NFL Handicapping Articles

NFL Betting Odds: Week 11 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 11/17/2017

The Buffalo Bills clearly don't know what they want to be in 2017. The team hired former Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott as the head coach this offseason and essentially gave him full control over the roster. McDermott started cleaning house almost immediately, with his biggest moves in August when he traded No. 1 receiver Sammy Watkins to the Rams and top cornerback Ronald Darby to the Eagles. OK, fine, the Bills were in a rebuilding mode and loading up on draft picks.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Los Angeles Rams at Minnesota Vikings
by Alan Matthews - 11/15/2017

Yes, Sunday night's Eagles at Cowboys game is going to do mega-ratings and betting handle at the various sportsbooks. But Philadelphia has other huge games coming up with trips to Seattle, the LA Rams and a Week 17 matchup against Dallas that probably will become that week's Sunday night game too unless the Cowboys collapse. So, we will have plenty of time to address the Eagles the rest of the way (I do like them to cover the 3 points this week).

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers
by Alan Matthews - 11/14/2017

Before we get to previewing this Thursday's Titans-Steelers matchup in Pittsburgh, I feel almost obligated to recap what a bad beat Cardinals backers got in last Thursday's game vs. Seattle. I didn't think Arizona would win but recommended taking the 6 points as well as the under 40. Final score: Seahawks 22, Cardinals 16. A push on the spread is better than a loss, but it would have been a sweep had Arizona kicker Phil Dawson not had his PAT try after a last-second garbage TD blocked.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 11 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 11/13/2017

What was arguably the second-biggest story of Week 10? I think it's how the one-win Giants went out to winless San Francisco and laid a total egg in a 31-21 loss. I watched much of that game and it was pretty evident a few times that some Giants players were loafing. ESPN reported last week from a couple of anonymous players that McAdoo had lost the locker room. It sure looked like that was the case.

NFL Betting Odds: Week 10 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 11/10/2017

If I had to make a list of the Top 10 coaches in the NFL entering this season with the most job security and not counting first-year guys, you probably start said list with New England's Bill Belichick, Seattle's Pete Carroll, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Kansas City's Andy Reid. I'm not going to do a full Top 10 but I would have included Tampa Bay's Dirk Koetter somewhere near after those five guys.

Jimmy Garoppolo Trade Impact for San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots
by Trevor Whenham - 11/10/2017

After all the talk over the last year or two, we finally have had a Jimmy Garoppolo trade. Two things came to mind. First, in a league so devoid of passable QB talent right now it seems like the Niners got a serious bargain for a well-groomed guy with some playing experience and the world's best mentor. You aren't going to pick a guy with that upside and relatively low risk in the second round very often, so San Francisco has to be happy.

Deshaun Watson Injury Impact on Houston Texans
by Trevor Whenham - 11/10/2017

The frustrating but relentless plotline of this NFL season has been the injuries to key players and stars. Few have been more frustrating - at least to me - than the loss of Deshaun Watson. He showed at Clemson that he knows all about winning, and he had transferred that to the NFL with impressive ease. He was one of the most fun things to watch in a season that has lacked for fun things in general, and now he's gone. It wouldn't be quite as frustrating if the Texans had a strong backup to step up and replace him, but these are certainly not the Vikings and their positive QB intrigue.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers
by Alan Matthews - 11/8/2017

In this writer's humble opinion, the games matching the marquee teams each week aren't always the most interesting ones. For example, the two best matchups on paper this week if you go by the caliber of the franchises would be Patriots at Broncos and Cowboys at Falcons. But it gets tiring previewing New England and Dallas every other week - and there will be plenty of time for that going forward, including likely the playoffs.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals
by Alan Matthews - 11/7/2017

OK, I guess I have to officially believe in the Los Angeles Rams now, so that makes this Thursday's game pretty big between the Seahawks and Cardinals as they chase the first-place Rams in the NFC West. L.A. (6-2) already owns a head-to-head win over the Cardinals and visits them on Dec. 3. The Seahawks hold a head-to-head over the Rams and host them on Dec. 17. Both Los Angeles and Seattle are -110 at BetOnline to win the division with the Cardinals at +2500.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 10 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 11/6/2017

OK, I've had the weekend to process the Deshaun Watson injury. It's nothing short of a catastrophic loss for Houston - sadly less than 24 hours after the Astros won their first-ever World Series title and less than 24 before the city's parade on Friday - similar to that suffered by the Packers when Aaron Rodgers went down. Yes, I compared Watson to Rodgers as the rookie had been that good.

