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The Saints are 0-2 in preseason with both losses occurring on the road to the Texans. 17-13, and to the Packers, 20-10. Jameis Winston hasn't seen the field yet. Backup QB Andy Dalton has thrown five passes. It has been third-stringer Ian Book, who has played nearly all the time behind center. Book is a stiff. 

Look for Winston to get some game time with the veteran Dalton seeing most of the action against the Chargers. The Saints have a strong defense and excellent depth. Chargers coach Brandon Staley has followed his mentor, Sean McVay, in not caring about preseason games. There's no reason for Staley to play his regulars here. Dalton should do well facing the Chargers' backups. 

No Aaron Rodgers here. Understood. The tradeoff is this low total. If Patrick Mahomes plays then it's way too low of a total. Mahomes has played three series in Kansas City's two preseason games. He led the Chiefs to a touchdown in all three drives.

Andy Reid hasn't ruled Mahomes out. Mahomes played in the Chiefs' final preseason game last year. He was 8-for-9 for 117 yards and two TD's. The Chiefs beat the Vikings, 28-25, in that game. Kansas City won't play again for 16 days following this game. So I'd be surprised if Reid didn't give Mahomes at least a couple of series. Green Bay's defense has improved. However, it's not at the level where it can stop Mahomes.

Even if Mahomes doesn't play, the Chiefs need to establish who their backup QB is, Shane Buechele or Dustin Crum. They also have to get their ground attack going. So I don't see the Chiefs being vanilla here. They have great schemes and methods of attack no matter who is playing. The Packers also have proven vulnerable on special teams. One special teams slip-up can push a total this low to go Over.

The Packers should do their part in the scoring department. Jordan Love has much to prove whether Matt LaFleur wants to admit it or not. The Chiefs ranked 29th in sacks last year. Love should get another extended look. Green Bay doesn't have a superstar wide receiver anymore. But the Packers have good receiving depth and loads of competition. That should ensure a lot of passing.

Third-string Packers QB Danny Etling has played better than expected. He has mobility with the ability to make a big gain out of a busted play. That's a huge trait especially in preseason where there are more busted plays.

The teams have been conducting joint practices and the Packers' defense has been getting the better of things, according to multiple reports. Jordan Love has much to prove in this game. So does the Packers wide receiving corps. 

Saints coach Dennis Allen has never won a preseason road game as a head coach going 0-7, including 1-6 ATS. New Orleans doesn't put a premium on preseason games. The Saints are 7-14 SU, 6-15 ATS in preseason since 2015. The Saints aren't putting emphasis on this game either. 

The Saints aren't going to play many starters here. The few they do won't play long, perhaps a series or two. Jameis Winston is nursing a slight foot injury. He won't play. New Orleans' backup QB's are Andy Dalton and Ian Book, a stiff who figures to draw most of the minutes. 

The Saints' third and fourth-stringers didn't look good in a 17-13 loss to the Texans last week. The Packers are likely to leave some of their starters and second-stringers in longer than the Saints. Green Bay is home and cares more about winning this game than New Orleans does.  

The Bears' terrible offensive line has been made worse by a cluster injury problem. Bears coach Matt Eberflus can't risk Justin Fields, or any other Chicago offensive starter getting hurt. So the Bears starters are projected to only play one or two series. That means a lot of Trevor Siemian and Nathan Peterman playing with a heavy dose of third-stringers. This isn't a recipe for a lot of Chicago scoring. The Seahawks will be fired up defensively after a terrible tackling game in their preseason opener against the Steelers. Pete Carroll stressed the Seahawks need to clean up their act on defense.

Geno Smith appears to have won the Seahawks' starting QB spot. He's been in a battle with Drew Lock, who tested positive for COVID-19 and has been ruled out of this game. Smith is likely to start, but third-string QB Jacob Eason is expected to play most of the game.

Don't expect much from Eason. He didn't play against the Steelers last week as Smith and Lock battled it out. Eason has received limited reps in camp. The Seahawks have a bad offensive line and they have multiple wide receiver injuries. Also promising rookie running back Kenneth Walker III is out with a hernia injury.

One of the biggest factors in betting preseason totals is quarterback rotation. The Panthers are one of the few teams with a starting QB battle. They also have a deep QB rotation with Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, P.J. Walker and promising rookie Matt Corral. 

The Panthers need preseason to get Mayfield up to speed in their system. So the Panthers shouldn't be vanilla like many teams are in preseason, especially in their preseason opener. Carolina also needs to see what Corral can do. These QB's could all shine against a vanilla defense full of scrubs. 

Washington has one of the better backup QB's in Taylor Heinecke. Sam Howell is an exciting rookie QB, who could fare well playing against backups. 

Even though it's a preseason game, Commanders coach Ron Rivera could have motivation having coached the Panthers before coming to Washington for nine years from 2011-2019. The combined average total of Week 1 preseason games under Rivera for the past nine times is 41.5 points. 

The announcement that Deshaun Watson is going to start has caused a switch of favorites in this game. Cleveland is now road chalk. The marketplace has this wrong. The Jaguars should win this game. 

The Jaguars laid an egg against the Raiders in the Hall of Fame game. But now the Jaguars have played a game and are home here. Those are key situational edges. Watson hasn't played since January of 2021. He's learning a new offense and isn't likely to play very long. The Browns are run-oriented. However, their two best running backs - Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt - are not expected to play. 

