NFL Handicapping Articles

Handicapping the 2015 NFC East Schedule with Important Games and Predictions
by George Monroy - 5/18/2015

Year in and year out the NFC East continues to be one of the most interesting, dysfunctional, talented, yet overdramatic divisions in the entire NFL, and the 2015 season will not be any different. Tim Tebow is back in the league, the Dallas Cowboys are Super Bowl contenders, Chip Kelly might be a genius or just completely insane, New York is still in shambles and Washington continues to let the Robert Griffin III drama play itself out. The one thing football fans can count on is the entertainment value coming out of the NFC East.

Odds for the 2015 New England Patriots NFL Home Schedule
by Alan Matthews - 5/15/2015

Are you ready for a summer of football? Welcome to my first schedule analysis looking toward the 2015 NFL season. I will break down all 32 teams' schedules into their home and road slates and try to give you relevant betting trends and advice on each. You can look for actual team-by-team previews later this summer. This will be simply opponent-based.

Handicapping the 2015 AFC West Schedule with Important Games and Predictions
by George Monroy - 5/14/2015

The NFL season is still months away, and the football-hungry media has been forced to feed off the draft and New England Patriots scandal over the last few weeks. For bettors, however, it is never too early to begin thinking about next season's wagers and where the value might lie for certain teams. The 2015 NFL schedule has already been released, so we might as well take a closer look at the AFC West, go over important games and make a few predictions for the upcoming season. All odds come from Bovada.

Handicapping the 2015 AFC North Schedule with Important Games and Predictions
by George Monroy - 5/14/2015

The AFC North is always a tough division with Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati usually in playoff contention and at least one of them also being a Super Bowl threat. Last season the division was even more prosperous than normal with all three teams producing 10 wins or more and Cleveland ending the year with a 7-9 mark.

Handicapping the 2015 AFC East Schedule with Important Games and Predictions
by George Monroy - 5/13/2015

The biggest news coming out of the NFL post draft has been Tom Brady and "Deflategate" punishment. If Brady's four-game suspension holds, the AFC East may be wide-open for the first time in years, and someone other than New England could capture the division crown that has gone to the Patriots in 11 of the last 12 seasons.

NFL Handicapping: How Tom Brady's Suspension Will Impact New England
by George Monroy - 5/12/2015

The NFL dropped the hammer on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots late Monday afternoon for their roles in the "Deflategate" controversy back in January. Brady was hit with a four-game suspension (which he plans to appeal), while New England was fined $1 million and relieved of a first- and fourth-round draft picks in 2016 and 2017. The punishment was in line with what most industry experts predicted, even though it fell on the harsher side of Commissioner Roger Goodell's range.

Updated NFL Season Win Total Odds Released in Las Vegas
by Raphael Esparza - 5/7/2015

So the highly-overrated NFL Draft is in the books, and most key free agents are already signed. Now we can really concentrate on the NFL futures market. CG Technology (Cantor Gaming) released their 2015 NFL Total Season Wins soon after the Patriots hoisted the Super XLIX trophy, and now with Westgate Las Vegas posting their numbers we can see the difference three months makes in NFL futures betting market.

2015 NFL Draft Grades
by Robert Ferringo - 5/4/2015

The 2015 NFL Draft will be defined by the careers of the top two picks, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. The two quarterbacks are tasked with revitalizing two feeble franchises – immediately – and spent the weekend basking in praise and promise from every football analyst from Seattle to South Beach.

2015 NFL Draft Betting: Additional Prop Picks
by Alan Matthews - 4/30/2015

My cohort Aaron Smith has already written about some NFL Draft props here at Doc's, with the first round on Thursday night in Chicago. Round 2 is Friday night and then the final rounds are Saturday, and in an interesting twist will be announced outdoors -- the weather is going to cooperate in the Windy City. You can expect the sportsbooks to release some updated props after Round 1 for any potential big names still on the board.

2015 NFL Draft Betting: Props Odds and Expert Wagering Picks
by Aaron Smith - 4/28/2015

It's almost time for the NFL Draft once again. Sure, it may be more than four months until we see regular-season NFL action again, but the draft is a great reason to get excited for football once again. This is an underrated time of the year for sports fans. The NBA is in the playoffs, Major League Baseball is in full swing, and the NFL Draft now is a three-day spectacle that motivates every fan base. There's plenty to look forward to as a sports fan!

