Our staff is focused on four of Sunday's biggest games for its NFL predictions in Week 2 on September 14.
First, we'll focus on the AFC East clash between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, which we have two aligned spread picks for. We have another spread pick the NFC North battle between the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions — aka the Ben Johnson game — and an over/under prediction for Broncos vs Colts.
Lastly, we have a Chiefs vs Eagles spread prediction in the marquee game — and Super Bowl rematch — of NFL Week 2.
Let's dive into our experts' NFL predictions for the Week 2 Sunday slate.
NFL Predictions, Week 2 Picks
- Bills vs Jets Spread Picks: Jets +7
- Bears vs Lions Spread Pick: Bears +6.5
- Broncos vs Colts Over/Under Pick: Under 43.5 (-110)
- Eagles vs Chiefs Spread Pick: Chiefs +1.5 (-115)
Bills vs Jets Against the Spread Pick
Jets +7
By Brit Devine
This will probably stay around +6.5 or +7, but I want to make sure I get the +7 while it's around.
The Jets looked great with a concentrated offense of Justin Fields, Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson. Of 62 offensive plays, Hall had 23 opportunities, Wilson had nine targets, and Fields ran the ball 12 times — 70% of the offensive plays went to those three players.
The Jets fumbled a kickoff return (and lost it) while the Steelers recovered both of their fumbles. Chris Boswell hit a 56-yarder and a 60-yarder against them. The Jets were the better team out there in Week 1 and lost.
The Bills, on the other hand, should have lost in Week 1 rather easily, but between bad coaching in the fourth quarter from the Ravens, a late fumble by Derrick Henry, and Josh Allen at QB, the Bills managed to pull it out.
Bills vs Jets much closer than expected — if the Jets can keep getting the ball to their best players, I think they can be live to pull off the outright win.
The Jets offense looked like a completely revived unit in their season debut against one of the best defenses in the league.
Although the Jets could not secure the win, the offense was humming, which is a nice change of pace for their fans.
Justin Fields averaged 0.4 EPA per dropback and 0.33 EPA per rush attempt, having success in just about every play type and situation.
The Bills played on Sunday Night Football and were involved in a dramatic finish with the Ravens.
I am going to take the divisional underdog Jets, who showed promise in their season debut against a historically strong defense, to keep it close in this matchup.
Pick: Jets +7
Bears vs Lions Spread Pick
Bears +6.5
I believe the Bears and Lions are relatively equal on talent, but Chicago has taken steps to get ahead in the trenches and at coaching.
Factoring those two items in, I make Chicago slightly better on both offense and defense, which means only Detroit's notable indoor home-field advantage is really in its favor.
This is great spot to fade the Monday Night Football overreaction with some Week 2 trends:
- Underdogs when both teams are 0-1 over the last two decades: 53-28-3 ATS (65%)
- Underdogs of 3-to-7 points that failed to cover in Week 1: 41-17-2 ATS (71%) since 2014
- Underdogs that lost Week 1 against an opponent that was a Week 1 underdog itself: 60-33-2 ATS (65%)
I'm not ready to abandon Bears Island because of one bad fourth quarter in the first game of the season.
Remember, the Bears debuted a brand new coaching staff while Caleb Williams had something akin to a second debut after a lost rookie season.
Pick: Bears +6.5
Broncos vs Colts Over/Under Pick
Under 43.5
By Bet Labs
Evan Abrams' system, "Unders Steam Under Week 1 to 2" is based on the idea that early season NFL games often show inflated totals that are corrected by sharp market movement toward the under.
When both teams are playing their first or second game of the season, offensive rhythm is less reliable and execution can be sloppy which naturally lowers scoring.
The Broncos are coming off an uninspiring Week 1 win over the Titans in which Bo Nix completed just 25-of-40 pass attempts for 176 yards and two interceptions. The Colts, meanwhile, surprised in a romp over the Dolphins — but can Daniel Jones really be trusted to repeat his Week 1 performance against a stout Denver defense?
If the line also steams down from open to close it signals respected money backing that expectation.
Combining the timing of early season inefficiency with visible market confirmation provides a strong angle to attack unders before offenses fully settle into form and totals are adjusted upward in later weeks.
Pick: Under 43.5
Eagles vs Chiefs Spread Pick
Chiefs +1.5
By Stuckey
You can feel people jumping off the Chiefs bandwagon, but I'm not quite there.
Coming off a loss to the Chargers in the NFL Brazil game, the Chiefs have had a couple extra days to prepare for this Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles. I trust head coach Andy Reid, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and the rest of the coaching staff to come up with a solid gameplan.
And then, of course, there's Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes is only 12-2-1 against the spread as an underdog (85.7%), covering by an average of 6.7 PPG. He's also never lost three straight games in his career.
The Chiefs are banged up and missing key players (notably Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice), but the Eagles are dealing with question marks of their own (is A.J. Brown 100%?) so they might not be able to take advantage.
Pick: Chiefs +1.5; bet to +1
