Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
I hate to start off with bad news, but I have some bad news for Packers fans: Your team might not be good this year. That was the only conclusion I came to after watching the Raiders beat the Packers on Monday night 17-13. Look, you had a solid run over the past 20 years, but all good things must come to an end. And yes, please feel free to turn around and throw that back in my face if the Packers make the playoffs this year.
Anyway, we have a big newsletter today: We'll be grading both teams from last night's game, plus we'll be looking at Prisco's latest Power Rankings and making some early Week 6 picks.
As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. All right, let's get to the rundown.
1. Today's Show: Early bets for Week 6
With Week 5 officially in the books, we decided to get an early jump on Week 6 today by revealing some of our best bets for the upcoming week of NFL action.
During today's episode, Katie Mox and Will Brinson were joined by SportsLine gambling gurus Emory Hunt and Alex "PropStarz" Selesnick.
The crew covered several of their favorite bets for Week 6 and we're going to look at a couple of those below.
- Brinson: Dolphins (-14) to cover against Panthers. Brinson doesn't see any way that the Panthers keep this game close. "I would bet the Dolphins in this spot. The Panthers defense is starting to give up, they're not playing well. The Dolphins could hang 50 on this team," Brinson said. "I just think that this Panthers team has no offense and I don't see how it gets better."
- Hunt: Seahawks at Bengals OVER 46 points. Hunt thinks we're going to see a shootout on Sunday in Cincinnati. "I like the over in this game," Hunt said. "The Seahawks are coming off a bye, so they'll be well rested. [Joe Burrow is looking like Joe Burrow again] and he's playing at home so he'll get an extra day of treatment, as opposed to that travel day. I think we're in for a real high-scoring game."
If you want to hear the rest of the props and early best bets for Week 6, you can do that by listening to the show here. You can also watch today's show on YouTube by clicking here.
2. Monday night grades after Raiders' 17-13 win over Packers
After 20 straight years of getting MVP-level play at quarterback, Green Bay's run might have finally ended. The Packers lost to the Raiders on Monday night and one of the biggest reasons that happened is because Jordan Love threw three interceptions.
Here are our grades from the game:
PACKERS GRADE: C
It's been five weeks, and the Packers still look like a team that's trying to figure out their offensive identity. Part of that might have to do with the fact that Matt LaFleur doesn't seem to know how much he can trust Jordan Love. The Packers QB had a disastrous game with three interceptions, including one that came on Green Bay's final offensive play. Although he did throw a 77-yard pass in the game, that was about his only highlight on a night where he was mostly inaccurate (he completed 16 of 30 passes for 182 yards). The Packers defense played well enough to win with four sacks and an interception, but the effort went to waste. The Packers have now lost three of their last four games, and while they certainly miss Aaron Jones -- who's been sidelined with a lingering hamstring injury -- they're going to have a lot of things they need to get figured out as they head into their Week 6 bye.
Packers note
- Love Hurts. With this ugly performance, Jordan Love became the first player in more than 20 years to throw three interceptions and zero touchdowns against the Raiders. The last time it happened came in 2002 when Drew Brees did it with the Chargers. Love also became just the fourth Packers QB over the past 20 seasons to finish with zero touchdowns and at least three interceptions, a stat line that Aaron Rodgers never hit in Green Bay. The last Packers QB to bottom out like Love did was Brett Hundley in 2017.
RAIDERS GRADE: B
The Raiders defense has struggled at times this season, but on Monday night, they pulled off their best performance of the young season. The defense came up with multiple key stops, which included picking off Jordan Love twice in the fourth quarter to help seal the win for Las Vegas. The two defensive stars for the Raiders were Maxx Crosby and Robert Spillane. Crosby picked up one sack and FOUR tackles for a loss on a night where he manhandled the Packers offensive line. As for Spillane, he came up with two of the Raiders' three interceptions. Offensively, the Raiders weren't flashy, but in the end, they managed to make just enough big plays to get the win. At 2-3 and with a favorable schedule coming up, don't write off the Raiders just yet.
Raiders note
- Raiders get rare win over Green Bay. The Raiders win on Monday night marked their first win over the Packers in 36 years. The last time it happened came in 1987 when Marcus Allen ran for 136 yards and a touchdown in a 20-0 win. Following that victory, the Raiders lost eight straight to the Packers before winning last night.
If you want to check out more of our takeaways from the game, be sure to click here.
3. Prisco's Power Rankings heading into Week 6
For the third straight week, Pete Prisco has the same three teams at the top of his Power Rankings, but that's about the only thing that stayed the same. There was total chaos in Prisco's Power Rankings this week and I'm here to walk you through it.
First, here's a look at Prisco's top five teams heading into Week 6:
- 49ers (Same as last week)
- Eagles (Same as last week)
- Chiefs (Same as last week)
- Dolphins (Moved up three spots from last week)
- Lions (Moved up four spots from last week)
I'm not going to spoil the rest of the Power Rankings here, but I am going to give you a few nuggets. Here's what has changed since Prisco's last Power Rankings:
- The biggest jump this week went to the Atlanta Falcons, which means Prisco is finally on the A-train. Following their 21-19 win over the Texans, the Falcons jumped up eight spots from 22nd to 14th. The Bears also jumped up eight spots following their win over the Commanders. For picking up their first win of the season, Prisco rewarded the Bears by moving them from 32nd to 24th.
- In the AFC, the biggest jump went to the Indianapolis Colts. Although Anthony Richardson might miss a few weeks, Prisco is clearly a fan of all the Minshew Magic in Indy. With Gardner Minshew playing most of the game, the Colts beat the Titans in Week 5 and Prisco rewarded them by moving them up from 20th to 13th.
