Welcome to the Talking the Line Podcast, presented to you by Talking the Line Sports Media. Giving you our best insights and analysis so you can rank in some cold hard cash on your next sports van. Now sit on back, open up your mind, and let's cash some tickets. We can't thank you enough for joining us, we hope you enjoy.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, degenerates and gamblers, far and wide. Oh and maybe fans of the NFL too. Welcome in to episode 90 of the Talking the Line Podcast and as always, hey, thank you so much for taking a few moments out of your day to come and kick it with a crew on this beautiful Wednesday of Betts and now more. But before we get to the and now more of that little sentence there, please take a few moments if you haven't already too.
Smash that subscribe button on whatever platform you are currently ingesting the TTL pod on. If you are watching on YouTube, whether live or recorded, you might as well hit that notification bell as well, whatever side of the screen it's on so you never miss the start of a live show because we got a run of shows that you absolutely do not want to miss. But if you're listening to the audio version on your favorite podcast director, you make sure you hit it there as well. So you never miss the release of any audio after every live show is over.
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And within that you can locate the talking the line dot com website and all of the TTL crews social content and other other digital content so you can consume it. However, and whenever you please ladies and gentlemen and beautiful gambling people everyone in between now joining us on today's show. I am your humble host Colton, co 45, Sworca and boy, oh boy, am I excited ladies and gentlemen, we have a bit of a change to the daily show. If you haven't heard the update, if you haven't seen it amongst our social platforms, maybe you are on our social platforms, but haven't stopped by a show yet and you bumped across that.
Post here you just saw on Twitter, welcome in. I am so juice to get this started. But before I do, I gotta bring in my partner. Gotta bring in the man that I typically lock arm in arm with every single day in the daily battle with the books and get deep in the trenches.
Now, we're still going to be getting deep in the trenches, but more of the NFL variety. Now, I could talk on and on got plenty to tell you guys about what's coming. But for right now, let me bring in the man, the myth, the degenerate gambling legend himself, Mr. Riley, R Max, Magus, Porter.
How you doing over there today pal? I mean, I could not be much better at all. I am so juicy into NFL season and to talk about every single team one by one, just the sheer joy that the NFL and talking about it brings to me. I really can't put it on a scale because it creeps up on me every single time.
And I'm always surprised at how happy it makes me because, god damn it, do I love some NFL football. I do too, my friend. We have both been losing our minds this morning talking about it. I am so excited to bring this content to you guys.
Now, quickly, before we get into all of that, I start explaining a little bit more about what to expect over the next 32 episodes. And within just today's episode, you do know us as a daily sports gambling show, right? So we did have best bets yesterday. And you know that we're all about full transparency here at the TTO pod.
So quickly, let's recap yesterday's best bets of the day. Not the worst day we ever had here at the TTO pod, but not the best by any means. Mr. Magus and had one game post pwn, but put up a two and O day got out the brooms.
Nice clean sweep for him. Myself broke even a two and two day for me on the books on all of my first five or online plays there. Plus a half are two for Tuesday parlay. Big loss, big loss.
They are good there. But hey, the money line dies absolutely scorching hot right now. You see the two and O right there. They are four and O on this.
Now officially 41, 37 and one on the TTO pod. It may even be 41, 36. I think it's 36. Not for sure.
However, there you go yesterday's best bets of the day. Not too shabby. Hope you've been playing the money line dice as we have as of late. Now, I don't want to say that we're not going to be betting MLB baseball because I have a matter of fact already hammered in a few and they'll be bets this morning that I'd like to call myself of some value.
So first things first as a reminder, if you are a fan of the TTO pod, you usually stop by for our best bets or analysis picks, everything in between the special play. You're not going to get that for the next 32 episodes, but we're not just going to leave you hanging out to dry. We still going to put in picks. We will still have them on the action network app and you can still find them all on talking the line.com along with the daily live lines and odds so you can put in your favorite bets out of our bets or maybe even any other bets you like while you're there on your favorite sport.
So if we have that capability on our website, so we're still going to be putting those plays out for you. Don't worry. We're still captain some baseball games. We'll still be putting out a few here and there, but we don't want to waste time.
With it on the daily show and let me tell you why, because if you haven't heard, if just by chance you stumbled into episode number 90 and you said to yourself, well, hey, I want to get prepared early for the NFL season and you haven't ever been to a TTO pod before. First things first. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thanks for coming on in.
But for the next 32 episodes, we are going to break down one NFL team per day. You already said it partner. I just wanted to rehash it. It is going to be absolutely jam packed.
So we got no time to waste with best bets and analysis. What we will be bringing you is still the first half and a second half of the show. First half of the show is going to be that given NFL team for today's show. First alphabetical NFL team.
We are going to is the Arizona Cardinals. We will also, if you haven't heard, proceed alphabetically all the way down to the Washington football team until September 9th, 2021, which is the start of the NFL regular season, the Thursday night game that gets things kicked off and hey, we might just have a live watch long plan. But who am I to say? Who's to say at this point in time?
However, what I do know is that within these next 32 episodes, we will be breaking down the entire lineup, both offensive defensively and oh, hey, we're going to get into the coaching staff. Then we'll go ahead and break down the entire schedule. We'll get into strength of schedule. We'll get into division opponents, non division opponents 2020 schedule compared to 2021 and so much more that I can't even explain.
