Kyler Murray and the Cardinals are hoping for a bounce-back season, while Josh Allen and the Bills look to start their quest for a Super Bowl anew with a win in Week 1. Here is how to bet on the game at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Cardinals (+6.5) vs. Bills o/u 47
Cardinals Team Breakdown
The Cardinals had a rough 2023 season with Kyler Murray hurt most of the year. Murray is back fully healthy and seems poised for a big season.
Kyler Murray also got some major help in the offseason with the Cardinals drafting WR Marvin Harrison Jr., who has the potential to be a superstar from day one for Arizona. The Cardinals are also very high on young WR Greg Dortch. Also, RB James Conner rushed for over 1,000 yards last season and will be the bellcow back for Arizona.
Defensively, there are a lot more question marks than on offense for the Cardinals. They have a very young secondary outside of veteran safety Budda Baker. That is a scary prospect when facing Josh Allen. Cardinals Head Coach Jonathan Gannon is a great defensive mind, and runs a high-level defensive scheme. Still, only time will tell if his players are up to the task.
Bills Team Breakdown
Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and has been for a few years now. Similarly to Patrick Mahomes, it doesn’t seem to matter who he has at wide receiver—Allen will make big plays.
That said, this is a different-looking WR group for Allen this year. Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis both left this offseason and the Bills drafted WR Keon Coleman from Florida State. Coleman joins Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, and Mack Hollins in the Bills’ WR corps. If Coleman hits the ground running then this could be a solid group, but none of these players are surefire WR1s like Diggs was.
Another big question mark for the Bills is at center. Mitch Morse was the Bills’ starting center for most of Josh Allen’s career and did a great job. Morse left this offseason and the Bills are sliding last year’s RG Connor McGovern over to center to start the year. McGovern didn’t have a great year at guard and will have way more responsibility as the starting center. McGovern has minimal experience playing center in the NFL and that could be an issue early on for the Bills’ offense.
Defensively, the Bills are trending in the wrong direction. They dealt with a lot of injuries early in the season in 2023 and they struggled to win games during that portion of their schedule. The Bills had one of the best safety duos in the league for a stretch with Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. Both of those players are no longer on the roster, and they will now be starting Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin in Week 1. This is a major downgrade at safety.
The heart and soul of the Bills’ defense, LB Matt Milano, picked up an offseason injury and will miss most of the season, if not all of it. That puts a ton of pressure on the Bills’ corners to be elite in coverage which none of the starters have proven to be up to this point. The Bills do have a strong defensive line and they will be relying on that line to get pressure on Kyler Murray without blitzing to contain the Cardinals’s offense.
Pick and Prediction
Josh Allen is an amazing quarterback, but just like Patrick Mahomes, he struggles to cover big numbers as a favorite. In games where the Bills are favored by four points or more with Allen at the helm, they are just 8-16-1 (33.3%) ATS. On the other side, Kyler Murray is elite as an underdog. Murray is 25-15-2 (62.5%) ATS as an underdog in his NFL career.
There is a lot of uncertainty in this game. The Bills look much different on both sides of the ball and the Cardinals have a very young defense. Ultimately, that would make the underdog a strong choice in a game with a lot of variance. Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ offense should be able to move the ball through the air and get points on the board. The Bills could go with a run-heavy approach with both Josh Allen and RB James Cook which would also help the Cardinals stay close in a game with limited possessions.
Best Bet: Cardinals +6.5
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