The books are offering a bargain basement sale on the Philadelphia Eagles tonight when they open the second full week of preseason action on the road against the New England Patriots.
The opening line on this game had the Eagles, who downed the Baltimore Ravens in their preseason opener, favored on the road against the Patriots and their new head coach, Jerod Mayo. Now the line has shifted to the Patriots favored by three points or more. What generated this six-point shift?
Reports out of Philadelphia are that there is some controversy brewing between coaches and their starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts. The Eagles stress factor was expected to be high this season, and that can compute to either a negative or positive. Philadelphia dropped from contention for the top seed in the National Football Conference playoffs to out of the postseason tournament when they dropped five of their final six games while defending their 2022 NFC Championship.
A team that takes a dive like that one year, particularly a quality squad like the Eagles, are prime for a bounce back campaign the following season. Or, and we can cite examples on both sides, a fade away from NFL prominence.
In the off-season, the Eagles picked up a new offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, who most recently was in Los Angeles working with the Chargers and quarterback Justin Herbert. It has been reported out of camp this week that things got a little testy in Philadelphia while the Eagles offense is reported to be 95% revamped from a season ago.
Okay, tension in camp, a few scuffles along the way, a head coach, Nick Sirianni, concerned that Moore is getting away from too many of the things that made the Eagles successful in recent season until their five game swoon last winter. Through it all, Hurts, who is a high character guy, has said he embarrasses the Moore offensive game plan and that he is looking forward to taking the Eagles back to the playoffs.
So, with the rumors of discourse in Philadelphia probably overstated, why have the Patriots gone from a 3 point underdog to a 3½ point favorite?
If it were tied to the healthy quarterback competition in New England, a battle for the starting job between Jacoby Brissett, Bailey Zappe and rookie Drake Maye, the line would have reflected that on the opening numbers. But the move by the books to hunt for Eagles money didn’t start until later.
Which means this, they want us betting on the Eagles.
Never give the books what they want.
Qoxhi Picks: New England Patriots (-3) over Philadelphia Eagles