NFL Week 1 predictions, best bets: Picks against the spread for every game
Back for Season 33 in The Post’s NFL Bettor’s Guide.How long is that? Well, let’s just say when I picked my first game in Week 1 of 1994, Aaron Glenn was a rookie first-round pick from Texas A&M, making his debut for the Jets in Orchard Park.His coach was Pete Carroll.
Today, I’m competing with the two of them for most gray hairs.The one thing that will be different about this season is that it’ll be my last.After I give out one more Super Bowl winner (I hope!), you’ll find me at the golf courses, tiki bars, and poker rooms on the Florida Suncoast.Anyway, we have 22 weeks left and a lot of games to get to, so here goes.I do believe John Harbaugh will raise the floor in his first season in East Rutherford.
Really, there’s only one way to go for a team that’s been drowning in the swamp in the McAdoo-Shurmur-Judge-Daboll era.But the people who are calling for 9-10 wins and a potential playoff berth might be forgetting just how close to the bottom the Giants are.With two games to go last season, they still had possession of the No.
1 overall pick, and their fans were dreaming about how to extort three first-rounders and more from the Jets for Fernando Mendoza.Yes, the Giants did have some close calls against good teams such as the Lions and Bears, and had a colossal blown lead at the Broncos.Their record could have been much better, so maybe an infusion of Harbaugh’s toughness and Super Bowl-winning experience is all they need to make a big jump right away.However, Harbaugh’s picture is in the dictionary alongside “colossal blown leads” for his time with the Ravens.
And Baltimore fans seem pretty happy to have Jesse Minter in his place.For the Giants, the coaching change likely will benefit 52 of the players, but I’m not certain it was great for Jaxson Dart.He and Daboll had something good going together.
We’ll see what Dart can get done with Matt Nagy and Greg Roman.Meanwhile, the Cowboys come in with a lethal wide receiver tandem o...