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Morning Coffee: Saints relying on depth pieces to step up on Thursday Night Football
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Not everything happens as quickly as we hope it will.
Some things just need a little more time than we initially expected.
The Edmonton Oilers entered the 2024-25 NHL season as the favourite to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel.
After an 0-3 start, I locked in a Same Game Parlay with Oilers moneyline and Jeff Skinner 2+ shots on goal as a FanDuel Best Bet in this column on Tuesday morning.
As hard as it was for some to believe, I didn’t think a slow start was reason to believe Edmonton would go 0-82.
Skinner finished with three shots on goal and the Oilers won in overtime to cash the FanDuel Best Bet.
After passing on a bet in Wednesday’s column, my boys in the fantasy hockey group chat were quick to point out that I should have locked in Auston Matthews anytime goal scorer as a FanDuel Best Bet.
After all, the favourite to win the Rocket Richard Trophy at FanDuel wasn’t going to go 82 games without a goal, right?
Matthews scored his first goal of the season less than 10 minutes in and went on to finish with three points in a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
Fortunately, I followed their advice.
Turning the page this morning, I’m looking to return the favour with a couple of FanDuel Best Bets for tonight’s NFL Thursday Night Football match-up.
Let’s see if we can stay hot and find another winner to kick off Week 7.
This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday October 17th, 2024.
Saints Relying On Depth Pieces To Step Up On Thursday Night Football
The New Orleans Saints were the talk of the NFL after a dominant 2-0 start to the season.
Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was the favourite to win Assistant Coach of the Year at FanDuel after the Saints scored a combined 91 points in back-to-back wins over the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys.
After a couple of closes losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons, things have gone from bad to worse for New Orleans in a hurry.
The Saints lost back-to-back games to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to fall to 2-4.
They’ve also lost nearly their entire offensive core group to injury as Derek Carr, Chris Olave, Rasheed Shaheed, and Taysom Hill are all injured.
Factor in injuries to the offensive line and it’s easy to understand why the spread for tonight’s game has flipped form New Orleans -2.5 to the Denver Broncos -2.5 at FanDuel.
Denver is coming off an ugly loss to the Los Angeles Chargers to fall to 3-3.
Still, they are a relatively healthy group and that’s a big reason why they are a small favourite in a potential revenge game for former Saints and current Broncos head coach Sean Payton.
While Denver to win and cover will be a popular pick tonight, I’ve circled a couple of player props that I think offer some decent value as FanDuel Best Bets.
First up, I’ll lock in a Same Game Parlay with Bub Means 25+ receiving yard and Juwan Johnson 2+ receptions at +100 odds.
Means filled in admirably for the injured Chris Olave in last week’s loss to Tampa Bay, finishing with five catches for 45 yards and a touchdown on eight targets.
Perhaps he doesn’t see as many targets against the Broncos, but I still think 25+ receiving yards is a reasonable floor for the new No. 1 receiver in New Orleans with Olave and Shaheed both out.
Then there is Johnson, who has averaged 3.3 catches per game over his last three contests with 2+ in every game.
The Saints want to run the ball with Alvin Kamara, but the Broncos will be expecting the star running back to get a ton of touches and should key in on him on defence.
That might open some space for rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler to spread the ball around to his remaining playmakers at tight end and wide receiver.
I expect Johnson and fellow tight end Foster Moreau to factor into the offence tonight.
An SGP with Means 25+ receiving and Johnson 2+ receptions seems like a reasonable expectation for a FanDuel Best Bet.
Next, I’ll lock in Moreau over 9.5 receiving yards.
While Johnson’s receiving yards line is currently 27.5, Moreau’s is sitting at just 9.5, which should mean that he goes over with one or two catches.
Moreau had two catches for 54 yards in last week’s loss to the Buccaneers.
He’s gone over 9.5 receiving yards in back-to-back games and three of six games overall this season.
He should also benefit from the absences of Olave, Shaheed, and Hill with Rattler at quarterback.
I’ll take him to go over 9.5 yards as a FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s game.
Rattler had 40 pass attempts last week against Tampa Bay.
Hopefully, he can get Means, Johnson, and Moreau the ball enough for all three to deliver a big night tonight and complete the NFL prime-time game sweep.
Have a great day, everyone!