Will Hill
FOX Sports Betting Analyst
We are now less than 100 days away from the start of the NFL season, with the Hall of Fame Game between the Chargers and Lions just two months away.
Football is coming!
We’ve had over a month to digest the NFL Draft, as well as some time to analyze the release of the schedule.
With football so close to returning, books have done a good job of providing betting options not just on season win totals for each team or odds on who will win the Super Bowl, but markets for all the NFL awards.
What is fun about betting on these awards, is you can get long odds and jumbo payouts if you pick correctly. It gives you something to root for over the course of the entire NFL season — you essentially have action on every game that involves your awards bet.
With all of these awards open for betting, let’s take a look at one wager I have already made.
Jonathan Gannon 20-1 to win Coach of the Year (DraftKings)
The Cardinals have been a plucky team under head coach Jonathan Gannon so far in his brief two-year tenure. After going 4-13 in 2023 without quarterback Kyler Murray for much of the season, the team improved to 8-9 in 2024. At one point, the Cardinals were 6-4 and looked like an NFC West contender before fading down the stretch.
Can they finish the job this year and actually win the division?
Well, if they do, Gannon will be squarely in the mix for NFL Coach of the Year, and with their division odds at +390, plus Gannon’s odds at 20-1, Gannon is the better bet.
My enthusiasm for the Cardinals comes from the attention and resources they’ve committed to their defense this offseason. They signed pass-rusher Josh Sweat away from the Eagles after he nearly won Super Bowl MVP with his performance against the Chiefs in February.
Then in April, the draft was dedicated almost entirely to defense. Walter Nolen, Will Johnson, Jordan Burch, Cody Simon, and Denzel Burke are five defensive players that college football fans watched dominate on Saturdays the last few falls in college football. They all look to improve a defense that was 22nd in yards per play allowed in 2024.
The Cardinals also have a schedule that’s conducive to getting off to a hot start. In the first six weeks, they will likely see the following opposing quarterbacks: rookies Tyler Shough and Cam Ward, Bryce Young, Sam Darnold and whoever the Colts decide to play between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson.
Coach of the Year often goes to the coach of a team that makes it to the playoffs after missing the playoffs the previous year. Gannon checks that box and plenty of others, as the Cardinals could be much-improved in 2025.
Will Hill, a contributor on the Bears Bets Podcast, has been betting on sports for over a decade. He is a betting analyst who has been a host on VSiN, as well as the Goldboys Network.
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