The Green Bay Packers host the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football to open Week 8 of the NFL season, and daily Fantasy lineups are expected to lean heavily on both passing attacks. Even so, a look back at last year's meeting is a reminder to be careful: neither Jordan Love nor Bryce Young threw a touchdown pass in that game.
Pass catchers such as Christian Watson, Tetairoa McMillan, Tucker Kraft and Matthew Golden are all available for Thursday's slate. The running games deserve attention too. Josh Jacobs returned for Green Bay on Sunday and produced 91 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. For Carolina, Chuba Hubbard has scored six touchdowns in six games. Backups MarShawn Lloyd of Green Bay and Trevor Etienne of Carolina each handled eight touches last week.
SportsLine daily Fantasy analyst Mike McClure has released his picks for the game. SportsLine describes McClure as a professional DFS player with more than $2 million in career winnings, and says his prediction model simulates every snap while accounting for matchups, statistical trends and injuries. According to SportsLine, he has tied for first in the DraftKings Millionaire Maker twice and in the FanDuel Million once.
One of McClure's featured selections is Love. The 28-year-old quarterback has thrown multiple touchdowns in every game this season, and his 279.7 passing yards per game rank sixth in the league. Love has also thrived in standalone Thursday games, posting a 14:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio across his last six of them.
The matchup also favors the Packers through the air. Carolina enters with the No. 27 scoring defense, while Green Bay has the league's No. 32 rushing offense. That combination suggests the Packers may rely on Love's arm to move the ball.
On the Carolina side, McClure is building around wide receiver Jalen Coker. In the four games he has started and finished this season, Coker is averaging 77.5 receiving yards and has scored two touchdowns. The 6-foot-3 receiver has become a red-zone option for Young, with as many catches inside the 20-yard line as McMillan and Darren Waller combined.
Green Bay's defense has been vulnerable to receivers. The Packers allow the third-most receptions per game to wide receivers, at 14.0, and have seen five different wideouts reach at least 70 yards or score a touchdown over the last two games alone.
McClure is also targeting an undervalued player he believes could produce big numbers on Thursday. That selection, along with the rest of his lineup advice for FanDuel and DraftKings, is available only to SportsLine members.
