Thursday Night Football, Week 16 NFL Betting Picks: Los Angeles Rams vs. New Orleans Saints, Dec. 21

Thursday Night Football, Week 16 NFL Betting Picks: Los Angeles Rams vs. New Orleans Saints, Dec. 21

This article is part of our NFL Picks series.

Rams vs. Saints Betting Odds, Picks and Predictions for Thursday Night Football, Week 16

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The NFL kicks off Week 16 with a Thursday Night Football battle between the Rams and Saints. With both teams in the playoff hunt, it is an important matchup. Let's dig into the betting side of things and highlight some wages to consider.

Rams vs. Saints Betting Odds for Thursday Night Football

Rams: Spread -4 (-108), -198 Moneyline
Saints: Spread +4 (-112), +164 Moneyline
Game Total: 46 points

After missing last week with an ankle injury, Chris Olave will make his return for the Saints. The Rams are also in good shape with no notable offensive skill players on their injury report.

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Rams vs. Saints Betting Picks This Week

The Rams quickly moved on from Cam Akers, making Kyren Williams their lead running back earlier in the season. While he has been limited to 10 games because of injury, he already has 953 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns. He has also been involved in the pass game, recording another three scores through the air.

One of the reasons why Williams has been so successful is that he has handled a monster workload. Over the last three games, Williams has recorded at least 21 carries each time. He faced a couple of difficult defenses during that span, too, in the Browns and Ravens. We'll take his yardage total prop out of the equation and just take him to have a busy workload again and go over his rushing attempts prop total.

Rams vs. Saints Best Bet: Kyren Williams over 19.5 rushing attempts (-120 DraftKings Sportsbook) for 1 unit

With the expectation that the Rams run the ball a lot, the Saints' linebackers could rack up tackles in bunches. One of them to focus on is Demario Davis, who already has 102 total tackles for the season. That total has been aided by him recording at least nine total tackles in five of the last seven games. While there is a lot of juice that comes with the over on his total tackles prop, we only need seven of them for it to cash, so it still has the makings of a winning wager.

Rams vs. Saints Best Bet: Demario Davis over 6.5 tackles + assists (-166 DraftKings Sportsbook) for 1 unit

The Saints are 3-4 on the road this season, which isn't terrible. However, a closer look at their opponents doesn't make that record seem as promising. Two of their three road wins came over the Panthers and Patriots, who are two of the worst teams in the league. Their last two road games, they scored a total of 34 points in losses to the Vikings and Falcons.

With the Rams' health situation improving, they are 4-1 over their last five games. Their lone loss was a six-point defeat at the hands of the Ravens in Baltimore. They are a modest 4-3 at home this season, but two of those three losses came against the 49ers and Eagles. Look for Williams and Matthew Stafford to lead the Rams to another win at home, and to cover the spread along the way.

Rams vs. Saints Best Bet: Rams -4 (-108 DraftKings Sportsbook) for 1 unit

Rams vs. Saints Prediction

We've already discussed why we're on the Rams to cover the spread. They are the better team right now and playing the game at home gives them a significant advantage. Stafford has been locked in of late, throwing 12 touchdown passes and just one interception over their last four games. The Saints will be fighting an uphill battle here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Barner
Mike started covering fantasy sports in 2007, joining RotoWire in 2010. In 2018, he was a finalist for the FSWA Basketball Writer of the Year award. Mike also won the 2022-23 FSGA NBA Experts Champions league. In addition to RotoWire, Mike has written for Sportsline, Sports Illustrated, DK Live, RealTime Fantasy Sports, Lineup Lab and KFFL.com.
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