You can't afford to look past any team in this league, but you could forgive the Seattle Seahawks if that's the case for them this week. Tomorrow afternoon they'll host the New Orleans Saints and the winless Spencer Rattler, who they should be able to beat by double digits.
After that it's a short week with a visit to the division rival Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football for the team's first NFC West matchup of the season. As such, that makes it a critical game for Seattle. Here are the early odds for Thursday's game from DraftKings Sportsbook.
According to the latest figures at DraftKings Sportsbook, the Seahawks are 1.5-point underdogs for next week's road game against the Cardinals.
Given the debbie-downer odds against Seattle for much of their schedule (even Jacksonville is favored against them) this probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Still, the Seahawks have utterly dominated this rivalry in recent years, winning the last seven meetings between these teams and 11 of the last 14 overall.
So, what's changed? Arizona has been an offseason darling for many national analysts thanks to a supposedly strong draft class (that's still to be determined), the addition of Josh Sweat and the return of Calais Campbell to their defensive front-seven.
Campbell is a threat that you always have to take seriously, but we just don't see it. Last week the Cardinals nearly blew a 24-point lead against the Carolina Panthers and they only managed to beat New Orleans by a touchdown.
Our guess is that Arizona will get exposed against the San Francisco 49ers tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if and how that changes the line for Thursday's game.
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