Falcons benching Marcus Mariota for rookie, plus ranking NFL’s top-five MVP candidates and Rams-Raiders picks

Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

The NFC South already has the craziest division race in the NFL this season, and now it’s going to get even crazier because the second-place team in the division (Atlanta) has decided to bench its starting quarterback (Marcus Mariota). As you probably figured, the biggest winner here is Tom Brady, who now gets to face two rookie quarterbacks (Brock Purdy and Desmond Ridder) over the final five weeks of the season. Tom Brady is always the winner. 

We’ll be covering more on the Falcons‘ QB switch in today’s newsletter, plus we’ll be previewing tonight’s game between the Rams and Raiders. Also, we’ll be taking a look at the top-five MVP candidates, so let’s get to the rundown. 

As always, here’s your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the Pick Six newsletter. To get your friends to sign up, all you have to do is click here and then share this link with them. 

1. Thursday night preview: Prepping you for Raiders at Rams

Tonight’s game is being played in Los Angeles, which I’m only telling you about because it’s hard to keep track of where these two teams play each other. This will be the third different city these two teams have met in over their past three meetings, joining St. Louis (2014) and Oakland (2018). This is a huge game for the Raiders, who could sneak back into the playoff conversation with a win. 

My good buddy Jared Dubin wrote our deep-dive preview for this game here at CBSSports.com, and here’s how he sees the game playing out:

• Why the Raiders can win: The Raiders have two of the most productive offensive players in the NFL right now in Josh Jacobs and Davante Adams, and they’ll be going up against a depleted Rams defense that will be without multiple starters, including Aaron Donald, outside linebacker Terrell Lewis and cornerback David Long Jr.. With the Rams hurting, the Raiders offense should be able to light up the scoreboard, and if that happens, they’ll almost certainly win because the Rams don’t have the offensive firepower to keep up.
• Why the Rams can win: The Rams are missing nearly offensive weapon on their roster, including Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson — and they could be down to their third-string QB….