Week 16 of the NFL season is nearly in the books. There were a lot of important games this week, with some teams rising to the occasion to either keep their playoffs alive or solidify their spot, while others fell flat on their face. The NFC is effectively locked up, but the AFC is wide open, which could make for an exciting few final weeks of the season.
When we look at this Monday Night Football matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts, the game could play out in one of two ways. The Colts, knowing they’re effectively eliminated from the postseason, could roll over in a sense, phoning it in for next year and saving their best players from injury risk.
On the other hand, the 49ers are playing for a chance to win the NFC West and make a move in the playoff standings, so the Colts might want to play spoiler to that. Regardless of the outcome, we’ve got you covered with our favorite player props from this battle, so let’s get into it!
If anyone is going to have a big game when their team is officially eliminated from the playoffs, it’s Philip Rivers. Rivers didn’t come back to the NFL to mess around, and he’s going to do whatever he can to help this team win in primetime. He wasn’t masterful, by any means, in his first week back, throwing for 120 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
This performance was much better than anyone could have hoped for after five years away from the game, so we’re expecting him to step it up in his second week. He might not have a 250-yard ceiling, but we don’t think it’s crazy for Rivers to have 200 in this one, easily going over this projection of 161.5.
While we’re relatively confident in Rivers going over his projection, the same cannot be said for the QB on the other side of the ball. Brock Purdy has been inconsistent all season, which doesn’t bode well for him to have a monster performance in primetime this week.
He did explode for nearly 300 yards against the Tennessee Titans last week, but they’re among the worst teams in football. Purdy was much more pedestrian in the three weeks leading up to that, having 200 or fewer yards in each contest. We’re projecting something similar to those games, which is why we’re taking the under on his passing prop.
Christian McCaffrey hasn’t even played in Week 16 yet, and he still has the 25th-most receiving yards of any player in the NFL this season. That’s more than full-time wideouts Davante Adams, Michael Wilson, Ladd McConkey, and Jakobi Meyers, to name a few.
He’s a menace as a rusher and as a pass-catcher, a trend we expect to continue in this game. Purdy might struggle to have 250+ yards, but he does love dumping the ball off to CMC, who is electric with the ball in his hands. McCaffrey could have 80+ yards in this game, even if Purdy goes under his projection, so we’ll gladly take the over in this spot.
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