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Free agency is still three weeks away, the NFL draft is more than two months away, and kickoff to the 2015 NFL season is still half a year away, but that's not going to stop Vegas from posting NFL season win totals for the 2015 season.
For the 2012 and 2013 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 for those years. Last year, they had the Cowboys at an even eight wins, so that projection didn't turn out quite so well.
Which just goes to show that these projections can be a hit-and-miss affair. Last year, the Eagles were projected to win the division (8.5 wins) while the Giants and Redskins were predicted to both win seven games, which neither team managed.
This year, the Cowboys are projected for 9.5 wins, the fifth-highest total in the NFL and the third-highest total in the NFC behind only the Seahawks (11 wins) and the Packers (10.5). That places them atop the NFC East, but not by much, as the Eagles are projected for 9 wins. The Giants and Redskins follow with 8 and 6 wins respectively.
The Cowboys still have to make a decision on 20 of their 23 free agents. They haven't yet drafted anybody or acquired anybody in free agency. 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 2015 team, 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 9.5 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 Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, and Broncos sit at the top of these odds as the only teams with double-digit win projections. All four teams were playoff participants last year. The second tier of five teams with nine or more projected wins (DAL, IND, BAL, PHI, NO) rounds out this year's early playoff favorites. That leaves 10 teams with 8.5 projected wins to battle it out for the three remaining playoff spots.
Last year, five teams finished the regular season with 12 wins. Four of them, the Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, and Broncos are projected for 10 or more wins this season. One of them, the Cowboys, are projected for "only" 9.5 wins.
Should we be outraged at this obvious slight or should we smile all the way to the bank after coolly taking the over on the Cowboys?