Week Eight was incredibly exciting to be a RedZone subscriber. Scott Hanson was in his bag with the touchdowns and wild goose chases consecutive to the strip sacks and punt-return TDs.  

It's hard to believe, but the season is nearing it's halfway point. We have a better picture now of the contenders and pretenders as well as a better understanding of what players will make impacts on a week to week basis. With that as a backdrop, here's a sampling of our Best Bets for the Sunday slate in week 8. As always, check out the Best Bets tab in the app for all of our picks.

It's not the greatest slate this week, but some games may pique your interest.

It's a West Coast matchup on Thursday Night Football with Minnesota traveling to LA to take on the Rams. No team has won a game this season after facing the Lions, so the Vikings will try to buck that trend on a short week. We expect both teams to try to move the ball through the air and it could be a high scoring affair as Kevin O'Connell faces his former mentor Sean McVay. Here's the picks we're going with:

With the loss to the Lions this past weekend, the Chiefs are now the sole undefeated team in the NFL. Minnesota will travel west on a short week to play the Rams, who are trudging through the season. LA is a dangerous team and can play well, especially at home.

We're starting to see the cream rise to the top on the offensive side of the ball as 8 of our 14 All-Threat performers have appeared on teams previously this year. We continue to see a trend of strong running back performance in 2024 and two of the best highlight this week's First Team.

As always in the NFL, week 7 was highlighted by a lot of key defensive plays that either turned the tide or sealed the game for their teams. It just so happens that many of our All-Havoc defenders this week were at the center of those plays. Here's the All-Havoc defenders for week 7.

The 2018 Chiefs might have broken football for a couple of years. The spread offense and RPOs finally came to the NFL. And when that got put into the hands of one of the most creative play-callers of all-time with what we now know to be a generational quarterback, you got one of the greatest offensive seasons of all-time. 5,100 yards and 50 TDs from Mahomes (in a 16-game season, mind you). 1,500 yards and 12 Touchdowns from Tyreek Hill. Another 1,400 yards and 10 TDs from a young, pre-Taylor Swift Travis Kelce.

This week had the best matchups of any week so far in 2024. There was a Super Bowl rematch with both quarterbacks looking irrelevant for large parts of the game. The Vikings and Lions lived up to all the hype built up over the previous six weeks. Even Sunday Night Football, despite being led by 2014’s MVP candidates, was pretty fun with George Pickens finally flashing a smile with Russell Wilson, of all people, prevailing.

As we enter Sunday, the fact that a super bowl rematch might not be the best game of the week tells you all you need to know about the games this Sunday. The early window and late window are both highlighted by huge tilts. At 1ET, Detroit will go to Minnesota in a marquee matchup atop the NFC North. Then at 4:25 ET, it's the aforementioned Super Bowl rematch as the Chiefs travel to face the San Francisco 49ers. We have picks from both games and more. As a reminder, to see all of our Best Bets, check out the Best Bets tab in the App. Here is a smattering of what we like on Sunday:

Texans vs. Packers

Week 7 is underway and after our only two undefeated teams going on bye last week, they are both in action in marquee matchups this week. The 5-0 Vikings will take on the division rival Lions in Minnesota. The 5-0 Chiefs travel to San Francisco for a Super Bowl rematch with the 49ers. All of that is very exciting, but none of it happens on Thursday night. We'll have to settle for rookie Bo Nix and the Broncos going to New Orleans to take on their current rookie signal caller Spencer Rattler. We've got a couple of plays for you to get week 7 kicked off right:

Denver is coming off a four-game stretch that saw them go 3-1, with the most recent loss coming at the hands of division rival the LA Chargers. During that three-game win streak, the Broncos have leaned heavily on their defense, and each loss has been by a touchdown or less.

As our All-Havoc teams unveil each week, we continue to see a lot of new faces make the cut. It's a testament to how many talented players there are on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL. This week only T.J. Watt and Germaine Pratt made the first team after having been included in the previous 5 weeks. Marlon Humphrey and Bobby Wagner are also making repeat appearances, but we're on the 2nd team this week. Here's our week 6 All-Havoc team.

The Week 6 All-Threat team was highlighted by some players who performed in losing efforts. It's important to remember that Threat is looking at individual player contributions on a play-by-play basis, and tries to be agnostic of what is going on around them. We also had a couple of backup running backs who got their opportunity this week and jumped straight into All-Threat stardom. When you get your chance, you have to take advantage, and Ray Davis and Sean Tucker did not take that lightly. Without further ado, here are our Week 6 All-Threat teams.

Week 5 in the NFL got us into our “New Normal,” where teams like the Commanders and Falcons are good, and teams like the Browns & Bengals are bad. In Week 6, is it possible that the New Normal is just…boring?

Week Six was strange with the second week of byes kicking in. Most wins were pretty predictable but showed some portion of a team’s identity or circumstance that could be pivotal for the rest of the year.

It's another long day of NFL football with games from dawn until dusk and a lot of good matchups on the docket. Here's a smattering of the plays we like this Sunday. For all of our picks go into the Best Bets tab at the bottom of the app and see all of our plays for free.

