NFL Pick: New England Patriots vs Washington Football Team 8/12/21 NFL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The New England Patriots and the Washington Football Team meet in NFL Week 1 preseason action from Gillette Stadium on Thursday.

The Washington Football team enter the 2021 campaign looking to take another step forward under Ron Rivera, finishing 2020 with a 7-9 record, but in the horrendous NFC East, 7-9 was enough to win the division. It wasn’t good enough to give WFT an extended stay in the postseason though, as Washington was eliminated by the eventual champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round. There’s a new face under center for the Washington Football team, as Alex smith retired and will likely be helping develop a movie about his life at some point, but until then, Washington’s hopes at starting QB land in the lap of Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has a history of being as hot and cold as it gets. Fans know FitzMagic is a fun guy to root for, but the results aren’t always consistent. Antonio Gibson is back to lead the running back duties for Washington, while Curtis Samuel was signed to make up aa nice one-two punch at receiver with Terry McLaurin. Once again, Washington’s strength is expected to be its defense, led by the likes of Chase Young, Montez Sweat and William Jackson III who was brought in as a free agent in the offseason. As a team, Washington averaged 20.9 PPG on 316.3 yards of total offense while allowing 20.6 PPg and 304.6 yards against per game last season.

The New England Patriots will look to bounce back after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008 after finishing the season 7-9 in the first year witout Tom Brady on the roaster since 2000 and Cam Newton just didn’t cut the mustard when it mattered, leading New England to draft Mac Jones at 15^th overall. James White and Sony Michel will once again lead the charge in the backfield for the Pats while this will be the first year without Julian Edelamn in the lineup since 2009 as he retired in the offseason. Still, the Patriots filled the void by bringing in Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne and Hunter Henry to help out at Tight End. Coach Bill Belichick will hope to take steps forward on the defensive end as well, as the Pats drafted Christan Barmore out of Alabama to anchor the defensive line while Matthew Judon joins the charge at linebacker alongside Dont’a Hightower and Stephon Gilmore, Kyle Dugger, J.C. Jakson and Devin McCoutry all come in to load up New England’s secondary. As a team, New England averaged 20.4 PPG and 327.3 yards of total offense while allowing 22.1 PPG and 353.8 yards of total defense per game last season.

Washington is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite while the over is 8-2 in their last 10 Thursday games. New England is 9-2 ATS in their last 11 games as a home underdog and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 Thursday games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games as an underdog.

Preseason football can be tricky because you never know who is going to play and for how long or if they’re even going to suit up at all. With that said, it’s also about depth and a lot of teams seeing what they have and side by side, I think there’s more depth and position battles within New England’s camp, especially at quarterback with Newton and Jones in the fold. I think we see a more inspired effort from New England after missing the playoffs last year and it’s not going to wait until the season opener. It starts now. Give me New England and the points.