Football Betting Strategy: Watching NFL Pre-Season Replays Can Afford You an Edge
by Charles of Predictem.com
The NFL pre-season may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be in a position to take advantage of it.
Do you have the NFL Network? If you’re even a semi-serious NFL fan, you most certainly do. And if you do, you are in position to absorb something that could give you an edge here and there during the long, grueling year when it comes to your football betting strategy.
Watch the final pre-season games for any teams you can. You are going to see replays of them every day during the week as NFL Network gets closer to the season opener. They will air one game after the other. And even though they are not only contests where the final score is utterly meaningless, but also games where starters are generally kept out, they can have some usefulness to you as a pro football bettor.
Personally, I watch a lot of these games. Yes, they can be sloppy at times. But they are like the final audition for a lot of players who are looking to maintain their status in the NFL and therefore you’re going to see a lot of people who are going to stick on NFL rosters. We all know that everything in a training camp is put on tape, so the staff gets to look at all the players as they go through drills. But there is nothing like the live action of an actual game, and since this is the last opportunity the coaching staff may have to see them in that kind of atmosphere, it may even go a long way toward determining who gets to keep a starting job and who doesn’t.
And for those who don’t get to start, but who make the team, it’s a chance for you to see them just in case they’re needed during the regular campaign.
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This becomes especially important for quarterbacks. There is no question that during the pre-season, and in fact, in the last pre-season game, you are going to see all the quarterbacks who will be in reserve roles. Those are the ones who are going to get the lion’s share of the playing time. And although many folks may think it’s insignificant, if you have observed the NFL for any length of time, you know that a lot of teams are going to have to turn to the second-string signal-caller at some point during the year. When that situation arises, and you’re looking at the week’s lines, you don’t want to get caught with your pants down in terms of not knowing anything about the guy who is about to take over. Some quarterbacks who did not catch on with one team may in fact be signed by another team; this happens a lot in cases where another team plays the same kind of offensive system. So even though you’re watching guys with the second team, you’re seeing some quarterbacks who you are going to wagering on or against at some juncture.
The same thing applies to the other skill positions, and I mention those spots simply because you’ll get to see them with the football. There are more running backs than ever being used to carry the ball in the NFL, because of the trend toward multi-back offenses. And sometimes a back who one team doesn’t have room for will catch on and play a prominent role with another squad. Wide receivers are also interchangeable in that way. Some are in plain view. Did you watch HBO’s “Hard Knocks” a couple of years ago when a guy named Danny Woodhead was trying to catch on with the Jets? He didn’t make it there, but moved on to become very important for the New England Patriots, and in fact caught 34 passes and ran for 547 yards after the Jets let him go. Another good example was Danny Amendola, who got some extensive screen time on “Hard Knocks” with the Dallas Cowboys, and was picked up by St. Louis after being put on the practice squad. All he did for the Rams was catch 128 passes and roll up 3500 return yards in two seasons.
Would it have made sense to know and understand something about players like that? You already know the answer.
If you’re familiar at all with the way NFL Network does its pre-season replays, you’d know that the first half of the game is called by the announcers who have been contracted by one team, while in the second half the announcers for the other team handle it. Since the end result of the game isn’t all that important, what you’re going to hear instead is a lot of talk about the various players and how they fit into the general scheme of the ballclub. You’ll hear about the players who came out of nowhere and made an impression in camp. You’ll hear about the relationships a new coordinator may have with the players, or how quickly they’re adapting to his new scheme. You’ll wind up hearing some insight that the announcers on a national network feed wouldn’t be able to tell you. Make some mental notes, at the very least. They can become useful to you at the right time.
Don’t ever let yourself be in a position where it’s Week 10, a key starting player gets injured, and you’re sitting there saying, “I don’t know anything about this guy.” If you want to bet and win, make it your business to know. Have a picture about what these teams have at their disposal BEFORE it’s too late to do anything about it.
So our best “pre-season” advice is to put the NFL Network on and start watching.
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