Keagan Smith shares his favorite player prop bets for Sunday’s NFL Week 15 matchup between the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.
On Sunday afternoon in Week 15, an NFC South showdown with serious stakes takes place in New Orleans. The Saints (3-10) welcome the Carolina Panthers (7-6) to town as the visitors look to protect their lead at the top of the division. The stakes are high in this one, and after Tyler Shough led an upset win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just last week, it seems that anything can happen in the dirty south.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Carolina is a -2.5 road favorite with -155 odds on the Moneyline. New Orleans comes in with +130 ML odds at home with the game total set at 40.5 combined points.
Here are the top player prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Panthers vs. Saints in Week 15.
Panthers vs. Saints best prop bets
Chuba Hubbard 50+ rushing yards (+122)
While Rico Dowdle’s O/U for rushing yards is higher than Chuba Hubbard’s, the latter seems on track to retake control of this backfield committee. In the Panthers’ previous game before the bye, Hubbard saw 17 carries to Dowdle’s 18, but out-snapped his teammate 59% to 42%. What does that mean? Dowdle likely gets early-down work while Hubbard gets the remainder of running back touches. The latter also looked more productive among the pair with 83 yards on his attempts on an average of 4.9 YPC. Nothing appears set in stone, but it’s quite possible that Hubbard is set to remain atop the depth chart in a 1A/1B committee since after all, he was the starter prior an injury earlier in the campaign. Even if he slides into the 1B role again though, the Panthers’ roster is built to run the football and there should be plenty of work available for both halfbacks. If Hubbard is indeed feeling like his old self who ran for 4.8 YPC last season, we could see him rack up yards against a Saints defense ranked 24th in rushing yards allowed per game (130.9). That’s especially the case if game script winds up positive for Carolina, so the plus odds here feel quite good.
Chris Olave 6+ receptions (-107)
The Saints are surprisingly somewhat competitive with Tyler Shough under center, beating the Buccaneers last week and nearly escaping with a comeback win over the Dolphins in the prior game. While the passing yardage totals aren’t particularly high, New Orleans may wind up leaning on the aerial attack some if the team falls behind against a Panthers group that loves to control the clock via the ground game. Chris Olave is a clear top target in the Saints’ offense with at least seven targets in 10 of his 13 appearances, and he’s notched six or more receptions in seven of those 13 overall. Per PFF, Olave is targeted at the ninth-highest rate against zone coverage among all NFL wideouts, a coverage which the Panthers play at the third-highest rate. That sets him up nicely to see a large workload, even with Jaycee Horn on the opposite side as a standout cornerback. With Shough a bit unpredictable, volume-based plays are better than yardage anyways.
