Unfortunately, the game of the week on Thursday Night Football has quite a few players already ruled out including San Francisco’s QB Brock Purdy, WR Ricky Pearsall and WR Jauan Jennings. The Dillon Gabriel-led Cleveland Browns head to London to take on the Minnesota Vikings, who are coming off a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Ireland. If backup QB Carson Wentz can’t get a win in his homeland, I’m not sure he’s going to win them many games.Two underrated storylines are the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers each hosting a cross-conference opponent while hoping to avoid dreaded 0-5 starts. Injuries are starting to mount across the league as New York Giants WR Malik Nabers tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. The G-men and QB Jaxson Dart travel to New Orleans in a game with major tanking implications. The Baltimore Ravens will start QB Cooper Rush in place of former MVP QB Lamar Jackson as the Houston Texans come to town looking for consecutive wins. The 3-1 NFC battle between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks has early playoff seeding implications. The banged-up Washington Commanders are set to get QB Jayden Daniels back after a two-game absence. Swifties all around the world are set to rejoice tomorrow evening as Billionaire Taylor Swift releases her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. Good news for non-Chiefs fans, she will be on a media tour in New York promoting the album rather than in a Florida suite attending a pivotal AFC matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night.

The SuperContest Picks & Why:(Vikings -3.5 vs Browns [London])I’m not the biggest fan of using London games in my SuperContest picks, but this is a special exception. Minnesota is fresh off a game in Ireland, just 288 miles away, less than half the distance between Cleveland and Minneapolis. Meanwhile, the Browns are sending rookie QB Dillon Gabriel into Vikings’ DC Brian Flores‘ disguise-heavy defense overseas. His defense ranks 2nd in the NFC in points allowed.

Miami just lost

which changes the way teams defend them.

will need to step up in a major way. He’s thrown a fourth quarter interception in each of the team’s three losses. It sounds like I should take the Panthers here, but I think Miami can rally around Hill’s injury and Carolina is just not a very good football team. They rank 6th-worst in the NFL in opponent yards per carry.

was 1-yard short of 100 yards rushing a week ago; He could top it this week.

This feels like a game that will set the course of both these team’s season. Indianapolis is fresh off its first loss of the season against the Los Angeles Rams. The Raiders haven’t won a game in nearly a month and saw one slip away against the Chicago Bears last week. I like what I’ve seen from Colts

and rookie

. Las Vegas is giving up 15 yards per reception to opposing tight ends.

Right now, the Detroit Lions are the best team in the NFC. Since their opening week loss to the Green Bay Packers,

and the Lions are a perfect 3-0 with a 21-point average margin of victory. This also marks the return home for

, who grew up a Cincinnati Bengals fan. He said on Kay Adams’ show, Up & Adams, that he has a ton of family coming to the game and it will be special.

I don’t think

and

are going to be happy after last week’s performance on the east coast. They return home to host

. Backup

led Washington to a 1-1 record with Daniels sidelined the last two games. I think the Chargers come out firing much like they did against Kansas City earlier in the year. The Commanders are giving up more than 14 yards per reception, most in the NFL, nearly two yards more than the Dallas Cowboys.

at Rams

vs Cowboys

at Saints

vs Texans

at Cardinals

vs Bucs

vs Patriots

vs Chiefs

I’ll use these blogs to keep track of my 2025 picks. Best of luck to all those using these or fading me. FOOTBALL. IS. BACK.

Disclaimer: I’m not the best pick-maker the word has ever seen, but I do have a winning record over the 2023 & 2024 seasons of 261-227-15. If we remove all ties/pushes, that’s a 53.5% win rate. That’s certainly better than having a losing record. Now for the pick format, the SuperContest consists of any 5 games in a given week. The SuperContest games will have a *

I will not be picking any Broncos games this year as another FYI.