Cover Photo: Peter G. Aiken/Getty Image


Good teams win, great teams cover. While this old adage may not always prove to be true, being able to beat your opponent by more points than Vegas expects is generally an advantage, particularly in the points-happy state of the current NFL.


And no team has covered the spread more often than the New Orleans Saints, who have done it in nine of their 11 games. Closely behind New Orleans is the Kansas City Chiefs, who are 8-2-1 against the spread.

The Saints started the season 0-2 ATS in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 and a narrow win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 2. Since then, all they've done is go 9-0 ATS, with three games as underdogs and six as favorites. They just covered a 12.5-point spread on Thanksgiving at home against the Atlanta Falcons.
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​The Chiefs have fallen off recently, after going 7-0 ATS to start the season. In the past three weeks, Kansas City has failed to cover a 9-point spread against the Denver Broncos, a 16-point spread against the Arizona Cardinals, and hit a 3-point push against the Los Angles Rams.
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​The Bears are another hot team, who have quietly won their last five both straight up and ATS. The Rams are surprisingly not on this list, sitting at 4-5-2 ATS this season. After starting 3-0 ATS, LA has only covered in one game since Week 4 and are very much a team to avoid when it comes to the spread right now.
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​The teams on the worst against the spread portion of this list are no surprise as the Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, New York Jets and San Fransisco 49ers can all be described as "bad teams" this year. However, the one that stands out here is the Eagles, who are worse ATS than their current 5-6 record on the field. Thanks to some early-season spreads that respected the fact that Philadelphia was the reigning Super Bowl champion, and not what seems to actually be a very mediocre team, they're grouped in with some of the worst teams in the NFL when it comes to covering the spread.
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​Sitting as 6-point favorites in a Monday night game against the Washington Redskins, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, we'll have to see if the Eagles can improve their ATS record.

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Ian McCafferty is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ian McCafferty also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username itmccaff. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.