NFL Preseason Best Bets for August 8: Expect Offenses to Thrive at Carolina
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Rainman M.
- August 8, 2025
The lines are out for Week 1 of the NFL preseason, and two Friday showdowns—Browns vs. Panthers and Lions vs. Falcons—look like prime spots to invest at top sportsbooks.
Cleveland Browns vs. Carolina Panthers
Friday, August 08, 2025 – 07:00 PM EDT at Bank of America Stadium
Shedeur Sanders
For Cleveland in its first preseason game, rookie Shedeur Sanders has been named the starter. This is a very good thing for the Browns’ offense on Friday.
While everybody loves to hate Sanders because of his reputation for being arrogant, as bettors, we have to dismiss our feelings and look at the objective data.
So far in training camp, he has looked fantastic. He has produced a high completion percentage with a touchdown-to-interception ratio that couldn’t be better.
Impressively, he has sustained his strong performance while playing with other backups on offense and while going up against starters for the opposing defense, meaning that he’s more well-tested than he’ll need to be against a Carolina defense that, by far, ranked dead-last in 2024 in both points allowed per game and yards allowed per game.
The totals for preseason games are so low largely because teams are at least mostly trotting out low-quality quarterbacks who, barring injuries to quarterbacks preceding them on the depth chart, would never be chosen to see regular season action.
With Sanders, we might get a half of quality quarterback play for the Browns, which helps create significant value in the over for this game.
The Rest of Cleveland’s Quarterback Room
Both fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel and former Steeler Kenny Pickett are nursing hamstring injuries that will likely sideline them on Friday, giving Sanders a greater chance of playing more time, which will be great news for our “over” play.
Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco likely won’t play.
That leaves Tyler Huntley. Huntley will see significant action against the opposing team’s backups.
Huntley will help the “over” by using the experience that he’s collected as a starting quarterback for Baltimore and Miami to thrive against the backups of the NFL’s worst defense.
Nobody is saying that Huntley is a particularly good starting quarterback, but this evaluation is based on his regular season performances against starting defenses.
Huntley can certainly still do very well against manageable defenses. While last year in December he struggled, for example, against the elite pass defense of the Jets, he completed 22 of 26 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown against Cleveland’s defense.
Supported by productive targets steeled by competition against starting Browns defenders — Kisean Johnson, for example, is making a lot of noise with great plays in practice — Huntley will look very good against the soft backup competition that he’ll face in this game.
Bryce Young
After Carolina’s horrid start to its regular season last year, the Panthers’ head coach wants to give his starters more time in the preseason in order to better prepare them for the regular season.
This means that we’ll see Carolina’s starting quarterback Bryce Young on Friday.
Young was bad enough to be benched last year, but then he grew and helped his team achieve over 30 points in different games. He finished the regular season with seven touchdowns and zero interceptions in the final three games, in which he built chemistry with maturing wide receivers who currently remain healthy.
Andy Dalton
With Young starting, that leaves Andy Dalton to see significant action.
Young is already likely to face some backups on Cleveland’s defense. Dalton will see more backups.
Dalton, with a career 87.5 passer rating, has seen a lot of regular season success. He made a buzz when he started for Young last year, showing how productive he can be with Carolina’s receiving group, as when he lead the Panthers to a 36-point output against the Raiders that was facilitated by his 319 yards and three touchdowns.
This is a capable quarterback in a regular season setting against defensive starters, and now we get him against Cleveland backups.
Takeaway
The quarterbacks in this game have a solid outlook, going against soft challenges. Both halves will see plenty of scoring, making the “over” a great bet.
Detroit Lions vs. Atlanta Falcons
Friday, August 08, 2025 – 07:00 PM EDT at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Detroit’s Defense
We already got to see Detroit’s defense in action this preseason, as the Lions played the Chargers in the Hall of Fame Game.
The fact that the Lions gave up 34 points looks bad, but this point total misrepresents the quality of their defense because it is primarily a product of the anomalous turnovers that their offense committed.
Detroit’s defense was actually good: the Lions held the Chargers to 4.4 yards per play. To put this statistic in perspective. Chicago’s offense was last-place in 2024 with 4.5 yards per play.
Different backup defenders throughout Detroit’s defense are standing out in practice as they earn reps against the first-team offense. Such defenders include defensive back Rock Ya-Sin and versatile defensive lineman Keith Cooper Jr.
Atlanta’s Quarterbacks
Without Michael Penix or Kirk Cousins seeing action for Atlanta on Friday, the Falcons’ quarterback room is going to be bleak.
Easton Stick, journeyman quarterback, will start. When he started in Week 1 of last year’s preseason, for the Chargers, he ranked dead-last in EPA/play.
Yet his backup Emory Jones is even worse. Even in college Jones built a reputation for being very inaccurate.
With Jones and Stick going up against Detroit’s defense, Atlanta doesn’t have the capability on offense to score many points.
Atlanta’s Defense Will Exploit Detroit’s Weaknesses
But the Detroit offense’s outlook is likewise negative in this game.
Its offensive line has been dealing with injuries. Particularly, the tackle position will prove vulnerable against an Atlanta team that is well-stocked with edge rushers.
James Pearce Jr., the physical menace who thrived in the SEC before being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, is reportedly going to play in this game. As Falcons observers have been writing, he has had an excellent training camp, putting his unique physical tools and intensity on display. Expect hunger and effectivity from him in this game, typifying the success that Atlanta’s pass rush will have against Detroit’s beleaguered pass protection group.
With Hendon Hooker and Kyle Allen at quarterback for the Lions, it looks like Jared Goff will still lack a decent backup. Both Hooker and Allen inspire pessimism after their performance against the Chargers.
After the interceptions they threw, expect more caution from them, which will make it more difficult for them to attain the abysmal 104-yard total that they combined to produce in that game.
One difficulty that they’ll encounter is Falcons cornerback Cobee Bryant. Bryant has been energetic, active, and effective in training camp. He has a lot to prove after somehow going undrafted, and Atlanta is taking great interest in developing him. Expect him to contribute to the Falcon secondary’s success against Detroit’s offense with its lack of viable weapons.
Takeaway
These teams lack the firepower to score enough points to challenge the “under.” The quarterbacks lack productive potential and face difficult defensive tests.
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
