I'd be wary of the William Hill Sportsbook if I were you. They sent out their NFL over/under regular season win totals on Saturday, which was a brilliant marketing move.
William Hill knew that sports talk hosts around the country would be searching for talking points this week, as the NBA and MLB continue their hiatus, so they threw out a little bait on Saturday. I talked about it, Jody Oehler talked about it, and I'm sure 31 other NFL cities had sports talk hosts saying, "According to William Hill Sportsbook..."
Like many of you, this is the first I've heard of the UK based company. Brilliant.
But, just because William Hill seized an opportunity to make waves, doesn't mean they're correct. Other sportsbooks paint a more realistic picture of the Cardinals' future:
Bet Online: O/U 7.5 wins
DraftKings: O/U 7 wins
MyBookie: O/U 7.5 wins
Interestingly, Bet Online had the Cardinals at only 6.5 wins on February 5th.
Now, they project Arizona at 7.5 wins. It looks like the additions of DeAndre Hopkins, Devon Kennard, Jordan Phillips, De'vondre Campbell and the re-signing of Kenyan Drake have elevated the Cardinals' chances. The draft, by the way, is still yet to come, and Steve Keim's choice with the 8th pick will slightly adjust odds one way or the other.
All in all, great move here by William Hill. They had foresight few others did during a time when sports fans are thirsty for content. But, March NFL win totals are like Odell Beckham Jr: Highly discussed, hardly consequential.
Check back in on these odds after the draft.