NFL Football Handicapping Advice For Betting On Football

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Early Season Football Handicapping Tip - Scout The Coaches

One thing that many bettors forget is that new coaches rarely have winning seasons in their first year. It's not necessarily because they don't have the experience. The main reason is that new coaches have their own systems and a few preseason games is no where near enough time for the players to learn it. Also the new coach inherits players that may not suit his system and will need a year or two to draft and trade for the missing parts. In the NFL most teams realize that it may take 3 years of growing pains to reach its peak after a head coaching change.

In all ten NFL teams have new coaches. Buffalo, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Minnesota, New Orleans, New York Jets and Oakland.

So do you blindly bet against these teams? Of course not! Some of them will have winning seasons and more importantly have winning records against the spread. This is when the NFL Preseason can be a key to early season betting profits.

Keep an eye on the local news reports for each team and try to watch as many games as possible. Make notes on how each team with a head coaching change is doing. Are they struggling with the new offensive system? Is the defense struggling? Not all of it will be negative. My personal thought is that KC will benefit right from the get go with the hiring of Herm Edwards. I believe we'll see a sharp improvement on defense for Kansas City very early in the season and there may be signs of that in the preseason.

Below is a list of whose out and whose in and their NFL experience.

Buffalo Bills
In: Dick Jauron
Out: Mike Malarkey
Pro Record: Took over as interim coach at Detroit last season. Coached the Bears for 5 years and amassing a 35-46 record.

Detroit Lions
In: Rod Marinelli
Out: Steve Mariucci
Pro History: Defensive line coach at Tampa for last ten years

Green Bay
In: Mike Mc Carthy
Out: Mike Sherman
Pro History: Offensive coordinator for San Francisco last year. Has 13 years experience as an assistant in the NFL.

Houston
In: Gary Kubiak
Out: Dom Capers
Pro History: Denver's offensive coordinator for the last 11 years.

Kansas City
In: Herm Edwards
Out: Dick Vermeil
Pro History: Jets head coach for last 5 years. Spend time with KC as an assistant and scout for 6 early in his career.

Minnesota
In: Brad Childress
Out: Mike Tice
Pro History: Spent the last 7 years with Philadelphia. The last 4 years as offensive coordinator.

New Orleans
In: Sean Payton
Out: Jim Haslett
Pro History: Nine seasons in the NFL with stops at Dallas, NY Giants and Philadelphia as an offensive coordinator or QB coach.

New York Jets
In: Eric Mangini
Out: Herm Edwards
Pro History: 11 years experience as an assistant coach with 10 of those years being spent under Bill Belichick.

Oakland
In: Art Shell
Out: Norv Turner
Pro History: Second time around for Shell who coached the Raiders for 5 seasons from 1989 - 1994. Art also spent some time in Atlanta as an assistant after his Oakland stint.

St. Louis
In: Scott Linehan
Out: Mike Martz
Pro History: Was the offensive coordinator at Miami last season after serving 3 years at Minnesota in the same position.