Average Joe Contest
A smattering of bowl games, including the College Football Playoff, and a bunch of non-Christmas Week 17 action was available to the contestants in the Edge Boost/VSiN Average Joe Contest this week. We’re running out of football games to select, unfortunately, but this contest does still have some more time left and that means there are still chances for you to sign up and take your shot at the weekly $500 prize.
You can make that $500 look like $1,000 by using the promo code VSiN to sign up for an Edge Boost account. That’s where your prize money will be sent anyway, so you can take advantage of all the perks and convenience that an Edge Boost account has to offer.
As we look at Week 17 in the Edge Boost/VSiN Average Joe Contest, we actually have a pretty big split on the picks for this week. Usually picking out the consensus is pretty easy, but that really isn’t the case for this week in terms of both sides and totals.
NFL Picks Week 17
The Christmas games were included as part of last week’s selections and didn’t really draw much interest. That’s probably for the best given how those games played out, as contestants were able to avoid some landmines. They’ll look to do the same here again this week.
Getting a survey of what “Average Joes” are thinking on the NFL is always intriguing. Of course, you can also do that with our DraftKings NFL Betting Splits and Circa NFL Betting Splits, but we’re here to look at what contest players are thinking.
Here are the most popular ATS Picks for Week 17:
Panthers +7 (79%) vs. Seahawks
I’ve referenced Betting Splits Whisperer Josh Appelbaum in this article before, but I can hear him cautioning VSiN readers, listeners, and viewers to beware the trendy dog. This is as trendy as a dog gets with a mediocre Panthers team as a very popular pick against a Super Bowl contender in the Seahawks.
It is an early kickoff coming off of that wild game against the Rams and the Panthers have plenty of reasons to be engaged with the NFC South hanging in the balance this week and next. But, this is a pretty overwhelming percentage of picks on an underdog given the nature of this contest to this point, where a lot of big favorites and popular teams have been written about in this section.
Of the 301 picks on this game, 238 are on the Panthers.
49ers -3 (75%) vs. Bears
San Francisco and Chicago play on Sunday Night Football and many contestants feel like this is the spot where the Bears suffer a setback. There are a lot of regression signs building with this team, including their spectacular record in close games. Chicago is 7-1 in games decided by six or fewer points and the line implies another close one here, but they’ve outlasted teams like the Raiders, Commanders, Bengals, Giants, and Steelers among those seven wins. This is a better opponent.
We’ve also seen the 49ers play extremely well since getting healthy and that’s probably a big reason why they have exactly a 3:1 edge in selections from Average Joes in this game.
Of the 404 picks on this game, 303 are on the 49ers.
Buccaneers -6 (69%) over Dolphins
Like I said, we don’t really have a strong consensus this week. Honestly, this is probably a pick that a lot of contestants made reluctantly, but Miami doesn’t seem to have a lot of give-an-eff left and they are starting Quinn Ewers. As bad as Baker Mayfield has been lately, it shouldn’t take much for him to outshine Ewers in this Sunshine State affair.
Again, though, we only had two consensus plays north of 70%. That is very much the exception and not at all the norm for what we’ve seen out of the Joes in this contest this season.
Of the 202 picks on this game, 140 are on the Bucs.
Here are the three most popular totals of Week 17:
As usual, Joes shied away from most totals, but there were some that had some pretty distinct and drastic splits.
Cardinals/Bengals Over 53 (95%)
Another week, another Bengals Over. This is probably five or six weeks in a row now that Cincinnati has been featured in this section. With a terrible defense and Joe Burrow back and in pretty good form, you could’ve laid a huge price on this total being part of the article in this section.
Even with the Cardinals playing an early kickoff in cold weather as an indoor, warm-climate team, the highest total on the board didn’t scare contestants away.
Of the 173 picks on this game, 164 are on the Over.
Ravens/Packers Under 40 (82%)
The late Saturday game worked its way into the mix, as we had a near-perfect 50/50 split on the side, but the total pointed heavily towards the Under with Jordan Love and Lamar Jackson both on the shelf. This was a game that oddsmakers had to hang, but weren’t very excited to do so with all of the QB uncertainty.
This was also a pretty high number relative to the closing line of 38, so Joes got a little bit of line value here as they looked for a low-scoring affair.
Of the 93 picks on this game, 76 are on the Over.
Rams/Falcons Over 49.5 (81%)
This was one of the lesser-picked totals, but still had one of the biggest splits, as Monday Night Football indoors is expected to attract some points. Interestingly, the spread was split 57/43 on the Falcons, so they’re going to need to help out apparently if this total is going to make it into the 50s.
There were only 36 picks on this game and 29 are on the Over.
See all of the pick counts, including college football, on the Average Joe Contest Betting Splits page.
