Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears will get a chance to beat Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers at home on Sunday. The Bears are a popular pick to go from worst to first in the underwhelming NFC North, but they’ll have to go through Green Bay to pull off that feat. Let’s dig into Sunday’s Packers-Bears betting odds as we make our predictions and pick the best NFL Week 1 bet!
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Packers-Bears Pick & Betting Prediction | NFL Week 1
Packers-Bears Betting Odds
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
Packers: +108 | Bears: -126
Packers +1.5: -110 | Bears -1.5: -110
Over 41.5: -104 | Under 43.5: -118
Packers-Bears Pick & Prediction
The Chicago Bears will host the Green Bay Packers in their season opener. The Bears will finally have a chance to take advantage of a Packers team in transition — with Aaron Rodgers gone, Green Bay will turn to Jordan Love and an inexperienced cast of receivers. Although the Bears looked terrible last season and earned the first overall pick, they also showed serious flashes at points. They won three games and suffered seven one-score losses, most of which came before the team actively sold key personnel like linebacker Roquan Smith and edge rusher Robert Quinn at the trade deadline.
The Bears are favored to beat the Packers at home, but only by the slimmest of margins — Chicago is a narrow one-point favorite. That suggests the books believe Green Bay is the better team, which, after this year’s offseason, makes little sense to me. The Bears filled the gap created by the Smith trade by signing Tremaine Edmunds from the Bills. They strengthened their receiving corps by trading for D.J. Moore and bolstered their offensive line by drafting tackle Darnell Wright in the first round. Wright joins a line that looked solid last year — left tackle Braxton Jones recorded a 75.4 PFF grade as a rookie, and the unit trailed only the Chiefs in pass-block win rate. The Bears also picked up pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue as well.
Green Bay’s front office didn’t make any offseason moves to suggest that they intend to contend this year. They let wide receiver Allen Lazard walk, along with aging veteran defensive linemen Jarran Reed and Dean Lowry, who both inked multi-year contracts elsewhere. No big-name free agents came in and two tight ends — who notoriously struggle as rookies — were drafted before Day 3. The Packers secured some exciting young developmental pieces like Luke Musgrave, one of their new tight end, and pass rusher Lukas Van Ness, but it’s hard to imagine that this front office has serious plans to contend in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Bears signaled that they believe in this roster — or that they at least believe in rookie quarterback Justin Fields enough to give him a season with some more talented teammates. Ngakoue came in on a one-year, $10.5 million deal. The Bears also signed DeMarcus Walker, a 28-year-old defensive end, to a three-year, $21 million contract, as well as David Montgomery, a 25-year-old running back, to a three-year, $18 million contract. Chicago’s front office believes in what it’s putting together, but I’m not convinced Green Bay’s does, and I expect these teams’ differing points of view will have consequences for their on-field production.
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If you aren’t sold on taking Chicago to win Sunday’s game outright, like I recommended in the early week column, consider the quality of Green Bay’s receivers. Christian Watson is out with a hamstring injury, and Romeo Doubs is questionable. That leaves them with Reed, the rookie, Samori Toure, rookie Malik Heath and rookie Dontayvion Wicks at wideout. At tight end, they’ve got Musgrave, the rookie, Josiah Deguara and rookie Tucker Kraft. Even if Doubs plays, the Packers’ available receivers will have 86 NFL receptions between them — yikes. Lock in the Bears to win this game at anything better than -150 (60%).
Packers-Bears NFL Week 1 Pick: Chicago Moneyline -122 at DraftKings
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