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Last night, Vegas released the season win totals and odds. This is always fascinating to me. We'll stick with the AFC West for obvious reasons.
First NFL season win totals in Las Vegas via @southpointlv. h/t @andrewssports. pic.twitter.com/9RUxJhRZo4
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) April 30, 2017
Oakland Raiders 9.5
I'd say over. The Raiders are good. There's no way around this. They have talent all over and brought in a pair of rookies that will fix their biggest weakness, their secondary. I imagine the Raiders are going to win the division.
The Chiefs were an awful run defense last year and the only real change they made in their front 7 was adding Bennie Logan from the Eagles. He's a good player. But they needed to do more. Kansas City traded up for a quarterback who is going to enhance the offense but a rookie QB usually will take his lumps. 9 is a good number with Andy Reid at the Helm.
Denver Broncos 8.5
Lol. No. No shot. The defense is great. There's no doubting that. The pass defense is historically great. It's safe to assume that the pass rush will take a slight step back. As for the offense? Woof. Those quarterbacks are awful. They drafted one in the 7th round who legit has more talent than both of the quarterbacks who played last year. They took Garrett Bolles in the 1st but history shows rookies early are going to take their lumps early and often. Their line needs a lot of work. Easy under here.
Looking at this objectively, it's fair. The team hasn't won double-digit games in the last 2 years why would they start now? The first part of their schedule is brutal. Dolphins-Chiefs-Eagles, luckily all at home, will be tough. Chiefs a divisional rival and the other 2 much improved. Followed by the Giants-Raiders-Broncos-Patriots. Oof. If they can get out of the 1st half of the season .500 the second half of the schedule is fairly winnable. That's a big if. Bringing in reinforcements for injuries were a plus for the Chargers during the draft. Simply upgrading the talent of the team should help as well. If Gus Bradley is a competent coordinator and the quarterback can dial back the bad decisions, this should be an over bet.
What do you think about these? How would you predict the AFC West now that the draft is over?