The Bills are hosting the Ravens on Sunday Night Football for Week 1. Below, I dive into two of my favorite first touchdown prop bets to consider for this matchup.
Bills vs. Ravens First Touchdown Scorer Prop Bets
Josh Allen First Touchdown Scorer (+650)
Allen was a touchdown machine last season. The quarterback rushed for 12 touchdowns – which ranked second at the position – and five of these scores came in the first quarter of contests. Among quarterbacks, Allen ranked fourth in carries per game (6), third in red-zone carries (37) and 11th in YPC (5.2).
The Ravens were stringy on the ground last season, giving up only 11 rushing touchdowns, but the Bills carry a high 24.5-point implied team total for this likely shootout and Allen opening this contest with a touchdown in front of the Buffalo faithful is absolutely in the realm of possibilities.
Rashod Bateman First Touchdown Scorer (+1600)
Bateman is worth rolling the dice on at this very long price. Between the regular season and playoffs last season, Bateman found the end zone 11 times and seven of these touchdowns came in his last seven games. The ascending receiver ranked second on the Ravens in target share in the regular season at 17% and he saw eight red-zone targets, 15 targets over 20 yards and his 15.2 aDOT ranked 10th among all receivers.
After inking a three-year, $36.75 million extension with Baltimore this offseason, Bateman is locked in as the Ravens’ No. 2 receiver and he could be extra busy in this season opener vs. the Bills, with Isaiah Likely (foot) sidelined. The tight end missed one game last season, which came against the Bengals in Week 10, and in that contest, Bateman caught six of his team-high eight targets for 54 yards and a touchdown, and notably two of his targets were inside the red zone.
