​
 

The NFC East has been historically bad over the last couple of years especially given all the success the franchises in the division had in previous decades. However, in recent years they have been the butt of jokes across the league. In the last 3 years in the NFL, the East has objectively been the worst, but they could be better than a lot of people think this year. Specifically against the spread in sportsbooks.

 

Each gambling sportsbook places game lines and sets the market for bettors to place money on. This line determines which team is favored and how many points each team is supposed to score. The "spread" is how much a team is favored to win by and this is typically the most popular thing to bet on.

 

I will be examining the NFC East and their performance in relation to the other divisions in the league as well as the inter-division rivalries taking place during the season. As well as their trend this year versus other years in the NFC East and where they fall on the spectrum. The history of NFL teams’ non-divisional records to see how they measure up against each other can be found here.

 

This year, it’s Washington’s division to lose. They won in 2020 with a 7-9 record but no team has won the division back to back since the Eagles in the 2003-2004 seasons. The Cowboys are the betting favorites to win the division with their star quarterback, Dak Prescott, coming back after ankle surgery. However, the Cowboys are among the most bet against teams to miss the playoffs. Of course, they aren’t one of the worst teams in the NFL but based on the odds they are treated like a team that won’t be very good. Below is a graph that shows the worst division in football history through 5 games. Number one is the 2020 NFC East.

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

(fivethirtyeight.com)

​

​

Washington is the second betting favorite with a new quarterback but the same elite defense which carried them last year. The Giants have a lot of question marks with their team and the public media doesn’t quite know where they stack up against the rest of the teams in the league. The Eagles are projected to win the least amount of games, however, they are one of the most picked teams by bettors to make the playoffs. They are another team with a large range of outcomes for their season. All of the NFC East betting odds can be found here.

 

In the 2021 NFL season, I will update throughout the progress and relationships between each team in the NFC East along with teams in previous years.