NFL Handicapping Articles

2017 Seattle Seahawks Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/2/2017

Has the championship window closed on the Seattle Seahawks? I believe it's still open for 2017 but then that might be it for a little while. It's no secret that success is expensive in the NFL. Winners get paid, either by their own team or by another on the free-agent market. The Seahawks have made the playoffs and finished with at least 10 wins every season since they selected a quarterback out of Wisconsin in the third round of the 2012 draft named Russell Wilson.

2017 Kansas City Chiefs Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/1/2017

If you told me I absolutely had to win some random regular-season game in the 2017 NFL campaign and I can choose my head coach, I'd go with New England's Bill Belichick. Everyone probably takes Belichick because he might already be the greatest coach in NFL history.

2017 Atlanta Falcons Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/31/2017

While I didn't think the Atlanta Falcons would beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI, I sure as heck was rooting for them to win the first title in franchise history - and obviously they should have won before the biggest collapse in the game's history. Perhaps we should have seen the loss coming because all NFL MVPs since to reach the Super Bowl all lost in it.

NFL Season Win Totals Picks: Best and Worst Value on the Betting Board
by Trevor Whenham - 5/26/2017

NFL season win totals have been out for a short while now, so you might have had a chance to look at them already. As is always the case, there were some that jumped out as being really quite attractive and some that were just awful - and a whole bunch that weren't particularly interesting one way or another. Here's a look at the best and worst NFL season win totals on the board currently at BetOnline:

NFL Season Win Total Predictions: Toughest Teams to Judge
by Trevor Whenham - 5/26/2017

I love NFL season win totals. I don't bet them often - it's tough to justify locking up money that long unless the value is really strong. I love to handicap them, though. It is a good chance to see how your opinion of teams and where they sit matches with the opinions of oddsmakers. If your opinion is wildly different then you have time to figure out why and whether you need to shift your thinking. And, most importantly, I love the totals because they break up the long desert of sadness between football seasons and let us think about the greatest of sports in a meaningful way again.

2017 Houston Texans Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/25/2017

How did Houston's Bill O'Brien not win last season's NFL Coach of the Year Award? O'Brien had to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what at quarterback yet again in 2016 (like he has every season there) as the free-agent signing of former Broncos backup Brock Osweiler was a mega-bust. Osweiler was so bad that he was benched midway through the second quarter of Houston's Week 15 game vs. Jacksonville.

2017 Green Bay Packers Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/24/2017

Dear Packers fans, the next time quarterback Aaron Rodgers tells you to R-E-L-A-X or something similar, listen to the future Hall of Famer. Or simply calm down in the first place and trust in your guy. In 2014, Packers Nation was panicking after three games and a 1-2 start. That's when Rodgers said that famous "relax" quote. Green Bay was just fine that season, winning the NFC North for a fourth straight season and going to the NFC title game, which the Packers should have won in Seattle.

2017 Pittsburgh Steelers Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/18/2017

With arguably the best trio of skill-position triplets in the NFL in quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le'Veon Bell and receiver Antonio Brown, the Pittsburgh Steelers should have finished higher than tied for 10th in the NFL last season in scoring (24.9 ppg). I thought Big Ben would win his first NFL MVP entering last season. He was good, not great.

2017 Dallas Cowboys Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/17/2017

The 1974 NFL Draft class of the Pittsburgh Steelers is widely considered the best ever as the club landed four future Pro Football Hall of Famers in USC wide receiver Lynn Swann at No. 21 overall, Kent State linebacker Jack Lambert at No. 46, Alabama A&M receiver John Stallworth at No. 82 and Wisconsin center Mike Webster at No. 125. All four players earned four Super Bowl rings with the dynastic Steelers.

2017 New England Patriots Road Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 5/11/2017

We are at the point on the calendar where the NBA Playoffs are winding down, so that means it's time to start thinking about the NFL season even though it's largely in a dead period for that sport until after June 1 when teams could release players for salary-cap purposes. For the most part, teams pretty much know what their rosters will look like come training camp in July barring injury or suspension.

