, player pools
Kaylor is also targeting another undervalued player who could explode for huge numbers for NFL Divisional Round Saturday. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is, and the rest of Kaylor’s NFL DFS picks, at SportsLine.
So who is Jimmie Kaylor including in his optimal NFL DFS lineups for Chiefs vs. Texans and Lions vs. Commanders on Saturday, and which under-the-radar NFL DFS picks offer huge value? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NFL DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from an NFL DFS expert who won a prestigious Millionaire Maker tournament, and find out.
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Author: CBS Sports Staff
January 17, 2025 | 1:25 pm
