NFL Week 8 Picks: Latest Predictions for Updated Spreads

Each slate of NFL picks comes with plenty of money to be earned by savvy bettors—with plenty to be lost, too.

The Week 8 offerings are no different, as some spreads make a ton of sense, while others are lines to simply avoid outright. With 15 games to wager on, why blow cash on a risky spread that even Las Vegas itself seems a tad unsure of throughout the week?

Below, let's take a look at the full schedule and then hone in on some spreads to avoid at all costs. It is not that these games will lack in entrainment value, it is that recent trends and how the sides match up make the final outcome so difficult to discern that bettors are wiser to spend hard-earned cash elsewhere.

NFL Week 8 Picks against the Spread

Matchup	Spread	Pick ATS	Reason
San Diego at Denver (Thurs., Oct. 23)	DEN -6.5	DEN	Peyton Manning is on fire, and San Diego's defense is too injured.
Detroit at Atlanta	DET -4	DET	Detroit has one of the NFL's best defenses, which can make up for its offensive struggles.
St. Louis at Kansas City	KC -7	STL	See analysis below.
Houston at Tennessee	HOU -2	HOU	Houston's defense should have no issues with an up-and-down Tennessee offense.
Minnesota at Tampa Bay	TB -2.5	MIN	Tampa Bay is easily the worst team in the league.
Seattle at Carolina	SEA -4.5	SEA	The Seahawks are going to come out angry and take advantage of a weak Carolina defense.
Baltimore at Cincinnati	EVEN	BAL	Cincinnati is a hobbled mess that hardly contained Baltimore in their first meeting.
Miami at Jacksonville	MIA -5	JAC	See analysis below.
Chicago at New England	NE -7.5	NE	Tom Brady is going to have a field day against an injured Chicago defense.
Buffalo at NY Jets	NYJ -2.5	BUF	Actually, New York may be the worst team in the league.
Philadelphia at Arizona	ARI -2.5	PHI	Nick Foles will have few issues against one of the league's worst pass defenses.
Oakland at Cleveland	CLE -7	CLE	The Cleveland offense will get back on track against a reeling Oakland defense.
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh	IND -1.5	IND	No team can contain Andrew Luck but especially not a flag-happy Pittsburgh unit.
Green Bay at New Orleans	NO -1.5	GB	There is no stopping the Green Bay offense—not even in the Dome.
Washington at Dallas (Mon., Oct. 27)	DAL -9	DAL	This will prove yet another ugly prime-time affair as DeMarco Murray rolls.

Odds via Odds Shark as of 5 p.m. ET, Oct. 21. 

Spreads to Avoid 

St. Louis at Kansas City (-7)

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

The St. Louis Rams are that team that will continue to anger bettors the rest of the season.

Jeff Fisher's team is just 2-4, but it has a habit of hanging around in most games and, sometimes, knocking off the defending champs. Of course, that went down last week when the Rams toppled the Seattle Seahawks by two points thanks to some special teams trickery.

The real takeaway, though, is that the Rams seem to have finally found a strong run game thanks to Tre Mason, who took 18 carries for 85 yards and a score. Remember that Mason did his damage against a top-10 run defense, as Sports Illustrated's Doug Farrar points out:

As for Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs, a Week 7 upset of the San Diego Chargers is the highlight of the season to this point, but the team has been anything but consistent.

The Chiefs needed to mount a serious comeback for that win, and while the defense ranks No. 2 overall against the pass, the unit leaves something to be desired against the rush, surrendering an average of 117.7 yards per game.

This one has the look of a low-scoring affair, with Kansas City touting one of the league's best rushing offenses to go against an iffy St. Louis defense. But if the Rams can force quarterback Alex Smith into a one-dimensional attack, the outcome of this game gets rather debatable.

Why take the risk on a bout between a pair of .500 or worse teams in which either offense can catch fire?

Prediction: Chiefs 24, Rams 20

Miami (-5) at Jacksonville

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The Miami Dolphins are the epitome of a .500 team, having looked drastically different on a week-to-week basis, much to the irritation of bettors around the globe. 

Last week was a win in Chicago thanks to a strong pass defense that ranks in the top five thanks to a duo of strong corners in Brent Grimes and Cortland Finnegan. The trouble is, there is no way to tell if it will translate into Week 8 success, too.

Especially against a surging Jacksonville Jaguars team, as strange as that sounds to say. Gus Bradley's team got its first win last week, and things have been steadily improving on a week-to-week basis.

This is something the important folks in the Dolphins organization are well aware of, as captured by ESPN's James Walker: 

Blake Bortles continues to look like a struggling rookie, as he tossed three interceptions last week alone. Like the Rams, though, the Jaguars seem to have finally found a running game now that the role has been given to Denard Robinson, who subsequently turned 22 carries into 127 yards and a score.

On the flip side, Jacksonville held a strong Cleveland Browns rushing attack to 69 yards on 30 carries, or a 2.3 yard-per-carry average.

There is nothing to suggest that this improving Jacksonville defense cannot post a similar performance against a top-five Dolphins rushing attack—the Browns came in at No. 6. That alone is enough to pretend this line does not even exist.

Prediction: Dolphins 27, Jaguars 26

Note: Stats courtesy of NFL.com. Advanced metrics via Pro Football Focus (subscription required).