The days of football pools, fantasy leagues, and betting on primetime matchups are just a few months away but the odds for team futures are always the best around this time of year. I use Bovada.lv myself for my sportsbook, and you can get a $250 Welcome bonus once you join the website. Regarding the NFC South, the most popular sportsbook site, DraftKings, has Tampa winning the Super Bowl again at (+650), while having teams like Carolina more around the (+7000) range. Here are some of the team futures to go with for the NFC South this season. As a reference, this hyperlink is where I got all the betting lines from.
Division Winner: Tampa Bay (-200)
Tom is fresh off a Super Bowl victory even though, for only the second time in his career, he didn’t win the division title. Thanks to Drew Brees and his final rodeo, Brady and the Bucs finished second in the NFC South in 2020. Let’s not forget, though: that was when New Orleans still had Brees. This year, the Saints aren’t even a 100% sure as to who will be under center in Week One. It should be safe to say that, unless Tom has an atrocious year, this is their division to lose.
To Make the Playoffs: Saints (+114)
Yes, the Saints probably won’t beat out the Buccaneers for the division title but they did finish first last year with an impressive 12-4 record. While this offseason has surely done its’ damage, the team isn’t really in that awful of a shape (other than losing Drew Brees) after all the smoke has cleared. They’re still projected to win nine games this season and, as we all know, a team can definitely make it to the Wild Card Round with nine wins. The Chicago Bears snuck in last season with just an 8-8 record, and let’s not forget that The Washington Football Team got in with a 7-9 record! In the last four years, New Orleans has finished with 11 wins or better in addition to making the playoffs. Even if they may not project to match those kind of past records, I see no reason to believe that they’ll miss out on the playoffs this year.
Saints Week One Starting Quarterback: Jameis Winston (-250) OR Taysom Hill (+175)
DraftKings has some very interesting future odds which other sportsbooks may not offer (I know Bovada.lv doesn’t), but one of the most eye-popping bets they offer is “Which Saints QB will start Week 1?” It seems that Las Vegas is convinced Winston will start this season, which I disagree with. Taysom Hill has more starts on the team, and the organization wouldn’t have paid him $140 million if they didn’t at least give him the Week One nod, in my opinion. Although I do believe Winston will be the starter by the end of this season (or next) and that he will probably be seen in packages throughout the upcoming season, I don’t think that he’ll be the first QB on the field on September 12th against the Packers. I’ll take Taysom Hill (+175).
