Wise Guys Clearly Had Inside Track On Jalen Hurts Injury, Capitalized With MVP Bets

Sharps pounded Patrick Mahomes to win NFL MVP just before reports

Prior to initial injury reports centering on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, the sharpest of sharps seemingly already had an inside track on the information. And it led wise guys to quickly shift gears to Patrick Mahomes while throwing down bets and money on the NFL MVP award rather than waiting for the news to break.

According to Caesars Sports’ writer Max Meyer, there were 23 bets of more than $1,000 made on the NFL MVP in the two hours leading up to NFL Network’s report on Hurts at 4:20 p.m. ET. Meyer noted that 20 of those 23 bets were made on the Kansas City Chiefs signal-caller, who quickly jumped Hurts as the favorite to win the league’s MVP award.

Hurts (-145) was on the line above Mahomes (+170) at Caesars as of 2:20 p.m. ET on Monday. Less than two hours later, at 4:17 p.m., Mahomes moved to the top line (-200) while Hurts was shifted down (+325). Again, that happened merely three minutes before NFL Network’s initial report of Hurts’ sprained shoulder with an immediate follow-up report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter at 4:20 p.m.

NFL MVP odds at 2:20 PM ET yesterday at @CaesarsSports:

Jalen Hurts -145
Patrick Mahomes +170

NFL MVP odds at 4:17 PM ET yesterday (about 3 minutes before reporter Hurts tweets):

Mahomes -200
Hurts +325

In that 2-hour span, 23 bets of $1000+ came in for MVP…. 20 on Mahomes.
— Max Meyer (@TheMaxMeyer) December 20, 2022

DraftKings Sportsbook had Mahomes as an even bigger favorite (-350) to win NFL MVP ahead of Hurts (+550) as of Tuesday afternoon.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni on Tuesday confirmed that Hurts has been dealing with a sprained shoulder, but does not put it past the quarterback to play Saturday against the Dallas Cowboys. Hurts said there’s “definitely a chance” he plays and he’s taking it “day-by-day” ahead of the Week 16 game on Christmas Eve.

The futures market wasn’t the only one to be impacted by Hurts’ injury news, though. DraftKings quickly shifted the Eagles from 1.5-point road underdogs to 6.5-point dogs Monday after the initial reports. Dallas currently is a 5.5-point home favorite entering the Week 16 contest, according to the consensus data on the NESNBets.com live odds page.