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Kickoff to the 2014 NFL season is still four months away, but that's not going to stop Vegas from posting NFL season win totals for the 2014 season.
For the last two years, the Vegas bookmakers set the early over/under for the Cowboys at 8.5 wins, and that turned out to be pretty close to the actual results of the last two seasons. This year, they have the Cowboys at an even eight wins. So are the Cowboys doomed for another 8-8 finish?
Maybe, maybe not. Because as close as the bookmakers have come came to predicting the Cowboys record for the last two years, they were not particularly accurate for the rest of the division. Last year, the Redskins and Giants (both 9 wins) were predicted to win the division, while the Eagles (6.5 wins) were predicted to finish last with a two-win gap to third place. The Eagles of course finished with 10 wins last year, two games ahead of the second-place Cowboys, the Redskins finished with just three wins and the second-worst record in the league, and the Giants were also off by two wins.
We still have OTAs, minicamps and training camp ahead of us. Not a single snap of organized football has been played yet. And while we don't have a lot of information about the 2014 team yet, what we do have is an abundance of opinions about the team. Are you optimistic enough about the Cowboys' chances this year that you would take the over on those eight wins? Or are you picking the under?
You can look up the projected win totals for all 32 teams here, or you can simply browse through the table below to find out how the individual odds combine into divisional standings for all 32 teams.
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The Broncos, Seahawks, Patriots, Packers and 49ers sit at the top of these odds as the only teams with double-digit win projections. All five teams were playoff participants last year. The second tier of teams with nine or more projected wins (PHI, NO, IND, CIN) is also made up exclusively of last year's playoff participants. That means Vegas projects 9 of 12 playoff teams to repeat this year. The Chiefs and Chargers are out in the AFC and replaced by the Steelers and Ravens, while in the NFC the Panthers will battle four other teams that are projected with eight wins (DAL, CHI, DET, ATL) for a playoff spot.
Given the fact that the playoff teams churn by about 50% every year, there are bound to be some teams coming up short this year, just like the Giants and Redskins came up short in the division last year. Will the Cowboys be one of the teams to grab a playoff spot vacated by one of last year's playoff teams?