Nick Wright took another swing at NFL preseason Week 1 betting, and this time his clearest play was the Los Angeles Rams over 16.5 points. He made the pick while also laying out tiers for the Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills, a reminder that football today is as much about guessing who plays as it is about picking a side.
That matters because Wright said his earlier preseason bets went one win and two losses, and he admitted he was way off on the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers game after the Packers managed only nine points. He also had the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders over 41.5 and lost when that game finished with 41 points. For a handicapper, that is the kind of week that makes every preseason number feel fragile.
Wright still stuck with the Rams over, even though Matthew Stafford is very unlikely to see any work in the game. Patrick Mahomes will not be out there either, which pushes the focus toward Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson, the quarterbacks expected to handle most of the snaps. He also said he cannot imagine the team will look to run the ball a ton unless they are trying to protect King, underscoring how much of the scoring case rests on backup volume rather than star power.
The other angle in the discussion comes from the Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills, who meet in the Panthers’ second preseason game and the Bills’ first. The Panthers already showed their approach in their opening game, when Haynes King threw 34 times, Kenny Pickett added 11 tosses and the team ran the ball 22 times. If that pattern holds, Bryce Young remains the name to watch, even though Wright and his panel did not settle the question of whether he will play.
That uncertainty is the whole market in Week 1. The Rams are being backed to score without Stafford, the Panthers are entering a different stage of preseason work than the Bills, and the first game in their new stadium adds one more layer to a matchup where workload may matter more than reputation. Wright’s bets now hinge on the same thing that sank his last set: whether the starters stay on the sideline and the backups can still produce enough points to cash the ticket.
