Bets to make on eight football awards before the season starts

The fact that there are so many options has slowly turned awards wagering probably the most popular means of football future bets.

It is a game of waiting and grabbing the right players at the right time during the season and selling at the right time as well. There is nothing more advantageous for a portfolio than a great launch point, so let us plunge through eight of the largest local markets, and find a couple of bets in each of them as the season quickly advances.

Heisman Trophy: Presenters are a quarterback from Alabama Jalen Milroe at 14-to-1

The quarterback of the Crimson Tide concluded the previous season at the level that gets you a Heisman trophy, eliminating two-time defending national champion Georgia in the SEC title game before getting so close to beating the eventual 2024 Turing champion Michigan.

Now he gets an offense that is even more tailored for him as a junior with the assistance of a new head coach in Kalen DeBoer. Washington coach’s preferred tactics include deep passing and using the quarterback for rushing, both of which are Milroe’s strengths.

When Dillon Gabriel, Heisman favorite and the quarterback of Oregon, was a bet worth making he was spending most of the summer at this same number but he has gone much lower at 5-to-1. The smarter move now is to harass contenders in the midrange such as Milroe and wait for Gabriel to float up at some point in the season.

NFL Most Valuable Player: prop bet maker who had Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes at 6-to-1.

The distance separating the back-to-back Super Bowl champion from the rest of the NFL players increases. It is wider than this future pool that offers football players such as Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow and Houston quarterback C. J. Stroud at 8-to-1 as Mahomes’ rivals.

The main issue with a player like two-time MVP Mahomes is voter fatigue, though that should not be nearly as problematic this year given Mahomes did not win MVP last year. Last year, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson took home the title, at odds of 18-to-1, offered here in this column anyway, during Mahomes’ comparatively pedestrian regular season.

However, Mahomes finds himself in a quarterback’s classic prime at the age of 28 and therefore, should post across the board improvement.

NFL Offensive Player of the Year: At 10-to-1, it took Cowboys’ receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Dallas’ top receiver’s training-camp holdout is directing this price to much higher levels than where it deserves to be. If the structure repeats itself that 25-year-old will get a new deal and be right back producing near one of the highest paces in the league.

The on;y player currently boasting a superior performance to Lamb over the past two years is Tyreek Hill of Miami but this player is 7-to-1 compared to Lamb. The Dolphins may also be more cautious with Hill as has been known to slow down with injuries in the later part of the last two seasons.

The other main threat is pains and recent injuries affecting the reigning winner/San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey at 8-1. It is already trending this way and become more like a wide receiver award and McCaffrey was only able to break it because of how much he is involved in the passing game.

NFL Defensive Player of the Year: Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson is at 16 to 1 odds at Circa and Ravens defensive tackle Justin Madubuike is at 100 to 1 at SuperBook.

From the tenor of the Lions’ defense, it is poised to make a leap to the NFL’s top 10 this year with Hutchinson leading the corps. The 23-year-old should have the statistics, too, as he ranked either first or second in the NFL last year in pressures, depending on charting service; Pro Football Reference or Pro Football Focus. He could have received a number differing from 8 but he was probably unlucky to have only 11. 5 sacks in 2023.

Madubuike, meanwhile, came through with 13 sacks and plays on what is always one of the top defenses in the NFL. An ongoing storyline throughout the year will be debating who the best current DT is now that Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams has retired, and Madubuike could be thrown into the mix as well.

NFL Rushing Title: Ravens back Derrick Henry is 20/1 at Circa Sports while Bills back James Cook was at 35/1 at BetMGM.

Why can’t running backs get some appreciation after being sidelined when it comes to the category of the Offensive Player of the Year? This isn’t really an award in that it isn’t chosen by a vote, but the player that has the most rushing yards ties for the NFL award every year.

Henry has triumphed once before in his career in the two prior years starting in 2019 and second last year before he departed from the Tennessee Titans. Against the Titans, Baltimore runs the ball even more than it passes, and Henry seems to have been made for the offense next to Jackson.

Talking of high run rates, Buffalo managed to maintain it on the ground at a much higher-truck when Joe Brady assumed the role of the offensive coordinator earlier this year. Cook ranked fourth in the league in rushing and could take the next step this year.

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year: Bo Nix of the Broncos is at 18/1 with BetMGM and J. J. McCarthy of the Vikings at 25/1 at SuperBook.

The deserving winner of this award should therefore be the best between the six quarterbacks that were recruited in the first round of this Year’s NFL Draft. They’re all probably much closer in quality to each other than the odds suggest, with Williams of Chicago being at 4-to-1 (+140, meaning that to win $100, you would have to bet $140) while Daniels of Washington is 6 to 1.

Williams and Daniels are better players than Nix and McCarthy; however, there is truth in mentioning that the two latter players are in better teams. Nix looks like an ideal quarterback ready to conquer the Denver coach Sean Payton’s offense, while on the other side, McCarthy has most equipped weapon in Jefferson, the newly crowned 2022 Offensive Player of the Year.

NFL Defense Rookie of the Year: Rams edge rusher judgment fortunate at 11-to-1 with Dolphins edge rusher Chop Robinson at 20-to-1

Even defensive backs or linebackers, can win this award but sacks provide edge rushers an almost unfair advantage, thus, it is more ideal to begin the process there. Dallas Turner, the edge from Minnesota was the best prospect in the draft by any measure of projection but backing him at 3-to-1 is of no value here.

Still, Robinson of Miami, or Verse of Los Angeles, was not far off the mark. They are both physically gifted players who need to be featured immediately on teams that are theoretically above average and that compete for attention.

They are capable of creating spectacular plays that are sure to become viral, and that aspect tipped the scale in this award.

NFL Coach of the Year: This prompted Panthers coach Dave Canales to say the Habs on 20-to-1.

Coach of the Year is the award that is usually given as per the improvement achieved from the previous year. Nobody is in a better position to bring the change than Canales who is arriving in Carolina from a 2-15 season coached by Frank Reich.

They’ve done some secretive work offensively to support second-year quarterback Bryce Young such as drafting Jonathon Brooks as a running back and trading for Diontae Johnson as a wide receiver.

Canales was a magician as a coordinator on the offence last season with Tampa Bay that claimed the NFC South. It is also worthy to note that the odds of him replicating the success akin to the Panthers are better than what is suggested by this line.