- The biggest tumble in this week's rankings went to the Packers. Following their Monday night loss to the Raiders, Prisco decided to drop them 12 spots, which might be a Power Rankings record. The Packers fell from 11th all the way down to 23rd.
- Now, let's talk about the worst team in the NFL. For the past three weeks, the Bears were ranked dead last in the NFL, but they moved out of the cellar after picking up their first win of the season. The new last-place team also happens to be the NFL's only winless team: the Carolina Panthers.
If you want to know where your favorite team ended up in Prisco's Week 6 Power Rankings, be sure to click here. If you want to argue with Prisco over his rankings, you can do that on Twitter by clicking here. I argue with him all the time about everything.
4. Breech's Week 6 picks: Bengals beat 3-1 Seahawks
It's Tuesday, which can only mean one thing around these parts: It's time for my weekly picks.
This is the part of the newsletter where I give you three picks for the upcoming week, although you might not want to read my picks this week considering how bad I was in Week 5. Remember when the Cowboys lost 42-10? Well, I picked them to win. That's just a small sample of how far things went south for me last week.
With that in mind, here are three of my picks for Week 6. Let's hope things go better than last week:
- San Francisco (5-0) at Cleveland (2-2): Although the Browns have one of the best defenses in the NFL, I'm not sure that's going to be enough to keep them in the game against the 49ers, who have scored at least 30 points in every game they've played this season. Also, Kyle Shanahan spent one season in Cleveland and I'm pretty sure he hated it, so I feel like he's going to be pretty hellbent on beating the Browns this week. PICK: 49ers 31-20 over Browns
- Seattle (3-1) at Cincinnati (2-3): Joe Burrow is finally starting to look like Joe Burrow again, which isn't good news for a Seahawks defense that is surrendering 280 passing yards per game, which is the third-worst number in the NFL. Burrow might throw for 500 yards. PICK: Bengals 30-27 over Seahawks
- Baltimore (3-2) vs. Tennessee (2-3) in London: I'm 0-5 picking Titans games this season and I've completely psyched myself out trying to figure this team out. Since the opposite of what I predict always seems to happen when the Titans play, I've decided to take that into account and I'm going to predict the opposite of what I think is going to happen. PICK: Titans 19-16 over Ravens
To check out the rest of my picks for Week 6, be sure to click here.
5. NFL trade deadline: Seven players could be on the trading block
Although it feels like the season just started, the NFL trade deadline is already around the corner. This year's deadline should be extra spicy and that's because it falls on Halloween. With the deadline exactly three weeks away, we thought we'd take a look at some players who might be on the trading block between now and then.
Cody Benjamin came up with a list of seven players who could be on the trading block and we're going to take a look at three of them below:
- Vikings QB Kirk Cousins. "He has final say over any potential deal thanks to a no-trade clause, and odds are, even if the Vikings found a deal they liked, he wouldn't sign off on starting over in a new system midseason. But everything else suggests a relocation makes sense; Minnesota is in an admitted 'competitive rebuild,' sputtering amid a 1-4 start, and Cousins is scheduled to hit free agency after the season anyway."
- Titans RB Derrick Henry. "Henry's long been the heart and soul of the Titans' old-school offense, but he's pricey, aging for the position (30 in January) and already averaged fewer than four yards per carry in three of Tennessee's five games so far. On an expiring deal, with the much speedier Tyjae Spears in tow as a playmaker of the future, there's little reason for the Titans not to think about trading him away."
- Broncos WR Courtland Sutton. "Coach Sean Payton downplayed the speculated availability of both Sutton and fellow WR Jerry Jeudy prior to the 2023 season, but now that Denver is an ugly 1-4, with Randy Gregory already unloaded and a full-on seller's mentality potentially setting in, all bets are off."
If you want to check out all seven players on the list, be sure to check out Cody's full story here.
6. Extra points: Justin Jefferson headed to IR
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Justin Jefferson to miss at least four games. The Vikings star is expected to be placed on injured reserve this week, which means he'll have to miss at least four games. Jefferson, who injured his hamstring on Sunday, will miss games against the Bears, 49ers, Packers and Falcons. He won't be eligible to return until Week 10 at the earliest, which is a Nov. 12 game against the Saints.
- De'Von Achane also likely to miss multiple games. The Dolphins speedy running back could also be headed for injured reserve. Although the team hasn't made a final decision on that, we do know that Achane will likely miss several weeks with a knee injury that he suffered Sunday. If Achane does get placed on injured reserve, he'd actually get five weeks to heal. The Dolphins play the Panthers, Eagles, Patriots and Chiefs over the next four weeks before getting a bye in Week 10.
- James Conner expected to miss multiple games. The injuries are piling up this week with Conner now also expected to miss multiple games. According to ESPN.com, Conner will definitely miss multiple weeks and he could end up being placed on injured reserve after suffering a knee injury against the Bengals.
- Anthony Richardson out for Week 6, could end up on IR. The Colts rookie QB is dealing with a shoulder injury that will definitely keep him from playing this week against the Jaguars. Colts coach Shane Steichen isn't sure how long Richardson will be out, but he did say that his QB will "miss some time." Injured reserve is still an option for Richardson and if that happens, he'll be out until at least mid-November. While Richardson is out, the Colts will turn to Gardner Minshew at QB.
- Josh Norman signs with Bills. The former All-Pro corner signed with the Bills practice squad this week. The team is turning to the 35-year-old because they're getting desperate after suffering a rash of injuries this week. This marks Norman's second stint with the team after spending the 2021 season in Buffalo.
