I am a sentimental person by nature. I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and this mindset is one of the main reasons why I became a writer. In writing, as well as many walks of life, it’s often better to spill your feelings than bottle them up. The subtext can do the talking, but there’s no use in hiding what’s being felt.
I always feel the same way when I start writing my first picks article of a season.
I’m giddy but melancholy.
There’s that burst of excitement that comes with the list of games and their spreads and projections and storylines and trends and the typing and the pulling together of ideas and…
Then there’s the realization that I am lucky enough to get to do this job for another year. That’s where the melancholy comes into play.
I write it every year, and I mean it every year. Thank you for being so dedicated to what I write that I am driven to continue to provide whatever I can. I love doing this, and I know how fortunate I am to have people actually reading my work. Every single year, I feel this way — and, in looking back to previous articles, I tend to start my season with this same type of sentiment. I can’t help it. As I said, I am a sentimental person by nature.
But it’s not just me writing and you reading. The other reason why we feel such a swirl of emotions is because we know this is the start of something. This is the opening of a door where we aren’t scared of what’s behind it. We are welcoming an old friend back into our home.
We are about to embark on another journey through another season of the National Football League.
And we get to do it together.
Thank you for that opportunity.
Let’s go make the most of it.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. Spread is listed as advertised number and odds at either DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, Caesars Sportsbook, or PointsBet. All efforts were made to provide picks at -110 or better, with some stretching to a -125 if no reasonable advertised spread was found.
*Confidence Picks – 2023 Season: —– (Last Week: —)
(2022 Season: 54-54-5) (2021 Season: 55-50) (2020 Season: 53-42-3) (2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (9-Year Total: 518-443-26)
All Picks Against Spread – 2023 Season: —– (Last Week: —)
(2022 Season: 143-132-9) (2021 Season: 158-126-2) (2020 Season: 132-128-7) (2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (9-Year Total: 1264-1108-67)
Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs
There were plenty of options for the National Football League to choose as the Opening Night game — obviously, all of which would have included the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs — but it landed on the matchup with the Detroit Lions as the first competitive game of the year.
Why?
That’s my initial thought, and it’s the one that I can’t shake as I dig through what each team could do on Thursday Night Football. This sport is all about timing, as is the ability to correctly pick against-the-spread. Detroit and Kansas City meeting at the end of September has a different feel and atmosphere than being the two teams tasked with bringing football back into our lives.
We do know — as much as anyone can know anything about the National Football League — that