NFL Team Best/Worst Props - Record - Scoring
The Carolina Panthers are coming off an impressive 15-1 record in 2015, while Cleveland and Tennessee had the worst record in the league at 3-13. Carolina was also the highest scoring team in the NFL last year with 500 points and San Francisco’s 238 total points were the fewest in the league. The following are my picks for all four of these team props for the 2016 NFL regular season based on the current betting odds at 5Dimes.
Green Bay has the best odds on the board for this prop at +575 and I am going chalk with this pick in what could be another Super Bowl run for the Packers. Following a blazing 6-0 start last season, Aaron Rodgers and Co. hit a mid-season swoon with an unexpected three-game losing streak. The Packers went on to finish 10-6 on the year and in second place in the NFC North behind Minnesota.
The early word out of Green Bay is that this entire team has recommitted itself to getting back on top in the NFC this season to lock down the top seed in the conference. Leading the charge himself is Rodgers and, as a two-time MVP quarterback in the league, he already proven he can get the job done.
It is no big surprise that Cleveland is at the top of this list at +350 betting odds to once again post the worst record in the 2016 regular season. I am going to have to go with the favorite again in this prop given everything that has gone wrong with this franchise over the past several years.
Since going 10-6 in 2007, the Browns have only won more than five games twice and heading into this season Hue Jackson will be the fifth head coach brought in to turn things around in the last nine years. I personally think that Jackson is a great choice to try and get this team headed in a positive direction, but without the talent needed to get the job done it is going to be an uphill battle to say the least.
Both Carolina and Pittsburgh are at the top of this list at +750 to score the most points this season, but I am looking to stretch the value in those odds a bit with a play on Arizona at +900 in this prop. Ever since Bruce Arians came to town as head coach in 2013, the Cardinals have been one of the most prolific scoring teams in the NFL. That has helped this team post double-digit victories all three years.
Last season Arizona went 13-3 and it was the second-highest scoring team in the NFL with 489 points. All the key pieces that drove that offense remain in place including Carson Palmer at quarterback throwing the ball to Larry Fitzgerald. Palmer threw for 35 touchdowns last season, which was the most in his 13 years in the league and Fitzgerald was on the receiving end of nine of those scores.
It would be easy to double-down on the Browns in this prop at +700 odds, but the best value in these odds could be with San Francisco at +1000. The 49ers earned the dubious title as the lowest scoring team in the league last season with an average of just 14.9 points a game. The only significant change on that dismal offense from what I can tell is Chip Kelly coming in as the team’s new head coach.
Maybe Kelly can work his magic with Colin Kaepernick to regain the form that made him one of the top quarterbacks in the league a few years back, but the void in talent at most of the other skill positions point toward an offense struggling to score points no matter how fast it tries to run its plays.