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The first week of the 2023-24 NFL season saw some surprise upsets, shootouts, and great games to kick off the season. Now, each team has a week under their belt and will look to improve to 2-0 or avoid going 0-2.
Sportsbooks started releasing lines for Week 2 shortly after the Sunday games concluded, and we've dug into them to find value that you should lock in now before lines move as we get closer to kickoff.
You can see all of our current and historical NFL picks in our Best NFL Bets & Picks Guide. You can also compare NFL lines and odds by sportsbooks here.
Below you'll find our opening line picks for Week 2 of the NFL season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -2.5 vs Chicago Bears – 1 pm ET
Rob O’Connor is a veteran sports handicapper. He broke into the industry in 2002 and has continued to provide high quality sports handicapping advice ever since.
Tampa Bay opened the 2023 season with a surprising win at Minnesota. On the flip side, the Bears lost their home opener to the Green Bay Packers.
The Bears did not look good defensively, allowing 38 points to a Packers team led by the inexperienced Jordan Love, who took over as the starter this year.
The Tampa defense was good last week, especially against the run, allowing just 41 yards. They also forced 3 turnovers by Kirk Cousins—2 fumbles and an interception—while not turning the ball over at all themselves.
Tampa struggled offensively, but that should not be the case against a Bears defense that does not look to have improved at all in the offseason.
On the flip side, the Bears offense had some clear issues. They could not protect Justin Fields, he was sacked 4 times in the game and they could not get much going on the ground with the running backs.
Given the Bears offensive struggles and a strong Tampa defense, the Bears will have trouble keeping up given their defensive woes.
This line opened with the Bears as a small favorite and has quickly moved to Tampa being the favorite. The line has touched -3 in spots, but there are still some -2.5 numbers out there. If you are planning to bet the Bucs grab it now, it likely won’t be under 3 come Sunday afternoon.
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Green Bay Packers -1 at Atlanta Falcons – 1pm ET
Rob O’Connor is a veteran sports handicapper. He broke into the industry in 2002 and has continued to provide high quality sports handicapping advice ever since.
This is another game where the favorite has flipped since the opening number came out. The Falcons opened as a -1 favorite and are now getting a point in their matchup against the Packers.
The Packers looked very good against the Bears in the opener. Jordan Love proved any doubters wrong in Week 1 with a 3-touchdown and turnover-free performance against the Bears.
The Falcons controlled their game on the ground to get by a not-very-good Carolina team in their opener.
Look for the Packers to get pressure on Falcons QB Desmond Ritter and make a concentrated effort to stop the Falcons run, forcing Ritter to make some plays. He probably won’t have a lot of time against a Packers defense that had 4 sacks last week. At the same time, the Falcons allowed 4 sacks last week.
While I don’t expect this line to get up to the key number of -3, I expect the Packers to remain favored come kickoff and the line probably won’t be any better than the -1 it is currently. This is a good matchup for them. Look for them to get the win and cover Sunday afternoon.
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