The 103rd season of the National Football League (NFL) officially kicks off on Thursday, September 8, 2022 when Josh Allen and the JustBet preseason favourites Buffalo Bills head to SoFi Stadium to take on Matthew Stafford and the reigning Super Bowl champions the Los Angeles Rams.

The season’s opening week will also feature a Monday Night Football matchup in which new Denver Broncos quarterback (QB) Russell Wilson will return to Seattle to face his former team the Seahawks.

Leading up to the start of the season, which will include five international games (three in London, one in Munich, Germany, and one in Mexico City), the NFL preseason got off the ground with the Hall of Fame game on Thursday, August 4 between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The game, which marked the fourth appearance by the Raiders and the second for the Jaguars, finished with a 27-11 result in favour of the Radiers. The previous Hall of Fame Game for the Jaguars was the franchise’s first NFL game (July 29, 1995), where they lost 14-20 to the Carolina Panthers.

The NFL preseason went into full swing on Thursday, August 11 and, perhaps worse than any previous year, it is nearly impossible to garner any useful information from watching the gameplay of athletes in the lower end of the pecking order.

Since last season, the league expanded from a 16 to a 17-game regular season – resulting in a reduction of preseason games from four to three – and this has seemingly triggered teams to be more reserved in the extended use of starters or key players.

After an extremely active off season, particularly at the QB position, the unpredictability of the 2022/2023 NFL season is almost guaranteed. The Seattle Seahawks, after finishing the last NFL year with a 7-10 record, signalled the start of a rebuilding phase by sending Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for five picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Washington Commanders – formerly the Washington Football Team – initially had high interest in Wilson but lost out and ended up acquiring Carson Wentz from the Indianapolis Colts for a pair of draft picks.

The Cleveland Browns picked up Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans and gave him a fully guaranteed five-year, US$230-million contract. However, Watson has been accused of sexual misconduct by two dozen women in civil lawsuits but two grand juries in Texas declined to indict him on any of the allegations. Watson denied those claims but settled 23 of the 24 civil lawsuits accusing him of coercive and lewd sexual behaviour during massage appointments and was suspended by the league for six games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy – the suspension is pending an appeal.

In the wake of Cleveland’s signing of Watson, their former number one overall pick, Baker Mayfield agreed to a pay cut to facilitate a trade to the Carolina Panthers. As a part of the trade’s stipulations, the Browns will continue to pay US$10.5 million of Mayfield’s previous US$18.9 million salary, while the Panthers will pay just US$5.5 million – a shortfall of US$2.9 million from his previous salary. The former Heisman winner will look to revive his career in Carolina after helping to lead Cleveland in 2020 to its first play-off appearance since 2002 and first postseason win since 1994. Cleveland will visit Carolina in week 1 of the regular season and no love is expected to be lost.

The Atlanta Falcons ended up trading their long-time QB Matt Ryan, a starter since 2008, to the Indianapolis Colts for a third-round draft pick after unsuccessfully pursuing Watson. Atlanta then signed Marcus Mariota to a two-year deal. And, in the midst of this conundrum, Ben Roethlisberger retired after an 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the end of last season, Tom Brady retired and then unretired after a few weeks, and Aaron Rodgers decided to stay with the Green Bay Packers, signing a three-year, US$150-million deal.

On the wide receiver end, there were two widely publicised moves in the off season that left the NFL world flabbergasted. Firstly, in March, the Packers traded their standout pick from the 2014 draft, Davante Adams, to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for their 2022 first- and second-round picks. Adams signed a five-year, US$141.25-million deal, making him the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL at the time of signing. The trade also reunited Adams with his college QB Derek Carr, with both playing together at California State University, Fresno, from 2012 to 2013.

Secondly, also in March, one of the most talented and (arguably) the fastest receiver in the league, Tyreek Hill, was traded by the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick (previously acquired from the San Francisco 49ers), a 2022 second-round pick, two fourth-round picks, and a 2023 sixth-round pick. Hill signed a four-year, US$120-million extension, including US$72.2 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid offensive NFL player who isn’t a quarterback.

JustBet is offering odds on the preseason games and is already offering odds on the games for the first week of the regular season, plus for the winner of Super Bowl LVII next February, but bettors will spend the rest of August trying to find valuable insights in what little the preseason games have to offer. Of course, the teams are careful not to show too much, but observers can catch a glimpse of lower-rostered players and newly installed head coaches before the real show starts in September.

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Super Bowl LVII Champion

Team Odds

Buffalo Bills7.00

Tampa Bay Buccaneers8.00

Kansas City Chiefs11.00

Green Bay Packers12.00

Los Angeles Rams12.00

Los Angeles Chargers15.00

Denver Broncos17.00

San Francisco 49ers17.00

Baltimore Ravens20.00

Cincinnati Bengals21.00

*Only Top 10 odds shown (see website for full list)