Week 6 NFL Picks: Latest Betting Odds, Vegas Spreads and Projections

With Week 6 inbound, it is clear would-be bettors can start to feel confident in things returning to normal in the NFL. 

A week ago, expected winners like Green Bay and Kansas City came out on top while the opposite rang true for struggle-bus riders like Cleveland and even Chicago, though the debut of rookie Mitchell Trubisky on Monday Night Football offered strong hints at the future for a rebuilding team. 

Fast-forward to Week 6, where oddsmakers have a handful of blowouts on deck for bettors to choose from, which is a nice departure from the seemingly endless close lines to start the season. 

Below, let's look at the opening odds so far and go in-depth on a few of the juicier offerings. 

NFL Week 6 Schedule, Odds

Philadelphia at Carolina (-3)  | O/U 45.5

Chicago at Baltimore (-6.5) | O/U n/a

Cleveland at Houston (-10)  | O/U n/a

Detroit at New Orleans (-4)  | O/U 51

Green Bay at Minnesota  | O/U n/a

Miami at Atlanta (-11)  | O/U 47

New England (-9.5) at N.Y. Jets  | O/U 47.5

San Francisco at Washington (-10)  | O/U 46.5

L.A. Rams at Jacksonville (-2.5)  | O/U n/a

Tampa Bay (-2) at Arizona  | O/U 44.5

L.A. Chargers at Oakland  | O/U n/a

Pittsburgh at Kansas City (-4.5)  | O/U 45.5

N.Y. Giants at Denver (-11.5)  | O/U 40

Indianapolis at Tennessee  | O/U n/a

Bold denotes predicted winner against the spread and over/under projection. 

Philadelphia at Carolina (-3)

Thursday Night Football might have its best offering of the season on deck this week. 

Both the Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers enter the short week with 4-1 records and aspirations of taking down the NFC as a whole. 

Both look the part, too. The Eagles have held two opponents to fewer than 20 points, and the lone loss came on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs by all of seven points. Carson Wentz has a strong presence from LeGarrette Blount in the backfield, a breakout year so far from Nelson Agholor (three touchdowns) and new presences like Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith have dramatically helped with at least a touchdown apiece. 

It's a similar story for Cam Newton and the Panthers. He looks like the NFL's MVP at this point, having totaled 10 touchdowns and involved Ed Dickson and Devin Funchess after Greg Olsen went down, securing back-to-back road wins in New England and Detroit. 

Again, MVP form in the harshest of conditions, as NFL Network helped illustrate: 

Oddsmakers seem to like home-field advantage more than anything else in a situation like this. But Newton should be the bigger focal point for bettors here, as he's hard to prep for on a short week, especially after playing the immobile Carson Palmer a few days earlier. 

Look for Newton to put up a monster game after finally getting to return home. 

Prediction: Panthers 30, Eagles 24

Miami at Atlanta (-11)

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

One of the week's bigger lines looks easy enough. 

The Atlanta Falcons have had a bye week to stew over a home loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 4, which snapped an impressive three-game tear to start the season featuring wins against Green Bay and Detroit. 

By comparison, the Miami Dolphins have been...distracted, both on the field and off. 

These Dolphins didn't get to play in Week 1 thanks to the inclement weather, then needed overtime to slip past the one-win Los Angeles Chargers, 19-17. Jay Cutler and crew followed that up with two losses by a combined total of 40-6 before slipping past a Marcus Mariota-less Tennessee Titans squad, 16-10. 

Translation—things are bad for the Dolphins. Cutler has suffered 10 sacks behind a poor line, and Jay Ajayi hasn't found room on the way to averaging 3.4 yards per carry. 

Things are much more positive in Atlanta, even coming off a loss. Matt Ryan has five touchdowns and interceptions after a slower start than usual, but his running game averages 4.7 yards per tote and his defense held Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford in check. 

The emergence of a running game, in particular, has heads turning in Atlanta, especially with coach Dan Quinn praising new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, according to ESPN.com's Vaughn McClure. 

"The part that I like is the ability to utilize guys in different ways," Quinn said. "I’ve loved seeing the packages where we’ve featured both Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman together, creating opportunities for guys in space to make plays. I’ve been encouraged that we’ve been a really committed running game."

The balance and advantage of both a home game and coming out of a bye week should have the Falcons rolling in this one, making one of the bigger lines of the week a less-than-intimidating hurdle for bettors to leap. 

Prediction: Falcons 35, Dolphins 20

N.Y. Giants at Denver (-11.5) 

Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

It doesn't get much uglier than this. 

What looked like a fun Sunday Night Football showdown before the season is now a yawn-worthy affair, though not from the standpoint of bettors looking to pad a bankroll. 

This one has an ugly outlook thanks to the visiting New York Giants, an 0-5 team averaging less than four yards per carry that has already coughed up 13 sacks of Eli Manning and has only tallied eight sacks while permitting 139 rushing yards and 24.4 points per game. 

Oh, and the injuries. Per NFL Network's Kimberly Jones, Odell Beckham Jr. is lost for the season after undergoing successful ankle surgery. Runningmate Brandon Marshall announced he's undergoing season-ending surgery as well. 

This leaves the Giants with rookie Evan Engram and Roger Lewis as the top options on a struggling attack against a Denver Broncos defense allowing 50.8 rushing yards and 18.5 points per game. 

It's hard to worry about the fact starting quarterback Trevor Siemian has only thrown seven touchdowns against four interceptions—four of those touchdowns coming in one fluke game—when the defense has done the following, per the Denver Post's Nicki Jhabvala: 

The Giants don't have much in the way of wiggle room here. Manning's running game hasn't made headway at all even with Beckham on the field. Backups pegged with taking his place won't have room to operate against an elite secondary, meaning the running game isn't going anywhere. 

Bettors shouldn't expect fireworks here. The Denver duo of C.J. Anderson and Jamaal Charles will feast while dominating the game flow. 

Prediction: Broncos 23, Giants 7

Stats courtesy of NFL.com. Odds according to OddsShark.