You're just going to have to stick around and get into it. We're a daily gambling show. We got to give you a full betting preview. We are breaking down every single week's line for every single week's team home and away.
We're giving you trends from last year. Trends to look for the team. Last year trends to look for for this year. We're giving you everything in between NFL is our love, our pride and joy when it comes to handicapping and we have nothing but stats and insights to dish out for you when it gets to the betting preview portion of the first half of the show.
Then because we're huge fantasy nerds as well as some of you might be who have stopped into today's show and might be for the next 32. We'll also be giving you some fantasy vice our best fantasy rankings and everything in between when it comes to whatever team we are talking about that given day. That'll wrap up basically everything we're going to be talking about. We're obviously just some additional stuff in there here and there in between who knows maybe we missed something.
Maybe there's a breaking announcement as we're talking about that team because we are in the thick of it. People we might be hearing about breaking news about a given team as we're speaking about them live on the show. So there might be all of that. That'll do it for the first half of the show for the next 32.
Then we're getting into the second half as always. You know that you know that we can't have a TTL pod without ransom reactions. So we'll still be talking about everything sports and sports gambling wise, giving you our hot takes insights from everything across that landscape. So don't worry that'll be coming at the second half of every single show.
And you know, since you guys give us your hard time and you guys give us your support and following it wouldn't be a TTL pod either if I didn't pay it forward with a little bit of my motivation minutes. So we still will be having motivation minutes at the end of every single episode. And today's message is on being kind to yourself. So stick around for the end of today's show for the full message on that.
But for now partner. Oh baby. Oh baby. Cut all the drama, cut all the banter, stop all the nonsense that you could go to every other sports media outlet and get.
Typically you come to the TTL pod for the stone cold locks and running tickets to the window with the TTL crew all day and night long. But from here on out for the next 32 episodes until the NFL season resumes are quite possibly the NCAA football season resumes when we start placing regular daily bets again. You're coming here for the NFL stats, the NFL trends, the analysis, betting previews, fantasy advice and everything in between. So my friends, once again, thank you so much for joining us.
I cannot wait to bring this to you. So let's get into episode number 90 of the talking the line podcast, the first special edition NFL special edition. Number one of 32 come and live at you with the first team, ladies and gentlemen, let's get into it with the Arizona Cardinals. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's time strap in.
We have nothing but advice, insights, analysis, everything in between the next hour is going to be jam packed. So hey, if you want to get out a notepad pen pencil, you might want to rewind at some point in time. I highly suggest you do because it is going to get wild. Well, most likely now that I'm thinking about it while we're live, I'll probably put some chapters in the recorded version that way you guys can kind of click back and forth between and see exactly what we're talking about at what point.
Right. So for now kicking things off with the Arizona Cardinals partner, let's get into this. I can't wait. First things first, we are going to go through a full team breakdown.
This is how we'll be starting every single first half of the show from here for the next 32. I'll be saying that a lot today. But today, so you don't have to check your calendars July 28, 2021. And for the Arizona Cardinals, we're starting with a full lineup breakdown, as I said, and we're going to get things started on the offensive side of the ball.
Now, partner, first things I wanted to start with here and I thought that would be of some very solid value to not only you guys, but us, right? And that's kind of why we wanted to do this too, because we're getting geared up. We were getting geared up for the NFL season. We were doing a lot of reading, a lot of research that said, why the hell would we do this on our own when we can bring it all to you guys too.
Exactly. So one thing that I thought was very, very important to first mention, Kion, first, no pun intended Kion, Kion, Kia additions and losses for this offensive team this year. As far as losses that they either lost a trade or be a free agency on the offensive side of the ball, they lost Dan Arnold, tight end. They also lost Kenyon Drake running back.
We'll talk pretty heavily about Kenyon Drake and some of the holes that are going to be filled by his replacements, but not going to tell you about them yet. They lost Marcus Gilbert, offensive tackle, Mason Cole center. They also lost Trent Sheffield, not a big loss at wide receiver. Brent Hundley got shipped out of town, but they did replace their second string quarterback, so we'll talk about him in addition to that too.
DJ Foster, another running back, so they lost a little bit of depth there, but don't worry. We'll talk about all of that nonsense. They did lose JR Swayze, right guard, kind of a hit there. And then obviously Larry Fitz, it looks like he's going to be retired, not too certain if he's going to get picked up by any team, but he might be out for the foreseeable future.
And then Seth of Devalf hadn't really heard him too much. I know he was on the depth chart, but obviously not a huge loss there for the Cardinals offensively. That's kind of what they lost offensive wise, but they were able to add a few key pieces offensively that I think are going to be pretty top notch harder. Phil, I would say, Phil, all those holes and more in addition to that.
So I would say addition by some traction for their offensive side of things this offseason. So, yeah, you want me to dive into these off season additions here? Absolutely. You can go ahead and give us the free agents and trades that were added.
Either be a free agency or trade. And then go ahead, dive into some of that draft class as well on the offensive side of the ball, because I got a few that I'll be able to pull out of there too. Sure. So at the center position, they traded for Rodney Hudson here, made a little couple additions to their offensive line here.
