NFL Week 17 Picks – Go Pack Go
by Jack Simon – commissioner at Wannamakeabet.com
Happy New Year! Wishing you a happy and healthy new year with as many winning bets as your heart desires.
We have arrived at Week #17 of the NFL season at Wannamakeabet.com as we head into the final two weeks of the year. Listen to our Podcast with Jack and Cello every week to get a data driven, deep dive opinion on every single game on the card. Last week Jack torched the card (4-1 best bets and 10-5 on all games from the Pod) as Cello got his ass handed to him to go along with his double bourbon during the show. Here’s what you need to know on this fine New Year’s Day of 2023:
Website Updates
- Invites are out for the January All Sports Cash League. Just log in, accept the invite and you’re in.
- Invitations are still live for the annual Bowl Bonanza League and waiting for you when you log-in. Free for all members and winner gets $100 cash! 50,000 points to play with throughout the Bowl season all the way to the Natty. Everyone is chasing member “roc0770” after yesterday’s amazing action including the teaser wrecking win by TCU.
- The December All Sports Cash League is in the books. Congrats to member “SchwartzFoch” who racked up 4.5 million points in the December league with a lot of action on the NBA and College Basketball including a 500,000 bet yesterday on Pittsburgh over North Carolina in College Basketball yesterday, who were a 175 dog and won the game outright. Great work! Click here to follow instructions to collect your cash.
- We have a Bengals / Patriots preview from NFL analyst Thomas Quaynor.
- Great Bowl Coverage from College Football analyst Gabriel Rauch.
- We also have a 49ers / Raiders preview from Thomas Quaynor
- Stay tuned to our blog for handicapping updates from our staff of writers. We’ll have lots of Bowl Coverage in the coming weeks.
AND NOW… Week 17 NFL Commish Picks
The commish went 4-1 last week as my lone loss was on my beloved Browns as they couldn’t catch the cold football to keep their playoff hopes alive. The season record now stands at 42/71 (59.15%). I can smell 60%! For a full preview of every single game on the card, make sure you listen to our podcast. Here’s who the commish likes this week for my top 5, all lines are from WANNA at the time of this posting.
New York Giants -5.5 over Indianapolis Colts
The Colts are the worst team in the league according to my own power rankings, which is a hybrid model of DVOA from football outsiders and my own self imposed recency bias. And on top of that Vegas seems to still give this team respect, as was clear last week in the Charger game. Nick Foles is terrible and coach Saturday may be worse. Meanwhile, the Giants are playing to seal a playoff spot in front of a home crowd who should be on fire today at Met Life. It’s all Giants all day.
Tampa Bay Bucs -3 over Carolina
It’s no secret how I felt about Tom Brady and the Bucs offense over the past month. They both stink. But here we have the ultimate buy low, sell high opportunity for both the Bucs and the Panthers as Carolina is overvalued after beating a Detroit team that didn’t show up last week and Tampa’s recent play is finally reflected with closing line value. This game determines the NFC South and as bad as Tampa has played over the past month and quite frankly, most of this season, this is a game they will most certainly show up for and make the plays they need to in order to get the win and advance to the playoffs once again.
Kansas City Chiefs – 12.5 over Denver Broncos
I really don’t like laying this much wood this late in the season but I’m holding my nose and doing it today with a Chiefs team that still has motivation to finish strong and hope that Buffalo stumbles so they can secure home field advantage for the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Denver defense finally waved the white flag last week against the Rams and showed they are no longer interested in carrying the load for this meek offense which is completely and totally broken behind Russell Wilson. On December 11th the Chiefs were blowing out Denver at home but they couldn’t step on the throat but that’s just what they’ll do today.
Miami Dolphins +2.5 over New England Patriots
Teddy Bridgewater has proven himself to be a capable backup in the past for a variety of teams, so I’m fine with him under center and believe he’s better than Mac Jones head to head. Yes, Miami has lost their last three, but it was against the Chargers, 49ers and Bills. Meanwhile, the Pats lost to Arizona and the Raiders and their offense is clearly broken. Teddy just needs to get the ball to his playmakers on Sunday (Tyreek/Waddle) and let the defense feast on Mac and this inept offense in New England. This will be close, but Miami gets the win or loses and still covers the small number.
Green Bay Packers – 3 over Minnesota Vikings
The Pack don’t control their own fate but their playoff hopes actually seem realistic. Combine this with the fact that I currently have them ranked 4th in the league using my own power rankings (see above). This includes being ranked #2 against the Pass over the past month. The Vikings are the greatest smoke and mirror show in the league and it’s finally going to come to an end today in Lambeau. Stay away from the Minny teasers in this one. Aaron Rodgers has proved me wrong recently and clearly has some life left in that arm and in his will to win.
Good luck with your selections, you’ll need it to cover today.
Commish