Caleb Wilfinger
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After a long and eventful offseason, the 2024 NFL campaign is nearly here as the battle for Lombardi trophy begins in less than a month with the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football. Training camp has already produced a myriad of storylines across the league, and football fans and bettors alike can make their NFL predictions as the upcoming season draws closer.
The preseason officially got underway last week with the Chicago Bears squaring off against the Houston Texans in the annual Hall of Fame Game. This week, the rest of the league will take to the field for the first of a trio of preseason games, as each team looks to ease back into game shape while giving some run to its younger players and those looking to compete for a roster spot.
With the preseason finally kicking off in earnest on Thursday, let’s take a look at the odds, plus my picks and best bets for Week 1 of the NFL preseason.
Carolina Panthers vs New England Patriots Under 34.5 (-110)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing.
Both of these teams are projected to be near the bottom of the league this season, which makes this a fascinating matchup to start the preseason. For my money, this is a spot where it makes sense for both teams involved to adhere to a pretty conservative game script and focus on buttoning up the little details, as opposed to going for a massive offensive outburst in the first preseason game.
The Patriots are not expected to give much run to either of their first or second string quarterbacks, so don’t expect to see Jacoby Brissett and rookie Drake Maye in this one. This means that we’ll get to see plenty of Bailey Zappe under center, with Joe Milton also expected to get plenty of run. Playing time is going to be dependent on how the coaching staff approaches this game, but it’s important to note that head coach Jerod Mayo has already given multiple quotes expressing his commitment to running the football and sticking to a basic script on offense in this game. That bodes well for an under ticket, even as the number has taken steam.
On the other side, this Panthers coaching staff is unlikely to give Bryce Young or Andy Dalton much preseason time, which points us in the direction of seeing rookie Jack Plummer get plenty of reps under center. It’s hard to see how the Panthers wouldn’t plan out a fairly conservative script on offense with Plummer running the show, so let’s target the under 34.5 for our best bet in this game.
Baltimore Ravens ML (+100) over Philadelphia Eagles
Odds widely available at time of publishing.
For our second and final preseason Week 1 best bet, let’s take the Baltimore Ravens to win outright over the Philadelphia Eagles. John Harbaugh has long been known as a proven commodity both straight up and against the spread in the preseason since 2016, going undefeated for a whopping 6 consecutive seasons in the preseason. And while the Ravens were just 1-2 straight up and 0-3 against the spread in the 2023 preseason, this is still a team with plenty of depth in the quarterback and running back rooms, which allows them to excel in this exhibition setting. Baltimore’s defense will almost always show up ready to play in any preseason game as well, a product of the culture that Harbaugh and company have created in Baltimore.
Conversely, the Eagles have typically had the opposite mindset toward the preseason under head coach Nick Sirianni. In fact, Philadelphia is just 2-7 straight up over its last 9 preseason games, so this is certainly not a team that deserves to be favored on the road in this game. Even if the Ravens long term track record is a bit misleading for this incoming preseason in general, Baltimore still feels like the right side in this contest, especially as a home underdog. Let’s take the Ravens money line at plus money for our second best bet.
