Bettors wager over Pats, Jags, Browns win totals, under Titans

The Patriots have won at least 12 games in seven consecutive seasons and bettors expect the defending Super Bowl champions to do so again in 2017.

The South Point was the first Las Vegas sports book to post NFL regular-season win totals Sunday. New England opened with the highest total, at 11, and max wagers of $2,000 quickly pushed it to 11½.

The Patriots, who are favored in their first 15 games in lines posted Thursday at CG Technology, went 14-2 last season as they eclipsed 11 wins for the 11th time in 14 years.

The Browns opened with the league’s lowest total, at 4, before getting bet up to 4½ as of Monday morning.

Cleveland, coming off a 1-15 season, has topped four wins only twice in the last six years. The Browns added defensive end Myles Garrett (Texas A&M), safety Jabrill Peppers (Michigan) and quarterback DeShone Kizer (Notre Dame), among others, in the NFL Draft.

“They only won one game last year,” South Point sports book director Chris Andrews said. “We posted them at four. That’s a pretty big increase.”

Andrews also moved the Jaguars’ total to 6 after it opened at 5½ and dropped the Titans’ total to 9 after it opened at 9½.

The Jaguars went 3-13 last year and haven’t won more than five games since 2010. Jacksonville added a pair of potential impact players in free agency in defensive lineman Calais Campbell and cornerback A.J. Bouye.

Andrews also adjusted the juice on a few teams after taking action on over Cardinals (7½, minus-125), over Rams (5½, minus-135) and under Giants (9, minus-120).

“We’ve had real good play here the first 24 hours and we expect it to continue,” Andrews said. “It’s the first year we’ve put it up this early and I expect we’ll get a ton of action.”

The 49ers, who went 2-14 last season, are tied with the Browns for the lowest total at 4½. The Bears are at 5, the Jets are at 5½ and the Bills are at 6.

The Steelers and Seahawks are tied for the second-highest total, at 10½, the Falcons and Packers are at 10 and the Cowboys, Ravens and Raiders are at 9½.

Oakland, which went 12-4 last season to easily surpass its win total of 8½, is favored in 10 of its first 15 games at CG Technology.

Don’t mess with Texans

Andrews said Houston’s win total was the only one affected by the NFL Draft. After the Texans traded up with the Browns to select Clemson’s Deshaun Watson with the 12th overall pick, Andrews said he added 1½ wins to their total, increasing it to 8½. He also added two points to their power rating.

“Because they didn’t really have a quarterback before the draft,” he said. “I happen to like Deshaun Watson. I think he was the best of all the drafted quarterbacks. He’s at least the most ready to come in and play.”

Books lose on kicker prop

The most popular NFL Draft prop was on the total number of quarterbacks, which went under 3.5 (minus-210) after three were taken in the first 12 picks. The next most popular prop was on which round the first place-kicker will be picked. Bettors at South Point and William Hill pounded rounds 4-7, the minus-420 favorite, while bettors at the Westgate backed rounds 1-5, a plus-145 underdog. Both wagers cashed when the Bengals selected kicker Jake Elliott of Memphis with the ninth pick of the fifth round.

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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.