Las Vegas vs. Denver (DEN -2.5, 35.5)
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Las Vegas Raiders vs. Denver Broncos | Sunday, October 6th, 2024
There is a three-way tie for second place in the AFC West, with the Chargers, Broncos, and Raiders all sitting at .500. At least one of those teams is guaranteed to advance to a solo second, with the Chargers on a bye week and the Broncos and Raiders facing off this weekend. Both teams are coming into the game after grinding out tough victories in Week 4, with Las Vegas downing the Cleveland Browns, and Denver just about outlasting the New York Jets by 10 points to 9.
Despite their victory, there doesn’t appear to be too much reason for optimism in Las Vegas at the moment. Star wide receiver Davante Adams is seemingly disgruntled and on his way out via trade any moment now, which is not going to help an offense that is only scoring 19.5 points per game with him in the lineup. The Raiders just missed out on picking a quarterback in the 2024 NFL draft, and it has slightly left this season in limbo. Everybody knows that the ceiling is incredibly limited with Gardner Minshew as their starter, and the impending departure of Adams reflects a team that is already putting one eye on next year’s draft. However, the first-round selection of Brock Bowers does appear to have been a slam dunk, with the young tight end being very enjoyable to watch this year.
In theory, the strength of this roster was meant to be the defensive line, due to the arrival of Christian Wilkins over the offseason. The prospect of him lining up alongside Maxx Crosby was meant to be one of the most daunting duos in the entire NFL, but the result has been a defense that is bottom 10 in both sacks and pressure rate.
That is good news for Denver, who have not exactly been lighting the world on fire on offense. Their 15.8 points per game rank 28th in the NFL, and their 266 yards per game rank 27th. Bo Nix received comparisons to Drew Brees during the preseason but has looked out of his depth so far, passing for just 660 yards, one touchdown, and four interceptions. At halftime during last week’s victory over New York, he had an insane seven completions for -7 yards. His 4.8 yards per attempt is second worst out of all quarterbacks in the NFL, behind only Bryce Young’s 4.4.
Nevertheless, he has been slowly improving and has managed to grind out two wins for these Broncos. Vegas is a middle-of-the-road defense, conceding 5.1 yards per carry, which is 30th in the NFL. Denver doesn’t exactly have an intimidating running back stable, but Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Nix himself should be able to exploit this to help them control the game.
Conversely, Las Vegas has been abysmal at running the ball so far this season, averaging 76.3 yards per game, which is 31st in the NFL. This means a heavy dose of Gardner Minshew can be expected, which is exactly what the Broncos will want to see. Denver’s secondary, headlined by shutdown corner Patrick Surtain, is restricting opposing passing attacks to just 146 yards per game, which is the third-fewest in the NFL. Add in the fact that Denver is top five in pressure rate with 30.3% and has the second most sacks with 16, and this looks like another likely win for Sean Payton’s men.
J.A. Cavalier swept his NFL Triple Crown in week 4 with The Bears, Colts and the Jaguars and we smashed 3 two team parlays. He likes the card this week even more. 6-0 NFL Guarantee. 3 straight, 3 parlays. One Week NFL $99 must go 6-0 or entire NFL season free. Straight through Super Bowl
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RAIDERS +2.5