Cardinals vs. Eagles Point Spread: NFL Week 17 Odds, Prediction
Jalen Hurts & Co. are 10.5-point favourites on the NFL odds.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
While these rosters are nowhere close to one another in overall talent, the quarterbacks are somewhat alike in Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts in that they are both extremely dangerous with their feet. Both also played collegiately at Oklahoma, where each transferred in from other schools. Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy and was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2019 draft. If the Cardinals were to get a Top 2 pick in this year’s draft, and they currently would pick second, it will be interesting if they take a quarterback like UNC’s Drake Maye and try to trade Murray or build around him. Probably the latter simply as Murray has a massive contract and is coming off major injury.
Hurts finished a distant second to Joe Burrow in the 2019 Heisman voting and was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft, vastly outplaying where he was picked and an MVP candidate again after finishing second last season. Hurts is a lot bigger than Murray and that’s why all those tush push quarterback sneaks work for Philadelphia whereas it wouldn’t work as well with Murray.
Including three playoff meetings, the Cardinals lead the all-time series 60-57-5, but Philadelphia won in the desert last season, 20-17, as Hurts ran for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns. The Cardinals never led but had a 43-yard field goal attempt to force overtime. Matt Ammendola’s boot looked good at first but then veered hard to the right and missed. Ammendola was only on the active roster because of a hip injury to starter Matt Prater.
Arizona Cardinals
If the 2024 NFL Draft were held today, the Cardinals would pick second. They have an outside shot at getting to first but most likely will stay put and can auction off that pick to teams that need a quarterback just like the Cards did in the 2023 draft. This is a bad, bad defensive team that was beaten 27-16 in Chicago on Sunday. The Bears finished with 420 yards, including 250 rushing. They aren’t exactly an offensive powerhouse. Kyler Murray threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns in his sixth game since his return from a torn ACL. Kicker Matt Prater took the NFL lead in 50-yard field goals made this year with a 55-yarder in the third quarter, giving him nine (with only two misses). Defensive lineman Jonathan Ledbetter will miss the final two games of the season with the knee injury he suffered in Chicago. The Cardinals are last in the league in rushing defence at 147 yards a game.
Philadelphia Eagles
If the Eagles (11-4) win out, which they should, they will repeat as NFC East champion. If Dallas loses on Saturday night at home to Detroit, which I wouldn’t expect but isn’t impossible, then Philly would clinch the division with a win here and perhaps could rest starters in Week 18 with the NFC’s top seed almost surely going to San Francisco. Philly snapped a three-game skid Monday with a 33-25 win over the Giants, but the team’s problems that arose during the skid really weren’t fixed. The Eagles simply faced a bad team, and New York still managed 25 points. The Eagles rushed for 170 yards and two scores, one from Jalen Hurts. He also threw for 301 yards and a TD with a pick. Hurts has been turnover-prone this year, but his 15 rushing TDs are the most by a QB in a single season in NFL history. Philadelphia has a minus-7 turnover margin this season (tied for 26th) after finishing plus-8 in the 2022 regular season (third in NFL).