NFL Betting Odds: Week 9 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 11/3/2017

Sometimes I struggle to come up with a lead topic on these Friday stories if there hasn't been a major injury, line move, etc. This week? I could write five of these stories easy. It was perhaps the newsiest week I can ever remember.

NFL Betting Advice: Niners or Browns for Winless Season?
by Trevor Whenham - 11/2/2017

Ten-to-one. That's the price you could get most recently from Bovada if you wanted to bet that the Browns are going to end the season winless. And the price is the same for the 49ers - the other winless squad remaining. Neither team is very good - obviously. But does either have a chance at matching the Lions for all-time futility? And which team offers more value in this wildly entertaining bet - as long as you don't care about either of the teams? Let's put the two teams head-to-head to see which squad has the edge and what we can learn in the end:

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars
by Alan Matthews - 11/1/2017

Here's a sentence I'm not sure that I've typed since being hired by Doc's: it's a potentially playoff-important game for the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9. I suppose the same can be said for the Cincinnati Bengals, but they have been a consistent playoff team for the most part this decade.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Buffalo Bills at New York Jets
by Alan Matthews - 10/31/2017

Last week on Thursday Night Football, we were subjected to Matt Moore vs. Joe Flacco, and the Ravens won an incredibly boring game 40-0. This week, it's Tyrod Taylor vs. Josh McCown, two QBs who probably won't be on their current teams come 2018. And I fully expect Bills-Jets to be rather bland as well. But, you can bet on it, and baseball season will be over, so here we are (I'll be watching Warriors-Spurs).

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 9 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 10/30/2017

We are now at the halfway point of the 2017 NFL regular season, and we still don't have a resolution to this whole Ezekiel Elliott suspension mess. I really didn't want to talk about this again, but it's likely the biggest thing that will happen in the league this week barring a surprising big name traded before Tuesday's deadline.

NFL Betting Odds: Week 8 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 10/27/2017

I'm obligated to tell you that the NFL trade deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. After that, there can't be a single trade made in the league until the 2018 league year begins on March 14 at 4 p.m. ET. Might something significant happen? I suppose, but it's more likely that we will just see small moves.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints
by Alan Matthews - 10/25/2017

I somewhat map out before the season which Sunday game I will most likely preview each week here at Doc's. Of course, there are changes to the schedule because the NFL is a league of parity and there are surprise teams every year, both in a good and bad way. That said, if you had told me I would be previewing Bears at Saints in Week 8 because the game had potential playoff relevance for both, well, I would have never believed it. But here we are.

Expert NFL Handicapping: Most Disappointing Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 10/25/2017

At this point in the NFL season we can break the teams in the league into several groups based on their play so far. There are the teams we know for certain are bad - the Browns and Colts, for example. There are the teams like the Eagles that we are pretty sure are good. And there are a whole bunch of teams that it is tough to know what to think about - New England thanks to the defense, and Seattle thanks to the offensive line, for example.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Miami Dolphins at Baltimore Ravens
by Alan Matthews - 10/24/2017

The worst contract in Major League Baseball right now probably belongs to either Albert Pujols or Miguel Cabrera. They will each be first-ballot Hall of Famers, but their bodies are breaking down and their mega-deals stretch into the 2020s. There are probably too many crappy contracts in the NBA to pick just one, although the Grizzlies' Chandler Parsons and Knicks' Joakim Noah immediately come to mind. Two good players but haven't been healthy for a while.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 8 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 10/23/2017

Does Carson Palmer belong in Canton? Working against the former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick from USC is that he never has played in a Super Bowl. But his regular-season statistics are strong. Palmer has passed for 46,247 yards overall with three teams: the Bengals (who drafted him in 2004), Raiders (where he wasn't very good for two years) and Cardinals (career resurgence). That's more yardage than such Hall of Famers like Dan Fouts, Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas.