Week 17 of the NFL weekend is always a tough one for the sports books because they have to be overly cautious and anticipate things that impact playoff implications before and during each game.

Between taking games off the board while others are going and offering lower limits on games that don’t matter, Week 17 is in its own special category because of how unique it is. Because of that uniqueness, most bookmakers relish the moment of being on their toes and snapping together new numbers on the fly.

"I play it cautious and keep my head on a swivel for the entire day," says MGM Resorts VP of Race and Sports Jay Rood. "I don’t like to take games off the board while others have an impact, but I do lower the limits and react fast to all that is going on in the other games going on that impact others. I am much more aggressive in Week 17 than any other week."

While the Cowboys-Giants game is pretty black and white – the winner makes the playoffs - that’s not the case everywhere else.

The Raiders have a chance to win the AFC West with help from the Denver game going on at the same time, but they also have some very possible scenarios for claiming a wild card spot. They’ll likely have half of their wild card equation with effects of the Jets and Titans game already being known by the time they kickoff at 4:15 pm (ET).

During the game, the Raiders will be scoreboard watching with the games in Denver and Cincinnati. All the Bengals have to do is beat the Ravens and they’re in. The Ravens opened as 3-point favorites, but have been bet against down to -2.

"This Ravens game could run quite a bit if the Jets win early putting all the pressure on the Bengals to win," said Rood. "Once that part of the equation is in whether the Jets win or lose, we could see a big jump in the line."

The Ravens are hoping for the Patriots to lose their early game against the Bills giving them a chance for home field throughout the playoffs with a win against the Bengals. Even if the Patriots avenge their loss to the Bills from earlier this year, the Ravens could still get a first round bye with a win regardless of what the Steelers do.

"We know the Ravens will be playing with a strong cause of "win or else" while the Bengals could still get in with a loss and the Jets, Raiders or Broncos losing which doesn’t put them in a win or season’s over situation," said Rood.

The Bengals have been awful against teams with winning records this season with their biggest win coming against the Titans (8-7).

The Raiders have been strong 3-point favorites all week for their game against the Chargers. Most of us will agree, we thought the Chargers usual December run was happening again until last week’s meltdown at Detroit.

Philip Rivers had been 23-2 as a starter in December, but is it time to jump off the strong trend just because of one bad game, or because the game is in January and not this month?

The Raiders buried the Chargers in San Diego as 7-point underdogs behind big efforts from Carson Palmer and Michael Bush. Before beating the Chiefs last week, the Raiders had lost three in a row, failing miserably in games where they controlled their own playoff fate.

What makes this week any different, whether they know they have to get help from Denver losing or all the early scenarios for a wild card?

The Broncos have been in "win and in" position before – three of the last five years with two different coaches and failed each time. Jay Cutler and Kyle Orton were the choke artists in those memorable Denver implosions.

This time Tim Tebow gets the chance to shake an on-going trend with Denver and the postseason or lack of making it in the final week. Despite Tebow’s style being much different than Cutler or Orton, he has the makeup of both with a chance to lose the final three games of the season and miss the playoffs.

The Broncos opened as 3-point home favorites against the Chiefs and are currently at -3½. Denver won at Kansas City 17-10 earlier this season with Tebow leading the charge. Two years ago the Chiefs ended Orton and the Broncos’ season with a 44-24 win at Mile High.

Orton now returns to Denver as a Chief and will make his third start for the team, one of which was a big win against the Packers two weeks ago.

The Titans need all kinds of scenarios to unfold for them to make the playoffs, beginning with the Bengals losing. But the move on them this week is more about the Texans and their young ineffective QB T.J. Yates. The Titans opened as 1½-point road favorites and are now -3.

One of the major off-shore books opened Green Bay as 3-point favorites against Detroit despite knowing the Packers would be giving back-up Matt Flynn most of the playing time. On Tuesday, most Las Vegas books opened the Lions -3 and they are currently -3½.