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With the Super Bowl long behind us and the NFL draft only a few weeks removed, sports betting enthusiasts are already looking ahead to next season’s schedule. When it comes to handicapping the NFL, any experienced handicapper understands, that the schedule is only a minor piece of your overall strategy for the upcoming season. Often times when speaking to new fans, we are asked what the most import football stat for betting online on the defensive side is. Today, we will look at how the defensive tackles have the most responsibility.
In the NFL the defenses are molded into two categories, your team is either a pass defense, which means they specialize against a quarterback who throws the ball often, or the rush defense, guarding against the running back. For the defensive tackle, the statistics we look at are tackles and sacks. When a defensive tackle, tackles the opponent, it is weighted as a solo or assisted tackle. The difference is, a solo is an individual tackle on the ball holder for the other team, where the assisted tackle may require two or more defensive tackles to join forces.
Looking at last season, you will see that the players that led the league in tackles also were atop the leader board for sacks. This indicates to the NFL handicappers, that the team with the best defense had the best defensive tackles. It also means, that the defensive tackle was able to by pass the offensive line of their opponents. Two defensive tackles that were amazing last year were the Cleveland Browns Ahtyba Rubin and the San Francisco 49ers Justin Smith. Despite Cleveland’s struggles all season, Rubin was a beast among men, as he had 83 tackles combined solo and assisted, which was 25 better then the second place Smith. |
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The NFL draft was this past weekend, and already Bodog handicappers are looking at a slew of statistics that can help them pick winners come late August. On paper, and in play, no position is more important then the quarterback, as a team with an excellent quarterback naturally ends up winning the Super Bowl. Conversely, a team with a terrible quarterback or worse a carousel of quarterback’s, ends up drafting a franchise quarterback at the future draft. Here is a look at how quarterback statistics affect a team’s odds on the game line.
Within quarterback statistics, bettors have three main ingredients to choose from, quarterback rating, passing yards and completion percentage. For all intents and purposes, a quarterback’s rating, usually takes in their overall game, meaning the passing yards and completion percentage, along with how well they influence the game. An example is Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers; Rodgers had an overall rating of 122.5, which was 12.5 points higher then second place Drew Brees. Rodgers high rating stemmed from the fact that he experienced a dream NFL season of sorts, as he became the fastest quarterback to reach 3000 passing yards, doing so in eight games. While Rodgers would eventually slow down and not throw as many long distance passes, he still ranked extremely high because of his early season success.
The quarterback statistics are also essential when drafting for fantasy football purposes. Last season, we were fortunate to have three of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL on our team, as the aforementioned Rodgers, along with Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith were on our team. In starting Rodgers and Manning weekly, it indicated to opponents that our intention was to win every game. Comparable to betting on a team based on the quarterback, the team with the highest quarterback rating is the team most likely to win. |
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In just over a week, Bodog bettors will no longer be able to place their wagers on which college football stars they believe will be drafted to the NFL in the first round of the player entry draft. Over 300 players from across the globe will enter next week’s draft, in an effort to sign on with one of the 32 teams, and help guide them to a playoff berth. Along with free agent acquisitions, this offseason has shown fans and media alike, that the odds of some teams have risen while others have dropped. Here is a look at which teams we believe will win the NFL divisions next season.
AFC:
The American Football Conference has witnessed a changing of the guard this offseason, as several marquee talents have caught on with new teams. Perhaps the biggest addition of the offseason took place in the Mile High City of Denver, when the Broncos signed long time Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, to replace last year’s surprise story Tim Tebow. We say replace, because Tebow was quickly dispatched to the New York Jets, in order to avoid an NFL controversy. Here are our picks for AFC divisional winners.
The New England Patriots should once again win the AFC East, as even a combination of Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, is not enough to slow down the well oiled machine in Boston. In the AFC North, there appears to be a changing of the guard, as several players from the Pittsburgh Steelers either retired or signed elsewhere, while Baltimore remained strong and the Cincinnati Bengals improved significantly. For this reason, look for the Bengals and Ravens to battle for the division, with Baltimore coming out on top. Denver should win the AFC West if Manning can stay healthy this season. Meanwhile, look for Houston to repeat as AFC South Champion, now that Manning is no longer in control of the rebuilding Colts.
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