Your curated list of wagers for Week 8 of the NFL season, from moneylines and player props to overlooked underdogs.
If not for our teaser bet being spoiled by the biggest upset of the season, we’d have been basking in the glory of a 4-0 Sunday for Week 7. Instead, it was a 3-1 showing, but those are still very nice, too!
With a lot of momentum heading into Week 8, let’s set our sights on an opportunistic oncoming NFL slate.
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NFL Week 8 Best Bets Overview 2022
All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
Best Over/Under Bet of Week 8
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
- Over/Under: 41.5
Many, many people are disgruntled with second-year head coach Arthur Smith, be it Falcons fans or fantasy owners. His play-calling involving Kyle Pitts and rookie Drake London has simply been abysmal.
But at the same time, Atlanta hilariously comes into this NFC South affair with sole possession of first place in the division after the Bucs’ loss on Thursday Night Football. Therefore, Smith isn’t changing a thing. That’s good news for those seeking out an under when the Dirty Birds are in action — more games of the club’s far-and-away two best skill-position guys doing little to zilch.
It doesn’t help matters that Marcus Mariota is barely passing. Even with Cordarrelle Patterson (knee) on injured reserve, the Falcons are still electing to run the ball a heavy amount — 58.04 percent of the time, to be specific, which ranks them above all but one other NFL team. Across the last three games, they’re going to the ground a nifty 61.73 percent.
And this is with … Tyler Allegator? Sorry, that’s Tyler Allgeier taking the rock as the primary runner, while Caleb Huntley is getting considerable touches in addition. Mariota, of course, knows how to use his feet, too, but clearly, this entire equation is not constructed properly to plate points.
With that in mind, we’ll entrust a solid Panthers defense to take care of business just one week after shackling the great Tom Brady to what was tied for his second-lowest scoring output (three points) in the last 15 years. That’s a pretty notable achievement, wouldn’t you say?
Even funnier than Atlanta being at the top of the division is the fact that the Panthers — yes, the club that’s actively selling off its most important pieces — can leapfrog everyone with a win here coupled with a Saints loss to Las Vegas. They, too, have an offense that’s severely capped, especially after sending franchise tailback Christian McCaffrey off to San Francisco. And perhaps best of all when hoping for little activity on the scoreboard, Carolina is still sticking with P.J. Walker.
Yes, even with Baker Mayfield healthy enough to get back into the QB saddle, an NFL franchise is sticking with an XFL standout instead of a guy who was starring in commercials as recently as a season ago. OK, we’ll gladly accept that.
Walker did have himself a nice performance in last week’s shocking upset triumph — a career-best showing, actually — but again, he’s P.J. Walker; someone who had never posted a passer rating higher than 80.0 in a game prior to this season. And even after last week, he still has twice as many interceptions than touchdowns for his career. Wait, what?!
And yet the Panthers were tricked enough to roll with him at least one more bout rather than, you know, the quarterback they traded for that was supposed to lead them for years. So we’ll capitalize on this.
This could be Walker’s last start (unless Mayfield gets injured again). He’s a game manager at best, and with that type of QB under center, Carolina will probably be rushing a good chunk, too. Fortunately for us, the Falcons are yielding the sixth-fewest rushing yards of all 32 defenses.
Big plays will be tough to come by. A lot of running plays should dominate both sides’ strategies and chew through the clock. The bare bones in all of this point to a low-scoring result.
Pick: UNDER 41.5 (-114)
Best Spread Bet of Week 8
None.
For the second straight week, we’re going to skip the spreads. If it were of the food variety, that would not be the case, but once again, we’ll substitute an extra prop in its place that simply stands out more.
Best Teaser Bet (4 games, 13 points) of Week 8
This week’s card sees plenty of viable options to attach in a teaser. From the 1 p.m. window, let’s start with a solid Cardinals squad needing to lose by less than 17 (or, you know, win) in Minnesota.
Both NFC clubs engaged in a classic early last year, one that saw Arizona prevail 34-33 behind the second 400-yard game of Kyler Murray’s career. Murray and the offense may be rejuvenated now after getting star wide-out DeAndre Hopkins back from his suspension, as they hung 40-plus points on the Saints in his first game back. There is no letdown spot here.
From the latter portion of the schedule, we’ll look to Los Angeles, where the Rams host the rival 49ers in FOX’s Game of the Week. Interestingly, San Francisco is the favorite despite being the road team and having a worse record. In my opinion, the wrong team is favored and we’ll attempt to capitalize on that, with LA able to lose by a pair of touchdowns for us to advance.
Lastly, we’ll lean on both the spread and the total from this week’s Sunday Night Football. You may have heard Aaron Rodgers is a double-digit underdog for the first time in his career, though it makes sense in this case as his Packers have been slumping as of late, en route into their meeting with arguably the NFL’s best.
Well in this particular teaser, we’d have the ultra-rare scenario of Rodgers being spotted more than three touchdowns. Say what you will about his receiving core but I cannot see the future Hall-of-Famer fall by 24-plus points on a national-television broadcast after already dropping three in a row. It’s just not in his DNA. In the process, there will be a healthy amount of scoring going on, which should top 33.5.
Best Prop Bet of Week 8
Jonathan Taylor Over/Under 17.5 Rush Attempts
Really? Only 18 totes for Jonathan Taylor is needed to cash his rush attempts prop?
Let’s set the stage first. The Colts shocked the football world early this week with their stunningly-dumb decision to bench their future Hall-of-Fame QB Matt Ryan — who is fourth in the league in passing yards, by the way — for Sam Ehlinger.
Never heard of him? That’s OK because most haven’t. Ehlinger was drafted out of Texas a year ago in the sixth round and never really gave off the vibe that he could be anything more than a backup journeyman extraordinaire for his career.
This will be the youngster’s first-ever NFL start and no matter how he performs, we can expect a large dose of Taylor, right? The third-year running back typically gets the rock plenty, and while he only received 10 carries last week, that was due to a combination of the Colts trailing all game and it being his first week back from injury.
In effort to ease in the new QB1, there will be heavy dependency on Indy’s backfield workhorse. Such a strategy means Taylor will get a crack at more than 17 rushes.
Pick: OVER 17.5 Rush Attempts (-130)
Co-Best Prop Bet of Week 8
DeAndre Hopkins Over/Under 6.5 Receptions
As alluded to in our weekly teaser, the Cardinals-Vikings showdown should be a very lively affair. The stars will stand out.
That, of course, includes the just-returned DeAndre Hopkins. The Clemson product showed no rust whatsoever in his first game action since last January by corralling 10 of 14 targets for 103 yards.
Yet his receptions prop sits at only 6.5 for what should be a barnburner? Alrighty then. Hopkins — unquestionably one of the best receivers in pro football, not to mention his QB’s favorite weapon — will once again be a target hog and with that comes enough receptions to cash this.
Pick: OVER 6.5 Receptions (-102)
NFL Best Bets Record for the 2022 Season
- Over/Unders: “3-4”
- Spreads: “3-3”
- Teasers: “2-3-1”
- Props: “3-4”
- Overall Record*: “11-14-1,” -7.87 units
*Each over/under is graded to win 2 units; everything else for 1 unit
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