Best Value NFL Week 1 Betting Odds

Posted by Jordan Walterss on Tuesday,August 2, 2016 10:23, EDT in

The 2016 NFL season is now just over a month from starting. Are you ready from some football? I sure am. Here are three games in which I find some good NFL betting value for the first Sunday of the season (Sept. 11).

Let’s Take a Look at the Best Value NFL Week 1 Betting Odds

San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs (-7 on NFL odds)

The Chiefs dominated the Bolts last season in winning both games. And now it appears that San Diego could be without receiver Stevie Johnson to start the season. He will undergo surgery after suffering a torn meniscus in his right knee during training camp. Johnson suffered the injury after making a diving catch, getting up and twisting his knee as he worked to get up the field. Johnson immediately went down in pain, and had to be helped off of the field to the training room.

Johnson missed six games because of hamstring and groin injuries in 2015. He finished with 45 receptions for 497 yards and three touchdowns. Johnson hasn’t played a full, 16-game season since 2012. Johnson, 30, was penciled in to serve as San Diego’s No. 3 receiver, mainly working in the slot with Keenan Allen and Travis Benjamin on the perimeter. All but 28 of Johnson’s 497 snaps in 2015 were spent inside at slot receiver.

The Bolts also might not have 2016 first-round pick Joey Bosa as he remains the only first-rounder yet to sign a contract. Go Chiefs here.

Buffalo Bills at Baltimore Ravens (-3 in NFL betting)

Will Buffalo have top receiver Sammy Watkins for Week 1? Watkins broke a small bone in his foot this offseason, prompting the receiver to go under the knife in late April. The Bills are optimistic about his health, though. Watkins opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list — and he remains on that list for now — but the third-year pass-catcher has been running for weeks and promised earlierthis month to be “back on top soon.” For Buffalo to stand a chance in the AFC East, Watkins must play a major role on offense. He had 60 catches for 1,047 yards and nine touchdowns last season.

The Bills did add someone who can catch balls well out of the backfield this week in running back and former Heisman winner Reggie Bush. It’s Bush’s fifth team heading into the 11th year of his career. With backup Karlos Williams being suspended for the first four weeks of the season, Bush will have a shot at earning some reps behind starter LeSean McCoy in a crowded backfield. Bush also becomes a candidate to return punts for the Bills. None of the three players who returned punts for the Bills last season — Marcus Thigpen, Denarius Moore or Leodis McKelvin — remains on Buffalo’s roster. Bush appeared in a career-low five games in 2015, and his season ended with a freak knee injury suffered when he slipped on the exposed concrete at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Go Ravens here.

New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (-3.5 in NFL betting)

It’s been a rough training camp already for Dallas. Cowboys defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford has a back injury and wasn’t available for the team’s first day of practice in full pads. Crawford underwent an MRI on his back and there’s no timetable for his return. Crawford’s injury is a especially painful in the wake of defensive end Demarcus Lawrence’s four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy and Randy Gregory’s suspension for the same offense. Gregory could be out 10 games due to being a repeat offender. The defensive line will also be without the services of defensive end Benson Mayowa who had offseason knee surgery and rookie defensive tackle Maliek Collins.

Meanwhile, there are also some rumors that Tony Romo, who played only four games last year due to a broken collarbone, is quite overweight. Romo, 36, is listed at 230 pounds on the team’s training camp roster. That’s the same weight he has been since 2014. In 2013, when he missed most of the offseason with his first of two back surgeries, he was listed at 236 pounds.

I like New York here in NFL betting.