In addition to him that brought in Bryan, Winters, right guard action there. And then as far as skill position goes, apart to mention, Canyon Drake losing him, he had inconsistent season to say the least. They did bring in James Connor from over in Pittsburgh to pair with Chase Edmonds. And of course, the big name, of course, he's been a little bit down hit some injury issues, but they did bring in AJ Green here.
So very interesting to see how that guy bounces back or if at all I'm going to get more relaxed. I'm loving this. This is great. But unless I'm missing something, oh, you mentioned, Bradley's out of town.
Colt McCoy is actually in back up QB. I did not know that until today. Actually, he even had to read it. Hey, always a fan of a Colt or Colton, my friend.
So hey, never opposed to seeing one of them. Of course. But yeah, that about does it for the offensive side. We're going to talk to him on defense.
But they did bring in Matt Prater at the kicking position. I know we don't have too much of a special team's action plan, but. Obviously, but definitely all that. All Prater, Bob, definitely worth a look.
Did he get the Bud Light for Detroit, the Detroit Lions last year? Oh, I have no idea. Did he get that longest kick? Or was that course light for the Broncos for McMahon?
I am totally blank and I want you to talk about it. Really? There was like a whole thing last year. If I do remember so correctly that Brandon McMahon has had to hit like a 60 yard plus or break the record or whatever it was and like every fan that was there.
I don't remember what it all was, but I know Prater had the same thing for Detroit. Right. But anyway, the only thing I missed here was draft the player. Yeah, right.
A little and a half there. But the big off. They did a lot in the draft for their defense. The high high majority of their draft was defensive.
However, in the second round, they did pick up Rondale Moore from Purdue. We could see him in the third or fourth receivers spot for them. And then obviously as the season goes on, I expect them to work him in. And then late seventh round, they took a center Michael Manette from Penn State.
Don't know much about it. Yeah. One of the last guys you mentioned there, Rondale Moore, I think he is going to be huge on the offensive side of the ball. Coming out of Purdue, man.
Obviously, we watched him being fans of big action watching some of that. So I mean, he was a burner. He was a burner. And it looks like they're going to be tossing him in the slot.
I think he's pretty much got the third receiver position locked up right now. Doesn't look like he's going to have a whole lot of competition for that here as we get into camp. But we will also talk about some of the value on all those aforementioned offensive guys. But let's dive deep into what looks like is going to be the starting lineup for maybe your Arizona Cardinals or the birds that find themselves nested in the desert, if you will.
So offensively, let's just kind of go break down and kind of go up to the biggest, most important position. I suppose you could say. Offensive line. Obviously, I don't want to say that any position in the NFL is not important by any stretch of the term, but offensive line looks like they're going to have Humphreys, Pew, Hudson, Winters, and Beecham at the offensive light going from left to right, left to right, left to right, right tackle.
So DJ Humphreys, I know he's solid. I know they are spending a very, very good amount of money on him to keep Mr. Murray's backside protected. I do think that offensive line.
I know as well they are ninth per sharp football analysis. They are spending $42.06 million this year in cap on that offensive line. So it's one of the better ranked offensive lines per sharp right now. So I think that they definitely retooled at this offseason and mainly all of that cap within that offensive line is going to Humphreys.
Yeah. Nobody else is either a young guy either got drafted picked up via free agency or who knows what the game is. Yeah. Smiling the O'Brien Winters is only 1.2 million right now.
So I'm right. But yeah, I agree with you. No, that offensive line Humphreys keeping him is definitely huge. And then yeah, there's two additions inside coupled with the James Connor edition.
I think that's going to help the run game exponentially from last year. Absolutely. I could not agree more. So there is that.
Now, how about some tight end action? One of probably the most muddy tight end situations right now in the entire national league. At the current time, they have seven different tight ends on their roster. So it's pretty up in the air who's even going to be starting.
It looks like potentially Max Williams will be. That's Max with two Xs for you, my friend. Looks like he's going to be potentially starting, but I'm not too certain if he will be or not. It kind of looks like it's going to be an open competition for that Cardinals tight end room this season.
Yeah. It looks like it's going to be, like you said, one of the muddier tight end rooms in the entire league. And probably if not the one of the biggest weakest spot on their team, it might be their weakest spot on the team here. And their offense isn't really centered around as far as the receiving game.
I think they're probably just using those. They're looking for guys that are going to be bigger helps in the run game as opposed to the past game there. Absolutely. And I forgot to mention per Sharp's offensive and defensive rankings.
The Arizona offensive line is ranked 13th out of 32 teams in the NFL. Tight ends. Obviously, there's no ranking. You can either toss them in with receivers or on the line.
However, you want to look at them. How about what do you got? No, sorry. Just for context on how little experience these tight ends have.
Max Williams and Darryl Daniels, the two guys that are listed at the top of the depth chart each. Eight catches total last year, right around 100 yards and one touchdown. That's on the full season, not one game, which will be a very nice game. That would be a great fantasy day.
But no, not looking the best for that tight end room there in Arizona. We mentioned them already. I'm going to switch up here a little. I mentioned them already.
