experts picks – Syndication Server

Week 17 picks: Who the experts are taking in Saints vs. Buccaneers

The Buccaneers are not a unanimous pick to beat the Saints this week, but it’s as close as it gets: 51 of 52 experts are picking against New Orleans in Week 17:

Who are you picking to win once the New Orleans Saints (7-8) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-7) take the field on Sunday? These two teams couldn’t be in more different states despite their comparable records. The Saints are still reeling from an embarrassing loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week in front of a national audience, and they could be eliminated from playoff qualification with another loss to the Bucs.

And those Buccaneers have won four games in a row. If they get one more and take down the Saints this week, they’ll win the NFC South and clinch a playoff berth in the process. The Saints very much have their backs against the wall.

Here’s a quick look at the game picks from 52 experts across a variety of platforms as kickoff approaches:

Week 6 picks: Who the experts are taking in Saints vs. Texans

We’re on to Week 6 of the New Orleans Saints’ 2023 season, this time headed for another road game with an AFC opponent — and the Saints have to be hoping for a repeat of last week’s performance in a dominate win over the reeling New England Patriots.

But the Houston Texans present a number of different challenges, mostly at quarterback. Rookie standout C.J. Stroud appears to be the real deal. He ranks third in the league in passing yards through his first five games, and he has yet to throw his first interception. The Saints defense will have their work cut out for them in slowing him down.

So who do those in the know like in this game? Let’s review the Week 6 NFL expert picks for Sunday’s Saints-Texans matchup:

NFL Divisional round picks: ‘Experts’ leaning toward Bills over Bengals

Who the ‘experts’ are taking in #Bills vs. #Bengals:

The Buffalo Bills are vying to take one step closer to Super Bowl 57 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

On Sunday, the Bills will host the Bengals in the Divisional round at Highmark Stadium.

Can the Bills pull it off with all eyes on them?

The so-called “experts” are leaning toward yes.

According to NFL Pickwatch, 66 percent of writers, analysts, and talking heads on television have picked Buffalo to beat Cincinnati.

In this case, these folks are going with the oddsmakers as well. The Bills enter Sunday as a 5.5-point favorite over the Bengals.

Even so, we still find a couple that think the defending champs will beat Buffalo.

For those curious of who they might want to take note of who is not “Bill-eving,” a few of those picking Cincy to win include: Albert Breer (Sports Illustrated), Dan Graziano (ESPN), and Maurice Jones-Drew (NFL Network).

Some of those staying on the Bills bandwagon: Jason La Canfora (CBS Sports), Cynthia Frelund (NFL.com), and Pete Prisco (CBS Sports).

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Week 6 NFL expert picks don’t like the Saints to win vs. Bengals

Week 6 NFL experts picks don’t like the Saints to win vs. Bengals

Whew, that’s daunting. The New Orleans Saints and the Cincinnati Bengals have achieved the same mediocre 2-3 record going into their Week 6 clash, but the experts don’t think this one will be close. Per surveying of national media outlets and fan blogs around the league’s orbit at NFL Pickwatch, an overwhelming majority of expert picks (87%) are coming in for the visiting Bengals, not the home-underdog Saints (just 13%).

Unfortunately, it’s easy to see why this is so lopsided. Injuries have decimated the Saints, almost literally — 14 of the 53 players on their active roster were listed on the injury report this week, with non-participants including wide receivers Michael Thomas (foot), Jarvis Landry (ankle), and Deonte Harty (foot) as well as top cornerback Marshon Lattimore (abdomen) and backup defensive end Payton Turner (chest).

So the Saints will be missing multiple starters when both squads hit the field in New Orleans on Sunday, but the Bengals should have all hands on deck: their only non-participants in practice this week were left tackle Jonah Williams (knee) and wide receiver Tee Higgins (ankle), who were both held out as precautionary measures and are expected to play.

Hopefully the Saints can rally to overcome all of these absences. The Bengals offense has struggled to create explosive plays early this season, which has been the biggest vulnerability for New Orleans. Cutting down on those mistakes without Lattimore will be difficult, to say the least, but it helps that the Cincinnati offense hasn’t exactly gotten the most out of its talent. Let’s hope they remain stagnant one more week to give the Saints a fighting chance.

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Just 5% of NFL experts pick Saints to beat Buccaneers in Week 8

NFL Pickwatch: Just 5% of NFL experts pick Saints to beat Buccaneers in Week 8

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Not many spectators like the New Orleans Saints’ chances this week. According to surveying conducted by NFL Pickwatch, a staggering 95% of analysts like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to find a win at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday. Only a slight minority are picking the underdog Saints to pull off an upset.

On paper, Tampa Bay probably is the safe pick. They’re the reigning Super Bowl champions for good reason and they’ve achieved an impressive 6-1 record going into this game. The Saints, comparatively, have struggled to get their offense, defense, and special teams units on the same page while improving to 4-2 after their bye week.

That doesn’t mean the Buccaneers are a lock to win this game. They lost to the Saints twice last year, and no other defense gave Tom Brady more trouble thanks to their ability to pressure him with just four rushers while their playmaking secondary frustrated his receivers. If that formula translates to the 2021 matchup, it could buy the stagnant offense enough time to make some plays of their own.

