Morning Coffee: NFL season opener spread moves following Kelce injury

It’s the final countdown to the 2023 NFL regular season.

In case you missed Tuesday morning’s column, I was up late last night drafting a championship team in my fantasy football keeper league.

I started the draft by adding the top two skill-position players in the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year market at FanDuel in Atlanta Falcons’ running back Bijan Robinson and Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.

I also managed to grab Baltimore Ravens rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers later in the draft.

As I highlighted yesterday, Davis Sanchez put me on Flowers to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year earlier this summer at 30-to-1 odds. Flowers is down to 16-to-1 to win that award at FanDuel right now.

I’ve bet on Robinson, Gibbs, and Flowers to shine in both my fantasy football league and in the Offensive Rookie of the Year market at FanDuel.

We don’t have to wait much longer to see one of those rookies in action, as Gibbs will suit up for the Lions in Thursday night’s season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Meanwhile, the spread for Thursday’s opener was on the move at FanDuel after an injury at Chiefs’ practice forced the trades to make a significant adjustment and left some fantasy football managers holding their breath. 

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday Sept. 6, 2023.

NFL season opener spread moves following Kelce injury

The Chiefs opened as a seven-point favourite for Thursday night’s opener against Detroit at FanDuel.

The defending Super Bowl champions are 18-4 straight up and 13-6-3 against the spread in Week 1 dating back to 2001.

Kansas City has won 16 straight non-conference games, going 11-5 against the spread in those games.

The spread for Thursday night’s opener hovered around 6.5 for most of the summer. Then we got the news that Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce suffered a knee injury in practice on Tuesday, forcing the traders at FanDuel to scramble to adjust the number.

The number for the opener could be found at anywhere between Kansas City -4 and -6 depending on where you looked late last night.

The Chiefs are currently a 5.5-point favourite at FanDuel. 

Kelce had an MRI on his knee on Tuesday. We should get an official update on his status at some point later today.

Kelce has been a cheat code in fantasy football leagues in recent years. Now he has fantasy football managers and Chiefs’ fans holding their breath as we wait for word on the severity of his injury.

Gauff emerges as favourite at US Open

Coco Gauff was +700 to win the US Open women’s singles title heading into the tournament.

Gauff defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals on Tuesday to become the first American teenager to reach the US Open semifinals since Serena Williams in 2001.

Now she’s the betting favourite to win the women’s singles title at +165.

Next up, Gauff will face Karolina Muchova in the semis. She’s currently a -194 ML favourite for that match.

Meanwhile, we’ll find out who will meet in the other women’s singles semifinal today.

Aryna Sabalenka is a -380 ML favourite for her quarter-final showdown with Qinwen Zheng. Zheng is +300 to pull off the upset win.

Madison Keys is -134 to win the other quarter-final versus Marketa Vondroušová. Vondroušová is currently +110 to advance at FanDuel.

Altuve powers Astros to top spot in AL West

The stage is set for a thrilling finish in the ace for a division title in the AL West.

Jose Altuve is certainly doing his part to make sure that it’s the Houston Astros that finish in first place.

After hitting two home runs in a 13-6 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night, Altuve delivered three more homers in a 14-1 win last night.

The Astros have scored a combined 27 runs in their past two wins over Texas.

The Rangers are a -116 ML favourite for tonight’s contest, with Max Scherzer scheduled to get the nod for Texas opposite Justin Verlander for Houston.

Altuve to record a home run is +310 at FanDuel. Altuve to record two or more home runs is +2800.