The San Francisco 49ers will host the Los Angeles Rams in a divisional matchup on Monday Night Football. It will mark the return of ESPN2's ManningCast, which was on a hiatus last week.
Bettors absolutely love the Rams in this NFC West matchup. L.A. is a four-point road favorite, but its spread had about 87% of the total money. The Rams' moneyline at a moderately steep -185 has about 79% of the total money at BetMGM.
And the public loves these two player prop bets involving Cooper Kupp and Ben Skowronek, too.
Rams v. 49ers Most Popular Player Prop Bets
- Cooper Kupp to score the game's first touchdown (+600)
- Ben Skowronek to score a touchdown (+1000)
Cooper Kupp has been by far — and I mean by far — the best wide receiver in fantasy football this season.
He's the consensus No. 1 receiver in The Action Network's fantasy football rankings and his average of roughly 18 points a game blows the next-best guy out of the water.
While Kupp averages 17.9 points per game in PPR leagues, the No. 2 most endowed WR only puts up 13.8 in Tyreek Hill.
It's no wonder the public loves this first prop.
Kupp has scored in six of his nine games this season.
If you were to solely use that limited sample size as a predictive measure, that would imply odds of -200.
While there could be value here, touchdown props have a little too much variance for my liking.
If you're bullish on the Rams offense — like I am, especially relative to San Francisco's 25th ranked defense against the pass — I'd just roll with Kupp's receiving yards total at 96.5 (-115).
He's hit that prop in five of nine games this season.
In three of the other four games in which Kupp didn't put up at least 97 receiving yards, the teams had top-10 pass defenses.
Kupp barely missed this prop with 95 yards against the Tennessee Titans, who have the eighth-best pass defense. He again barely missed with 96 yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have the 10th-best pass defense.
This Kupp receiving yards prop is worth a full unit, especially against a bottom tier secondary.
Monday Night Football's second-most popular prop has never happened.
In five career NFL games, Ben Skowronek has never scored a touchdown. But Skowronek is reportedly going to fill in for Robert Woods' typical role after the latter tore his ACL in practice this week.
With the addition of Odell Beckham Jr., it likely that means Skowronek will line up as the team's third or fourth wideout.
For reference, Woods received about 7.7 targets per game over the season's first 10 games.
While fans seem to adore the Northwestern and Notre Dame product, +1000 is an absurdly bad value play for a player that has just three career targets. He has four more touches from returning kickoffs for one game against the Detroit Lions during Week 7.
That's seven total career touches — and it looks like he probably won't be returning punts or kickoffs on Monday, either.
Running back Buddy Howelll subbed in for Skowronek as the main return man for the Rams' game against the Titans.
Meanwhile, Kupp returned kicks for the Rams' game against the Houston Texans.
Yes, Skowronek will see increased volume on Monday. But seven career NFL touches. And for just 10-1 value? Easiest no bet of my life.