NFL Week 2 picks: Majority of NFL experts course-correct after counting out Saints

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Here’s a tough scene. A week after more than 90% of NFL experts picked the Green Bay Packers to hand the New Orleans Saints a Week 1 loss, the pendulum has swung back towards the black and gold.

NFL Pickwatch has aggregated hundreds of game picks around the league’s orbit, and they’ve found that an overwhelming majority of analysts are picking the Saints in Week 2 over the Carolina Panthers: 87% of them, as of Friday morning. There’s a couple of observers buying in to Carolina’s close 19-14 win over the New York Jets, in which the Panthers’ average scoring drive began at their own 47 yard line.

That hardly means the Saints will run over the Panthers — if the team most experts picked to win came out victorious, they would’ve been on the other end of a 38-3 drubbing a week ago. But it should give Saints fans some confidence that New Orleans is trending in the right direction. That’s if seeing their team drop all those points on a popular Super Bowl pick didn’t do that already, anyway.

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NFL picks 2021, Week 1: Who the experts are taking in Saints vs. Packers

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Are the New Orleans Saints flying into Jacksonville for a Week 1 loss? Their season opener with the Green Bay Packers will be nationally broadcast with high expectations — mostly for Green Bay, who have become a trendy Super Bowl pick. The Saints are just hoping to reach the postseason. Still, many fans have remained optimistic.

But just 9% of the analysts and experts polled by NFL Pickwatch are giving the Saints a chance. An overwhelming 91% majority are penciling in Green Bay to win this weekend, which, well, isn’t ideal from New Orleans’ perspective.

So how can the Saints avoid that?

It all rides on Jameis Winston. If he can protect the football and pick the Packers secondary apart from the pocket, it creates more favorable looks for Alvin Kamara as a runner behind the league’s best offensive line. The more often the Saints can dictate the terms of this game on offense, the better for their defense. Green Bay’s least certain unit may be their own offensive line, and the Saints defensive line is built to take advantage of that. If they can rattle Aaron Rodgers and keep him out of rhythm, maybe they have a chance.

NFL experts overwhelmingly pick Saints to knock off Bears

The New Orleans Saints have been the popular choice to win their Wild-Card Round matchup with the Chicago Bears in the NFL playoffs.

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There isn’t much of an argument to be made about who should win Sunday’s Wild-Card Round playoffs game between the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Bears, per results surveyed from NFL Pickwatch. 96% of those in the know are siding with New Orleans, with a 4% minority picking the Bears to pull off an upset.

Now, that doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s just an informed perspective from experts around the league’s orbit. The same group picked the Saints to beat the Philadelphia Eagles by a similar margin, and, well, we saw how that turned out. So don’t take it as proof of the Saints automatically advancing to the next round.

Anyway: for the curious, experts picks for the other Wild-Card Round matchups have nearly-equal confidence in the Buffalo Bills (96%) over the Indianapolis Colts and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (93%) against the Washington Football Team. The Pittsburgh Steelers (86%) and Seattle Seahawks (85%) are also widely favored in their games with the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams, respectively, while the experts are a little more optimistic for a competitive game between the Baltimore Ravens (69%) and Tennessee Titans.

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NFL experts picks: Saints are a near-unanimous choice to beat the 49ers

The New Orleans Saints are a popular pick to defeat the San Francisco 49ers during Week 10 of the 2020 NFL regular season, per expert picks.

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The New Orleans Saints know the dangers of being the popular pick to win a game. None of the network analysts sided with them on Sunday night a week ago, and the Saints embarrassed them all by demolishing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a near-shutout. So it’s good to see some outliers in this week’s survey.

Per NFL Pickwatch, 99% of NFL experts have picked the Saints to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, which isn’t the same as 100%. There are still a couple of islands of resistance out there angling for the 49ers to pull off an upset. And thank goodness, because unanimous picks for New Orleans would almost certainly spell bad news for them.

If the Green Bay Packers lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars, it will be because 100% of experts picked Green Bay over the 1-7 squad. Of course.

LSU Wire: Tigers coverage from USA TODAY Network

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NFL experts picks go against Saints for the first time in Week 3

NFL experts are picking the Green Bay Packers against the New Orleans Saints in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sunday Night Football Week 3.

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The majority of NFL experts picked the New Orleans Saints to win each of their first two matchups in the 2020 season, but the tide has shifted with the Green Bay Packers coming to town.

Game picks collected by NFL Pickwatch on Friday have 65% of experts siding with the Packers, while just 35% like the Saints to defend the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. For context, last week 90% of experts picked the Saints on “Monday Night Football” with the Las Vegas Raiders, while an 86% majority picked New Orleans over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1.

That’s quite a big swing, but that’s going to happen when the Saints defense makes Derek Carr look like Aaron Rodgers. Now Rodgers himself is preparing to play them, though he could be without top wideout Davante Adams. That’s not too reassuring considering Drew Brees and the Saints offense also disappointed at Las Vegas — and could still be without Michael Thomas, their own star receiver.

We’ll see what happens next. The Saints proved the experts wrong a week ago, and now they can do it again (silver linings, right?).

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