Thursday Night Football is here between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers to kick off Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season, and bettors looking to place wagers on this game can use the BetMGM bonus code CBSSPORTS to get either $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins or up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your first bet loses. Sign up for BetMGM Sportsbook here:

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Best bets on Wednesday

It's been a strange start to the 2025 season for both the Vikings and the Chargers. After winning 14 games last year, Minnesota let Sam Darnold walk in free agency in order to hand QB1 duties over to 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy missed all of his rookie year due to injury while Darnold was a Pro Bowler, and after starting the first two games of 2025, McCarthy has been sidelined with an ankle injury. That's opened the door for Carson Wentz to start for Minnesota, and he's played fairly well in relief of McCarthy. Minnesota enters this week with a 3-3 record.

On the other side, Justin Herbert and the Chargers were awesome to begin the season, starting 3-0 with wins over the Chiefs, Raiders and Broncos. Herbert was dynamic passing the ball, Keenan Allen looked like his old self and it appeared Los Angeles may be the team to beat in the AFC West. Herbert has been turnover-prone of late, though, and the Chargers have lost their top two running backs and lost two of their last three games and sit at 4-3 ahead of Thursday.

The Chargers are favored at home for this matchup, but the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, is backing Minnesota on the money line as the Vikings win in 43% of simulations at plus money.

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