Draftkings NFL Showdown Picks: Panthers vs. Jaguars 9/7/25

The NFL presents Draftkings football fans with a regular season matchup featuring the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let’s take a look at this game from a DFS perspective.

Before we dive into the Carolina Panthers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars game let’s review the rules for the Draftkings single game showdown contest.

Draftkings Single Game Showdown Contest Rules

You have $50,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team captain. The captain accumulates 1.5 times the standard fantasy points. Additionally, the captain is 1.5 times the standard cost of the flex position.

The remaining four players in your lineup will receive the standard fantasy points. Having stated that, it is highly important for you to identify the correct player for your captain position if you hope to win a large field DFS GPP (guaranteed prize pool) showdown contest.

If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game showdown contest, I recommend that you check out the Draftkings website for more details.

*I recommend that all readers review the starting lineups for both teams prior to setting your DFS lineup for this one game slate.

Here are my Draftkings picks for this week’s Panthers vs. Jaguars matchup.

Draftkings NFL Showdown Picks

Captain-Trevor Lawrence, Quarterback, Jacksonville Jaguars $9,400

Veteran quarterback Trevor Lawrence was the driving force behind the Jacksonville Jaguars success on the offensive side of the football in 2024. With that said, how did the talented signal caller perform from a statistical perspective last season? Let’s review Trevor Lawrence’s relevant key player game data from the 2024 NFL season to answer that question.

In the ten games that quarterback Trevor Lawrence played for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2024 NFL regular season, Lawrence amassed 2,045 passing yards, 11 passing touchdowns, 119 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.

Looking closer at the data just presented, in the ten games that quarterback Trevor Lawrence played for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season, Lawrence averaged a robust 19.6 Draftkings points a game.

It should also be noted that the Jacksonville Jaguars acquired the services of a new head coach in the offseason. Who is the new head coach? The man’s name is Liam Coen. How is the new coach relevant to Lawrence’s potential success? Well, Coen is an offensive minded head coach that utilizes pre-snap motion and layered route concepts which can create mismatches. This is certainly an upgrade from last year’s vanilla offensive scheme.

As I noted in the rules section above, selecting the correct player at the captain position for a Draftkings NFL Football showdown lineup is absolutely vital if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) DFS contest. Keep that in mind as you construct your lineups.

In my opinion, Trevor Lawrence’s reasonable Draftkings price of $9,400 presents outstanding fantasy value. For that specific reason, I am backing Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence at the captain position for this one game NFL DFS slate.

Flex Plays

Brian Thomas Jr., Wide Receiver, Jacksonville Jaguars $10,800

In the 17 games that wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. played for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2024 NFL regular season, Thomas Jr. was targeted by Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks a whopping 133 times. In those 133 targets, Thomas Jr. tallied 82 receptions and ten receiving touchdowns.

What did we learn from the data just presented? Clearly, Brian Thomas Jr. played outstanding football in 2024. Having stated that, I fully expect that trend to continue in tomorrow’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers.

Flex plays I like to play well in this NFL regular season contest (Draftkings price noted): Tetairoa McMillan, Wide Receiver (Carolina Panthers) $8,600: Travis Hunter, Wide Receiver (Jacksonville Jaguars) $8,200: Bhayshul Tuten, Running Back (Jacksonville Jaguars) $4,400.