NFL is in Full Swing

Besides the traditional spread and over/under bets, we like to mix it up every once in a while with a few more exciting bets. we’ve included a few that caught our eye for Sunday, and they might be of interest to you, too. Either way, this weekend’s games hold a lot of potential for sports bettors. Keep reading to get an idea of where you can best use your money to win even more.

The Games

Indianapolis Colts at Washington Redskins

The Redskins are favored to win this game by 6 points at most books. However, even though they have an advantage in this game—plus home field—6 points still is high. The Colts had a rocky first game last week, losing to the Bengals by 11, but they actually maintained the lead into the 4^th quarter. A young team that has been impacted by injury was the culprit here. A week of practice will help them to put this behind them. The Colts to cover the spread has some potential, but do keep your eye on the news regarding Andrew Luck. He seemed healthy leaving Week #1, but that could change and make this a horrible bet right away.

Miami Dolphins at New York Jets

This is a game that’s going to fly under a lot of radars this week, and that’s good. It means that the line won’t shift too far away from the 3 point advantage that the Jets have been given. The thing to remember about this game is that the home team is given a 3 point favor in most sports book matchups before the line is ever published. With the Jets being home team, that means that these two teams have been evaluated as equal on paper. Both teams won in Week #1, but both teams are definitely not equal headed into this game. As far as the Jets go, we know what we can expect from QB Ryan Tannehill. He’s been in the league long enough for us to say what he’s capable of. With the Jets and Sam Darnold, we have no idea what he can do. With home field, he’s likely to be a little bit more impressive than he was last week, statistically speaking. 3 points should be a spread that he can cover. The Jets covering he seems like an unusually strong selection.

Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers should be the best team in football. With their offense, there shouldn’t be a team that can compete with them. They have struggled a little bit in the past with health and with their defense, but this isn’t a game where that should occur. The Chiefs have a young and inexperienced QB taking the helm, and mistakes are going to be made. Even with a great first Week #1, the Chiefs don’t have the talent and power to take on Pittsburgh yet. The Steelers are favored by 5 points here. That’s very optimistic if you’re rooting for the Chiefs. The Steelers should cover with ease as home team.

MVP?

It’s never too early to start thinking about who the MVP will be. The usual suspects are all listed near the top of most lists: Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Deshaun Watson, and Andrew Luck round out the top five at many sports betting sites. Of these, Brady and Luck can usually be dropped right away, granted that they don’t have a huge number next to their name. Brady and Luck are both phenomenal athletes, but they’re not likely to be the MVP either because of inconsistency or because of a weaker surrounding team.

In fact, most of the best MVP bets are not going to be found in the top five. Rodgers has a realistic shot, but as the consensus favorite, the return that you will see on him (around +300) isn’t really worth it.

Alvin Kamara is one of the more interesting of the choices that I came across at this early point in the year. Yes, there’s a lot of hype working for him right now, and this isn’t always a good thing in these types of bets. However, as a non-QB, Kamara could be undervalued even in light of this. He had a strong Week #1, scoring 2 rushing and 1 receiving TD. He’s paired with the #3 favorite (Drew Brees), which will ensure that his stats stay high all season, and he’s young enough that there’s a possibility that he is capable of even more. If you can find a return of +2500 or better on Kamara, he could easily add some value to your long term bets of the season.

General Advice

One of my favorite “newer” types of bets is determining which team will score first. Depending on the book, this can have a great return, or it can be not worth your time. This is often a good place to find teams that are heavily favored against, and then place a small bet for them. There are a couple reasons for this. One, because they are not favorites, the general betting public will be going against them which can artificially prop up their return. The team is still likely to lose, but if they receive the kickoff first and have a decent offense, the odds that they will score first become 50/50. Long term, this team is still likely to lose and a win bet would not be smart. However, there are cases where this is a good bet if the odds are at even money or better.

Take the Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams game this week. The Rams are heavy favorites—12.5 points at many books. But because the Cardinals have a strong offense at times, there’s a 50/50 chance the they could still score first. Finding the right odds will help you to determine whether or not this is a smart choice.