Houston Texans on the bye week, odds around the AFC South

The Houston Texans are enjoying a nice relaxing bye week (I assume) after a close win against the New Orleans Saints. That win has tied the Texans with their win total from last season (3). But since they’re off this week, there won’t be any opening odds for the Texans.

But what about the rest of the division?

Surely we can look around and jeer at our brothers in the division and whatever the [kitten] Tennessee is supposed to be.

So let’s see what kind of odds are out there for our rivals, courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.

Indianapolis Colts

The Colts are slight underdogs to what will likely be a [UNPERSON]-less Cleveland Browns team, which probably doesn’t speak well to their chances.

Jacksonville Jaguars

The Thursday night game features a matchup of two teams the Texans have already beaten this year (imagine saying that last year, amirite?) when the Jacksonville Jaguars go to The Big Easy to face the New Orleans Saints. This is an even tighter spread than the Colts/Browns game, with the odds being barely more than a pick’em.

Fortunately the Tennessee Titans are also off this week, which is good because I don’t want to waste any more blog space about them than I absolutely have to.

Ordinarily, I’d leave y’all here and call it a day, but I was curious about some...futures bets.

Let’s see how the Texans compare when it comes to winning, for example, the AFC South.

The Jags are still the favorites to win the division because, well, they won the division last year. But lookit at whose in the number two spot, just winking at you. It’s the Texans at +260 (which means if you bet $100 on the Texans, you’d get $260 along with your original $100 for $360 total). That’s a mighty tempting option, considering how the rest of the schedule after the bye week is shaping up.

But what about, dare I say, the odds of winning the AFC?

This is a legitimate question: has there ever been a time in Texans history where they were the better odds-on pick to win the AFC than the New England Patriots? Look at that divide, where the Texans are +5000 (think 50-1 odds) and the Patriots are +20000 (200-1 odds).

I wonder what could have possibly changed in New England to lead to this unfortunate set of circumstances?

And what if the insane happens and the Texans ride this wave all the way to the Super Bowl?

They’re still in the lower third of the odds table, but considering the last couple of years where they’ve been at or near dead last, this might be a good time to invest a bit of scratch in those +10000 (100-1) odds.

So there you have it. The Texans really are on the rise and Vegas is showing that this team could very well be for real.