NFL Odds & Betting

The NFL is making it even easier to gamble on game day.

Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reported Tuesday that NFL owners voted Monday to allow sportsbooks located at stadiums to operate on game days starting with the 2023 season.

The Washington Commanders are the only team with a sportsbook in their stadium. The Arizona Cardinals have one outside their stadium, as do the New York Jets and New York Giants, who share MetLife Stadium.

From a functionality standpoint, nothing prevents fans from gambling from their seats using legal apps. However, there are times when stadium cellphone service is spotty and location verification can be difficult with tens of thousands of people into one area.

Allowing sportsbooks to operate brick-and-mortar locations inside stadiums could eliminate hassles for gamblers unable to place bets from their phones.

It seems likely more teams will seek to add sportsbook components to their stadiums with the rule change. Sports gambling has quickly become a billion-dollar industry since the United States Supreme Court ruled that states could make decisions on an individual basis in 2018.

The NFL had lobbied to keep sports gambling banned in most of the U.S. but has since embraced its legalization. The league has entered partnerships with gambling companies, regularly features ads in broadcasts and at games and has even allowed the incorporation of betting lines in NFL Network content.

Seventeen franchises reside in states where sports gambling is legal.

Lamar Jackson's future has become a huge storyline in the past week, and oddsmakers don't believe that future will be in Baltimore.

The New York Jets are currently the favorites to end up with the electrifying quarterback this offseason, while the Ravens aren't considered among the top-seven contenders:

Jackson's time in Baltimore has been cast into doubt after the former MVP sat out of the team's 24-17 Wild Card Round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals with a knee injury. He last played on Dec. 4.

It was Jackson, and not the team, who announced he would miss the game, raising some eyebrows around the NFL:

There was speculation that Jackson might be playing it extra safe to avoid injury ahead of his free agency, which head coach John Harbaugh and the team easily could have shot down in public comments. Only they didn't, leading to even more speculation.

"That is absolutely how things are done, except for if your last name is Harbaugh, right?" a team executive told The Athletic's Mike Sando regarding Harbaugh's relative silence on the matter last week. "That is what him and his brother do, and there is one more guy who handles business like that—he wears cutoff-arm sweatshirts with hoodies, and his name is Bill Belichick."

And when a few of Jackson's teammates offered their own thoughts on the matter, more and more buzz began to circulate that perhaps all was not well between the quarterback and organization, though other teammates offered support or walked back their comments.

"The outside world, and all the different narratives that people paint in their minds, sometimes it's humorous," Ravens' defensive end Calais Campbell told reporters. "Lamar Jackson is a guy who loves the game of football, and I truly believe he worked as hard as he could to give himself a chance to play."

"He's not healthy," safety Chuck Clark added. "You've seen him barely walking here. You can't force somebody to play."

But the rumors are going to persist, and clearly the oddsmakers think a change of scenery is on the horizon. Granted, the Ravens have the option to use the franchise tag, with Jackson's only recourse there to simply sit out the season.

But in the event the two sides agree to part ways, all of the teams listed outside of the Miami Dolphins—Tua Tagovailoa looked the part of a franchise quarterback this season when healthy, though his concussion concerns may have called into question his future—are in need of a quarterback upgrade.

The question for Jackson will be whether he wants to join a rebuilding squad or tries to latch onto a more competitive roster that is perhaps a quarterback away from being a contender. The Jets have a bevy of young talent and while they remain in a rebuilding mode, going from Zach Wilson to Jackson would be an enormous upgrade and would transform the team's offense.

If Jackson leaves Baltimore, the Jets will be in the running. But other suitors will make strong cases as well.

Gambling problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY).

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visiting OPGR.org (OR), ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600 (CA-ONT), or calling 1-888-532-3500 (VA).

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Despite having only played three full games, Brock Purdy is skyrocketing up the betting odds for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

DraftKings has the San Francisco 49ers quarterback with +1200 odds (bet $100 to win $1200) to win the award after Thursday's 21-13 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

The only players with better odds than Purdy are wide receivers Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets (+175), Christian Watson of the Green Bay Packers (+300) and Chris Olave of the New Orleans Saints (+400) and Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (+500).

Purdy was thrust into the starting lineup when Jimmy Garoppolo broke a bone in his foot during the 49ers' first offensive possession in Week 13 against the Miami Dolphins.

