We’re approaching uncharted territory, as this will be the first time in the history of the NFL that there will be a Week 18. With 17 regular season games now on the schedule, teams will have one more game to finish out the regular season.
With playoff spots and positioning still up for grabs, there are many important games in Week 18. While not all of them involve playoff teams, there are a number of them that do.
Let’s take a look at one game that has playoff implications and another that doesn’t, and we’ll give you our NFL Betting picks for those games.
Betting Advice on Week 18 NFL Games
Chicago Bears @ Minnesota Vikings (-6)
Now that the Minnesota Vikings are out of playoff contention, we’re not sure what we’re going to get from them. We’re also not sure of the status of Kirk Cousins, as the unvaccinated Vikings signal-caller is still in the league’s health and safety protocol.
After getting blown out by the Packers on Sunday night, a surly Mike Zimmer sounded like a coach that knows that the end of his tenure is near.
As for the Chicago Bears, they’re doing what they have done the last couple of seasons. With Matt Nagy on the hot seat and the Bears out of playoff contention, they go on a winning streak, giving upper management some hope that Nagy is the man to continue to lead the Bears.
Chicago has won two straight and looked impressive in their win over the hapless New York Giants. Granted, the Giants had Mike Glennon at quarterback, but a win is a win.
We like the Bears in this one. The Vikings seem to be in a bad place, and the Bears always find a way to win games once their season is over. The Bears will win this one outright, and with their victory, the Mike Zimmer era in Minnesota will be over.
Indianapolis Colts @ Jacksonville Jaguars (+15.5)
This line opened up at Jacksonville +8.5, but the line has jumped all the way up to 15.5. The Colts are currently in the playoffs, but they don’t have an official spot as of yet.
With a win, the Colts are in the playoffs, so we don’t expect them to rest any of their starters. We expect to see a steady diet of Jonathan Taylor, and Taylor has been nearly impossible to stop this season.
While many may think that this spread is too big of a number and that the smart money should be on Jacksonville, remember that the Jags had nearly the same spread last week against New England.
What happened in that game, you may ask? The Patriots destroyed the Jaguars 50-10 and covered the spread by a huge margin.
In looking at the betting numbers, all signs point to the Indianapolis Colts covering in this one. They’re 6-0 against the spread in their last six road games and 6-1 against the spread in their last seven games as a road favorite.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-7 against the spread in their last seven games, so things don’t look good for them. We’re confident that the Colts will win this one big.