New Orleans Saints -5.5

This spread opened at -3.5 NO in the offseason and has now moved up to -5.5.  Sure the public is fading the Falcons heavy but the initial sharp money that came in on the Saints is what caused the line to move.  Winston’s ACL seems to have healed just fine, Saints have added weapons on offense (Landry, Olave), and the defense looks to be an elite unit once again.  The Falcons are projected to be one of the worst teams in the league which isn’t a surprise as the team has over 1/3^rd of their salary-cap tied up in dead-money (most of it is due to Matt Ryan).  Their best WR is suspended for the year, their starting RB is a bit of a gimmick who won’t be as successful as he was last year as teams figure him out a bit, and Marcus Mariota is back to being a starter here.  I hope he learned to get rid of the ball quickly as this Saints D will come after him in this one.  To me the Saints are a much better team, and though I hate taking road-favorites this early in the year, I believe this game is going to be extremely one-sided.