Week 7 of the NFL season gets capped off with a doubleheader of Monday Night Football battles, showcasing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions, as well as the Houston Texans at Seattle Seahawks.
In the early matchup, the Lions are 5.5-point favorites against the Bucs with the total at 52.5 points. The headline from this game is the first-place Bucs, along with their lengthy list of injuries. So far, those losses haven’t hindered them much, but that good luck may run out at some point. Especially against a Lions team, looking to avoid back-to-back losses.
Later, the Texans hit the road for a date with the Seahawks, who are 3.5-point favorites at home with the total at 41 points. Houston has rattled off two straight wins after losing its first three games, while Seattle is coming off an impressive road victory on the East Coast last week.
You wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on the planet with two Monday Night Football matchups, so let’s check out the best bets from the Buccaneers-Lions and Texans-Seahawks:
What are the Best Bets for Monday Night Football: Buccaneers at Lions & Texans at Seahawks?
Cade Otton: Over 41.5 Receiving Yards (-115)
As a Bucs fan, I want to leave my fandom at the door and say that I do not like our chances tonight against the Lions; way too many injuries to overcome against a solid team. With that being said, Tampa will be forced to the air for what I imagine will be the entire second half.
The Lions have been mostly stingy against opposing TEs, but Travis Kelce (78 rec yds) just did well last week, and Mark Andrews (91 rec yds) was better in Week 3. As I mentioned, the Bucs have numerous injuries, mainly WRs Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Emeka Egbuka, and this will undoubtedly get Otton more targets.
Over the last two games (with numerous injuries), Otton has nine catches (11 targets) for 132 yards.
Amon-Ra St. Brown: 80+ Receiving Yards (+100)
The Bucs’ defense routinely coughs up boatloads of passing yards, largely due to how great their run defense is. Teams are essentially forced to pass on Tampa, so St. Brown should get plenty of chances to get us to 80 yards tonight.
We’ll usually see the Bucs get torched in the middle of the field, which is exactly where St. Brown will find himself. In the last two games, Tampa faced Jaxson Smith-Njigba (132 rec yds) and Kendrick Bourne (142), and both guys were able to get loose on several occasions.
St. Brown has faced Tampa twice during the regular season, and he has accumulated 23 catches (33 targets) for 243 yards and a touchdown in those meetings. ARSB even torched the Bucs for eight grabs (14 targets), 77 yards, and a touchdown when the teams met in the 2024 playoffs. Holy Moses, those are some sexy numbers.
CJ Stroud – Longest Rush: Over 9.5 Yards (-115)
This is a prop I’ve been on quite a bit, considering Stroud has a 10+ yard rush in six of his seven games dating back to last season. Not only has Stroud exceeded this mark, but he has absolutely blown right past it. In four of those six games going over the mark, the longest rush was at least 19 yards.
Stroud doesn’t run often (4 or fewer att in L4), but he certainly does make these scrambles count.
Zach Charbonnet: Under 37.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
It has been a brutal stretch for Charbonnet, but the Seahawks still keep going to him! Someone needs to have an intervention with Mike Macdonald or find the blackmail evidence that Charbonnet has on him.
Nevertheless, we can take advantage of these misfortunes – particularly against this Texans’ run defense that is allowing the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game to RBs. They even allow 2.8 yards per carry to RBs, which ranks fifth-best in the NFL.
Charbonnet has gone under 37.5 rushing yards in three of his last four games, but the matchup against Houston is the cherry on top.
