Daily Norseman Staff NFL Picks, Week 18

We’ve made it to the final week of the regular season with our NFL picks, ladies and gentlemen. Time to check out who the guys that power your favorite Minnesota Vikings website are taking in this week’s action.

Let’s do a quick review of how everyone did last week.

• GA Skol: 13-3 straight-up, 8-8 against the spread, 9-7 over/under
• Eric Thompson: 12-4 straight-up, 11-5 against the spread, 8-8 over/under
• Warren Ludford: 12-4 straight-up, 3-13 against the spread, 4-12 over/under
• Christopher Gates: 12-4 straight-up, 6-10 against the spread, 8-8 over/under
• Ed Brodmarkle: 8-8 straight-up, 4-12 against the spread, 9-7 over/under

Mostly a good week as far as the straight-up picks are concerned, and as usual Eric was the only one that did anything notable against the spread. He’s got those two categories wrapped up for the regular season anyway.

Here’s a look at our season totals heading into the final week of the regular season.

Straight-Up/Moneyline

1. Eric Thompson: 173-82
2. Warren Ludford: 159-94
3. Christopher Gates: 159-96
4. Ed Brodmarkle: 143-96
5. GA Skol: 151-104

Against the Spread

1. Eric Thompson: 142-113
2. Ed Brodmarkle: 114-125
3. GA Skol: 121-133
4. Warren Ludford: 117-135
5. Christopher Gates: 115-140

Over/Under

1. Christopher Gates: 138-118
2. Warren Ludford: 136-118
3. Eric Thompson: 137-119
4. GA Skol: 132-123
5. Ed Brodmarkle: 119-122

Not only is Eric dominating in our competition here on the site, but he’s tracking to be the #1 selector on all of the Tallysight system. There are 355 experts whose picks are being tracked by them, and going into the final weekend of the regular season Eric is on top of the heap.

Hopefully he can stay there. Wish him luck!

Here are our picks for this week. As always, these picks are subject to change right up to kickoff, and the lines may have changed since our picks were entered in. For the latest updates, be sure to check out our friends at the DraftKings Sportsbook.

Here’s where we have disagreements this week.

• Cowboys at Eagles: Warren and Chris have Dallas, everyone else has Philadelphia
• Bears at Vikings: GA Skol has Chicago, everyone else has Minnesota
• Bengals at Browns: Eric has Cleveland, everyone else has Cincinnati
• Steelers at Ravens: Chris has Pittsburgh, everyone else has Baltimore
• Football Team at Giants: Ed has New York, everyone else has Washington
• Saints at Falcons: Eric and GA Skol have New Orleans, Ed and Chris have Atlanta
• Chargers at Raiders: Chris has Las Vegas, everyone else has Los Angeles

As far as our game, as you can see above the majority of us are taking the Vikings to pull out a victory in what will likely be Mike Zimmer’s last game as the team’s head coach.

GA Skol has the Vikings ending this season with a loss, but the other three of us that have their picks in already have the Vikings getting the W. We also expect the Vikings to cover the 5.5-point spread, and yours truly is the only one (as of now) that doesn’t see a terribly high-scoring game on Sunday afternoon, as I’m playing the “under” of 43.5 while everybody else has got the “over.”

Those are our selections for the final week of the 2021 NFL regular season, folks. If you’re in an office pool or anything like that, here’s hoping that you’re emerging victorious.