Greg Cote's Thursday night NFL pick

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on Dec 17, 2025

Published in Football

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GREG COTE’S NFL WEEK 16 THURSDAY PICK

RAMS (11-3) at SEAHAWKS (11-3)

Line: LAR by 1 1/2.

Cote’s pick: SEA, 23-20.

TV: 8:15 p.m., Prime Video.

Upset (”Aawwk!”)! What probably is the Game of the Week comes early to christen King Sport’s Week 16 Thursday night. Rams and Seahawks are the two Super Bowl favorites, per DraftKings. The oddity of NFC teams being 1-2 tells you the quality of this pair in an unusually wide-open season. LAR already has clinched playoff spot; SEA will and could this week with a win or a Dallas loss. But bigger stakes are in play, like the NFC West crown and NFC’s No. 1 seed and a bye. Rams won earlier meeting in November, but only 21-19 despite four Sam Darnold interceptions. A third meeting for conference title in playoffs would not surprise. So why the upset pick? Especially with LAR having won its past two trips to the Emerald City? For one, that incentive along with the earlier loss. But mostly: Weather is expected to be rainy and windy and in the 30s, conditions that make me lean not to the team used to the comfort of a dome, but to the home team with the edge on defense. Rams will very likely be without Davante Adams as well. Puka will be Puka, his fantasy owners pray, but Seattle might have best pass defense in NFL, giving up a league-low 104.7 total yards per game on average to opposing wideouts.

(Betting line courtesy DraftKings as of Wednesday afternoon.)