The running back room in Arizona per Sharp football analysis ranked 28th out of 32 teams this year going into the 2021 season. Not looking very good. It's looking like they're going to have James Connor in at number one and then Chase Edmonds still being that number two guy in Arizona. Now, Chase Edmonds does have that quick flash ability, that probability.
I don't know if he'll get any more uptick in production. I think that this is going to do is that James Connor is going to get a lot of the early down work. However, his EPA per attempt last season was absolutely garbage on early down work. So I don't really know how this Arizona team plans to work this duo in here.
The other big question mark is, can James Connor even stay healthy? Who knows? I'm not even certain that he's played a full season in the last six seasons or maybe even since his rookie year. I do believe.
But either way, I mean, it's an all right addition. I don't know what you think partner, but I just don't think that really either one of these guys are going to have massive, massive seasons. You might have one of those weeks like you had last year from Chase Edmonds where you have a 20 point fantasy week and a touchdown in 62 yard reception. But outside of that, I don't see a whole lot of value in this backfield.
Not a ton of value. I do think it is a step up from what they had last year. I'm not a big Kenny Drake fan. So I think bringing Connor in is a step up from that.
And like I said, I think those two interior line. What can you drink Connor bigger step than Connor? Connor better than Kenyon Drake. Yeah, Kenyon Drake wasn't really that effective at all last year.
And I think the two interior line in there that they brought in could help James Connor have some production there. But like you said, I'm not super high on by any means. Definitely a middle, middle of the pack, the lower third of the league as far as running back talent goes though, in my opinion. Wow, that is a very spicy take there, my friends.
To the minimal production, the fact that you had Benny Snell and then also can think of the secondary running back. I will obviously get into that later. That's not me either way. That's more of an indictment.
They were better than James Connor. More than that. I mean, I'm not much. I don't like Kenny Drake as opposed to me talking up James Connor.
All right, either way. Spicy take there you go. There you have it. Moving right along into the wide receiver room.
Who do we got? Who are we looking at? It's going to be quite similar, but not really at all. Obviously you have your statue piece.
You guys all know DeAndre DeHop. Nope. DeAndre Hopkins. He's obviously going to be one of the top targets once again here in Arizona.
He's obviously getting the trust of Kyler. Kyler is getting the trust of him. I mean, everything seems to be clicking there. Hopefully they'll be able to get some more of those open field wide open targets.
It appears that a lot of the work that Kyler and DeAndre do together are those short little curl routes and some of the just the out flat routes. So I'm not certain if that's what they'll keep doing. I mean, I'm certain it is if they've had excellent success with it. Right.
But I would like them to see the rip the cover or rip the top off the defense every once in a while. You know, send a nuke down there for one of them bombs. I would like to see that. Throw it up and pray.
Absolutely. However, they bring in AJ Green. You mentioned it out of Cincinnati free agency. You know, I'm not super high on AJ Green.
We'll talk about some of the value there later, but I'm not very high on AJ Green whatsoever. And I don't think that does anything huge. And then it looks like Rondell Moore's going to be getting the start too. So I think that's a lot of good value there.
Yeah. I mean, I'm a little more optimistic on AJ Green than you are. Not saying he's going to be the game changer for this offense or this wide receiving Corber. He means I maybe I've just been a big fan of him throughout his career.
I'm not sure. But I mean, there was a time where he was one of the top five receivers in the league. No, I'm not saying he's going to get to that by any means. But I do think he, as long as I can say healthy, I think that's the bigger question is his health.
And that's more valid. I could absolutely see him has continued to struggle with his health. But if he is on the field, I think that's going to help him a lot and open up. Take a little bit of a pressure off the Andre Hopkins and, you know, not take the top off the defense like you're kind of hoping for.
Obviously, but I think it could be a number, a nice number to do over there. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't know. I think he has to be a star in that in that offense.
I just think that's way too much pressure to put on AJ Green with the last few seasons he's had. And you keep on it. Health is just too important for him. Last but certainly not least, the quarterback 10th best ranked quarterback per sharp on out of 32 or well out of more cubies, but are out of 32 teams ranked at the QB position.
Obviously, they got Kyler Murray. Biggest question, Marcus. He's going to be able to stay healthy this year. I mean, obviously, he was still able to play all last season, but his numbers took a serious nose dive after he had that shoulder injury and then had a nagging knee injury or something along those sorts.
Right. He's got to be able to stay healthy. They obviously retooled his offensive line to help aid in that. But, you know, I don't know.
We'll see what happens. Obviously, a lot of his scrambles are going to put him out a little bit more of a risk. We'll see. I think we see a lot of improvement again here from Kyler Murray, the former number one overall pick does pretty well in his third season in the NFL.
Yeah. And like you said, I think the new offensive line additions are going to help him stay healthy. And I think now going into, I think it's what a third season. If I'm not wrong, I think he's going to have a lot more experience and knowledge on when to, you know, slide, run out of bounds, that type of stuff and avoid those big hits and shoulder hits.
Do you just spill over yourself? No, I literally said coming into his third season in all of a sudden. I doubt I closed out what I was saying to kick it to you, but no big deal there. I'm just over here talking as far as that goes.