The final pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Purdy had only taken 18 garbage-time snaps in three games up to that point. He proceeded to throw for 210 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-17 win over the Dolphins.

In his first two starts, Purdy has completed 70.2 percent of his passes for 402 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. The 49ers clinched the NFC West with their victory over the Seahawks.

It seems unlikely that Purdy would be able to win the award due to a smaller sample size. He will start a maximum of five games in the regular season, though head coach Kyle Shanahan could potentially rest him in Week 18 if their playoff seed is locked up.

The fewest games played by any player to win Offensive Rookie of the Year since 2000 was Odell Beckham Jr. (12).

Olave leads all rookies in receiving yards (887), with Wilson a close second (868). Watson has been a scoring machine with eight total touchdowns in the past four games. Walker leads the Seahawks with nine total touchdowns, despite missing two games due to an injury.

Purdy's case will be helped by virtue of being a quarterback. There were concerns in the wake of Garoppolo's injury that the 49ers were no longer a viable threat to reach the Super Bowl in the NFC.

If the early returns for Purdy are any indication, San Francisco can still compete with anyone in the NFC.

Gambling problem? Call (877-8-HOPENY) or text HOPENY (467369).

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visiting ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), visiting OPGR.org (OR), or calling/texting TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).

Odds and lines subject to change. 21+ (18+ NH/WY). AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions.

Despite improving to 2-1 last week, the Baltimore Ravens opened as a 3.5-point underdog for Sunday's Week 4 home game against the Buffalo Bills, according to DraftKings.

The line is especially notable because it's only the third time the Ravens have been home underdogs since Lamar Jackson became the team's starting quarterback in 2018, per Todd Karpovich of Sports Illustrated.

Baltimore won both of its last two games as a home dog, upsetting the New England Patriots in 2019 and Kansas City Chiefs in 2021.

The Ravens did lose their lone home game this season to the Miami Dolphins thanks to a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback in Week 2, but they have been dominant at M&T Bank Stadium in recent years. With Jackson starting, the team is 20-5 at home in the regular season.

It could mean bad news for the Bills, which also lost to the Dolphins last week to fall to 2-1.

This should be an exciting battle either way, featuring two of the early contenders for MVP in Jackson and Josh Allen.

The Buffalo Bills are the oddsmakers' favorite to win Super Bowl LVII with the 2022 NFL season set to get underway.

Buffalo, which will take on the reigning champion Los Angeles Rams in the league's annual Kickoff Game on Thursday night, is the outright favorite for the first time since 1991, per ESPN's Doug Kezirian.

Here's a look at the updated odds for the top contenders from Caesars Sportsbook:

• Buffalo Bills: +600 (bet $100 to win $600)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: +750
  
• Los Angeles Rams: +1100
• Kansas City Chiefs: +1100
• Green Bay Packers: +1200

"With a rebuilding AFC East, the Bills are almost a certain lock for the playoffs and the clear front-runner for home field in January, which will make them a tough out for any visiting team," Caesars Sportsbook vice president of trading Craig Mucklow told Kezirian.

John Murray, the executive director of Westgate Las Vegas' SuperBook, agreed with that assessment as to why Buffalo sits atop the pre-Week 1 championship odds.

"We really think the Bills are the highest-power-rated team, but just as importantly is where they play," Murray told ESPN. "The philosophy is the AFC West teams will beat each other up and that will allow the Bills to be in a favorable position to have the AFC Championship Game running through Buffalo."

Josh Allen and Co. have posted a 34-15 record over the past three seasons. They reached the AFC Championship Game in 2020 and the divisional round last year, but both times were eliminated from the playoffs by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

The Bills addressed their biggest weakness in the offseason by signing future Hall of Fame edge-rusher Von Miller, and the emergence of Gabriel Davis as one of the league's best No. 2 wide receivers should take some pressure off top target Stefon Diggs.

A slow start is possible for Buffalo, though. The team's schedule is among the league's toughest through the first eight weeks and at least four of those games will be played without top cornerback Tre'Davious White, who landed on the PUP list while recovering from a torn ACL.

The schedule gets a lot easier from that point forward, however, so the Bills have a chance to get hot starting in early November and could carry that toward the playoffs.

When the franchise last stood atop the preseason odds, it was before the second season of its four straight trips to the Super Bowl in the early 1990s.

So far, the Bills' first Super Bowl title has remained elusive, though.