The San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs will both have new-look offenses this season when they meet in the second game of a Monday Night Football doubleheader, although for  different reasons.  The Chargers are 4.5-point road favorites on the NFL betting odds despite the fact that they will be without their all-time leading rusher and top wide receiver from last season while the Chiefs have a new offensive coordinator in former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis.

San Diego let running back LaDainian Tomlinson go as a free agent in the offseason and drafted rookie Ryan Mathews out of Fresno State to take his place.  Mathews figures to get a heavy workload as Tomlinson’s replacement and will give the Chargers offense a bigger back with much fresher legs at this stage of his career.  San Diego is also without a pair of holdouts in wide receiver Vincent Jackson and offensive tackle Marcus McNeill.

Malcom Floyd replaces Jackson in the lineup for the Chargers and gives quarterback Philip Rivers another big target after making 45 catches for 776 yards last season.  Rivers is also coming off a career year in which he threw for 4,254 yards and 28 touchdowns, leading the AFC’s top-scoring offense with 28.4 points per game.

Kansas City will simply be trying to improve offensively under Weis after finishing 23^rd in the NFL with 18.4 points per game.  The Chiefs were even worse through the air despite acquiring quarterback Matt Cassel prior to last season, ranking 25^th in the league with 182.6 passing yards per game.  Cassel should grow as a signal caller in Weis’ system, which also helped aid New England quarterback Tom Brady when he was offensive coordinator for the Patriots.

KC’s running game picked up a key cog in the offseason with the acquisition of Thomas Jones from the Jets.  Jones will team with third-year running back Jamaal Charles to form a lethal one-two punch in the offensive backfield.  Charles rushed for 1,120 yards for the Chiefs last season and came on strong down the stretch, totaling 658 in the last four games.

Defensively, Kansas City also has a new coordinator in former Cleveland head coach Romeo Crennel, who also was part of Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl-winning staff with Weis in New England.  The Chiefs ranked 29^th in the NFL in points allowed last year, giving up more than 26 per game.  They also drafted an impact player who should contribute immediately in safety Eric Berry.

San Diego has won the last five meetings with Kansas City, going 3-2 against the spread.  The OVER is 2-0-1 in the last three games between the AFC West foes after consecutive UNDERs to start that stretch.  However, the Chargers have opened 2-3 in each of their three seasons under head coach Norv Turner even though they ended up winning the division each time with strong finishes.  The Chiefs have not lost six straight to San Diego since 1981.

As you know we offer free nfl picks to visitors of the site.  For this game our free pick is on the under 45 of the total.  With 45 being a key number in totals, it might be best to wait and shop around before kick off to try and land a 45.5 at one of the square books.  We also are releasing our 20 Unit NFL Total of the Month today on the Ravens/Jets game.  It should be an easy winner and you get on board by visiting the NFL pick page of the website.