We'll see what happens with Kyler Murray. But for the offensive scheme, it's going to be kind of interesting to see what they do in my opinion this year going into 2021. You know, here in 2020, they ran a lot of 12 personnel. And if you're not familiar, when we refer to like 12 or 22 or even O2 personnel, whatever the case might be or even 11 personnel who are referring to the first number indicates the number of running backs in the back field or in the game and then the second number indicates the number of tight ends.
And we'll also tell you if there needs to be wide receiver groupings, if there's three, four, two, whatever the case might be, but they ran a lot of 12 tight end. They did a lot of pre snap motion, a lot of play action out of that. They were very successful with that. But I think if they want to have more success, they want to win more games.
They're just simply going to have to get out of that and not run the ball. So dog on much. And I just don't think they're going to be able to depend on James Connor and the chase Edmonds as a duo to be able to run that ball with a punch like they want to be able to. So this is going to be once again, the Kyler Murray show and what this offense can do is going to depend on.
So that being said, I mean, I think and other people have said this. I think that we see a lot more of those three, four, five receivers, obviously five more in the third and fourth down area, but but three, four receiver sets. I think that's what they need to do. I mean, I just mentioned that I would love to see DeAndre rip the top off the defense a little bit more.
And I think he has the ability to do that. You get him on those 10 yards slant routes. He can burn off 90 yards. No question.
Yeah. But I mean, going back to that Murray and his health to some degree, I'm interested to see because out of the gates, they use him a lot of running sets, kind of design runs for him and it came to a lot of success. And then obviously he had the shoulder injury, other type of injury. And they had to change that up.
So I'm interested to see if they are concerned about re-injuring him or they're not. They're going to go with those types of sets and whatnot because it definitely proved to be successful. They started out the game five and two. So I think I think they go back to it as long as he's 100% healthy.
And like I said, I think he's going to have some lot more experience as far as protecting himself when running ball. I think so too. I couldn't have said that better myself. So that all being said quickly, just a few key offensive stats to let you guys know about the Cardinals average about 5.7 yards per play last season in 2020.
They also had rushing on about 44.23% of their plays, 55.77% remaining being passing. They had a completion completion. Completion percent or Kyle Murray did not too bad. Well, north of 60 there, 67.30%.
The third down conversion lacked just a little bit 39.60%. Actually, a lot of it there. You'd like to see that closer to 50, but 39 is not too bad. And then the red zone scoring pretty solid.
65.52% of the time they got down there in the red zone. So I think it'll be kind of similar, but I also think they'll definitely do a little flipper and start improving here. But let's get into the defense quick, fast, and in a hurry. Briefly, nothing major.
Just right about the same start here. Key losses, key additions for the defensive side of the ball. Now, obviously they have a few key cornerback losses. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be looking at here.
Patrick Peterson, they obviously lost. They also lost Drake or Patrick and Jonathan Joseph. So that's all just in their defensive back room. So that's going to be pretty big if I do say so myself.
Los Angeles, Blackson, Hassan, Redick off of the edge. They also lost Brett. No, I'm sorry. Corey Peters, who was on the line as well.
They lost Evandre Campbell to Mado Pico, Drake or Patrick. Like I already told you, I just think that those defensive losses are going to be the biggest thing here within the cornerback room. Not to mention that they also lost Josh Moro on the line as well. So some of the key losses there that I think are going to loom heavy again.
I just think that the quarterback room is going to be one of the biggest holes here in this defense. But as far as the defensive players added their partner, what are we looking at for the Cardinals defensively? Yeah, I mean, the obvious one that everyone knows about Mr. JJ Watt, the big guy on campus now.
I, of course, he's not the three-time defensive player of the year type of JJ Watt, but he's still really effective. They brought in Malcolm Butler, who I'm not a huge fan of. They got him out at 3.29 million. Did not play very well in Tennessee last year.
But as you mentioned, all the key losses certainly better than grabbing somebody off the street in my opinion. So there's those two big additions. Sean Williams' safety. And then obviously they used their, like I was saying, they used a lot of their draft picks on defense.
The first one, first pick over all number 16 is Evand Collins from Tulsa at linebacker. So that should help them a little bit. They did address the cornerback position here in the draft fourth and sixth round picks on some cornerback, Marco Wilson out of Florida, and take out one out of U.S. or UCF, excuse me.
So decent draft. But yeah, as you mentioned, I'm a little nervous about their secondary. No question about it. I think some of these high-powered offenses as far as passing offenses go could pick apart that secondary.
Because I do really like their front seven, especially as I'm about to mention certain guys six around. I do like their front seven, especially with the addition of JJ Watt. But yeah, I think some high-powered quarterbacks are going to pick their cornerbacks apart here. And I'm going to kind of move through this defense a little bit quicker because we do have a boatload of stuff to get into instead of just breaking down guy by guy because we have plenty of that to get into within the betting and within the fantasy.
So we don't need to waste time doing that here. Quick executive decision. So just fast, quick in a hurry on the defensive side of the ball. They're going to have the aforementioned JJ Watt by my partner, Phillips Lawrence Chandler Jones, who we will discuss a little bit might not be there in Arizona come the start of the 2021 season.
Maybe by the time you come back and watch this show, who knows he might not be there at all. Is Evan Collins. They obviously drafted him. My partner just talked about him in the middle linebacker.
