NFL odds: Best bet? Don’t sleep on the New York Giants

By Sam Panayotovich
FOX Sports Betting Analyst

There hasn’t been a repeat champion in the NFC East since Brian Dawkins, Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens and Andy Reid led the Philadelphia Eagles to their second straight divisional crown in 2004.

It’s the most topsy-turvy division in American sports, and history tells us to expect the unexpected when it comes to forecasting the finish.

Last year, I was very bullish on the Dallas Cowboys winning the East at a bargain price (+110). This year, I’m passing up the favorites and circling a team much deeper down the betting sheet.

Don’t sleep on the New York Giants.

ODDS TO WIN THE NFC EAST AT FOX BET*

Cowboys: +120 (bet $10 to win $22 total)
Eagles: +175 (bet $10 to win $27.50 total)
Commanders: +550 (bet $10 to win $65 total)
Giants: +800 (bet $10 to win $90 total)

*odds as of 7/27/2022

After six seasons of abysmal coaching and horrendous play calling, Big Blue finally has competence on the sideline with Brian Daboll running the show, and Mike Kafka and Wink Martindale at offensive and defensive coordinator, respectively.

That’s a major improvement from Joe Judge’s clown college the last two years and the Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo disasters before that. The Giants won’t be schematically outmatched for the first time in a long time.

Of course, the on-field product matters more, and there are plenty of naysayers hovering over quarterback Daniel Jones like buzzards. But I’m optimistic that Daboll and Kafka will put Jones in positions to succeed while utilizing the many (hopefully healthy) weapons the Giants have in the cupboard. 

I can’t wait to see Jones operate with Saquon Barkley, Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney behind an offensive line that has added first-round tackles Andrew Thomas and Evan Neal in the last three drafts.

“The Giants played out the string in Eli Manning’s final years and had one of the worst rosters in the league,” one Las Vegas bookmaker told FOX Sports. “But they’ve done a solid job closing the talent gap in the division.

“And [new general manager Joe Schoen] really impressed me in the NFL Draft. Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal are impact players that will help the Giants compete in the trenches from Day 1. They came out of April’s draft with the most NFL-ready edge rusher and offensive lineman.”

New York’s defense took a step back from a Top-10 unit in 2020, but it’s important to understand that both sides of the ball were decimated by injuries. Giants players missed a league-high 356 games last season. Sheesh. 

Offensively, Barkley, Golladay, Shepard and Toney all missed numerous games, and the quartet took the field together only four times. This made it harder for the offense to sustain drives, and it put extra miles on a defense that was already shorthanded. 

I’m banking on injury regression the right way.

It’s not impossible that New York contends in its division, though I would much rather make the following two bets: Giants “Over” 6.5 regular season wins (-133 at FOX Bet) and the Giants to make the postseason (+230 at FOX Bet). New York finishing second in the division is pretty enticing, too, at +500.  

The Cowboys lost a ton of offensive weapons and still employ Mike McCarthy. The Eagles are one of the most over-hyped teams in the NFL. The Commanders have Carson Wentz under center. So nobody in the NFC East is unbeatable by any means. 

And sometimes you’ve gotta zig when everybody else zags.

PICK: Giants +230 at FOX Bet (bet $10 to win $30.30 total) to make the postseason 

PICK: Giants -133 at FOX Bet (bet $10 to win $17.52 total) to win Over 6.5 games

Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and NESN. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. He’ll probably pick against your favorite team. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot.

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