Value Positions on NFL Futures and Props: NFC West 2019

The NFC West should be much more competitive than last year when the Los Angeles Rams ran away with the title.  Seattle looks strong, San Francisco should improve with Jimmy Garoppolo back from injury and if nothing else the Arizona Cardinals should be fun to watch as new head coach Kliff Kingsbury tries to bring his pass oriented attack from college to the NFL.  The NFL futures odds at BetOnline.ag have the Rams as a -175 favorite to win the NFC West followed by the Seahawks (+275), the Niners (+500) and the Cardinals (+2500).

NFC WEST FUTURES AND PROPOSITION WAGERS

BET LOS ANGELES RAMS TO WIN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP +500
BET LOS ANGELES RAMS OVER 10 WINS -110

There is a tendency for teams that lose the Super Bowl to struggle in the early going the following year.  That might be the only reason to think that the Los Angeles Rams won’t be as good this year as they were last year.  An anecdotal ‘curse’ sure isn’t something to base a bet on.  The win total bet looks like a no brainer.  Los Angeles won 13 games last year and for an ‘Under’ player to cash a win total bet they’d have to drop to 9-7.  For a team that brings back most of their starters on both sides of the ball that’s tough to imagine.  Rams don’t have a particularly tough schedule—in fact, some rankings have their schedule as low as the #26 toughest (or 6^th easiest).  The biggest concern on offense may have been addressed—that’s the pounding that Todd Gurley endures due to his heavy workload.  Los Angeles may have pulled the coup of the draft by getting Memphis running back Darrell Henderson at #70.  He’s more of an elusive back which will not only give the offense a change of pace but take some of the rushing load off of Gurley.  Just don’t see how the Rams have regressed much, if at all.  They’re still one of the most talented and best coached teams in football.

BET SEATTLE SEAHAWKS OVER 8.5 WINS
BET SEATTLE SEAHAWKS +275 TO WIN NFC WEST
BET SEATTLE SEAHAWKS TO MAKE PLAYOFFS +150

The team has done a nice ‘rebuild on the fly’ from the ‘Legion of Boom’ days.  Russell Wilson gets as much out of his lineup as any quarterback in the league and the Seahawks have wrapped him up with a long term, big money contract extension.  The downside of that is that they had to part company with some veteran contributors including Frank Clark and Doug Baldwin to make the numbers work.  Seattle drafted three wide receivers hoping to compensate for Baldwin’s loss.  They also selected Texas Tech defensive end L.J. Collier and he should transition into Clark’s old spot. 

For such a high profile public team with such a well known coach, the Seahawks don’t get the respect they deserve for consistency.  For that matter, head coach Pete Carroll still doesn’t get the respect he deserves for being an excellent NFL coach.  All Carroll has done since coming to Seattle is win a Super Bowl, make the playoffs 7 times in 9 seasons and win 62% of his games.  It might be asking too much of Seattle to win the NFC since they’d have to go through a number of excellent teams to do so (though the +1400 offered at BetOnline.ag for a NFC title is very tempting) they’ve got a realistic shot to win their division.  Hard to see them not making the playoffs either.  The O/U win total is arguably one of the strongest on the board.  Seattle would have to drop to 8-8 for an ‘Under’ player to cash and this team is definitely better than a .500 team.  Ditto their head coach.