NFL Preseason: Denver at Chicago (Thursday, August 10)

Two of the NFL’s proudest franchises take the field on Thursday night when the Denver Broncos visit the Chicago Bears in both teams’ preseason openers. The Bears have gone through a tough stretch for much of the past decade, as they tried swapping a physical, defense-first approach for the high-flying offense of Marc Trestman, only to send him packing and bring in John Fox to return the team to its roots.

The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 in convincing fashion but then saw Peyton Manning sail off into the sunset of retirement and now find themselves struggling to settle on a quarterback who can move the ball. Let’s take a look at this matchup as well as the 2017 NFL preseason betting odds for this attractive game.

NFL Preseason: Denver at Chicago (Thursday, August 10)

When: Thursday, August 10, 2017, 8:00 PM ET
Where: Soldier Field, Chicago
TV: NFL Network
Radio: KOA 850 AM Denver / WBBM 780 AM Chicago
Live Stream: NFL Live
NFL Odds: Pick ‘em, O/U 36

Why should you bet on the Broncos?

The Broncos boast one of the top defensive units in the NFL — although we will see how that still works now that defensive coordinator Wade Phillips has taken his talents to Los Angeles. On the other side of the ball, the Broncos’ offensive line was horrendous last year, permitting 40 quarterback sacks that kept Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch running for their lives. The Broncos did draft Garett Bolles and sign free agent Russell Okung to bolster that front five, and one focus in this preseason game should be the way that those two will mesh with the rest of the unit.

Denver also should give plenty of time to both Siemian and Lynch, as they have a real quarterback battle on their hands. Siemian got the lion’s share of the action, throwing for 3,401 yards and 19 scores (as well as 10 interceptions), becoming the first graduate of Northwestern University to serve as an NFL team’s primary starter since Otto Graham was patrolling the field for the Cleveland Browns. The battle between Siemian and Lynch (497 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT in 2016) is the one that will determine, to a great extent, the Broncos’ course for the season, so expect the Broncos to feature their top two quarterbacks for a great deal of this contest.

Why should you put your money on the Bears?

Chicago’s offense ranked #29 in the NFL in scoring last year — and quarterback Jay Cutler was still able to pry $10 million from the Miami Dolphins on a one-year deal in the aftermath of that dumpster fire. The Bears dumped a sack of money on top of Mike Glennon, of all people, and they also drafted Mitch Trubisky to mentor as the team’s future signal-caller. The Bears also showed that they will overpay for a dreadful arm, as they added Mark Sanchez to the roster in the off-season. Expect to see all three of these guys on the field, because the Bears need to see what they have — although even Siemian might have a higher ceiling than all three of these quarterbacks.

The Broncos would normally chase those quarterbacks all over the field, but we probably won’t see Von Miller and the rest of the starters doing much for the Broncos, so the Bears could have more time to operate than teams will get during the regular season. Look for Ka’Deem Carey to try and make his case for a roster spot at the tailback position — he’s definitely on the bubble entering his fourth season with the team.

Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction I’m not sure that the Bears have improved much at the quarterback position, and I see the Broncos still coming in with a stronger defense even with a new coordinator. I’ll take Denver to win this one, 20-10, and I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Mark Sanchez add to his collection of YouTube videos in which he makes a classic blunder.