Broncos vs Chargers ‘Thursday Night Football’ game pick and open thread

Broncos vs Chargers ‘Thursday Night Football’ game pick and open thread
Cat Scratch Reader Cat Scratch Reader

Welcome back to Thursday Night Football

Thursday Night Football returns this week with an AFC West rivalry rematch between the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Chargwrs. All Thursday night games kick off at 8:15 ET on Prime Video.

As always in our brave new world of expansive sports gambling, it is now easier to bet on games than to watch them. You can catch current odds on all NFL games for Week 16 here on FanDuel.

This is a bit of a weird game in the AFC playoff picture. The Broncos and the Chargers are the sixth and seventh seeds, respectively, in the current standings. Winning or losing could affect who they are expected to lose to in the first round of the playoffs, but it is not going to have a huge affect on if they make them at all.

The teams immediately behind the Chargers in the standings are all 6-8 and considered by the NFL as having a 10% chance or less of sneaking into a the seventh seed. In other words, this game lacks the high stakes that a late season game between divisional rivals who are both contenders otherwise could have.

As for how the game itself, these teams are relatively well matched. Los Angeles won the first meeting by a touchdown after a weirdly paced game. The difference tonight is going to come down to the quarterbacks. Bo Nix is much more mistake prone under pressure as compared to Justin Herbert and that is going to give the Chargers just enough breathing room at home. That's why I'm picking the Los Angeles Chargers to win tonight.

As always, use this space to talk about the action as it unfolds.

You know the drill.

This is now an open thread!