The Ten Most Reckless NFL Bets

Football is still almost four months away but on any decent betting site there are already thousands of bets to be made on the 2022 NFL season. So, we combed through every possible bet and found the ten bets that would make absolutely no sense to place, but they did succeed in making us laugh.

10. The state of Pennsylvania to win the Super Bowl (+2000)

Want to bet on the Eagles OR the Steelers to win the Super Bowl? You can get those two teams together at +2000. Did you know the Eagles and Steelers once merged, for the 1943 season, and played as a team called the Steagles? It’s true. The two teams did not have enough players, as many NFL players were serving in World War II, so they merged, and went 5-4-1. The Eagles are +2500 on their own, so throwing in a bad Steelers team doesn’t boost this high enough.

9. The New York Giants to go 17-0 (+50000)

The Giants are no strangers to ending perfect seasons but could they have one of their own? Big Blue is +110 to finish with more than 7 wins, so 17 might be pushing it. For straight Super Bowl futures, the Giants are +13000.

8. The Buffalo Bills to go winless (+30000)

Per the current NFL odds, Buffalo is a league-best +650 to win it all. We’re not sure how many things would have to go wrong for the Super Bowl favorite Bills to go 0-17. Sure, they could lose Josh Allen for the season but is their current backup Case Keenum significantly worse than Zach Wilson? Even if they lost Allen and Keenum (and Stefon Diggs and Tre’davious White and…), their third-string QB Matt Barkley beat the Jets 41-10 a few years ago.

7. Ryan Fitzpatrick to win Comeback Player of the Year (+2000)

If you’re wondering “hey, what team is Ryan Fitzpatrick even on?”, you’re not confused, he’s not currently signed to an NFL team. Fitzpatrick started the opener for Washington last year but injured his hip early in the opening game, ending his season after just six pass attempts. Fitzpatrick would be a good candidate for a comeback, but first he needs to find a place to go.

6. The Detroit Lions to start the season 0-11 and then beat the Jaguars in week 13 (+15000)

This bet would have actually cashed last season, in spirit. This requires the Lions to beat the Jaguars in Week 13 (their 12th game) for their first win of the season. Last season, Detroit managed its first win of the season in… Week 13, against the Minnesota Vikings. This bet specifies first win, so the Lions are free to tie to their heart’s content.

5. Justin Fields to lead the league in rushing (+20000)

As a rookie in 2021, Justin Fields ran the ball 72 times for 420 yards, at a clip of 5.8 yards per attempt. He barely had half as many yards as Jalen Hurts, who led all quarterbacks in rushing, to say nothing of Jonathan Taylor, who led the league with 1,820 yards.

4. The NFC South to finish in this exact order: Falcons, Panthers, Saints, Bucs (+30000) 

Basically you can bet on the NFC South to finish in the opposite order of the current projections. Can Tom Brady’s team finish below Marcus Mariota’s team, Sam Darnold’s, and Jameis Winston’s?

3. Kenny Golladay for MVP (+50000)

The Giants had large expectations when they signed wide receiver Kenny Golladay to a four-year, $72 million contract last offseason. Golladay, was coming off an injury plagued season with Detroit, but had led the league in TD receptions in 2019, with 11. Golladay managed to play in 14 games in 2021 but never reached the end zone on any of his 37 receptions, disappointing Giants fans. Golladay would need to put together a year twice as good as his outlier 2019 to enter the MVP conversation as a wide receiver.

2. A Texans-Panthers Super Bowl (+1000000)

February 12, 2023. Super Bowl LVII. It’s Sam Darnold and the Panthers taking on Davis Mills and the Houston Texans. Or, maybe Matt Corral takes over in Carolina and leads the Panthers to glory. You can get Houston over Carolina or the opposite, for the low, low price of +1000000. We’d say crazier things have happened, but truthfully, they haven’t.

1. Tom Brady to throw his first TD pass of the season to… Tom Brady  (+10000)

Let’s do a little math here. Tom Brady has thrown 624 TD passes in his career. Zero of them have been to himself. (Though two were to Kyle Brady.) The odds of this happening seem more like 1,000-1 than 100-1. This is a stay away, but so is every bet on this list.