Thursday Night Football picks and live discussion: Broncos at Chiefs

Tonight’s Thursday Night Football game features an AFC West clash between the visiting Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Broncos have been one of the worst teams in the league this year (1-4), even with Sean Payton as coach. Meanwhile, the Chiefs keep winning (4-1), but don’t seem like the juggernaut on offense they have been in previous years. Still, the game looks like a mismatch.

DraftKings Sportsbook has the Chiefs as 11-point favorites over the Broncos.

This is an open thread for game chat.

Below some of the BTB staff made game picks using Tallysight. Check them out and the explanation for the picks.

Dave Halprin: The only question here is whether the Chiefs will cover the 11-point spread. Kansas City will win the game, but it'll be surprisingly closer than we all think. Take the Broncos to cover the 11-points.

Tom Ryle: It makes zero sense to pick the inept Broncos against the defending Super Bowl champs. Of course, it made no sense to pick the Bears a week ago, or the Raiders over the Packers on Monday. Maybe it’s just me, but football seems especially weird this year. However, I have to go with the Chiefs in this one, by a couple of TDs.

OCC: It’s hard to see how this Thursday Night game is going to be competitive in any way. The Broncos haven’t won a single game against Patrick Mahomes, and their losing streak against the Chiefs dates back even further than Mahomes, all the way back to 2015. And this time they are traveling to Kansas City sporting the league’s worst defense, which is allowing 36.2 points per game or 27.7 if we pretend that 70-point disaster against Miami didn’t happen. The Chiefs in turn could be looking to pad their points differential for an eventual playoff tiebreaker, so they’ll keep the pedal to the metal.

RJ Ochoa: While I recognize this is hardly the week for a victory lap on Mike McCarthy, is there anybody out there who would rather have Sean Payton? The Broncos are a disaster and he has made them into a punchline on top of it. Going up against the best quarterback in the game at Arrowhead with Andy Reid and everyone all there, I’ll take the Chiefs and feel very good about it.

David Howman: The Broncos may very well be the worst team in football despite having won a game already. Which is odd considering Sean Payton swore up and down that last year’s team was the worst coaching job in history. The Chiefs haven’t been world beaters this year but I don’t see how they don’t run away with this one. Give me the Chiefs winning 28-17.

Brian Martin: This Thursday night matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos is between two teams at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Chiefs look to be like a legit Super Bowl contender once again, but on the flipside, the Broncos look as if they’ll be competing for the No. 1 pick (the Caleb Williams sweepstakes) in the 2024 NFL Draft. Give me Kansas City in a blowout

Matt Holleran: This may be the easiest pick of the year. The Broncos are an absolute mess right now and there is no way they are going to go into Kansas City and beat the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes has a big day as the Chiefs roll. Give me Kansas City, 30-17.