Coop and the professor are joined by Mike the mechanic and we are back talking about sports betting. The NFL is finally here and we give you insight on some over/unders and give you a guide on who we think we are taking. Thank god the NFL is back!
As you can easily see, the odds makers have projected that the top four finishers from last year to once again top their divisions.
There are actually very few surprises here, except that the Colts just dropped from 9.5 to 6.5 with Andrew Luck’s unexpected announcement on Saturday August 24th that he is retiring from football due to chronic injury. I saw this coming when it was announced that his backup wouldn’t start the preseason’s upcoming game and quickly placed an under bet at 9.5. Consider that a lock now. Colts might as well have Jaqueline Bisset at QB as Jacoby Brissett!!!
As always, the Patriots top the list with a projected 11, something they easily do every year since they play in the pathetically weak division of the AFC East, which guarantees them 5 wins every year. That means they only have to win 6 of their other 10 games to hit 11!
The next is a group that were all involved in the Conference Championships last year, Chiefs, Rams and Saints, all at 10.5. Since they all have retained most of their key top players from last year, this is to be expected. But as we all know, it’s very difficult to return to the Championship game, unless of course you’re the Pats.
For the most part, the odds makers essentially predict roughly the same win totals as the teams had the previous year with some notable exceptions. The Browns are everyone’s favorite to win more games than they have in ages, with the total projected at 9.5! Cleveland has added a lot of new playmakers and quarterback Baker Mayfield was much better in his rookie season than anyone expected.
The Jets are predicted to win 7/7.5 after only winning 4 games last year. Most of that is based on second year QB Sam Darnold, who many believe is the real deal and the addition of Le’Veon Bell who has had over a year to rest and get healthy.
With the addition of Antonio Brown and three first round draft picks, The Raiders with Gruden in his second year for his second time around with the Silver and Black are expected to improve over their horrible 4 win total from last year and win at least 6 this year.
Likewise, the 9ers had only 4 wins last year after losing their starting QB Jimmy Garoppolo for the entire year and they are now expected to surge to a 7.5/8 win season.
At the bottom of the barrel are the Giants, Bengals, Cardinals and Dolphins. With totals of 6, 5.5, 5 and 5; respectively. In desperate need of a quarterback, don’t look for the Fish to make any real effort to do anything but secure the first pick in next year’s draft which will be rich with QB’s coming out of college.
With Melvin Gordon holding out and possibly being traded, the Chargers are downgraded to 9.5 after posting a 13-3 record last year. Likewise, Houston has some problems, notably losing their running back Lamar Miller for the year and are not expected to win anywhere near the 11 games they won last year. They are now down to 8.5.