San Diego Chargers (0-0) at Arizona Cardinals (0-0)

It’s hard to find a team that has lost as much talent since the last time we played football as the Cardinals, particularly defensively. Karlos Dansby is gone as a free agent. Daryl Washington was suspended for the season. Darnell Dockett is out for the season with an injury. Meanwhile, John Abraham is going into his age 36 season and Tyrann Mathieu is going to miss the start of the season with injury.

Offensively, they had the potential to be better this season with Jared Veldheer coming in as a free agent, Andre Ellington stepping into the lead back role, and Jonathan Cooper coming back from injury. However, Ellington is expected to be out for this game, leaving Jonathan Dwyer and Stepfan Taylor as their top running backs and Cooper is having issues coming back from his injury and can’t crack the starting lineup.

In spite of that, they’re still favored by a field goal here at home, which suggests they are roughly equal to the Chargers. I don’t agree with that. The Chargers are unlikely to be quite as good offensively as they were last season with Philip Rivers going into his age 33 season and Ken Whisenhunt gone, but they get Melvin Ingram and Dwight Freeney back from injury 100% and Brandon Flowers comes in as a free agent. I like the underdog a fair amount here.

San Diego Chargers 27 Arizona Cardinals 20 Upset Pick +145

Pick against spread: San Diego +3

Confidence: High

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