Got Isaiah Simmons as well coming in for his second year. Malcolm Butler, Buddha Baker, Thompson, Alfred and Murphy. So obviously, those cornerback position is looking very, very, very bleak. I don't think it's going to be one of the better success stories of the NFL this year, at least defensively.
And I think teams are going to have a lot of success against them in the air. Yeah, I don't think they're safeties, but no, not a quarterback. It's not looking good. And Buddha Baker absolutely got paid.
So, you know, well, I think he'll have a lot of that better leadership and stuff like that. But I'm not too particularly certain that that defense is going to have any type of success. But we'll talk about them a little later in the fantasy portion as well. As far as the coaching staff goes, Cliff Kingsbury entering his third official season as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
And joining him once again is defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. If you didn't know Cliff also calls the offensive plays. I don't know why you wouldn't have known that. But if you don't, you do know now.
Part of anything that sticks out for you, you'd like to see from them any adjustments made from the 18th ranked head coach overall in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, Cliff Kingsbury, a lot of people had skepticism about him. I think he's got a lot of talent as far as play calling goes. I think he's got a lot of things to mistakes and things to figure out as far as game management goes.
And then kind of as I was saying, how he's going to handle Kyle and Murray as far as full go. Here we go. We're going to run the ball as much as we can. Throw the ball as much as we can.
Scramble around or if they're going to protect them a little bit. I'm interested to see that. But I think he's going to step up and then Vance Joseph has been kind of having that Cardinals kind of middle of the pack team as far as defense goes. Yeah, that three four scheme leaves a little bit more to be desired coming from Vance.
So we'll see if he revamps anything. But I don't know. I think it's going to be just a lot of the same here this upcoming season. So there you go.
The full offense, the full defense and the coaching staff breakdown. It's a little bit more important to break down the offense a little bit more in depth there as well. So that is the full lineup breakdown. Everything you know everybody on the defensive and offensive side of the ball.
Let's get into these guys actually playing the nitty gritty. The good parts of this. Let's get into this stuff now. So first things first we want to get into is some of the strength of schedule here for these teams.
Now her sharp football analysis. My guy Warren Sharp. Shout out if you do see this at some point in time. They got a pretty doggone tough schedule going on this season.
They got a rough stretch weeks four through six between the Rams, forty nineers and Browns. And they also face the forty nineers again following facing the Packers in week eight and nine. And then they close out their season against the Colts Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks week 16 17 and 18 now Cowboys. Jerry's still out.
We'll see if all Mike can get him turned around and what happened. But we're not talking about the boys here today. However, just looking at this schedule right now, it absolutely looks more difficult than I could possibly imagine. They had a pretty easy schedule last season and this just this doesn't seem this doesn't seem it wins to me my friend.
But we won't talk about that yet. We'll get in that a minute. Yeah. I mean, you look at it right now.
I mean, they've got four games against AFC South, four games against the NFC North. Colts and Titans are going to be tough. I think the big thing here aside from of course, if they can have success in the division, they're going to go to the playoffs. But like you said, not going to be easy.
Big thing here is the talent level of the NFC North and how their seasons are playing out because Aaron Rodgers back. Obviously, I'm going to say that's the loss to the Packers. But as far as the Bears and Vikings are concerned, you know, that could be a big swing as far as they're over under concerned and you know, whether or not they make a playoffs. They can get two wins against those two teams.
That's going to be a big jump there. But then the AFC South that Colts game down in the stretch there could be a big one. I think it's on Christmas actually. All right.
Well, speaking of some division opponents, first thing you said there, let's talk about those division opponents. Obviously going to be playing the Rams, the Seahawks and the 49ers all in the NFC West. We play them all twice, six games in total, obviously on the season now. They play the Rams in week four 49ers, week five.
Then they have a little bit of a division break. Then 49ers, again, week nine Seahawks, week 11 Rams, week 14, and then Seahawks again in week 18 to close out the season. So I honestly am very bearish on this Arizona Cardinals team. I don't think that they will have all too much success against some of these out of division opponents.
And that's a heck of a segue to actually talk about that. You did mention a partner they're facing the NFC North and also the AFC South as their two other divisions. They're total eight games outside of their main schedule. You know, the NFC North, one of the big things was then playing the Packers is Aaron Rogers going to be back.
What is this is a big question mark there. And, you know, with him coming back, man, I don't, I don't think it looks very good for them in the matchup between them at all. I think the Packers win that game outright. No problem whatsoever.
Last time that the line was checked, the Packers were favored by three points in that game. And that was still with a lot of muddiness with Aaron Rogers in not in Green Bay, not showing up with the case might be. So who knows what will happen there? However, as far as those non-division opponents in the NFC North, the Vikings, I think have a solid opportunity to beat them.
We'll see what the Bears are when they eventually meet them in week 13. I think we'll know a lot about the Bears by then, obviously. And then the Lions, I don't know if Motor City, Dan Campbell have the boys already to rock and roll quite yet this season, but we'll see. I think they can at least get one win out of there, if not maybe two.
