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Cantor Gaming, which operates seven sportsbooks in Las Vegas casinos, became the first Nevada bookmaker to release NFL season win totals for all 32 teams last week. Granted, the release of the win totals felt like little more than a formality after Cantor released the point spreads for the first 16 weeks of the 2012 NFL season a couple of weeks ago, but so be it.
Your Dallas Cowboys are not getting a lot of love from the oddsmakers, coming in at a rather unspectacular 8.5 wins for the season. That ranks the Cowboys third in the division behind the Eagles (10 wins) and Giants (9.5 wins) but ahead of the Redskins (6.5). By moving the Eagles ahead of the Giants, the NFC East joins the AFC West as the only division where Cantor projects the final 2012 standings to differ from the 2011 standings. And if we know one thing about the NFL, it's that nothing remains as it did in the year before.
The Cowboys have just completed their first OTAs, and the 2012 season is still a long way off, but does having Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr patrolling the secondary as well as all the other free agent acquisitions and draft picks make you feel more optimistic about the Cowboys' win total in 2012? Or are you picking the under?
You can read up on all the win totals at the National Football Post, but if you just can't be bothered to follow the link, read on to see how those odds would play out in divisional standings for all 32 teams.
| National Football Conference | American Football Conference | |||
| NFC East | Proj. Wins | AFC East | Proj. Wins | |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 10 | New England Patriots | 12 | |
| New York Giants | 9.5 | New York Jets | 8.5 | |
| Dallas Cowboys | 8.5 | Miami Dolphins | 7.5 | |
| Washington Redskins | 6.5 | Buffalo Bills | 7 | |
| NFC North | Proj. Wins | AFC North | Proj. Wins | |
| Green Bay Packers | 12 | Baltimore Ravens | 10 | |
| Detroit Lions | 9.5 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 10 | |
| Chicago Bears | 8.5 | Cincinnati Bengals | 7.5 | |
| Minnesota Vikings | 6 | Cleveland Browns | 5.5 | |
| NFC South | Proj. Wins | AFC South | Proj. Wins | |
| New Orleans Saints | 10 | Houston Texans | 10 | |
| Atlanta Falcons | 9 | Tennessee Titans | 7 | |
| Carolina Panthers | 7.5 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 5.5 | |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 6 | Indianapolis Colts | 5.5 | |
| NFC West | Proj. Wins | AFC West | Proj. Wins | |
| San Francisco 49ers | 10 | Denver Broncos | 9.5 | |
| Arizona Cardinals | 7 | San Diego Chargers | 9 | |
| Seattle Seahawks | 7 | Kansas City Chiefs | 8 | |
| St. Louis Rams | 6 | Oakland Raiders | 7 | |
We know that every year, the NFL churns about half of its 12 playoff participants. In Cantor Gaming's projections, there are only two new teams making the playoff. The Eagles replace the Falcons in the NFC, and the Chargers replace the Bengals in the AFC. Overall, this is a very conservative projection that's content to maintain the status quo and still hasn't quite shaken the "Dream Team" fever.