NFL Best Bet: Texans are in a prime position to win AFC South
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by senior betting analyst Ben Fawkes to explain why he thinks the Houston Texans have a better chance of winning the AFC South than their odds indicate. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
I like the Texans to win the division.
I think it's around plus 110.
You're really figuring it should be a three-way race, right, if you're counting out the Titans.
And, to me, I just think the Texans, you look at kind of their floor, that defense is going to be, w- as we would expect, right, barring injury or anything else, so good that just the offense has to be kind of mediocre for that team to win double-digit games.
You could certainly look at their over, I believe it's nine and a half.
But I think them to win the division, I just think they're far and away the best team in that division.
Now, obviously CJ, Stroud didn't play well in the playoffs, played much better in the regular season.
We saw him, last night in the preseason.
Seemed like he was fine in the first couple of drives.
Ultimately, they're gonna go as far as he takes them.
But I think just that defense, bringing back basically everyone, they also added, Reed Blankenship in free agency.
They added Kayden McDonald, the Ohio State defensive tackle, in the second round for some more depth on an already great line.
They're favored in 13 games.
And because the Jaguars won the division last year, the Texans went 12 and 5, they get that second-place schedule.
So by opposing season win totals, they only have the 22nd toughest schedule, whereas the Colts are ninth and the Jaguars are 13th, so a little easier schedule.
I think as well, they didn't really know the Joe Mixon situation last season.
They had that injury.
They weren't really able to replace him.
They had a horrible running game.
They know kind of the Joe Mixon situation going into this season, so they're able to go out and sign David Montgomery, shore up that run game.
And we've also seen them as a, a aggressive front office, right?
They traded up a couple years ago.
They gave away a future first to get Will Anderson.
It was a risky move, clearly has paid off.
You saw the Jayden Higgins, already a wide receiver has gone down.
N'Keal Collins had injuries last year.
I think this front office as well, they know they're close to potentially They're in Super Bowl contention.
If they really need a wide receiver or something else, I expect them to go out and potentially give up capital to get that.
So I just think they're far and away the best team in the AFC South and only plus 110.
I think that's good value.