And then as far as the AFC South goes, I see them getting maximum two wins out of there. I think they could beat the Jags pretty easily unless it's one of those games where it comes down 23, 20 game. I mean, how many of those do we see from the Cardinals last season? Right.
But I think they can definitely beat the Texans. Obviously won't waste any time talking about all these teams, but I think they definitely lose to the Titans and the Colts, but can get wins over the Jags and the Texans for the time being. I'm a little higher on this team than you are, my friend, because I actually think they get the Titans week one, actually. Titans have, they did start the season, Titans 5 and 0 last year, but they came out of the gates a little slow.
They had their margin of victory combined was like five or six points against the Broncos, Vikings and Jaguars, I think. And they've kind of done that the last couple seasons where they start a little slower. Last year, they were fortunate enough to have a weaker schedule, but I think the Cardinals jump on them in week one. So I'm a little bit higher on you.
I think that then you are on this team. I definitely am. I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid because it was one of the highest offensive seasons in one of the easiest seasons on the road and anything in between last season and they struggled worse than they had in 2019. So you bring in the fans factor, you bring everything in that.
I'm not high on them whatsoever. Yeah. Personally, personally, I think they go three and one against both the NFC North and the AFC South. That's my prediction.
Really. So I think they go one and three in the NFC North. I think they go two and two in the AFC South and then the remaining three opponents that we haven't covered yet. They're facing the brownies, the boys and the Panthers.
I think they lose to the Browns. I think the Browns have a way to elite of a defense and now are really shaping up that offense. They made playoffs last year because of that offense. So I think that that is going to be a key factor in that game.
You know, we'll see the jury still out. It's all the way into week 17 for the Cowboys, depending on what the Cowboys are and where they are. And if Dak does have come back player the year season and that defense can fix the holes. Hey, Cowboys might win that game too in my mind.
So we got to see what the Panthers are. How is Christian McAfee going to be coming back off of that ACL? How is Sam Donald going to link up with the wide receivers? Who knows what's going to happen in Carolina?
And we'll obviously talk about that at a later date. But I think that's a very very good game as well. I think that's one of them 2320 games you could potentially see depending on how the Panthers shake out. That's a mid season game right at week 10.
So who knows what happens there? Yeah, like I said, I'm a little higher than you are on these Cardinals, my friend, because as far as the Cowboys, I think they lose the Browns. I agree with you there. Don't know about the Cowboys.
I'm still a big question mark there. But I think they get the thing. They want to get some Panthers. And I'm also not as quite as high on the Seattle Seahawks.
So I do think they struggle with individuals against the Rams and the Niners, but I think they get at least one win there against the the Seattle Seahawks. So nobody said I was high on the sea. Oh, no, no, no. That's just me personally.
But I also I don't think that they have much success within that division this season. A lot of those teams beefed up that defense for reasons because they know that and we'll talk about their division wins and everything here in the betting preview very shortly. But they do have a buy in week 12. That is when they're by week is the Arizona Cardinals.
And overall, you know, I think this is a little bit tougher of a schedule. Obviously, obviously, obviously is also predicted to be a little bit tougher of a schedule. They faced the NFC least. I mean, NFC East last season for their four games stretch and also the AFCs.
AFCs. Obviously still had Buffalo still had kind of Miami sticking around here and there. But I think that's a little bit tougher of a schedule. Obviously, obviously, it's also predicted to be a little bit tougher of a schedule.
They faced the NFC East last season for their four games stretch and but then New England obviously wasn't New England. You never know what you were going to get. And then goodness gracious, we had the 0 and 14 or 15 and 1. Sure.
So, you know, they didn't have the hardest schedule in the world. Also played the Panthers and the Lions. I don't know. We'll see what happens here in 2021.
But I definitely think the schedule is a lot, lot harder. And if they don't make some serious improvements, it is going to show. Yeah, no question about it. I mean, I like the way they came out of the gates last year.
And then I think the injuries that Kyle Murray dealt with was honestly the bigger reason that they had kind of tanked in the second half of that season. So as long as Mr Murray is fully healthy, I like this team quite a bit, actually. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I do as I do as well. But I was extremely high on them last year.
I was speaking this about like you. Last year and got very, very, very disappointed with how I was. So I'm going to tamper those expectations just a little bit. I'm going to say they're in the middle of the pack team.
And I don't think they went into division by any means. Now, they're going to be a very average average average team with all of the firepower that they have. But that does it for the schedule. Let's get in to a full betting preview.
Let's talk about quite a few things here. Now, first things first. What are we looking at lines? We have week by week lines already full access right to you delivered in prime time.
Week one. You already talked about it. Pardon against the Titans. They are a two and a half point underdog right now.
I do believe that might have kicked up to three and a half. I'm not sure the last time I looked at that. However, week two against the Vikings, three and a half point favorites, week three against the Jaguars, two and a half point favorites as well. Rams and week four, four and a half point dogs.
It is a pick them in week five against the 49ers. They come in as four and a half point dogs against Cleveland in week six, 10 and a half point favorites against Houston in week seven. Green Bay. They are three point favorites in week eight that may have now flipped because of Rogers being back on the field.
Forty Niners in week nine. They are five and a half point dogs week 10 Carolina. They are six point favorites in week 11. They come in as three and a half point dogs to the Seattle Seahawks.
