The Bengals are overwhelming favorites in Week 1.
The Cincinnati Bengals are pretty big favorites in Week 1 against the New England Patriots. Quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase are both expected to take the field, which already puts them ahead of most teams. The Patriots are also dealing with plenty of injuries along the offensive line.
Cincinnati has had some slow starts the past couple of seasons, but Burrow getting a full training camp of reps has it looking like this team is prepared to take a step in the direction of getting that No. 1 seed in the AFC. That starts with taking care of business against teams like the Patriots. Something oddsmakers and experts expect to happen.
Odds
The Bengals are currently 7.5-point favorites at home against the Patriots, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Not a surprising line. Quarterback Joe Burrow is returning to the lineup, and Ja’Marr Chase should be out there as well. This is a team that was able to win even without Burrow going against a Patriots team that struggled to win at all last season.
The over/under being set at 40.5 points, combined with the large spread, shows that the oddsmakers like the home team in this one.
However, it’s worth noting that the spread was in the 9-to-10 point range at one point, but that was before we learned that Tee Higgins probably won’t play, while Chase is questionable, so he’s no lock to play.
Expert picks
- All eight of CBS Sports experts are taking the Bengals
- ESPN has all 11 experts taking Cincinnati as well
- NFL Pick Watch — which takes into account picks from across the web — has the Bengals receiving 99 percent of all picks
It is fair to say that the Bengals are overwhelming favorites against the Patriots. New England could be improved with a rejuvenation of Jerrod Mayo at head coach, but Cincinnati looks like it will have most of its team ready to go.
A healthy Burrow really just puts this over the edge. He has shown he has to be in just about any quarterback top 5 (even factoring in biases). You can easily make the argument that he is No. 2 behind Mahomes. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett and the Patriots offense that is dealing with a banged-up offensive line just can’t match up.
That is why they play the games, though.
Here is how our staff sees this one going.
