Sportsbooks for US players favor the Indianapolis Colts by 7.5 points over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2020 NFL regular season Week 1 game on September 13 at 1:00 p.m. at TIAA Bank Field.
Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Week 1 Odds
| Team | SP/RL | TOTAL | ML | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colts | -7½ (-105) | 45 (-105) | -375 |  |
| Jaguars | +7½ (-115) | 45 (-115) | +299 | |
|
||||
Betting Indianapolis Colts
The Colts are the road favorites according to the best online sportsbooks. Three Indy players have been ranked among the top 100 NFL players for the upcoming season. Quenton Nelson. The Colts allowed the fewest sacks in the league in 2018. They were No. 7 in rushing with Nelson anchoring the line. He is the only drafted offensive lineman to earn first-team All-Pro honors in each of his first two seasons since the 1970 merger. Nelson is ninth among qualifying guards since 2018 in ability to sustain blocks for 2.5 seconds.
Indy gave up the No. 13 pick last spring in exchange for a player with top-10 talent in DeForest Buckner. His arrival to the middle should allow more chances for the defensive ends to reach the quarterback. And open lanes up the middle for the linebackers. Buckner may not match the 7.5 sacks he had last season in San Francisco. But his presence is going to be felt on all strata of the defense for the Colts. Buckner is one of 10 defensive linemen with a minimum of 30 QB pressures and 30 defensive stops in each of the last three seasons.
Darius Leonard has been maybe too hung up on outside opinion, drawing motivation from Madden ratings. However, he remains an up-and-coming superstar. Only two seasons ago he led the NFL in tackles as a rookie. In 2019, Leonard joined Lavonte David (2013) and Brian Urlacher (2007) as the three only players in the last 15 seasons with 100-plus tackles, 5-plus sacks and 5-plus interceptions in a single season.
Betting Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jags are the home dogs per sportsbooks for US players. And rightly so, because this team is a mess. The Jaguars released two-time 1,000-yard rusher Leonard Fournette on August 31. They traded Pro Bowl defender Yannick Ngakoue to the Minnesota Vikings for a couple of draft picks the day prior. Both players are only 25 years old. Their departures came as part of an off-season-long clearance sale. The Jaguars traded QB Nick Foles to the Chicago Bears only one season after they signed him to a four-year $88 million deal.
They sent five-time Pro Bowl selection Calais Campbell to the Baltimore Ravens for a couple of mid-round draft picks. They traded former Pro Bowl cornerback A.J. Bouye to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round pick. Two other potential franchise players, Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey and pass rusher Dante Fowler, were traded to the Los Angeles Rams in consecutive Octobers.
That leaves Jax with quarterback Gardner Minshew, “who looks like a bootleg T-shirt seller outside a 1974 Black Oak Arkansas concert but who plays like your typical mid-tier prospect”. There are a few players who might be talented enough to deserve a spot on a better roster. And there are head coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell, the architects of this dumpster fire. And who represents the structure that needed to come down in the first place.
The Jaguars have basically given up on this season so that they can start fresh next year. Moreover, they are also letting the people who caused the problem try to solve it. This will result in misspent resources and horrible football. That is to say, a typical Jacksonville Jaguars campaign.
Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Week 1 Pick
The Colts, favorites of sportsbooks for US players, will win, cover the spread, and the total will go over.
