NFL Week 9 Opening Line Betting Picks

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We went 1-1 on our opening line picks last week after a heart-breaking back-door cover in the Bills/Buccaneers game.

Either way, we're back at it this week with two more opening line picks to make now before the lines move. We've got two favorites that we expect to win easily which isn't currently reflected in the spreads.

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.

Baltimore Ravens -5 vs. Seattle Seahawks – 1 pm ET

The Seahawks were lucky to escape with a win last week against the Browns and now they fly across the country to take on the 6-2 Ravens who have looked really good for the most part to start the 2023 season.

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is having a strong season, having thrown 9 touchdown passes to just 3 interceptions while completing over 70% of his passes.

On the other side, Seahawks QB Geno Smith is struggling to avoid turnovers, with 6 interceptions in just 7 games this season.

The Ravens have the 3rd best pass defense in the league allowing just 176.6 pass yards per game, so things will not be easy for Smith and his receivers.

Across the board, the Ravens are simply a better team both offensively and defensively. The Ravens are 11th in yards per game compared to Seattle at 16th. The Ravens are 2nd in yards allowed per game while Seattle is 17th in yards allowed per game.

This line opened at -4.5 and has even gone to -5.5 in some spots. It would not surprise me to see it close at -6 or higher come game time, so grab the -5 now as the Ravens should roll to another comfortable win and cover Sunday afternoon.

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Cleveland Browns -7.5 vs. Arizona Cardinals – 1 pm

It looks like the Cardinals are not in a rush to bring Kyler Murray back and have given up on the 2023 season with a 1-7 record. Following their loss to the Ravens, instead of announcing that a now-healthy Murray would return at QB, the Cardinals announced rookie QB Clayton Tune would get the chance to start against Cleveland.

This is not an ideal first start on the road against a tough defense. The Browns rank 1st in the league allowing just 260 yards per game.

The Cardinals have tried to rely on the run game to make things easier on the passing game, but that will be tough against a Browns defense that allows under 97 yards per game on the ground.

It would be hard to expect a top effort from the Cardinals in this spot. But don’t expect the Browns to overlook Arizona as they try and rebound from a disappointing 24-20 loss at Seattle last week. The Browns are 4-3 and remain firmly in the playoff mix in the AFC.

Grab them -7.5 now, this line won’t be falling back to the key number of 7, if anything it will go higher come game time.

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Rob O'Connor

Rob O’Connor is a veteran sports handicapper. He broke into the industry in 2002 and has continued to provide his clients with high quality sports handicapping advice ever since. He is currently a handicapper with Rob Veno Sports and prior to that ran his own sports handicapping service. Rob has been featured on ESPN Radio as well as on his hometown sports station WIP out of Philadelphia. Rob O'Connor handicaps the NFL, College Football, College Basketball, and Major League Baseball.