Week 2 of the 2023 XFL season will begin on Thursday night as the Seattle Sea Dragons host the St. Louis Battlehawks at 9 p.m. ET. DraftKings is running XFL DFS tournaments for Thursday’s single-game slate and XFL daily Fantasy players across the country are trying to dial in their XFL DFS strategies. The Sea Dragons are coming off a disappointing 22-18 loss to the DC Defenders in Week 1 but they’re likely to be integral in XFL DFS with former Hawaii head coach June Jones calling the plays.
Seattle passed the ball 56 times during their Week 1 loss and had three different receivers — Jahcour Pearson, Josh Gordon and Blake Jackson — finish with at least six catches for 50 yards. So does that mean that you should be loading Seattle players into your XFL DFS lineups, or might too much exposure to that side be too risky? Before making any XFL DFS picks on DraftKings for this Thursday night showdown, be sure to check out the XFL DFS advice, strategy and projections from CBS Sports Fantasy and gambling editor R.J. White.
White, a Fantasy and gambling editor for CBS Sports, consistently crushes against-the-spread picks and went 535-450-30 on his ATS picks from 2017-22, which returned more than $3,500 to $100 players. He also closed the NFL season on an incredible 107-80-6 on his last 193 against-the-spread and total NFL picks during the 2022 NFL season, returning more than $1,800 for $100 bettors.
White has crushed not only the NFL but also the XFL during its abbreviated 2020 season, going 16-4 on XFL ATS picks before the league suspended operations as sportsbooks scrambled to correctly evaluate team quality in a league where little was known heading into the season. Anyone who has followed him is way up.
Now, White has turned his attention to Thursday night XFL action in Week 2 and locked in his top daily Fantasy football picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
Top XFL DFS picks for Sea Dragons vs. Battlehawks
White is high on Sea Dragons wide receiver Jahcour Pearson. After catching 76 passes for 804 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior at Western Kentucky, Pearson only appeared in three games during the COVID season of 2020 and then transferred to spend his final season at Ole Miss. He caught 26 passes for 392 yards in his lone season in Mississippi and then was invited to Giants rookie minicamp but didn’t stick.
This is a clear opportunity for Pearson to raise his profile with NFL scouts watching and he’s already taking advantage. Last week in the loss to DC, Pearson was targeted 14 times and caught 12 passes for 95 yards, leading Seattle in all three categories. With so much attention being paid to Gordon, expect a big season from Pearson in a pass-happy offense.
Another one of the top XFL DFS picks from White: Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron. The former national champion at Alabama was a fifth-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft and he played with five different teams over the course of his seven-year NFL career. McCarron threw for 9,019 yards and 77 touchdowns at Alabama and then threw for 1,173 yards and six touchdowns with just three interceptions in his NFL career.
Now the 32-year-old is looking to prove that he’s back healthy again after suffering a torn ACL while playing for the Falcons in 2021. He went 18 for 26 last week and threw for 190 yards and two touchdowns while engineering a wild comeback win over the San Antonio Brahmas. He’ll look to recapture that fourth-quarter magic on Thursday and quarterbacks are must-plays in single-game daily Fantasy football formats.
How to set XFL DFS lineups
White is also targeting an undervalued player who is set to explode for huge numbers in Battlehawks vs. Sea Dragons on Thursday. 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 here.