NFL Week 8 Preview | Expert Picks

Week 7 of the 2024 NFL regular season is in the rearview mirror, and it was once again ruled by the road favorites. In fact, over the past two weeks in the NFL, road favorites are a whopping 15-0 against the spread. 

Will NFL Week 8 continue that trend, or will underdogs be barking once again this season? The action begins with an exciting matchup on Thursday Night Football, as the Minnesota Vikings will travel to Los Angeles to take on a Rams team in desperate need of a victory.

As we dive into the Week 8 slate head-on, it’s time to target our three best bets for this weekend’s excellent schedule of games. We included a road underdog, a fade of the Jacksonville defense and a bet on a low-scoring affair in Pittsburgh. Let’s get into our picks and best bets for NFL Week 8.

While the Cowboys have been a mess this season, they can still take solace in the fact things have gone better for them than for the 49ers. After all, San Francisco just lost Brandon Aiyuk to a season-ending injury, it looks like Christian McCaffrey could miss the entire regular season at this rate, and Juaun Jennings is questionable for this week’s game with a hip injury. It’s an offense that is severely depleted, which has left too much on the plate of Brock Purdy, an average quarterback who is proving to be exactly that without the plethora of weapons he usually has at his disposal.

Conversely, the Cowboys are coming off a much-needed bye week following a drubbing at the hands of the Detroit Lions. Dak Prescott should see success through the air after getting an extra week to prepare, and the Dallas defense should be healthier than it's been in over a month on Sunday. San Francisco is still over-inflated in the market based on past performance, but this isn’t the same team as in previous years. Let’s take Dallas to keep this one close.

Instead of attacking this game via a point spread or game total, let’s look at the team total route and back the Packers to roll against this Jaguars defense. Jordan Love has been taking a ton of shots downfield since returning from injury, and it’s resulted in a lot of high-variance sequences on offense for the Packers. He certainly should see success this week against a Jacksonville secondary that ranks dead last against the pass by DVOA, including getting torched by the likes of Joe Flacco and Drake Maye in recent weeks.

This Packers offense is in an entirely different class than what the Jaguars have faced recently, and it doesn’t help matters that Jacksonville is playing a game following two straight contests in London without a bye week in between. All of that travel can’t be good for an already beleaguered defense, so let’s take Green Bay to score in bunches on Sunday. 

This is an ugly football game, which is why it has the lowest total on the board this week by a considerable margin. Russell Wilson performed much better than anticipated in this Steelers debut, but there are still plenty of questions to be had about the veteran quarterback when he’s put under pressure. It just so happens that this Giants defense is excellent up front, and Dexter Lawrence and company should create plenty of havoc in the backfield on Monday. 

On the other side, the Giants offense has been struggling mightily against some middling defenses over the last few weeks. Things won’t get any easier for Daniel Jones against T.J. Watt and this elite Steelers pass rush on the road this week. Even though Malik Nabers is back in the fold, we can expect head coach Brian Daboll to continue to run the ball and try to maintain a methodical approach on offense, meaning that the under has value in a game involving the Giants once again.

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