Cardinals Deserving Favorites To Be Worst NFL Team This Season
There are smart ways to bet on Arizona's medocrity
Last week, we explored the “most wins” market for an edge between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. This week is all about the fewest wins.
The Arizona Cardinals are +220 favorites to have the fewest victories this season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having the second-shortest odds at +700 on DraftKings. The numbers tell a story here with a big jump in odds. Bookmakers are telling you it’s likely the Cardinals run away with this infamous accomplishment. The win totals reflect this storyline as well. The Cardinals have the lowest win total at 4.5 while the Bucs’ win total is set two wins higher at 6.5.
The reason you want to go with this “fewest wins” market instead of betting under on wins for the Cardinals is the payout. The under 4.5 wins have odds of -120 — you need to risk $120 to win $100. Instead, you can bet them to have the fewest wins at +220 — $100 nets you $220 in profit.
Of their 17 games this season, Arizona is favored in zero. The NFC might be the easier conference but the NFC West includes facing a tough San Francisco 49ers team, a Seahawks Seahawks team that showed promise last season and a Los Angeles Rams squad that should bounce back from a disappointing post-Super Bowl season.
If you have more faith in Arizona than the market does, then wait to bet on it on a week-to-week basis where you can play it with the points. It’s catching three or more points in 13 games with no less than two points in the rest of their matchups.
Still, be careful with your spots when picking them. There’s a reason it is not favored in a single game this season. Quarterback Kyler Murray is rehabbing from ACL surgery, which he injured against the New England Patriots in December of last season on “Monday Night Football.” He is expected to be sidelined for much, if not all of the 2023 season. As a result, Arizona will rely on a quarterback room consisting of Colt McCoy, 2022 fifth-round rookie Clayton Tune and David Blough.
The team dished out the NFL’s fifth-most expensive contract to Murray last season. He then proceeded to put up a career-worst passer rating in his 11 starts. Of their four wins last season, three of them came with Murray under center. Still, that meant eight of them were losses, which means the future of the team isn’t bright even if its quarterback returns sooner than expected.
With three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt retired, there isn’t much star power on this roster overall. Plus, it is heading into this season with a rookie head coach. After finishing with just four wins in 2022, the Cardinals replaced head coach Kliff Kingsbury with former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who has assistant coaching experience, but he has a tough task ahead taking over the reins for what is expected to be the worst team in football.
