The Super Bowl was played about three months ago, the season kicks off in about four months, which means we've reached the halfway point of the offseason. Three months down, four months to go.
There may be the occasional veteran free agent signed here or there, but free agency is effectively over. The draft is in the books, and the main college free agents have been gobbled up by teams. And while rosters still need to be trimmed from 90 players to 53, for the most part, the teams are now set for the season. And barring key injuries and trades, that won't change much over the coming three months.
Which is why a Vegas Sportsbook released updated, post-free agency, post-draft, 2017 NFL regular season win totals yesterday.
The New England Patriots opened with the highest Over/Under number at 11.0 while the Cleveland Browns opened with the lowest Over/Under number at 4.0.
In the NFC, the Seahawks (10.5), Falcons (10.0), Packers (10.0), and Cowboys (9.5) are projected to repeat as division winners. The Giants (9.0) are projected to repeat as a wildcard team, and the Panthers (9.0) replace the Lions as the second wildcard team.
Here's a summary of the win projections for all 32 NFL teams.
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We know of course that Vegas’ favorite team is cash. If they over- or undervalue a team they lose money, and with these over/unders, the sportsbooks are really just trying to play against the bettors and get equal money on both sides of the bet. And these early odds haven't always worked in Vegas' favor:
Over the last couple of years, CG Technology (whose operations include books at The Cosmopolitan, Hard Rock and Venetian) has been the first to release these highly anticipated figures, however when contacted by Covers they had no interest in being the first to market in 2017.
"We have lost on them two straight years, and the main reason was because we posted them so early," said Jason Simbal, vice president of risk management for CG. "So we are being more conservative this year."
Be that as it may, if the projection of another NFC East title for the Cowboys comes true, I ain't complainin'.
We still have OTAs, minicamps and training camp ahead of us. Not a single snap of organized football has been played. And while we don't have a lot of information about the 2017 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 9.5 wins? Or are you picking the under?