The NFL is magical. In a matter of one season to another, a franchise can go from an outright disaster to putting themselves into the playoffs to fight for a Super Bowl berth. It’s also a league where a team can have an extraordinarily great season, or just be absolutely terrible.
And that’s why we have prop bets. Online sportsbook Bovada, in particular, has offered us a prop on whether any teams in the NFL will go either 16-0 or 0-16. As far as any teams to put together a perfect season are concerned, the odds-makers have that happening with underdog +1000 odds, while they favor no team putting together that mark at -2500. For a winless team this season, those odds are at +950 of that taking place, while it’s favored for every team to at least get a sole win at -1900.
In the 16-game regular season era, the only franchise to ever put together a 16-0 undefeated record was the New England Patriots in 2007. Unfortunately for Tom Brady and company, they weren’t able to finish the job with a slight 17-14 loss in Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants.
In 2015, the Carolina Panthers would roll all the way to an undefeated 14-0 record, but they would end up getting upset by the Atlanta Falcons to drop them to 14-1 — the Indianapolis Colts would accomplish the exact same season in 2009. After their regular seasons, both teams would then advance to the Super Bowl in the postseason, but both would lose the big game.
When the NFL’s regular season was still on a 14-game format, that’s when the league would see it’s only undefeated team in its history, and that would be the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Not only would they accomplish the undefeated regular season record with a 14-0 figure, but they would also get through the playoffs and earn the NFL world championship. Altogether, it would give them a 17-0 total record and the only team to ever go undefeated, and win the Super Bowl at that.
The chances of a team going an undefeated 16-0 may be extremely low, but the chances of one going a winless 0-16 is very much a reality, especially with what we’ve seen in recent history. As a matter of fact, we witnessed an 0-16 squad just two years ago in 2017 with the Cleveland Browns. Most seasons are pretty long in Cleveland in general, but that year was a bit longer with the circumstances surrounding Hue Jackson and his players.
In 2008, the Detroit Lions would pull an 0-16 record themselves. And it would be history-making, and that’s an understatement: The Lions would become the first team that wasn’t an expansion franchise to lose every game of the campaign since World War II. That last sentence alone just shows you how horrendous of a season it was for Detroit.
When you look at the odds for who is going to win the Super Bowl 54, the Miami Dolphins are at the very bottom of the table with +25000 odds, while the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t far behind at +15000. The Washington Redskins then come in at +12500, and then we have a five-way tie between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets, New York Giants, Detroit Lions, and Arizona Cardinals at +10000 odds. As far as the 0-16 prop bet, those are some good football betting options for you, with literally all of those teams losing in Week 1 with the exception of the Jets and Cardinals, and both of those teams would beat league bottom-feeders for their victories.
With the 16-0 prop bet, you have, of course, the New England Patriots as the top favorite to win Super Bowl LIV at +375 odds, while the Kansas City Chiefs follow them in second at +750. In third, the New Orleans Saints come in as the only remaining team with under +1000 odds at +800. To round out the top five for the favorites, we have the Philadelphia Eagles in the No. 4 spot at +1000, with the Los Angeles Rams in fifth at +1200. All five would start out the season with wins to begin the campaign 1-0.
Let’s go in depth on all of the favorites to go both 16-0 and 0-16, and then afterwards, I’ll be giving you my pick to take each category of this prop bet.
Fresh off of yet another Super Bowl championship, the New England Patriots would begin their campaign with a 33-3 smacking of their “rival” Pittsburgh Steelers. When it comes to this team’s chances of finishing the regular season 16-0, I would put the odds massively high. Not only is this still the Patriots led by their quarterback Tom Brady, not only did this team just add superstar wide receiver Antonio Brown to make the rich even richer, but the vast majority of this roster still has a massive chip on their shoulder, and for multiple reasons. With as focused as New England seems to be already this season and with how loaded in talent they are, don’t be surprised at all to see the Patriots pull yet another 16-0 year. After all, they’ve already done it, and they have all of the tools and resources to make it happen again.
