- Sportsbooks have started to post a variety of player and team performance props for the 2021 National Football League (NFL) regular season.
- NFL teams are currently in training camp where they will cut down their roster down to 53 players and determine their starters at each position.
- The NFL regular season will begin on Thursday, September 9 as the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Dallas Cowboys.
It’s a well known fact that NFL football betting is the king of North American sportsbooks. No other sport generates more betting action–the NFL is number one by a significant margin over college football. That’s one big reason that sportsbooks like to get an early start on offering NFL betting opportunities. In recent years, betting on the NFL Draft has grown in popularity and sportsbooks are showing more creativity when it comes to season-long futures and proposition odds.
There are always plenty of interesting storylines that accompany every new NFL season and in the past couple of years the COVID-19 has added another unique and challenging dimension to the game for both teams and handicappers alike. The 2021 NFL season should bring a greater sense of normalcy thanks to COVID-19 vaccines. The Las Vegas Raiders are the first team to announce that proof of vaccination will be required of all fans to attend home games at Allegiant Stadium. This will allow fans to enjoy games without wearing a mask. The team will have a vaccination clinic on site–any fans that try to enter without proof of vaccination will be required to get one and will then be allowed inside provided they wear a mask. Fans between the ages of 2 and 11 who aren’t eligible for the vaccine can attend games but must wear a mask. Other teams will likely follow the lead of the Raiders.
Player personnel decisions are also an interesting component of the NFL preseason. One unique storyline came to an end today–the Jacksonville Jaguars cut former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Tebow was trying to make the team playing tight end after years as a quarterback. Tebow had been invited to camp by his college coach Urban Meyer who is in his first year at the helm of the Jaguars. In San Francisco, a once highly touted prospect may have reached the end of the road. The 49ers waived quarterback Josh Rosen, the tenth overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. This means that the Niners will go with either Jimmy Garoppolo or Trey Lance as their starter with veteran Nate Sudfeld now locked in as the third option on the depth chart.
Some questions are the same every year–will any team go undefeated? Will an undefeated team advance to and win the Super Bowl? Will any of the league’s bottom feeders go through the entire schedule without winning a game? Sportsbooks are posting a variety of props posing these and similar questions with some of the most interesting coming from BetOnline.ag:
PERFECT SEASON
ANY TEAM TO GO 17-0 IN THE REGULAR SEASON? YES +1200
ANY TEAM TO GO 20-0 WINNING SUPER BOWL? YES +3300
ANY TEAM TO GO 0-17 IN THE REGULAR SEASON? YES +1200
NFL teams will play 17 regular season games this year which is uncharted territory. The only team to go through the season undefeated *and* win the Super Bowl was the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins went 14-0 in the regular season and won all three playoff games to go 17-0 on the year. The 2007 New England Patriots went a perfect 16-0 in the regular season but lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. As far as winless teams, the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs went 0-14 as a first year expansion team. Two teams have gone winless since the schedule was increased to 16 games–the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns.
REGULAR SEASON PLAYER PROPS
BetOnline.ag also has some regular season player props posted. Some of these are a derivative of the Starting Quarterback Proposition Odds that we posted earlier this Summer. In addition, new props have been posted based on events of *future* NFL seasons:
AARON RODGERS PACKERS QB GAME 1 OF 2022-2023 REGULAR SEASON?
No -300 Yes +200
BILL BELICHICK PATRIOTS HEAD COACH GAME 1 OF 2022-2023 REGULAR SEASON?
Yes -1000 No +550
COLIN KAEPERNICK TO PLAY IN THE NFL THIS SEASON?
No -5000 Yes +1200
DEREK CARR RAIDERS QB GAME 1 OF 2022-2023 REGULAR SEASON?
Yes -140 No +100
DANIEL JONES GIANTS QB GAME 1 OF 2022-2023 REGULAR SEASON?
Yes -175 No +135
JJ WATT GAMES MISSED 2021-2022 REGULAR SEASON?
OV 3.5 Games Missed -120 UN 3.5 Games Missed -120
ROB GRONKOWSKI GAMES MISSED 2021-2022 REGULAR SEASON?
OV 2.5 Games Missed -120 UN 2.5 Games Missed -120
TUA TAGOVAILOA DOLPHINS QB GAME 1 OF 2022-2023 REGULAR SEASON?
Yes -165 No +125
WILL BEN ROETHLISBERGER RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON?
Yes -300 No +200
WILL TOM BRADY RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON?
No -1500 Yes +600
We’ll have some more coverage of NFL 2021 season futures and props forthcoming–stay tuned!
