- The National Football League (NFL) regular season will begin on September 9.
- Several NFL teams will be determining their starting quarterback during preseason and practice.
- Sportsbooks are posting proposition odds on which player will start at quarterback in Week 1.
Yesterday we posted some ‘NFL 2021 Starting Quarterback’ prop bet odds covering the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers. Today we’ll look at starting quarterback props for some more NFL teams.
NFL STARTING QUARTERBACK PROPOSITION ODDS
As was the case yesterday the verbiage on these wagers differs from one book to another. Some will say ‘Week 1 Starting Quarterback’ while others will have more specificity and say ‘QB to take first snap in 2021-2022 NFL regular season’. IMO, more specificity is typically better than ambiguity.
CHICAGO BEARS STARTING QUARTERBACK
The quarterback depth chart for the Chicago Bears:
- Andy Dalton
- Justin Fields
- Nick Foles
Unibet (NJ) has this prop priced as follows:
Andy Dalton -500 Justin Fields +300 Nick Foles +2500
Betway (CO) has this prop:
JUSTIN FIELDS TO TAKE CHICAGO BEARS FIRST SNAP IN 2021/2022 REGULAR SEASON
Yes +300 No -450
The ‘party line’ from the Bears is that Andy Dalton is the starting quarterback until further notice. At the same time, there’s a good chance that former Ohio State QB Justin Fields will take over the position at some point during the 2021 season. Chicago signed Dalton to a one year, $10 million USD deal after letting Mitch Trubisky leave in free agency. Meanwhile, the team traded up to take Fields with the 11th overall pick. For his part, Fields is framing the situation as being ‘mentored’ by Dalton. The consensus is that Fields might be physically ready to play QB in the NFL but he’s still learning the playbook and some of the other nuances of the job. He says that his biggest adjustment is calling plays from the huddle since he played no-huddle offense most of the time at Ohio State.
WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM STARTING QUARTERBACK
The quarterback depth chart for the Washington Football Team:
- Ryan Fitzpatrick
- Taylor Heinicke
- Kyle Allen
- Steve Montez
Betway (CO) has this prop:
RYAN FITZPATRICK TO TAKE WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM FIRST SNAP IN 2021/2022 REGULAR SEASON
Yes -900 No +500
Kyle Allen suffered a season ending ankle injury last November. How bad was the injury? It was downright nasty and there was some concern that he’d even walk again, let alone play football. The 25 year old Allen is a tough dude and in May footage of his intense workout session went viral.
WFT head coach Ron Rivera thinks the world of Allen and that sure doesn’t hurt his future prospects. Allen was signed to an exclusive rights tender that will pay him $850,000 USD this season. He’s still trying to return to full health and with a very cost effective salary there’s no reason to rush him back. As of a month ago, Fitzpatrick was the starter though Rivera was pretty equivocal about the situation:
“Ryan has the job right now, and it’s his to have. I’m not gonna say his to lose — I think that’s the wrong way to look at things. It’s his to have. If he goes out and does the things that he’s done in the past, do the things that we saw in OTAs and minicamp, the way that he’s built a rapport with his teammates on both sides of the ball, I think that’s important. We’ll see — but I’m not going to discount Taylor.”
Fitzpatrick will almost certainly be the Game 1 starter though if he struggles you could see Taylor Heinke sooner rather than later.
