Brinson’s NFL Week 8 picks, best bets: Eagles upset Bengals on road; Broncos brutalize Saints

Has there ever been an NFL season like this for wide receiver tumultuousness before? Not only did we get ANOTHER high-profile trade involving a wideout — DeAndre Hopkins to the Chiefs in the wake of Amari Cooper to the Bills and Davante Adams to the Jets is about as big a trio of trades as you can get midseason — but we saw yet another disheartening injury to a big-time wide receiver with Chris Godwin going down for what could be the rest of the season.

The Bucs endured two critical injuries if you count Mike Evans, who also got hurt against the Ravens and will miss some time. Looking at the top-tier wide receivers, it feels like almost every single one of the guys picked early has been involved in some kind of drama this season.

Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle both are dealing with offensive issues stemming from Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion earlier this season. CeeDee Lamb’s been meh at best in a struggling Cowboys offense. A.J. Brown missed time with injury. Garrett Wilson’s been underwhelming unless he gets 22 targets. Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua have both missed time. Chris Olave’s been hurt and lost his quarterback. Brandon Aiyuk is out for the season and Deebo Samuel’s been banged up. D.K. Metcalf is hurt now, too. Malik Nabers missed time with a bad concussion. The three wideouts above were traded, which should tell you how their teams and offenses are performing. And now Godwin and Evans will miss some games. 

The trio of Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and Drake London is about the only “safe” things we’ve had this season at wide receiver. Chaos might be a ladder, but it feels like we’re missing a lot of rungs when it comes to wide receiver health.

Best betsJustin Jefferson anytime TD (-115)Losing Aaron Donald apparently matters! Because the Rams are not good defensively. And now they’re getting one of the NFL’s top offenses on a short week with several of the best skill-position weapons available to pop off for Minnesota. We saw Alexander Mattison (23 carries, 92 yards) and rookie tight end Brock Bowers (14 targets, 10 catches, 93 yards) get there from a volume and yardage perspective last week for the Raiders. Aaron Jones and Justin Jefferson should eat on ‘TNF’ as well. Jefferson’s price is particularly appealing given how well he’s played this year and how often Sam Darnold’s looked his way. 

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Ravens-Browns over 44.5Let’s lean into the new Cleveland Browns and the chaos that comes with America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston. With Deshaun Watson out for the year, Winston profiles as a possible starter the rest of the way, depending on what Cleveland wants to do with Dorian Thompson-Robinson. We know it’s Jameis this week, though, and I could not be more excited. Winston is willing to take chances most quarterbacks won’t, and brings a drive-to-drive and play-to-play downside/upside combo that should result in more production offensively than we’ve seen from the Browns thus far in 2024. At the very least, he might throw some picks that put the Ravens in position to score quickly and force Cleveland to throw more often. The Ravens should be able to do their part in terms of putting up points pretty easily against a Browns defense that hasn’t lived up to preseason expectations. 

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Panthers team total under 16.5The Panthers couldn’t score against a questionable Washington defense last week with Andy Dalton under center. With Dalton battling a thumb injury after a car accident, Carolina is going back to Bryce Young. Maybe he shocks the world and looks like a fully functional NFL quarterback after sitting on the bench for a few weeks and playing spare snaps. I’m willing to bet against that happening! Especially with the Broncos coming off a mini-Thursday bye and currently sporting one of the better defenses in football. Denver is 4-3 and very much in the postseason mix with a win here. Sean Payton won’t let his guard down against an old NFC South foe, especially one with a troubling offensive situation and a game Denver absolutely needs to win. Bo Nix is legitimately viable in Fantasy this week and Javonte Williams should EAT against the Panthers’ lousy rush defense. If Bryce has to throw a ton, it could get ugly.

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Teaser: Eagles (+8) / Chargers (-1)Gave serious consideration to the Jets as a teaser leg here, but on the road and in the division felt a little fishy, especially with all the buzz around Patriots coach Jerod Mayo. Instead let’s take Philly getting more than a touchdown against the Bengals in Cincy, where I really don’t think we’ll see the Eagles get blown out against a gettable Cincinnati defense. Maybe it’s a let-down spot for Saquon Barkley, but the superstar running back had plenty of time to cool his jets on the bench during the second half of a blowout against the Giants. Philly shouldn’t get faded bad here. The Chargers might do some fading, though, drawing the incredibly banged-up Saints at home for a game where Jim Harbaugh gets to unleash his run game against a depleted defense and his own defensive unit against an overwhelmed and potentially overmatched rookie quarterback in Spencer Rattler. 

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Lions team total over 27.5 (-122)The Lions are massive favorites in this game, clocking in at -11. I actually really like them against the spread, but I think I prefer this team total number, because it doesn’t bring into the randomness of a late-game Titans score. Detroit’s on a monster roll right now offensively, with Jared Goff breaking the record for passer rating over a three-game stretch and the Lions generating more touchdowns (18) than incompletions (16) over the last four games. The Titans jumped out to a 10-0 lead against the Bills and promptly gave up 34 straight points. I think I prefer Tennessee to be competitive out of the gate in this one, as it would incentivize the Lions to keep their foot on the gas offensively. Regardless, it would be pretty shocking if the Lions didn’t find the end zone four times in this game given how their offense is cooking. Tennessee will have to do literally nothing for the Lions to fall short here. 

Bonus: SportsLine expert Eric Cohen predicts a big win for Detroit, which he expects to jump ahead and never look back. To see more Week 8 score predictions, click here.