Then follow that up with one and a half point favorite performance in Chicago. Again, the Bears. Then week 14, once again, two and a half drop down a little bit actually from week four to week 14, two and a half point dogs against the Rams in week 14. Then six and a half point favorites only against the Detroit Lions.
One point favorites virtual pick them against the Colts in week 16 and then following up with week 17 and 18, one and a half point dogs against the Cowboys and two point favorites against the Seahawks. Interesting stuff, my man. Yeah. Week one, it did take up to three plus three against the Titans.
Okay. So I thought it had moved up just a little bit there. So obviously, who's ever bet an early might be on your side as well. Think they get off to a hot starter here in the early season.
But, you know, those close games, the old Cardinals weren't so dog on good in last year. So I don't know. I might be, you know what? Way too early week one pick.
If I was a betting man, gun to my head, you know, I think that this Tennessee offense has made some serious improvements. And I do believe that they will have some success. I do believe that that defense is going to be hawking in week one. Tennessee's.
Yes. Okay. And that they're going to rip the absolute cover off of that defense with the web or offense. Yes.
Defense. Goodness gracious with the weapons that the Titans added in for you. Yeah. Yeah.
I already said it. I think the Cardinals coming to get the win. I just, you know, this Titans team has been more of a second half. Come on.
Very strong. Obviously, make a push to the AFC Championship a couple years ago and then had a really good second half last year. I did mention they started five in the last year, but their margin of victory against three non playoff teams was either five or six total. So that's okay.
They come in as three point dogs. All the time. Plus three all day long. I'm going to go.
Yeah. Way too early could change. But yeah, I'm going to go Cardinals. Money line on this one.
Cardinals. Money line on that one. Don't even have odds on it. He's just going.
Yeah. That's why I said he's not favorite in the Cardinals spread. So see Titans plus three. You can already see how this NFL season is going to go.
But yeah, I do love the Titans plus. Three plus two and a half wherever it's at on your favorite book if you want to put it in early bed. But how about it? We have a few key 2020 ATS and over under trends.
Now, as far as this goes, ladies and gentlemen, we have the Arizona Cardinals. They came in in 2027 and nine ATS. They did have an average line of one point eight minus one point eight. They were favored on their line there.
But they were five and six as a favorite two and three ATS as a dog three and five ATS at home. Two and four ATS as a home favorite and one and one ATS as a home favorite. One and one ATS as a home dog. Now on the road was a much better for him for ATS away.
Three and two ATS as an away favorite and one into ATS as an away dog. So maybe a little bit of that ATS as an away favorite. You know that actually they do do they play in Tennessee in week one? I'm not.
It is in Tennessee. So maybe a little something there. If you think about side with my partner on there. Who knows?
But that's where they're at as far as ATS goes. Some key trends as far as over under they were six and 10 per shortfall analysis, but five and 11 on team ranking. So might have potentially just been a different closing number. Whatever the case might be however, they did have an average line of 50 for the game totals.
throughout the course of the 2020 season and they were five and three over under at home and one and seven over under on the road. So a little bit tighter contesting contest on the road and keeping those totals away under. Yeah, sorry. I can see this team despite even at their offense.
You know, it's even higher scoring than they were last year. I can see them being under team just because the public perception is going to have them being high powered offense. Those totals are going to be very high right around 50 if not higher again. So I can see them being another under team once again this season.
Sure. But hey, we all love a good teaser. So why not give you some trends for their 6.7 point and 10 point teasers respectively for six. They were 10 and six straight up or ATS however you'd like to say it.
Seven point teaser. They were 10 and five and a 10 point teaser. They were 13 and two. So not a bad team to toss in a teaser from week to week.
Get a few extra points. This depends. Man, I have the itchyest. Itchyest nose going on.
I think I hear something maybe a little TTL mascot here, but there you go. There you have it all of the ATS trends and the over under trends and a little bit of teaser action for you. The Arizona Cardinals. Good team to add to a teaser.
How about back to that wind total? Well, partner, I said a little while back ago in the show we had a wind total of eight set for the Arizona Cardinals. Correct. Now goodness gracious.
This is ridiculous. I just had to use my shirt because I didn't bring my towel today, but gosh darn it. Now, wind total set at eight and the line is out. Over eight wins for the Arizona Cardinals.
Remember, we do have an 18 game season now 18 weeks season 17 games entirely when you exclude the bye week. The over is at minus 130 and the under is at plus one ten. Correct. Partner early pick early selection.
Are you going over? Are you going under? I could probably guess at this point in time. Yeah, as you mentioned, my friend, or as I mentioned, we're a little bit differing on as far as the wind totals of this team.
I'm going over. I think they fare well against the NFC North, aside from my Packers. I think they fare well against the AFC South, aside from the Hill Colts. And aside from that, I don't know if this is going to be one of my higher confidence picks as far as over under.
I could honestly see very well see a push on this action. No question about it. So I am comfortable taking the over with the caveat that there could be a push. But I do think they get another win against the Panthers there.
And then that leaves for me the way I'm playing it out here. That leaves one win in the division to get themselves to eight. And I think they'll at least go to and floor in the division despite how tough it is there. I think they get at least one if not two against Seattle.