The Kansas City Chiefs would impress in Week 1. Yeah, they were the favorites to get the win and delivered on that expectation, but it’s how they won that was so impressive. Not only did they thrash the Jacksonville Jaguars, 40-26, but they did this in an environment where a ton of people had projected them to be upset. With that being said, I understand it may have been one game, but the Chiefs seem poised for quite the successful season with a deep run in the playoffs attached to it, again. But can they go undefeated? Well, absolutely they can. Led by MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes, this offense can score so many points to outscore any competition to literally beat anybody — the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints, no matter the elite talent that you throw in from of this team, Kansas City can line up with anybody. The Chiefs are a superb pick to go 16-0. They fall just behind the Patriots in this category, but it isn’t by much.
You’ve got to put the New Orleans Saints among the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs as far as their chances of them going undefeated are concerned. In Week 1, it looked like the Saints were on their way to a loss and an 0-1 start, but an impressive drive by Drew Brees and a 58-yard field goal would deliver them the victory. Here’s the thing with New Orleans, and why I feel like they have such a good shot at going 16-0: Not only are they loaded with talent such as Brees, Kiki Alonso and Eli Apple, but the Saints have such a chip on their shoulder after not just their playoff defeat last year, but also the year prior. On top of that, the entire city of New Orleans was once again livid with another referee call in the game against Houston that is just going to add to their ‘no prisoner’ mentality. I’m not predicting that the Saints will go undefeated or anything, but that previously-mentioned chip will have them rolling this season, that’s for sure.
Lord have mercy. I don’t think I have to say this, but the Miami Dolphins were absolutely horrendous in a 59-10 shellacking to the Baltimore Ravens. But here’s the thing with the Dolphins, and why they would be such a good betting option to go 0-16: They’re trying to lose. That’s right, Miami is absolutely tanking this season so they can land the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the evidence is all in their moves of getting rid of their best players such as Kiki Alonso, Kenny Stills, and Laremy Tunsil. With Dolphins ownership and management all in on tanking this season for a top draft pick (which would result in Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tua Tagovailoa), it could be a long year for the Miami Dolphins, and they may land themselves an 0-16 mark as well. I mean, after all, that loss against Baltimore was more bad than usual from this franchise, it was utterly embarrassing. Go ahead and profit from it though.
The Cincinnati Bengals are definitely one of the worst teams in the league, but I don’t see them going 0-16 this season, especially after their Week 1 contest against the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, they may have lost, but they would only lose by a single point, 21-20. And not just that, but they would nearly achieve a victory on the road in Seattle out of all places. Despite the defeat, it was a pretty good weekend for the Bengals overall. On top of that, they still have some talent on the roster to work with such as Andy Dalton still at quarterback, and an effective Giovani Bernard and Joe Mixon at the running back position. Oh, and don’t forget A.J. Green at wide receiver. That’s a pretty good load of name-value on the offensive side alone. With this being the case, keep your money away from the Cincinnati Bengals. They should be able to grab a few wins this season.
The Washington Redskins would start out their 2019 campaign with a loss, sure, but they put on a pretty impressive showing against the Eagles on the road in Philadelphia — the game would end in a 32-27 score. With that being said, I see the Redskins’ season turning out two different ways: Either 1. Their quarterback-running back combo of Dwayne Haskins and Derrius Guice fully takes off and delivers the Redskins a pretty solid season. It’s obvious that the potential for success is there after the game in Philly. Or 2. The Week 1 performance was a fluke and Washington will eventually collapse to ultimately lead to Jay Gruden being ousted as their head coach. The main reason why I feel this way is out of confusion, I’m quite surprised that the Skins had a good showing like they did. I’m not sure whether to roll with their momentum, or not to trust them (yet) at this point. Most likely the latter, but as far as this prop bet is concerned, I’d pass on Washington going 0-16. They should grab a good amount of wins.
Team: New England Patriots.
Team: Miami Dolphins.
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