Minnesota Vikings vs Las Vegas Raiders Prediction 8-10-24 Picks

The Las Vegas Raiders and the Minnesota Vikings meet in week 1 NFL Preseason action from U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday night. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this Game. Here’s a Las Vegas Raiders vs. Minnesota Vikings prediction.

Las Vegas Raiders Recap

The Las Vegas Raiders come into the 2024 season looking to improve after an 8-9 mark in 2023, missing the playoffs for back-to-back seasons. This season begins the Antonio Pierce era in Sin City among a lot of question marks. Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew are battling for the starting QB job after the Jimmy Garoppolo experience didn’t work out. The running back job is up in the air as well after the Raiders cut ties with Josh Jacobs, but Zamir White is expected to see the RB1 duties out of the gate after leading the NFL in rushing in the final four Games of last season. The receiving group for Las Vegas might be slightly underappreciated, led by Davante Adams and Michael Mayer at tight end, but the addition of Jakobi Meyers and the first-round draft pick of Brock Bowers out of Georgia gives the Raiders plenty of high-upside and high-quality options. On defense, Maxx Crosby is the headliner and heart and soul of the Raider defense. Christian Wilkins signed via free agency to give Crosby some help up front while Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo combine for a formidable pairing at linebacker. The secondary remains mostly the same and will hope to keep that chemistry building into 2024.

Minnesota Vikings Recap

The Minnesota Vikings come into the 2024 campaign looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2023 season where the Vikings finished the year 7-10 and missed the postseason. It’ll be the first year since 2017 without Kirk Cousins on the depth chart for the Vikes as he signed with Atlanta in free agency, but the Vikings found their next lead pivot by selecting J.J. McCarthy 10^th overall out of Michigan to lead a QB room also featuring Jaren Hall and Sam Darnold. Aaron Jones is likely to assume the lead back role, transferring within the NFC North, coming over from Green Bay, while the Vikings’ receiving group features the same headliners of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. On defense, the defensive rush looks completely different with Danielle Hunter and D.J. Wonnum gone after combining for 24.5 sacks. Jonathan Greenard comes in after logging 12.5 sacks and Dallas Turner comes in as another first-round draft pick as the reigning SEC defensive player of the year. Ivan Pace Jr. is back to anchor the linebacking group, while Jordan Hicks was replaced by Blake Cashman who comes in off of a career year with the Houston Texans. The secondary has a lot of question marks in terms of will the upside come to fruition. Guys like Shaquill Griffin, who could be the pro bowler that he was with the Seahawks, or the DB that’s been piNBAlled through multiple teams in a year. Khyree Jackson and Byron Murphy Jr. also have upside as well, but only time will tell if it will work in Brian Flores’ system.

Raiders vs. Vikings Prediction

I’m on the Raiders here. Normally I say that betting preseason Football is strictly about who has the better depth and position battles within the teams, but we’re seeing with Vegas that starting positions are also on the table in preseason and I could easily see the Raiders having some tough calls to make right out of the gate. Minnesota has some question marks of their own that need to be addressed by week 1, but I think here, the Raiders just have more to sort out and I think we get a stronger effort from them here. Give me Las Vegas.