Thursday Night Football Picks | TNF Best Bets For Broncos vs Chiefs
Updated July 9, 2026
This week, the Denver Broncos will visit the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football in Week 17 of the 2025 NFL season. Our football experts have identified the best betting opportunities for this matchup. Bookmark this page and return weekly for updated TNF best bets, including game predictions and tips from experienced professionals who live and breathe NFL betting.
The Thursday Night Football matchup in Week 17 of the NFL regular season will pit the Denver Broncos against the Kansas City Chiefs in a rivalry game in the AFC West. In that game, I'll take the Broncos to win and cover the spread as a favorite on the road.
The Chiefs are on their third-string quarterback going into this matchup, with Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew both out with knee injuries. The elite defense of the Broncos should shut down Chris Oladokun and the Kansas City offense en route to a convincing victory at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas night.
Thursday Night Football picks can be tough to make, as both teams have less time to prepare than those playing on Sunday or Monday. But if you're looking for quality TNF betting advice, you've come to the right place. As seasoned analysts with a proven track record of success, we combine data-driven insights with years of hands-on experience to deliver the best betting recommendations. From identifying trends to breaking down matchups, our goal is to provide you with strategies rooted in expertise and trustworthiness.
Our team of NFL betting experts goes through each game during each week of the NFL season to find the best bets on the board. That includes Thursday Night Football, as we look to provide the best bets for Thursday Night Football action. Looking at the first game of the week in-depth allows us to maximize our chances of delivering you profitable picks on as many Thursday night games as possible.
To get our Thursday Night Football picks, bettors can simply come back to this page on a weekly basis, as this page will be updated with picks for each TNF game. Be sure to bookmark this page or save it however you care to in order to get our TNF best bets.
Thursday Night Football can be unique from some of the other games on the NFL schedule each week. That can impact betting on Thursday night games in ways that need to be taken into consideration. Fortunately, our NFL handicappers have considered the following ways that Thursday Night Football bets differ from other football wagers, among many other factors.
The most important factor to consider when betting on Thursday Night Football is that teams have less time to recover from their previous game than usual. Most teams played on the Sunday before their Thursday night games, which means only three days of rest before another game. There are many situations where this can make a huge difference for one team or another, which factors heavily into our best Thursday Night Football bets this week.
For example, a team that is dealing with a ton of injuries is already at a disadvantage in NFL games. But that disadvantage can really grow when Thursday Night Football is involved, as the healthy portion of the roster is at less than 100% with less recovery time.
Along with a reduction in recovery time, there is also a reduction in preparation time going into Thursday Night Football. NFL coaches typically have a week to put their gameplan into place from one game to the next. But they only have a few days to do so ahead of Thursday Night Football, and less practice time than usual to practice the elements of that gameplan.
This type of adverse situation can be a great test of coaching ability, giving an advantage to teams with better coaching situations. While this is not a guarantee that the team with a better coach will win, it can certainly come into play in some situations.
Thursday Night Football is a game where there is less time for betting markets to move than usual. Those who wish to wait for line movements to chase steam in the NFL have less time to observe those line movements. Typically, our best Thursday Night Football bets are placed early, before lines move too significantly, but for bettors whose strategy revolves around waiting for movement, this is something to consider.
Bettors should always have a strategy when they bet on sports, and Thursday Night Football is no exception to that rule. Our NFL betting experts have several strategies that they employ to give you the most profitable Thursday Night Football picks. Below are some of those strategies that can be used to help you with your own handicapping on Thursday nights.
With short weeks being a huge part of the Thursday football landscape, understanding how travel can impact betting on these games is very important. Figuring out how far teams have to travel, what their travel time looks like, and how the weeks before and after factor into the equation are all important factors when betting on TNF. Naturally, the more travel involved, the tougher things will be for the visitors in these games.
Bettors should also remember that there is no requirement to bet on Thursday Night Football. Many bettors will force a play in standalone NFL games such as Thursday and Monday Night Football, because that’s the only football game on the schedule. But bettors should make sure to only place bets on games when they have found value in the betting markets after performing their handicap of each game, just like we do here.
Whether you are betting on Thursday Night Football, a regular Sunday afternoon game, or any other football game, managing money is the key to success. Bettors should set a budget, stick to it, and not chase any losses when betting on the NFL. Pro football is already the hardest market to beat in sports betting, and failure to exercise smart bankroll management protocols will only make it tougher.
Here at ATS, we offer best bets on so much more than just Thursday Night Football. Click the links below to get our picks for the rest of the week of NFL action, from straight bets to props, parlays, and more.
Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.
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