Falcons benching Marcus Mariota for rookie plus ranking NFLs top-five MVP candidates and Rams-Raider

Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!The NFC South already has the craziest division race in the NFL this season, and now it's going to get even crazier because the second-place team in the division (Atlanta) has decided to Darrell Green Jersey bench its starting quarterback (). As you probably figured, the biggest winner here is , who now gets to face two rookie quarterbacks ( and ) over the final five weeks of the season. Tom Brady is always the winner.We'll be covering more on the ' QB switch in today's newsletter, plus we'll be previewing tonight's game between the and . Also, we'll be taking a look at the top-five MVP candidates, so let's get to the rundown.As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the Pick Six newsletter. To get your friends to sign up, all you have to do iswith them.Tonight's game is being played in Los Angeles, which I'm only telling you about because it's hard to keep track of where these two teams play each other. This will be the third different city these two teams have met in over their past three meetings, joining St. Louis (2014) and Oakland (2018). This is a huge game for the Raiders, who could . My good buddy Jared Dubin wrote our deep-dive preview for this game here at CBSSports.com, and here's how he sees the game playing out:Why the Raiders can win:The Raiders have two of the most productive offensive players in the NFL right now in and , and they'll be going up against a depleted Rams defense that will be without multiple starters, including , outside linebacker and cornerback Jr.. With the Rams hurting, the Raiders offense should be able to light up the scoreboard, and if that happens, they'll almost certainly win because the Rams don't have the offensive firepower to keep up.Why the Rams can win:The Rams are mi sing nearly offensive weapon on their roster, including , , -- and they could be down to their third-string QB. Actually, they might be down lower than that: There's a chance that a guy they just added to the roster two days ago () . If Mayfield plays, it will be very interesting to see how he does running Sean McVay's offense. Even with Mayfield, though, the Rams' best -- and po sibly only -- chance to win is to get the run game going. They totaled a season-high 171 yards against the last week and that was almost enough for them to pull off the upset. The Raiders haven't been great against the run, and if the Rams get going on the ground, they might have a shot of winning. On the other side of the ball, the Rams will also need to shut down Davante Adams.You can get .If you're thinking about betting on the game, Jordan Dajani put together a full gambling preview (odds via Caesars Sportsbook). You can, but if you don't feel like clicking over, here's one prop from both of us for tonight's game.ONE PROP JORDAN LIKES: OVER 1.5 TD pa ses (-117):ONE PROP I LIKE: OVER 7.5 points (-119):The Raiders love using Carlson, so he tends to rack up quite a few points every week. Carlson has gone over 7.5 in three straight games and nine of the Raiders' past 11 games overall. Carlson has averaged 8.3 points per game on the season, and that includes a Raiders shutout lo s to the in Week 8 that slightly weighs down his average.Finally, if you're wondering who we're picking, here's who we have tonight in a game where the Raiders are 6.5-point road favorites: Dubin's pick:Raiders 26-10 over RamsJordan's pick:Raiders 23-13 over RamsMy pick:Raiders 30-20 over RamsOver, our experts have unanimously agreed that Saahdiq Charles Jersey the Raiders are going to win.When it comes to making the playoffs, things might seem pretty bleak for the Raiders right now, , Kyle Allen Jersey and Brock Purdy. Here's everything you need to know about the situation:Why bench Mariota now? The Falcons have a Week 14 bye, which means Ridder will get a full week of running the first-team offense in practice before making the first start of his career against the Saints in Week 15.Arthur Smith changes his mind. As recently as Week 12, it that Smith was going to stick with Mariota as long as the Falcons were in playoff contention. At 5-8, the Falcons are still in contention, just 1.5 games behind the for first place in the NFC South. Although Smith was planning to stick with Mariota, he may have changed his mind after watching Atlanta's last two games. In Week 12, Mariota threw an interception at Washington's four-yard line in the final minute of a 19-13 lo s. In Week 13, Mariota threw an interception in the final 40 seconds of a 19-16 lo s to the Steelers.Smith is making the right move. Mariota kept the driver's seat warm, but the bottom line is that he's not the future of the franchise. If he had played better this year, the Falcons could be leading the NFC South right now, but he's had an up-and-down season. By turning the offense over to Ridder now, the Falcons will get to see what they have in their rookie QB in games that MATTER. If the Buccaneers lose to the 49ers on Sunday, the Falcons will only be one game out of first place with four weeks to play. Not to mention, they still have one game left against the Bucs, so if Ridder shines, he could certainly throw a wrench into the division title race.Ridder finished is college career with 44 wins, which is the third-most by a QB in FBS history. He also was the first QB to lead a Group of 5 team to the College Football Playoff.For more on the Falcons' decision, . It's been more than 10 years since we've had a wide open race Clinton Portis Jersey for MVP, Cowboys star Micah Parsons said Odell told him that it would before he's ready to play. The Cowboys once seemed excited to sign him, but that enthusiasm has waned over the past couple of days. out for the season. The Bills defense took a major hit Wednesday after Miller . When the injury originally happened on Thanksgiving, the Bills thought Miller would only be out a few weeks with a meniscus injury, but doctors discovered that the ACL was torn after going in for surgery. gets his job back.After letting start for the past two weeks, the have decided to give the starting QB job back to Davis Mills for this week's Washington Commanders Jersey game against the Cowboys. Mills went 1-8-1 this season before being benched heading into Week 12. The Texans are a huge underdog this week, which brings us to our next topic. Cowboys are historically big favorites over Texans.The Cowboys are favored by a whopping 16.5 points over the Texans, which is the second-most points the Cowboys have been favored by in a game over the past 25 years. The only larger point spread came in 2019 when they were favored by 22 over the Dolphins. The Cowboys covered in that game, winning 31-6.
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