2019 Week 17 NFL Picks

December 28, 2019

By the Football Garbage Time Staff

If you followed last year, you won over 60% of your picks, and we aim to do even better this year.

And if you’ve been following us, you know that we here at Football Garbage Time have gone head to head against Wally, Will and Ray at Urban Sports Scene on our NFL Picks for the last 4 seasons. Why? Because they’re awesome competitors, they KNOW their sports, and, heck, they’re just good guys! This year we’ll have their picks up right HERE, so keep it tuned in, to both us and them, because we’ll be picking all season all long.

Without further to do, here we go:

Week 17 Games

Ha Kung Wong’s Picks

Ha Kung’s Thoughts:

UPDATE: With the Bills sitting essentially all their starters, I’m switching my pick to the Jets.

Last year I ended up with a 66% record for the season, so that’s four years in a row with over a 60% pick rate. I had a decent week 16, going 11-5, leaving me in 2nd place and only three picks off 1st with a 155-84 record (64.9%).

Plus, I had a 94% record on Locks of the Week last year. This year, I’m 14-2 (87.5%) for Locks of the Week, and I’m now 10-6 (62.5%) on Upsets of the Week.

Let’s get to that Lock and Upset for Week 17…

Lock of the Week => New Orleans Saints (-10.0) over Carolina Panthers

Well, I was running this column Eliminator style and NOT picking a team that I previously picked as a Lock through Week 13, but I finally picked wrong so we’re back to the top lock regardless of previous picks, which is the New Orleans Saints over the Carolina Panthers.

Drew Brees actually has the highest completion percentage of any QB in the league (75.3%) and Michael Thomas has the most receptions (145) on the most targets (176) and the most receiving yards (1,688) of any WR in the league, both spearheading the 4th best offense per DVOA in the league. The Saints can end up as the 1st, 2nd or 3rd seed on Sunday, but the only part of that equation they can control is to beat the listless Carolina Panthers, so there will be plenty of motivation to lock this game up. On the other side, we all know that Christian McCaffrey is amazing and is chasing a 1,000-1,000 season, but we already know that DJ Moore is out due to injury and that Will Grier does not look good. Carolina now has the 27th ranked offense and the 26th ranked defense per DVOA, and stand little chance to upset the Saints in a must-win scenario. Lock it in.

Upset of the Week => Chicago Bears (+1.0) over Minnesota Vikings

It’s not that I have a ton of faith in the Bears, but we already know that the Vikings are likely sitting most of their starters, including Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook since they’re locked in to the 6 seed.

The Vikings are planning to treat Sunday’s game as a mini bye. Plan is for Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks and other starters not to play, according to a source. The Vikings are the No. 6 seed in NFC playoffs regardless of outcome.@CourtneyRCronin had the news first.

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) December 27, 2019

The Bears defense haven’t been nearly as good as they were in 2018, but they’re still 9th in terms of DVOA, and shouldn’t have too much issue holding Sean Mannion, Mike Boone and Ameer Abdullah. In Mannion’s one and only start back in 2017 for the Rams against the 49ers, he completed 20 of 34 passes for 169 yards and 0 TDs and 0 INTs. Nothing to write home about folks, and who knows how long Diggs and Thielen will stay in the game. Bears should have some minor motivation end their season at 8 and 8, so I think they play well enough to beat the Vikings backups.

Joanne Kong’s Picks

Scott King’s Picks

Scott’s Thoughts:

Final regular season week. Always a tough one to pick games. Keep grinding, happy new year.

Wally’s Picks

Wally’s Thoughts:

Check out Wally’s thoughts on the Urban Sports Scene Podcast!

Ray’s Picks

Ray’s Thoughts:

Check out Ray’s thoughts on the Urban Sports Scene Podcast!

George’s Picks

George’s Thoughts:

For the final regular-season of the week let’s focus on the outstanding issues.

1. Patriots will beat the Dolphins to grab the 2 seed. Chiefs will do likewise to the Chargers to claim the third seed.

2. Eagles will survive a shootout in New York to take the NFC East.

3. Green Bay wins and gets a bye

4. San Francisco wins in Seattle to get home-field advantage
And the big surprise

5. The Raiders win in Denver and get every circumstance needed (Baltimore beats Pittsburgh, Houston beats Tennessee and Indianapolis beats Jacksonville) to claim a miraculous playoff berth.