Saints vs. Titans | NFL Week 17 Breakdown & Best Bets: Shough It Up
Written by: Varun Sharma
Published: Sun Dec 28, 2025, 5:09 am ET
Read Time: 5 minutes
nfl
The Saints head to Tennessee this week looking for their fourth straight win and fourth win under Tyler Shough. The Titans finish off their year with the Saints and the Jaguars, both at home.
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Game Information
Matchup Information
- Location: Paycor Stadium; Cincinnati, Ohio
- Date: Sunday, December 28th, 2025
- Kickoff: 1:00 PM EST
Quarterback Matchup
- New Orleans Saints: Tyler Shough (2024 – N/A)
- Tennessee Titans: Cam Ward (2024 – n/a)
Betting Odds
Odds via Lucky Rebel, an industry leader in the sports betting world.
Analysis & Breakdown
Shough it Out
Tyler Shough is the guy in New Orleans and this Saints team has won three games in a row for the first time since 2022. Shough took over for Spencer Rattler in Week 8 and he hasn't looked back since. He's averaging 237.7 pass yards per game, completing 68% of his passes with 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.
Shough's finally been able to open up the offensive playbook and air out the ball over the last four weeks and it's resulted in a 3-1 record for the Saints. In these four games, Shough's thrown an average of 34.8 pass attempts per game, averaging 240.8 paas yards per game and has thrown four touchdowns to two interceptions.
Olave's been on the receiving end of a ton of these looks and it's resulted in 37 total targets, 23 receptions for 310 yards and four receiving touchdowns. Olave's been the guy to get this Saints team into the endzone this year and this week they face a very porous secondary.
Tennessee Two-Step
The Titans aren't good and all they've got to look forward to is a high draft pick in next year's draft. The team ranks 26th in points allowed, 26th in opponent redzone efficiency, 22nd in opponent pass yards and 24th in opponent yards per play.
The offense hasn't been any better, ranking 30th in points, 20th in redzone efficiency, 30th in pass yards and 29th in rush yards. The team's gaining just 4.1 yards per play (31st) and haven't done a good job of keeping Cam Ward on his feet.
Speaking of Cam Ward, the rookie QB's averaging 191.3 pass yards per game with 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He's completing just 60.2% of his passes and it does give me a little pause when trying to bet anything on the Titans with confidence.
The team lacks consistency on both sides of the ball and it's why we've seen teams continue to have career days against the Tennessee. With two teams looking to do battle that aren't playing for much, it's on us to find the motivations and try to figure out what props to take.
Sunday's Best Bets
Juwan Johnson o46.5 Receiving Yards (-103) | Lucky Rebel
Juwan Johnson's been great for the Saints this year. Johnson sits second to only Chris Olave in targets, receptions, receiving yards and is averaging just under 50 receiving yards per game.
Tennessee ranks 22nd in pass yards allowed and this week it's Juwan Johnson about to do the damage. Johnson's coming off a game in which he saw 9 targets, catching 8 for 89 yards and no touchdowns.
The Saints have been more than happy to run their offense through Johnson at times, especially when the matchup calls for it. This week with the Saints were eliminated from playoff contention, so I took a deep dive into see which one of these guys is still looking.
Johnson currently sits 67 yards shy of another $250,000 bonus and with limited motivation for both teams, you've gotta think Johnson's got about 250,000 reasons to have a big game this week.
The Titans rank 22nd in pass yards allowed per game and it could be a lot worse if this team wasn't playing from behind so consistently. This week in a battle of bad, I'm looking for Johnson to have a big game and finish this season on a high note.
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