Carolina Panthers vs. New York Giants NFL Player Props & Picks (9/18/22)

Find updated Panthers Vs. Giants player prop odds for this week’s matchup alongside our favorite Panthers Vs. Giants player prop picks.

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Carolina Panthers vs. New York Giants Player Prop Picks

Week 2’s matchup between the Panthers and the Giants features one team who was likely stunned to lose their opener, and one who was perhaps equally stunned not to do so. Baker Mayfield’s revenge game against the Cleveland Browns was spoiled with the deadly combo of a phantom roughing penalty, and a rookie kicker drilling a 58-yard field goal. Meanwhile the Giants knocked off the Titans, who were the AFC 1-seed a year ago, in their own house. Let’s take a look at some bets for individual players who could either shine or disappoint on Sunday.

Baker Mayfield u0.5 Interceptions

Last week, I was on the opposite side of this prop for Baker; tough defense, situation where he’d be trying pretty hard to impress, new team for the first time in his young career. But we watched the fifth-year QB settle into his new offense right before our eyes as the game went on, and his mistakes all but evaporated by the end of the contest. I expect Mayfield to be a lot more comfortable with his Panthers teammates and playbook than he was in week 1.

This week, he faces a much worse defense, with a relatively unproven secondary. The Giants failed to elicit an interception on 33 Ryan Tannehill pass attempts last week, and it’s worth noting that Tannehill is coming off of a season in which he sported an interception percentage of 2.6%, his highest since his Miami days.

Overall, playing against a weaker defense and most likely, playing from ahead for most of the game, I expect Baker to shake off the new-team jitters and play mistake-free football in New Jersey this Sunday.

Saquon Barkley Longest Rush o16.5

This one feels like a no-brainer- I’ve often been one to bring up Saquon’s flaws, essentially none of which were on display against the Titans, but his most undeniable positive trait is that he is a home run hitter. Across his past two seasons, when facing a non-loaded box, Barkley has been stuffed for negative yardage on over 25% of his snaps, by far the highest tally of any back in the league. This can partially be blamed on the Giants shoddy o-line, although not entirely because the G-men’s other backs loss rate was around 10% over the same time frame.

I know this is painting a negative picture of Saquon, but the fact is that despite all of the negative rushes, he’s able to put up more than respectable totals. How does he accomplish that? Big plays. He balances out the bad with a handful of very, very good plays. Does this mean I want him on my team, or the over for his total yardage on my bet slip? No, but it does mean he’s extremely likely to rip off that one big play that can win you this prop.

Christian McCaffrey total rushing yards o60.5

Last week was the least involved I’ve ever seen a healthy McCaffrey in the Panthers offense since he burst onto the scene as their centerpiece player on offense, as he ran the ball just 10 times and caught 4 passes. It might seem that this bodes poorly for his usage going forward, but don’t forget the key fact that this low-volume performance came in, and arguably was a major cause of, a Panthers loss. This will be not lost on Matt Rhule and his coaching staff while game planning for next week.

From that breakout 2019 season through his injury-plagued 2020 and ‘21 seasons, McCaffrey played in 26 games. Over that span, only once has he failed to crack the 60 rushing yard plateau in consecutive games, except for games during which he got injured, or a strange week 17 matchup in which the Panthers were already mathematically eliminated and coasting towards the offseason. Expect him and the Panthers run game to be a much more focal point of the offense this week, especially in a game where his team will be looking to control the game, and likely seek to run out some clock at the end.