Monday Night Football Top Sports Betting Picks and Predictions for New Orleans Saints vs. Kansas City Chiefs

New Orleans will try to make it two games in a row when they hit the road on Monday night to face the Kansas City Chiefs.

However, injuries to the team on both sides of the ball could have a major impact on the Saints’ ability to come out victorious.

The Chiefs’ injuries are mainly in the area where the players are, but the team should have enough depth to overcome those problems.

What is surprising is that the Chiefs are at the top with 5.5 points after opening with 8. Did the market get it completely wrong with this linear movement? Let’s take a look.

There is no need to panic in the Chiefs

There was a time when the Chiefs were just winning games under their coach, Andy Reid, but did not close this point.

It hasn’t been of late, as Kansas City has won its last 10 games (regular season and playoffs) while covering the spread in nine of them.

Kansas City has won the last two Super Bowls despite not having an impressive game at the receiving end. This offense is still very active even with Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown on the injury scene.

Even if you look at its current depth chart, names like Xavier Worthy, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Justin Watson can still get the job done.

While Worthy is still a rookie, there is reason for the Chiefs to trade up to get the former Texas Longhorn in the 2024 NFL Draft.

One of the strengths of Chiefs linebacker Patrick Mahomes is his ability to build relationships with players who find him quickly. Last week, when Rice went down with a knee injury, Worthy stepped up and had the best game of his rookie campaign with 73 yards and three touchdowns.

Tight end Travis Kelce also had season highs in receptions (seven), targets (nine) and receiving yards (89).

If you take away Mahomes’ weapons, he’ll just find new ones and spread the ball around a lot.

As for Watson, he has been with the Chiefs for the past three seasons, while Smith-Schuster was on the 2022 team that won the Super Bowl. Therefore, Mahomes is already familiar with those receivers and will not hesitate to throw the ball to them if the right situation presents itself.

Focus on Derek Carr as injuries pile up

Saints fans had plenty of reasons to be excited heading into Week 3 after watching their team put up 40 points in back-to-back games to start the season.

However, the situation is completely different after two straight losses, dropping their record to .500.

The reality is that those two wins came against New Orleans’ perfect opponents: a Panthers offense that couldn’t move the ball and a Cowboys defense that couldn’t stop the run.

New Orleans quarterback Derek Carr only averaged 19.5 pass attempts in that win, and Week 4 marked the first time he threw more than 30 passes this season.

It’s almost as if the Saints can avoid Carr playing a much bigger role, they’ll take it. Unfortunately, he may be called into action early and often on Monday nights.

New Orleans will be without two players who will start the game in the back, Pete Werner and Willie Gay, when they face the Chiefs. On offense, starting center Shane Lemieux and right guard Cesar Ruiz are also out.

The effect of the linebackers coming out would create a bad situation trying to block Kelce in the middle of the field.

Losing two linemen will also hurt the Saints’ pass protection and Alvin Kamara’s ability to run the ball.

You need a special type of quarterback to overcome these injuries, and I expect the job will be too much for Carr to handle.

Best bet: Chiefs -5 (-110 at ESPN Bet)