Jacksonville coach Doug Pederson has more of a sense of urgency than Browns coach Kevin Stefanski. The Jaguars fell behind the Raiders, 20-0, at halftime. Keep in mind, the Jaguars didn't play their top two QB's, Trevor Lawrence and C.J. Beathard, against Las Vegas.

Peterson is going to play a lot of starters here. Lawrence, Travis Etienne and the rest of Jacksonville's first-string offense will get at least a couple of series. Lawrence has looked good in training camp. So has Etienne. The Jaguars upgraded their wide receiving corps. Lawrence needs game time work with them. This is that opportunity. There will be many defensive starters playing, too, for Jacksonville. The Jaguars outscored the Raiders, 11-7, in the second half. Jacksonville had five sacks against Las Vegas. 

I would rather have Beathard than either of the Browns' third and fourth-string QB's, Josh Dobbs and Josh Rosen. Those two figure to see the bulk of action for Cleveland.

Far be it for me to question Bill Belichick's football decisions. I rank Belichick among the top-five NFL coaches of all-time with Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh, Paul Brown and Don Shula. But facts are facts and right now the Patriots' rebooted offense is in disarray following the departure of ace offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to the Raiders.

McDaniels ran Belichick's power-ground game offense for a decade. McDaniels has been replaced by Matt Patricia with heavy input from Joe Judge. These two failed head coaches didn't make their reputations on offense. Patricia was Belichick's top defensive assistant coach before his failed stint with the Lions, while Judge excelled as a special teams coach. The Giants were a disaster offensively under Judge.

Nothing has clicked so far offensive-wise in the Patriots' training camp. The ground game has yet to get going with the change to more of a zone-block type of scheme, wide receivers haven't been getting open and none of New England's QB's - Mac Jones, Brian Hoyer and Bailey Zappe - have looked good. The offensive line has been distressingly bad making the transition. The quarterbacks have been under constant pressure during drills and scrimmages.

Yes, it's extremely early in the season and defenses usually are ahead of offenses at this stage. But this is an extremely early game and the Patriots have looked beyond bad offensively, according to multiple camp reports.

New Giants coach Brian Daboll wants to make an immediate good impression. So he won't be holding back any healthy starters. They may not play long, but Daboll is willing to put them in for at least a series or two.

This is a pivotal year for Daniel Jones. The Giants have a good QB preseason rotation with Tyrod Taylor and Davis Webb backing up Jones. New York has plenty of explosive weapons for its quarterbacks along with an improved offensive line and what should be a monster upgrade in coaching from Judge to the highly thought of Daboll.

Daboll was the architect behind Buffalo's offensive prowess. The Bills were 7-0 SU and ATS during the last two preseasons. Fair to say Daboll is putting more emphasis and has higher expectations on this game than Belichick.

The Titans are going to be sitting out their top starters. The Bears won't play Andy Dalton. 

The Browns don't care about this game. Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski will be playing very few of his starters and the ones who get into the game will see little action.  The Giants don't have that luxury. While Saquon Barkley and Kenney Golladay aren't going to play, Giants QB's will have a number of other weapons plus playing time from their starting offensive line. The Browns' best defensive backs are not healthy and won't be playing.  The edge is going to be with the Giants as far as number of starters playing. That's a big edge especially when Stefanski's top priority isn't winning the game.  The teams have conducted scrimmages and practices against each other the past four days. During this time, Giants wide receiver Sterling Shephard has been a star against Cleveland's decimated secondary.  The person who could take this game the most personally is Giants safety Jabrill Peppers, who played for the Browns before coming to New York. He was extremely animated during the scrimmages. 

Mike Zimmer was furious after the Broncos embarrassed his Vikings, 33-6, last week. Expect much better from Minnesota's reserves. Zimmer not only has kicked their butts, but he's going to be playing starters in this preseason game after sitting out 31 players against Denver. 

I understand that the Under has covered in 17 of the first 20 preseason games going into today. But a lot would have to go right for this total to stay Under considering how low it is.

There's nothing fancy in this one.The Chiefs are going to play their starters for at least half the game against the Cardinals. This comes from Andy Reid, while the Cardinals are hardly going to play their starters. That comes from Kliff Kingsbury. 

Much is being made of how untested Jordan Love is. But compared to Houston rookie QB Davis Mills, Love is Aaron Rodgers. 

Currently this is the highest total of the Week 1 preseason slate. Yes, these are explosive offenses, but the key pieces aren't going to be seeing much, if any, action. 

New this year is having only three weeks of preseason. That's not much game time to find out about backups. So the offenses shouldn't be so vanilla even during Week 1 of preseason. Oddsmakers traditionally set a low total for the first full week of preseason. That's the case in this matchup and I believe it's a mistake.  Ryan Fitzpatrick entered Washington's camp as the nominal starter. But Ron Rivera said nothing is guaranteed. He'll want to take a good look at Taylor Heinicke, who was last seen throwing for 306 yards while accounting for two touchdowns in a 31-23 playoff loss to the Buccaneers. Kyle Allen isn't a bad third-string QB, but he may not be 100 percent yet recovering from a broken ankle suffered last season.  The Patriots have a strong  quarterback rotation with Cam Newton, Mac Jones and veteran Brian Hoyer. I doubt Newton plays, but Bill Belichick didn't invest a first-round pick on Jones to watch him hand off. Hoyer could be very effective matched up against second, third and fourth-string defenders.  New England has averaged 28.7 points during its first preseason game the past four times.