NFL straight-up picks, Week 8: Is Jaguars - Steelers Sunday's second-best game?

There’s not a lot of meat on Week 8’s bones. Sure, all 32 teams will be in action after byes scuppered fantasy matchups the last three Sundays, but Sunday’s showdowns have lost a bit of luster as we near the midpoint of the 2023 regular season.

A game between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs isn’t nearly as appealing when Sean Payton’s revival efforts have led to a 2-5 record. The battle for northern New Jersey between the New York Jets and New York Giants was supposed to be Aaron Rodgers vs. a scrappy underdog who’d unexpectedly won a playoff game last season. Instead it’ll be Zach Wilson vs. either an ailing Daniel Jones or Tyrod Taylor. Sunday night’s Chicago Bears – Los Angeles Chargers game is notable only because it will divine who the football gods hate more.

Thus, a game with Kenny Pickett, statistically 2023’s worst starting quarterback, may be second only to a showdown between the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers when it comes to overall importance to this winter’s playoff race. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 4-2, a half-game behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North and holding a head-to-head matchup over their division rival despite Pickett’s general preference to spend 50 minutes of each game launching passes to nowhere. They’ll face the Jacksonville Jaguars, winners of four straight and a team finally primed to seize the festering wasteland that is the AFC South.

This is a game that may be an interminable slog to a 17-15 finish. And it’s the second-best matchup in the lineup! Welp, might as well see what else we’ve got for this week’s picks. Our full slate of picks for Week 8 follows, along with some breakout analysis below.

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Here are those selections in a better-formatted screenshot of our actual picks sheet, which unfortunately struggles to translate to our editing software.