The battle to be the starting quarterback of the New Orleans Saints continues Monday night when the Saints host the Jacksonville Jaguars to conclude Week 2 of the NFL preseason. Which way to lean at BMR’s top-rated sportsbooks?
Monday, August 23, 2021 – 08:00 PM EDT at Caesars Superdome
Week 2 of the NFL preseason concludes with the first Monday night game of the year as the Jacksonville Jaguars visit the newly-named Caesars Superdome. Just think, a few years ago the NFL shied away from all things gambling and now there’s a gambling company that owns naming rights to a frequent Super Bowl host stadium.
These clubs have split their past two preseason games both straight up and against the spread on the NFL odds. They last met in 2018 in Jacksonville and the Jags were 2-point favorites but lost 24-20. Not much relevance there considering current Jags QB Trevor Lawrence was at Clemson – Jacksonville’s QBs that day were the forgettable Case Kessler, Blake Bortles and some dude named Tanner Lee.
New Orleans has won and covered the NFL betting spread past four regular-season meetings. They met in 2019 in Jacksonville and the Saints won 13-6. Teddy Bridgewater was the Saints’ starting QB that day and Gardner Minshew for Jacksonville – he’ll play in this one.
Jacksonville was a 3-point home favorite on the NFL odds in its preseason opener, which also was the NFL debut of quarterback Trevor Lawrence and head coach Urban Meyer, and the Jags lost 23-13 to Cleveland.
Meyer only came out of retirement to coach Lawrence, even though he technically hasn’t named him the team’s official starting QB yet. Lawrence was OK, going 6-for-9 for 71 yards. He did fumble on a sack but the Jags recovered. Lawrence was unable to lead the first-team offense to any points in his two possessions and should start again Monday.
The offense was better under Lawrence than under backup Gardner Minshew II, who threw for 47 yards and an interception and led the offense to 46 yards in three possessions. The offensive line was a major concern all day and looks like it might be a problem all year. I’d expect Lawrence to play a bit longer this week. Jake Luton and CJ Beathard also saw plenty of action in the opener; both of those guys aren’t making the team. Beathard was actually the best QB of the four.
Jacksonville made major news on Tuesday by ending the Tim Tebow experiment with the release of the legendary former Heisman winner. He only got a shot at age 34 to make the team as a tight end because of course Meyer was his coach at Florida. Tebow played a scant 16 snaps vs. the Browns and none on special teams, and Meyer said that because other tight ends on the roster can play special teams, that made Tebow expendable. Think it’s safe to say his NFL career is officially over. There were no other surprises on the first cutdown day.
Starting receiver DJ Chark had surgery in early August to repair a hairline fracture of his finger, so he won’t play at all this preseason.
The Saints fell to 28-31 all-time on NFL picks under Coach Sean Payton in losing 17-14 at Baltimore – which never loses in the preseason – in Week 1 of the preseason. The big storyline with this team is of course the quarterback battle between Jameis Winston, who is the -185 favorite on BMR’s top-rated books to be the regular-season Week 1 starter, and Taysom Hill (+140).
Neither was great vs. Baltimore but generally it is agreed that Winston was a bit better as he was 7-for-12 for 96 yards, a TD and a pick, while Hill was 8-for-12 for 81 yards with a pick. While Hill started that game, Winston is expected to start Monday. Winston did lead two TD drives in the opener and Hill none. However, New Orleans had a whopping six turnovers.
Of course, the Saints remain without two-time All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas, who had ankle surgery and June and will miss the beginning of the regular season as well. Another starting receiver, Tre’Quan Smith, was out with an undisclosed injury but returned to practice this week.
Pro Bowl kicker Will Lutz is also out into the regular season following his own surgery. All-Pro tackles Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead, star running back Alvin Kamara and key defenders Cameron Jordan, Demario Davis and Marshon Lattimore all sat out vs. the Ravens simply by Payton’s choice.
Still not clear how many non-QB starters Payton will play in this one or for how long. We like the Saints, though, because of their QB battle and that they are playing in front of a decent home crowd for the first time since 2019.
NFL pick: Saints -4 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.