Green Bay Packers -3.5

This game is in Jacksonville, so no home-field edge for either team.  The bookmakers are telling us that they believe that Green Bay is ~3.5-points better than NO to start out the season.  This line opened at -3 NO in the off-season, but that’s due to Rodgers creating ‘drama’ and holding out.  Once he came back the number flipped to -3 GB, and the Packers were as high as -4.5 at some point when it was announced that the game will take place in Jacksonville.  Well, with almost 70% of the tickets on the Packers, the line has dropped to -3.5 GB, a significant jump.  Saints are rolling out Jameis Winston at QB, they’re without their top-2 WR’s (Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith), and Wil Lutz (their top kicker) is on IR.  But the strength of this team should be the O-line with Kamara running the ball, and their defense, which is projected to be top-10 again this year.  The question is, can you beat the Packers this way?  Rodgers created a lot of drama in the off-season but he’s back in the fold and the team should be focused on trying to win it all this year.  O-line might not be as good in the early going as David Bakhtiari is rehabbing from an ACL injury.  He got hurt on NYE, so might be a while until he’s back in the fold (if at all this season).  Defensively, the Packers should be good, though Za’Darious Smith is already hurt and will very likely miss this game (didn’t practice on Friday).  The team is still starting Kevin King and he got torched repeatedly in that NFC Championship game last year.  If anyone could design a script to beat this defense, it’s Sean Peyton, though can Winston execute it?  The real two questions in this matchup is will Packers’ offense take some time to rev-it-up due to Rodgers missing most of training camp and how will this Drew Brees-less attack look under Winston.  If you can answer both, you have a lock of a bet here.  But let’s remember that Rodgers is a stud, he’s in a familiar offense with familiar players, and the reports out of Green Bay is that the team is completely focused on this season, trying to win it all.  The second part to my question is much cloudier.