Team Season Win Lines

It's that time of the year again. Most of the free agents have been signed and the NFL draft is in the past and the sportsbooks start to put out their future lines. The one that we find to best betting value is the NFL season win bets.

If you're not familiar with this type of wager it's quite simple. You have to place a bet on whether a team will win more games or fewer total games than the bookmaker has posted.

Here's what we like for 2011 NFL season win wagers.

Every year, the sports books in Las Vegas post win totals for all 32 teams in the NFL. Some reach double digits while others hover in the 4-5 range. Many include a 1/2 point so there won't be any pushes on that team. We'll take a look at two teams we feel are worth a play on.

Cleveland Browns Season Win Total Over 6.5

The Cleveland Browns won only 5 games in the 2010 season and a play on the season win total of over 6.5 will require the Browns to win 2 more games this season. We think that they can. Sure, the coaching change doesn’t help as it may take the team awhile to get comfortable with the new playbook from Pat Shumur. However, Shumur did an outstanding job last season as the offensive coordinator in his first year in St. Louis with a rookie QB, so we expect that Cleveland may not struggle in the early season. The Browns catch a break with an easier schedule in 2011 facing the NFC West division and AFC south. We see 10 winnable games on the schedule, so if they can go 7-3 through that stretch we’ll cash our NFL season win bet on the Browns.

Houston Texans Season Win Total Over 8.5

The Houston Texans tallied only 6 wins in 2010 with the pass defense being the problem. The Texans finished dead last in the league in passing yards per game allowing a ridiculous 267.5. They’ve hired Wade Phillips to shore up the defense and used their first 5 picks in the draft on the defensive side of the ball. They also added free agent CB Jonathan Joseph who provides an immediate upgrade at corner. Houston’s schedule is not the easiest, but they do play Cincinnati and Carolina and may be the top team in AFC South this season, so we’re expecting to see 4 wins in divisional games. That leaves us with requiring 3 more wins in 2011 from their games versus the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons. They host the Raiders, Steelers , Browns and Falcons and we’re going to call for them to win 3 of those 4 games to push them over the 8.5 season win total.

Below we have listed the odds available at press time. Please check Bodog for the current NFL football season win lines.