With the NFL season finally here, we have individual teams previews at ESPN Chalk for all 32 teams. I give my overall assessment of each team's strengths and weaknesses heading into the season, including my take on how each team will perform against the spread and if they are a good over/under play. I also give my take on each team's future-book odds, including Super Bowl futures and odds to win the division or conference, if I think that's a better bet. Plus, I give my take on each team's over/under season win total.
We're starting with all 16 teams in the NFC.
Odds are from the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook as of Monday, Sept. 5. "FPI Projection" is the number of wins projected by ESPN's Football Power Index. "MLE" is the Money-Line Estimate using the CG Technology Week 1-16 lines and converting them to a money line and their chance of winning each game, then adding those up to get a win total to compare to the betting number "W/L/T" is the record by again going through each team's Week 1-16 lines at the CG Technology books and giving a win for each game favored and a loss for each game as an underdog (Note: each Week 17 game is set as a pick-em. Also, CG Technology closed these lines at the start of the preseason, so I've made adjustments for major injuries.)
NFC: East | West | North | South
AFC betting previews | NFC | Super Bowl bets
NFC East
New York Giants
Super Bowl odds: 18-1 (opened 40-1)
Over/Under win total: 8.5 (Over EVEN/Under -120)
FPI Projection: 8.3 | MLE: 7.9 | W/L/T: 8-7-1
Overview: One of the fallouts of Tony Romo's injury is that the Giants are now the 8-5 favorite to win the NFC East despite having an over/under season win total of eight (same as the Cowboys, but with slightly more juice on the over). The Giants were a disappointing 6-10 last season but at least were profitable (barely) at 8-7-1 against the spread.
Everyone knows about Odell Beckham Jr.'s extraordinary pass-catching abilities