NFL Player Props Odds for 2017 Season with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 5/8/2017

The NFL season is still several months away, but there is never really a true offseason in this game. The draft just ended, and now we are into minicamps and the final filling out of rosters. There is still a whole lot we don't know, but it is never too early to guess as what could happen. Bovada has a solid range of interesting player props to look at. Here are the most interesting:

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 5/8/2017

Now that the NFL Draft is over, we finally know where the top offensive talents will be playing and who they will be playing with. That in turn means that it is a very good time to look ahead to the Offensive Rookie of the Year race to see if there are is any value to be had in the futures. We have to recognize, though, that this is a tough game to play - at this time last year no one was thinking that Dak Prescott was going to be relevant, never mind that he would win the award easily. With that in mind here's a look at where we stand right now (odds are from Bovada):

NFL Schedule Release: Most Interesting Games in First Month with Odds
by Trevor Whenham - 4/21/2017

The NFL unveiled their regular-season schedule on Thursday as part of their ongoing quest to be in the news cycle at all times. There will be lots of time to comb over the schedule and look for the best games, the worst, and the ones we are most looking forward to. What I want to do now, though, is focus on first impressions. There are, at first glance, seven games in the first two weeks that are particularly interesting - as both a bettor and a fan.

NFL Draft Betting Props with Expert Wagering Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 4/18/2017

We are now just days away from the NFL Draft - a three-day spectacle that could and should be over in one day, or two at most. It's always a fun event to watch and see how your favorite teams fare. For bettors it can also be a fun event to bet on. My favorite way to bet on the draft is draft position "over/unders". They are a little confusing - oddsmakers offer a total, and you bet the over (that they will be drafted before the listed pick), or the under (that they will still be on the board by the time the listed pick is made).

NFL Handicapping: Judging the Offseason Quarterback Market
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2017

It's not an ideal time to be an NFL team in need of a quarterback - and there are plenty of them. The upcoming draft class lacks a sure thing and is really short on depth. Last year's group was stronger, and top pick Jared Goff still accomplished almost nothing. That means that teams looking to upgrade at the QB position are likely going to be forced to overpay - both in terms of contract and potentially in trade as well - to get one of the guys that are available. This last Super Bowl, and the whole playoffs leading up to them, was just the latest proof of how important QB play is in this league.

Legacy and NFL Glory at Stake in the NFC Championship Game
by Robert Ferringo - 1/20/2017

The Packers will meet the Falcons at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22 for the NFC Title Game. The game will take place in the Georgia Dome and is available for viewing on Fox. The Falcons opened as a 4.5-point favorite in Las Vegas, but several offshore books have moved the spread to 5.0. The total is the set a 60.5 and is the highest playoff betting total in history.

Brady vs. Roethlisberger: Get Ready for an Instant Classic
by Robert Ferringo - 1/20/2017

You never know when it is the last time. The sting of a last smoky scotch. The sweet separation of a final kiss. The last goodbye to a significant soul. "Tempus fugit," as I once saw scribbled on a bathroom stall. And gravity always wins. Yet despite these Immutable Laws of Existence we still take so many moments for granted, unaware of The Final Time.

Expert NFL Picks: Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots Odds & Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/19/2017

Is this season's NFL final four field any good or what? We have future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in New England's Tom Brady, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers. Those three have combined for seven Super Bowl titles, the most of any four conference championship starting QBs since the merger.

NFL Championship Round Public Action Betting Report
by Trevor Whenham - 1/19/2017

This weekend in the NFL features both the fewest games we have seen on a weekend all season and the most important and most scrutinized games of the year. That combination ensures that public betting action will be intense. That, in turn, means that it's definitely worth our while to check in on just how the public is betting on the two games so far and consider what impact that could have on how we bet the games:

Free NFL Picks: Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons Odds and Expert Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/18/2017

By most accounts, this has been the worst NFL Playoffs ever for various sportsbooks, be they of the Las Vegas brick-and-mortar variety or those offshore options listed here at Doc's. The books are 0-8 thus far. The public hammered the four favorites in the wild-card round, and they all won and covered easily.