Will the Bills make the playoffs?
LAS VEGAS, NV (The Spread) – The Buffalo Bills currently face long odds to make the playoffs in 2014.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, the Bills have odds of 9/2 to make the playoffs and 2/13 not to qualify. The team’s win total for the 2014 regular season has also been set at 6.5 while their 2015 Super Bowl odds are sitting at 75/1.
As the odds suggest, the Bills have a difficult challenge ahead of them to make the playoffs. Key defender Kiko Alonso suffered a season-ending ACL injury in offseason workouts while both Marcell Dareus and Alan Branch showed up to training camp out of shape. Dareus, one of the team’s best defenders, has also had plenty of off-field problems as well.
Offensively, the Bills traded up for dynamic receiver Sammy Watkins in May’s draft, which will only help quarterback E.J. Manuel’s development. But Manuel missed a handful of games last year due to injuries and his durability is a major question mark heading into the 2014 season. If he can’t stay upright, then the Bills are in for a long year. The same thing can be said if the second year signal-caller can’t play with any consistency either.
The other big problem is that while the AFC is top heavy as a whole, one of the teams that makes the conference front-loaded is in Buffalo’s division. The Patriots aren’t going anywhere and will make life in the AFC East hell again on the rest of the teams that share a home in the division. The Bills simply don’t have enough talent to match up with New England, Denver and the rest of the teams in the AFC. Unfortunately there isn’t much value in Buffalo’s odds (2/13) to miss the playoffs so bettors might be smart just to lay off completely.
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