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ESPN Senior Writer- Fantasy football, NFL analyst for ESPN
- Member of Pro Football Writers of America
- Founding director of Pro Football Focus Fantasy
- 2013 FSTA award winner for most accurate preseason rankings
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ESPN Staff Writer- ESPN Insider college football contributor
- Has published his annual college football preview magazine for the past 18 years
With the NFL season finally here, we have individual team previews at ESPN Chalk for all 32 teams. Below, ESPN's Mike Clay and Phil Steele offer their overall assessments of each team's strengths and weaknesses heading into the season, along with best bets.
Click on the links below to go directly to your team.
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN | CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND | JAC | KC | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN | NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | OAK | PHI | PIT | SF | SEA | TB | TEN | WAS
Odds are from the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook as of Wednesday, Sept. 6.
"FPI Projection" is the number of wins from ESPN's Football Power Index.
For Clay's rankings, 'Team' refers to each team's roster strength ranking relative to the league's 31 other teams. 'Schedule' is a ranking of each team's strength of schedule based on current roster talent. The lower the number, the easier the slate. Each team's projected wins are shown, as well as, how many games Clay expects them to be favored in this season.
Best bets for all 32 teams | Best Week 1 bets | Super Bowl LII bets
AFC East
Buffalo Bills
Super Bowl odds: 200-1 (opened 80-1)
Over/under season win total: 6.5 (O +130/U -150)
FPI projection: 6.6 wins
Phil Steele:
Overview: The Bills have the NFL's longest playoff drought, last getting to the postseason in 1999 (Music City Miracle). They let Rex Ryan go and brought in Sean McDermott, who had been the defensive coordinator with Carolina and Philadelphia. They have their fourth offensive coordinator in four years: Rick Dennison, who comes over from Denver. The defense switches from a 3-4 to a 4-3.
Buffalo was middle of the road in the NFL for yardage on offense and defense, ranking No. 16 and 19 respectively. They were not far from a winning record last year at 7-9 with four net close losses, but their seven wins came versus six teams with a losing record and a New England team down to its third-string quarterback. In the past four years, the Bills are dead even at 31-31-2 ATS.
Super Bowl LII odds: The Bills are 20-1 to win the division, 100-1 to win the AFC and 200-1 to win the Super Bowl. Those are big odds, but I have no interest in any of them.
Over/under: Buffalo's schedule gets tougher this year. While Carolina, Cincinnati, New Orleans and the LA Chargers all had losing seasons last year, I think they are all playoff-caliber teams. The Bills are favored in seven games by the early lines at CG Technology. However, my main three sets of power ratings call for Buffalo to win six games this year, so I will lean with the Under.
Mike Clay:
Team: 28 | Schedule: 25 | Projected wins: 5.7 | Favored: 2
Strengths: The Bills have ranked top-10