NFL Odds & Trends: Schedule Glances at Top Super Bowl Contenders
by Alan Matthews - 4/22/2015

The NFL released the 2015 schedule on Tuesday, one of the great offseason days for a football fan. We both know that you (and I) went through every game on your favorite's teams schedule and said either "win" or "loss." Amazing how every fan has his team winning at least 11 games. I guess that's what the offseason brings: (sometimes silly) optimism. Here I will look at the top-four contenders to win Super Bowl 50 on Bovada along with Week 1 opening odds from BetOnline. Expect 2015 win totals at sportsbooks soon after the draft.

NFL Offseason Betting Report: Handicapping Some Early Futures Odds
by Dave Schwab - 4/1/2015

The initial mad rush of free agency signings has passed, and the debate over the top picks in the upcoming NFL Draft still rages on. This is all part of the painstaking process of getting through the NFL offseason until we once again have actual games to bet on.

NFL Betting: Offseason Report and Super Bowl 50 Odds
by Dave Schwab - 2/23/2015

It has been only three weeks since New England’s thrilling 28-24 victory over Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX, but it feels like an eternity for anyone who loves to wager on the NFL. Most of the sportsbooks have already posted their futures odds to win next season’s Super Bowl, and if you go to Bovada you will even find betting odds for the game. The NFC is a 2.5-point favorite, and the total has been set at 50.5 for Super Bowl 50.

NFL Handicapping: What Lies Ahead for Patriots and Seahawks
by Trevor Whenham - 2/5/2015

A few days have passed since the craziest Super Bowl in recent memory. The whole fourth quarter, and especially the final few seconds, don’t make any more sense now than they did at the time, but the excitement certainly hasn’t faded. We can’t dwell in the past, though — we have to keep looking forward. The Seahawks and the Patriots go into next season with a lot of respect — Seattle is favored to win next year’s Super Bowl, and New England is the second choice.

Super Bowl 50 Futures: Shopping for the Best Betting Odds
by Dave Schwab - 2/4/2015

The city of Boston is still trying to clear the streets of snow for a victory parade following New England’s stunning come-from-behind victory against Seattle in this NFL season’s Super Bowl, and most of the sportbooks have already posted their initial futures odds to win next season’s NFL Championship in Super Bowl 50.

2015 Pro Bowl Betting: Handicapping the NFL in Hawaii
by Trevor Whenham - 1/22/2015

I love sports, and I’ll watch pretty much anything. There is one big exception, though — I wouldn’t watch the Pro Bowl unless my life depended on it, and even then I would have to think about it. It’s a horrible game and a total waste of time and energy. Awful. The only thing that could only possibly salvage some shred of worth from the useless game, though, is that you can bet on it. I’m not proud — if there is value I’ll bet on something that I wouldn’t watch.

AFC Championship Game Handicapping: Keys for Betting
by Trevor Whenham - 1/14/2015

When we have a whole week to handicap just two football games like we do this week, it can be easy to get distracted by storylines that sound compelling but ultimately aren’t particularly meaningful from a betting perspective. It is important for handicappers, then, to be able to tell the difference between the key factors that will decide who wins and who loses and the distractions that will lead us away from the bets we need to make. In this year’s AFC Championship Game there is no shortage of both types of stories — the keys and the major distractions.

Early Super Bowl Pointspread: Which Conference Has the Advantage?
by George Monroy - 1/14/2015

The NFL is down to its final four teams with only two games remaining before the Super Bowl. Most bettors are probably focused on handicapping the matchups at hand and will turn their attention to the big game once Sunday’s results are known. Sportsbook.ag, however, already has a Super Bowl line posted on its site, and it installed the NFC as a three-point favorite over the AFC.

Betting on the NFC Championship Game: Handicapping Keys and Possible Distractions
by Trevor Whenham - 1/14/2015

The biggest challenge that football bettors face this week in the NFL may be that they have too much time. There are only two games to break down, and there are no college games to distract them. That makes it way too easy to get distracted by storylines that aren’t ultimately that significant to the outcome and not give the biggest storylines the most attention. In an attempt to help you stay on the straight and narrow leading up to the NFC Championship, scheduled for Sunday in Seattle, here are three of the biggest keys that will determine the outcome of the game and the three biggest distractions that are going to get much more attention than they warrant from a betting perspective:

NFL Championship Games Betting: Avoiding Public Bias
by Trevor Whenham - 1/13/2015

When you are handicapping any game you need to be aware of the potential public biases and the impact that that can have on how the lines are set and how they are move. The more betting attention a game gets, though — especially if that betting attention features a high proportion of uninformed and unsophisticated bettors — the more aware you need to be of the likely biases and what they mean for bettors. In the AFC and NFC Championship Games, then, public biases are going to play a massive role — second only to the Super Bowl in football betting.