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NFL Lines—Future Odds Adjusted After Week 2

by Kevin Taylor | September 23 2009

Two weeks are in the books and although very early, I thought it would be interesting to survey the NFL landscape from a future odds perspective. How have preseason favorites fared? Have surprise performances moved teams up the list, who's dropping down…

Online sportsbooks put out the NFL future odds for the 2009 season almost as the final gun went on Pittsburgh's Super Bowl win back in January. If you are betting online and checking the odds, you saw that it wasn't the Super Bowl champs who were the favorites to win the next Lombardi Trophy, but it was the New England Patriots, as the sports betting community expected a return to health for QB Tom Brady.

With Brady back from a major knee injury, many were predicting that the New England Patriots would once again breeze through and capture the AFC East and the conference, moving on to a Super Bowl win.

But New England has stumbled to start the new season, sitting at 1-1 after two weeks. Brady has looked ordinary so far with 2 TDs, 2 INTs and his QB rating is a paltry 76.8.

But the season is still young and there is plenty of time for the Pats to rebound and when looking at the NFL odds, they are still the favorites to win the AFC championship, currently listed at +350, up from the +320 they were at in the summer.

People were expecting the Patriots to come running out of the gate but the same cannot be said of the New York Jets, who are currently on top of the AFC East with a record of 2-0.

In fact, the Jets' last game was against the New England Patriots and they covered the pointspread as 3.5-point underdogs in a 16-9 win with the Total going Under 45.

New head coach Rex Ryan has his team playing good defense and defense wins championships as they say. Looking at the NFL lines, the Jets are listed at +1000 to take the AFC championship. Could be a little value there for sports bettors.

There were those that asked "Who?" when the Baltimore Ravens selected University of Delaware QB product Joe Flacco in the first-round of the 2008 draft.

Flacco led the Ravens to an 11-5 record SU, a 12-4 record ATS and a berth in the AFC championship in his rookie campaign. He was named 2008 Diet Pepsi NFL rookie of the year.

It looks like Flacco is ready to build on last year's success as the Ravens are tops of the AFC North with a 2-0 record in the early part of the 2009 season.

The Ravens are one of the favorites to take the AFC championship and are currently listed as +600 favorites as opposed to the +1000 they were listed at back in July. The betting trends show us that money has been flowing in on them. Online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM reported a decent amount of action coming in the door on the Ravens after last weekend's win took them to 2-0.

NFC Odds:
There was a day when the San Francisco 49ers were always favored to not only win their division but win the NFC championship and the Super Bowl as well but the Niners have slipped a bit in recent years.

However, San Francisco has won its first two games of the season and it has done so without the use of a Joe Montana, Steve Young or even a Jeff Garcia.

They've done it with the much-travelled QB Shaun Hill behind center.

The Niners' first two victories have come against division rivals and in the weaker NFC West that could go a long way in their quest for a division title.

San Francisco is +1600 to take the NFC championship.

Brett Favre has not resembled the Brett Favre of old in Minnesota with only 265 passing yards through two games and yet the Vikings have the division lead early on in the NFC North.

But what he's lacking in zip he's been making up for in precision as Favre's QB rating currently is 110.2.

Still, he faded down the stretch last season when he was with the New York Jets and the Jets failed to make the playoffs and that same fate could befall Minnesota.

Listed as +500 favorites to win the NFC championship shortly after Favre signed, the Minnesota Vikings now see themselves listed at +600.

Of course, there are 14 more games to play and a lot can change and it probably will.

It is a long season and we're just getting started.

Have a good week.

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