Legal Sports Betting

Eagles Head to Kansas City a Slight Week 2 Favorite

By Joe Tansey

Published: Sep 12th, 2025 · 4:22 PM EDT

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The Eagles have a rare honor bestowed upon them for Week 2, at least as of Friday afternoon.

The Birds are a 1.5-point favorite at ESPN Bet for their Sunday road clash with the Kansas City Chiefs. If the line holds, it will be just the second time in which Patrick Mahomes starts a home game as an underdog.

The Over/Under sits at 46.5. The over cruised above this number in both Super Bowl meetings and there were 72 points in the 2021 regular-season meeting. The 2023 regular-season clash had 38 points.

Being a favorite against Mahomes and Co. historically has not gone well. The Chiefs are 14-5-1 as a dog since Mahomes took over the starting job in 2018.

Kansas City comes into Sunday on a 12-game winning streak inside Arrowhead Stadium and with a 3-1 mark against the Eagles under Andy Reid.

The Eagles defense solved how Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Co. operate during the Super Bowl blowout. The offense exploited plenty of holes inside the Kansas City defense.

Kansas City is in a tough spot offensively because Rashee Rice is suspended and Xavier Worthy is dealing with a shoulder injury. Worthy has practiced this week, but it’s hard to tell how much of an impact, if any, he has on the game itself.

That leaves Kelce, Hollywood Brown, and JuJu Smith-Schuster as the top targets for Mahomes. If Mahomes wasn’t the quarterback, this offense would look very average on paper, but Mahomes was still able to throw for 258 yards in the Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Eagles secondary, well, didn’t look great. That’s the worrying part about Sunday. Mahomes will still try to air it out, and if Brown and JuJu can combine for 154 yards against the Chargers, they could do so against the Birds, too.

It looks like the Birds will be short-handed with Dallas Goedert not practicing this week. Unfortunately, we’re used to Goedert being down for a few games each year, but the Birds might be better equipped to handle his absence in the passing game if Jahan Dotson plays more of a role behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. I wouldn’t try to get my hopes up about Grant Calcaterra.

I know I sold you DeVonta Smith pretty hard in Week 1, but I haven’t learned from my mistakes and I’m going to do it again in Week 2. Smith produced receiving yard totals of 99, 122, 100 and 69 in his four career meetings with the Chiefs.

Smith’s receiving-yard prop is higher than last week’s number at Over/Under 63.5, but I would take it based on his history against KC and assuming that A.J. Brown is not 100 percent yet.

For an Eagles-centric ESPN Bet SGP, I’d use Smith 60+ receiving yards, Saquon Barkley 60+ rushing yards and Jalen Hurts 40+ rushing yards to get you to +279.

If you’re inclined to throw in Chiefs players, I think there’s an opportunity for profit. I would certainly buy Kelce’s Over 43.5 receiving yards. He has a knack for showing up in big spots and he could exploit a softer underbelly of the Eagles defense.

The over on Smith and Kelce’s receiving yards are my favorite straight prop bets. Smith 60+ receiving, Barkley 60+ rushing, Hurts 40+ rushing and Kelce 40+ receiving gets you to +513.

Kinkead: Make sure to check out my infallible weekend bets as well. And don’t forget about online slots and online casinos. We’re going to the moon!