Raiders vs. Rams Betting Guide: Should Oakland Be Favored?

Los Angeles Rams at Oakland Raiders Betting Odds

• Spread: Raiders -4.5
• Over/Under: 35
• Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET

The Raiders host the Rams in one of three Preseason Week 1 matchups on Saturday. Let’s take a look at key storylines for both teams, complete with daily fantasy analysis and a pick.

Los Angeles Rams

Eight quarterbacks averaged at least eight adjusted yards per attempt in 2018:

• Patrick Mahomes (9.58)
• Drew Brees (9.01)
• Russell Wilson (8.98)
• Matt Ryan (8.73)
• Philip Rivers (8.68)
• Jared Goff (8.53)
• Deshaun Watson (8.48)
• Aaron Rodgers (8.13)

The Rams return all of their weapons at running back, tight end and wide receiver, although they suddenly have a potential hole in the interior of their offensive line.

There isn't much reason to believe the Rams will suffer a major falloff in 2019, but they could at least be a lesser monster than we've grown used to seeing at the line scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

Oakland Raiders

Derek Carr has posted underwhelming ranks in yards per attempt (No. 38), completion rate (No. 28), touchdown rate (No. 26) and quarterback rating (No. 26) among 43 quarterbacks to start at least 16 games since 2014.

The additions of Antonio Brown (foot, questionable), Tyrell Williams and first-round running back Josh Jacobs now give Carr the best set of weapons of his career. The time is now for Carr to prove that he's worthy of being the future QB1 of the Las Vegas Raiders.

With all due respect to Jon Gruden's history of preseason success (14-8-2 against the spread, +4.9 units), +200 or more underdogs have gone 59-48-0 in the preseason since 2004 (per our Bet Labs database). This has been good for a +8.9% ROI and +$947 overall balance.

I'm betting Rams +200 in this lovely and somewhat random sport known as preseason football.

PICK: Rams Moneyline