NFL Betting Predictions: Week 17 Opening Line Report and Picks

by Chris Vasile - 12/27/2021

NFL predictions Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs Week 17 opening line report and picks

When leagues talk about growing the game in certain markets, they mean that they want to gain new fans in markets that would not willingly accept American Football as a sport they can watch and cheer for on a consistent basis. Well, let me tell you something. That’s all fine and dandy, I would tell you this right now – if a new fan turned on any NFL game this week, it would have been shut off within five minutes. COVID messed everything up, and the NFL has done a very poor job of helping teams overcome the issue. There was nothing good or worth noting in Week 16. Sure, a few teams locked up their playoffs spots, but the games, for the most part, were blowouts. And not even the fantasy football aspect of it was enough to keep me hooked, and I was in the semi-finals. But I digress. Hopefully, Week 17 brings us some football that’s worthy of spending three hours glued to the TV for.

As far as last week’s results go, we swept the board with ease as Buffalo and Indianapolis won outright for us as small pups and the Rams easily dispatched the Vikings as 3-point favorites. Let’s try and carry this momentum over into Week 17 and go 3-0 once again.

Doc’s Sports offers NFL expert picks for every game on our NFL predictions page.

Kansas City Chiefs at Cincinnati Bengals +5, 49

With their dominant win on Sunday vs the Steelers, the Chiefs have now won the AFC West for the sixth straight season. They are a model of consistency. And with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes leading the way, we are likely going to see their reign in the AFC West reach double-digits. This week, the Chiefs head to Cincinnati to tangle with the Bengals, and both teams have a ton to play for. The Chiefs are fighting for the No. 1 seed in the AFC and to keep their first-round bye intact to freshen up and game plan for whoever they’ll face in the second round. The Bengals, with their rout of the Ravens, have now jumped into the No. 3 seed in the AFC, tied with Buffalo at 9-6. They are a game up on the Ravens. And with the latter going through major injury/COVID issues, the Bengals are sitting pretty to win their division. This matchup should be extremely fun to watch, and I’m going to side with the OVER in this one as both teams should be able to score on each other with ease.

Pick: OVER 49

Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys -5.5, 50

This has the makings of being the highest-scoring game of the week, with both teams owning explosive offenses and defenses that is suspect at times. This line opened up at Dallas -3. However, with their dominant showing on Sunday night against Washington, the line has shot up 2.5 points, and rightfully so. The Cowboys might own the most dangerous and explosive offense in the league. And with the way the defense has played over the last four games (no more than 20 points allowed in any of those games), the Cowboys are going to be a tough out this postseason. The Cowboys are also tied at 11-4 with the Rams and Bucs, so they are still jockeying for position, and they will be extremely focused for this matchup. As for the Cardinals, something just doesn’t look right with them right now. The offense has sputtered, and now they’ve dropped three straight games, giving up 30 (x2) and 22 last week to the Colts, who were missing a ton of players through COVID. It’s tough to get a win on the road in the NFL, and I don’t see this being the week the Cardinals right the ship and get in the win column. I’m rolling with the Cowboys at home.

Pick: Dallas -5.5

Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers -7, 48.5

It wasn’t pretty, but the Green Bay Packers found a way to somehow eke out a 24-22 win over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday. The win was a tale of two quarterbacks, as Aaron Rodgers passed Brett Favre for most passing touchdowns in Packers history, while Baker Mayfield struggled and tossed four interceptions. Now the Packers’ defense can turn its attention to another inconsistent quarterback in Kirk Cousins, who has thrown at least one interception in four of his last five games. The Packers are still working to maintain the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC and earn a first-round bye, so this game will be vitally important to them as the Cowboys, Bucs and Rams all have very winnable games this week as well. For the Vikings, they lost last week to the Rams, and that brought their record to 7-8, which is now two games out of the final wild card spot in the NFC. With Dalvin Cook likely out again this week, I don’t believe the Vikings will be able to attack Green Bay’s poor rushing defense and move the ball up and down the field effectively. I believe the Packers roll to a much easier win in this contest and cover this spread.

Pick: Green Bay -7

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NFL Betting Predictions: Week 17 Opening Line Report and Picks

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