NFL Expert Picks, Week 6: Experts love the Bucs over the Steelers, but will they cover?

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are slated to face off in Week 6 of the 2022 regular season, and there are a lot of narratives between these two teams. For the Bucs, they are trying to find some consistency, especially on the offensive side of the ball, and prove they are the cream of the NFC South crop.

As for the Steelers, they turn the page to a new quarterback, and a new era of Steelers football, with Kenny Pickett now at the helm for his first home start of his career. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the team, and there remain huge question marks surrounding the team as they continue further into the regular season.

For those who follow the current betting lines, the Steelers opened as 14-point road underdogs, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

(Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.)

At this point, it is time to check in and see who the pundits, who call themselves experts, like in this showdown in Pittsburgh this Sunday.

As you can imagine, this game in a Buccaneers love fest. Every possible outlet, from ESPN, SB Nation, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports and CBS Sports alike are all-in on Tampa Bay to win on Sunday.

Those are sites where people just check a box on a website and move on with their lives. However, there are some who spend more time pouring over these picks, and provide some analysis than just a winner and loser.

For those type of experts, one which is talked about a lot is Pete Prisco of CBS Sports. Prisco predicts an easy Bucs win in Week 6.

This will be Kenny Pickett’s first home start. It won’t be easy against that Tampa Bay defense. He did some good things at Buffalo, but that game was over early. This one won’t be. The Bucs will pull away late, but Pickett and the offense will be better.

Pick: Bucs 30, Steelers 21

Like Prisco, Bill Bender of The Sporting News sees not just Tampa Bay winning, but covering the 8-point spread.

The Steelers hit rock bottom with a 38-3 loss to Buffalo, and it won’t get better with Tom Brady coming to town. Brady is 12-3 against Pittsburgh (including playoffs), and he is coming off back-to-back 300-yard games on 52 pass attempts the last two week. Kenny Pickett also had a 300-yard game on 52 pass attempts, but that was in catch-up mode. This will be more of the same.

Pick: Buccaneers 28, Steelers 18

Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com is another expert who submits weekly picks, and he too sees a closer game than many fans are expecting.

Kenny Pickett has played better than his numbers indicate, and Tampa Bay’s secondary is the latest part of this team to be incredibly banged up. Everything is hard for these Bucs at the moment, with the offense struggling to run and moving the ball 7 yards at a time. Expect this game to be hard, too.

Pick: Buccaneers 24, Steelers 20

The folks at ProFootball Network (PFN) like the Steelers to keep it close, but for Tampa Bay to win this one outright:

Kenny Pickett got a bad break, with his first two NFL starts coming against the Bills and Bucs. But he should generate more offense against a Tampa Bay defense that hasn’t played as well on the field as they look on paper. Najee Harris needs to get going, or else we could see even more from Jaylen Warren. Either way, Pittsburgh is loaded enough on offense — even if Pat Freiermuth (concussion) sits — to keep this one close.

Was anyone else surprised by the Bucs’ narrow victory over Atlanta this past weekend? The Falcons actually had a chance to win it, but they took two penalties on third downs in Tampa Bay’s final drive and never got the ball back. Of course, one of those penalties probably wasn’t a penalty. Regardless, there are no more excuses for Tampa Bay, who is merely 3-2 and last in the league in yards per carry (3.1).

Against-the-spread prediction: Steelers

Moneyline winner: Buccaneers

These are just a few sites who make weekly NFL picks. When you think about all those sites not listed above, this is when we turn to our friends at NFL Pick Watch, a site dedicated to tracking NFL expert picks by the week. They take all expert picks and put them into an easy-to-read graph for fans to enjoy. When it comes to the Steelers vs. Buccaneers game, a whopping 98% of NFL experts like the Bucs straight up, and still 75% of the experts like the Buccaneers to win on the road and cover the 8-point spread on Sunday.

What do you think about the upcoming game? Will the experts have it right? Or are they way off? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, and be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black and gold as they prepare for the Buccaneers in Week 6.