Line It Up: Sportsbooks Aren’t Panicking, Bettors Shouldn’t Either

It's only 15/16ths of the way through the NFL season. Sportsbooks are not panicking. The Rams are double-digit favorites over the Falcons. The Niners are nearly into double digits at home against the Seahawks. There are the 0-1 Packers hosting the 1-0 Bears. Patriots lost and the Steelers won, but the sportsbooks favor the Pats (narrowly) in Pittsburgh. They barely budged the lines for the Week 2.

The Cowboys are the longest shot to win the NFC East at FanDuel. The Bengals-Cowboys line moved by a point or two. Bettors should not panic. There was a monsoon in Chicago, the Rams ran into the buzzsaw Bills and the Packers looked lousy in Week 1 last year.

There are consensus spreads for each of the 16 games in Week 2. Most lines vary by half a point in either direction. The consensus (most commonly found) spreads are for the following games: Chargers at Chiefs, Commanders at Lions, Jets at Browns, Buccaneers at Saints, Panthers at Giants, Patriots at Steelers, Colts at Jaguars, Dolphins at Ravens, Ravens at Dolphins, Falcons at Rams, Seahawks at 49ers, 49er at Seahawks, Bengals at Cowboys, Texans at Broncos, Cardinals at Raiders, Bears at Packers, Bills at Bills, Vikings at Eagles, and Vikings vs. Eagles.

The line for the Patriots-Steelers game is very interesting. Pittsburgh has a good record in the NFL, but they lost to the Bengals and they are without T.J. Watt. The Patriots are also without Mac Jones and lost in Miami.

Seahawks are +328 at Caesars Sportsbook against the 49ers. Nobody expects much from Seattle this season.

Saints are 4-0 vs. Buccaneers in the regular season since Tom Brady came to Tampa. Saints have won seven straight regular-season meetings between these NFC South rivals.

The Jaguars are favored on FanDuel to beat the Colts. The Colts came back from a big deficit to win against Houston.

This week's teaser bets are for teams with 6 points or more. The favorites of 6 or 7 are safe bets if they can be reduced by about a touchdown. This week the options are: Browns, Rams, 49ers, Bengals, Broncos, Packers and Bills. All the teams are home teams playing mediocre-to-sub-mediocre quarterbacks.

The Browns can tease down to -0.5 or +0,5 at home against Joe Flacco and the Jets. Rams can play -4. 5 or -3.

The first week of Survivor pool play didn't go as planned for some, but plenty of popular picks delivered. For the Week 2, the Survivor survivors will gravitate toward the bigger favorites listed in the “textbook teaser” section. Rams are the most popular play this week.

Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert are the favorites for MVP. Jeffery is 80/1 at Kambi books. Brian Daboll is a co-favorite for Coach of the Year. Myles Garrett is the new favorite for Defensive Player of Year, while Saquon Barkley is shortest favorite in Comeback Player Of The Year category. According to DraftKings, the AFC winner is now -125 to win the Super Bowl, and the NFC winner -105.

Brian Daboll has jumped into the Coach of the Year mix as a co-favorite at +800 at FanDuel. Saquon Barkley has the shortest odds for Comeback Player of Year at -500. Washington rookie running back Brian Robinson is also a contender at $700. T.J. Watt is no longer the favorite for Defensive Player Of The Year, and Myles Garrett is now the favourite at +500 at both PointsBet and Fanduel, while the AFC winner is -125 to win the Super Bowl, whereas the NFC winner's is +105.