Saints Have Opportunity Against Injury-Plagued Chiefs

In today’s newsletter…

• Leading Off: The Vikings’ unlikely success

• NFL: Saints have NFL-best 22.2% opponent red-zone TD rate

• MLB: Yankees are batting just .235 against lefties

• WNBA: Points should be tougher to come by in decisive Game 5

• NBA Futures: Warriors win total is currently set at 44.5

• Overtime: LeBron and Bronny make NBA history

When the Vikings lost Kirk Cousins to the Falcons, most people expected a down year in Minnesota. Cousins reportedly left because of the Vikings’ plan to draft a QB, which they did in Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy. But things didn’t quite turn out as planned. Minnesota signed Sam Darnold, who had 10 wins in the past four seasons combined, but he’s now 5-0 with the Vikings while McCarthy is out for the season with a torn meniscus.

Darnold has a passer rating over 100, star receiver Justin Jefferson has four TDs (2nd-most in the league), and the team has a league-high 11 forced interceptions. BetMGM had Minnesota at +10000 to win the Super Bowl to start the season — 22 teams had a better chance, according to the sportsbook. Now, the Vikings could be the only undefeated squad left in the NFL after tonight and are down to +1200 odds to win it all.

In today’s newsletter, Jack is covering Monday Night Football, Craig is tracking the MLB playoffs and Chris has the WNBA playoffs and a few NBA futures.

- Abe Rakov