Thursday Night Football picks and live discussion: Chargers at Chiefs

We got a quality game tonight on Thursday Night Football. An AFC West battle as the Kansas City Chiefs welcome the San Diego Chargers. Justin Herbert vs. Patrick Mahomes. Nice.

As we do each week, a few of the BTB staffers made picks using Tallysight and odds courtesy of our friends at DraftKings.

This is an open thread for game chat.

Here are our picks and reasons.

Dave Halprin - The Chiefs are at home, they looked really good in Week 1, and Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes. Take the Chiefs.

RJ Ochoa - It felt like the whole world forgot that the Kansas City Chiefs existed over the offense in favor of showing love to the Los Angeles Chargers. I’m not going to deny that LA has a great quarterback, fun offense, and that the story of them taking over in the AFC West would be fun; however, this division belongs to the Chiefs for a reason and that reason is Patrick Mahomes.

Last week showed what it’s like when an NFL team takes a piece away but re-stocks the shelves. Mahomes and his weapons (both the ones of old and new) look as unstoppable as ever.

Brian Martin: Patrick Mahomes, need I say more? Justin Herbert may be one of the NFL’s next young, up-and-coming QBs, with a talented roster to back him, but he’s not in Mahomes’ league just yet. While this game has all the makings of becoming a shootout, Kansas City still has the advantage despite playing on the road because of their super talented signal caller.

David Howman - Patrick Mahomes didn’t seem to miss Tyreek Hill at all last week, and if anything he looked better than ever while playing against a defense that was 6th in DVOA just last year. The Chargers, meanwhile, looked to still have some problems moving the chains last week. That hurt them a lot last year in big games, and I don’t like their odds of figuring it out on a short week against a red hot Mahomes in Arrowhead.

Matt Holleran - Justin Herbert is a rising star, but you don’t get rich betting against Patrick Mahomes. The former MVP looked as good as we’ve seen him last Sunday against Arizona, and I see him continuing that trend on Thursday night. In a high scoring shootout Mahomes makes one more play than Herbert and leads the Chiefs to a win.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.