Here are the games to watch from this weekend's NFL slate.

On Thursday Night with a divisional matchup, you can usually count on some of the familiarity between the teams to dictate the action. But with a whole new coaching staff in Seattle, it will be interesting to see what Mike McDonald has in store for this 49ers attack. It also bears watching what Ryan Grubb tries to do against the Nick Sorenson, 49ers defense. Here are the picks we like tonight:

The 49ers have won five straight against the Seahawks, dating back to September 2022. However, both teams have been inconsistent and struggling with injury issues. Both teams have inexplicable losses and wins versus teams they should beat.

The All-Threat Team in Week 5 was highlighted by some unfamiliar names at the running back position, at least in terms of being highlighted on lists like this. Then, on the receiver side, it was some of the usual suspects for the most part. There were a lot of elite offensive performances in Week 5, but here's the guys that stood out above the rest.

Week 5 was not a banner week for defenses across the league as scoring went back up in a lot of games. However, there were still plenty of impact plays to be made and strong defensive performances by individuals. This week was marked by a lot of new faces on the All-Havoc team with only Xavier McKinney and Riley Moss having appeared on one of the teams earlier in the season. Here's a look at our All-Havoc 1st and 2nd teams for the NFL week 5:

If Week 4 in the NFL was about getting back to normal, let’s call Week 5 the 'New Normal' as we officially settle in to the NFL season. Why 'NEW' normal? Because some things are what we all expected – The Chiefs are still the Chiefs (albeit with guys that are 2-3 years past their prime), Lamar Jackson is still Lamar Jackson (but maybe even better with Derrick Henry as Robin to his Batman), at this point we get it – the Vikings are real contenders.

The fifth week of the season was the most entertaining by far which led me to a few conclusions: 

The Chiefs and the Saints square off on Monday Night Football in an inter-conference showdown. Just a couple of short weeks ago, the Saints looked like world-beaters, but after two straight losses, they are trying to regain their footing and re-establish themselves as contenders in the NFC South. The Chiefs, on the other hand, are 4-0, but you wouldn't be able to tell it by the sentiment around the team. They have lost 3 of their top playmakers early in the season, in Hollywood Brown, Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice and it's left people wondering where the offense will come from. Despite all that, they continue to win. Will it continue on Monday Night? Here are our top 3 picks for the game.

After a full day of football. There's nothing like sitting down to watch two of the most iconic franchises in the sport try to prove there mettle in a showdown against each other. For the Steelers, expectations are always there but no one quite knows what to make of the QB situation. Justin Fields has played well enough to lead them to a 3-1 record so far, but will he be the long term answer? For the Cowboys, 12 wins has been the norm the last few seasons with playoff disappointments to follow. There's some questions this year, however, as to whether they'll keep it together long enough to reach the playoffs and provide that disappointment. Let's take a look at what we like in this matchup:

Here are the games to watch from this weekend's NFL slate.

Thursday is here and that means another crack at an NFL Matchup. This edition gives us a divisional rivalry as the Bucs go into Atlanta to take on the Falcons. Short weeks can always cause for some interesting outcomes, but there are some strong signals in this one that give us confidence in a few plays. We've got 3 for you tonight:

Four weeks of the NFL Season are in the books and it's time to evaluate performance. Scott detailed it in his week 4 takeaways article, but the first four weeks of the NFL season increasingly feel like pre-season. Teams are feeling things out and players are getting into the groove of the season and it makes for some interesting outcomes. It's about this time that we can start to see what teams really are and aren't, but nevertheless, 4 games is nearly a quarter of the season and the results count, so let's take a look at some of the top performers of the season so far:

The NFC South is wide open, and the first round of the top two contenders takes place this Thursday. Initially, the Saints looked to be world beaters, railing off two consecutive victories over the Panthers and Cowboys that saw them score over 40 points in both matchups. Then reality set in as New Orleans lost to the Eagles and Falcons in consecutive weeks. The Falcons will enter the game with the Buccaneers holding a 1-0 record in the division and home-field advantage.

Week 4 saw some breakout performances on the offensive side of the ball. The usual suspects were there, but a few guys cracked the All-Threat team for the first and we're hoping not the only time all season. Others, like our tight ends Travis Kelce and George Kittle are cracking the list for the first time and we expect to see them again. Nico Collins stands out above all others as the only player to make one of the All-Threat teams 3 out of the first 4 weeks.

Week 4 was highlighted by a lot of games that got out of hand early. In some cases, the trailing team came back from the dead to make it interesting. In other cases, they did not. Not all of these defensive players were on the right side of those scores, but they all put up outstanding individual performances in week 4. Kerby Joseph and Fred Warner makes their 2nd All-Havoc appearances this week, both on the first team. The entire second team is new comers to the lists this season.

We will remember Week 4 was the weekend the NFL returned to normal, which, maybe that’s what we should have expected. No one plays in preseason anymore, so perhaps the new normal (especially when we go to an 18-game season) is that players, coaches and teams will just use the first three weeks as a warm-up, and fans will just have to buckle up and wonder what the hell happened…