{"id":646430,"date":"2026-01-01T21:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/646430\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T21:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:09:16","slug":"week-18-nfl-picks-who-we-like-in-las-vegas-raiders-kansas-city-chiefs-and-around-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/646430\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 18 NFL Picks: Who we like in Las Vegas Raiders-Kansas City Chiefs and around the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Week 18 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs feels more like a formality than a competitive game. Both teams have already been eliminated from the playoffs and are expected to start backup quarterbacks<\/a>, with Chris Oladokun making his third appearance for the Chiefs this season and Kenny Pickett playing in his sixth game for the Raiders. However, there\u2019s a lot on the line in our Silver and Black Pride Pick\u2019em competition as the last week of the regular season is the final opportunity to make a big push toward the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

Holder\u2019s picks: LV +5.5, KC ML, Under 36.5<\/p>\n

To be honest, no one should be betting on this game. There\u2019s a chance the Raiders have the No. 1 pick locked up before kickoff, which would mean literally nothing is on the line, and it\u2019s two backup quarterbacks for teams that combined for one win in November and December. But if you have to make a pick, it feels like Kansas City winning with something like a 16-13 score feels like the best bet.<\/p>\n

Moving on to S&BP\u2019s Pick\u2019em competition, below is a look at how our writers finished in Week 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week was a rough one for the writers, as all three of us went 8-8. Bill and I had the same picks, so it was guaranteed that there wasn\u2019t going to be a change at the top of the standings, and Ray could capitalize on the opportunity to gain some ground. So, it\u2019s a two-horse race where I hold a small, one-game lead heading into the final week of the regular season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still some time, but it\u2019s looking like JeepRaider is going to run away with this year\u2019s competition. If Jeep can maintain the three-pick lead after this weekend, that should just about do it. The competition continues throughout the playoffs, but the significantly reduced number of games will make it difficult for anyone to catch up during the postseason. So, we all need to do our best to narrow the gap and make this a competitive competition from start to finish! Also, big shoutout to Smartaleck for getting 13 winners last week. That was two more than anyone else.<\/p>\n

Best of luck with your picks! There are no Thursday night games this week, but we do have two contests on Saturday, so don\u2019t procrastinate!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Week 18 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs feels more like a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,8204,7335,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-646430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-game-information","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-odds","13":"tag-lasvegas","14":"tag-lasvegasraiders","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115821894983866356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}