2010 NFL Betting Season Recap, News, and Notes

Playoff Picture: In a rare twist from what we have become used to in NFL betting action this year, Week 17 was relatively quiet in terms of moving around. The only team that came from outside of the playoff picture in Week 16 to being in the tournament for this week is the Seattle Seahawks, whom we will discuss more about in just a moment. The New England Patriots already had the No. 1 seed in the AFC on lockdown, while the Pittsburgh Steelers easily took care of business in Week 17. The Indianapolis Colts moved up to No. 3, and they will take on the New York Jets, who are the No. 6 seed. The Baltimore Ravens had nowhere to go after Pittsburgh’s win and are stuck at No. 5, and they’ll take on the Kansas City Chiefs, arguably the most improbable of the division winners this year across the NFL. In the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons and Chicago Bears are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively in the playoffs, while the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks are the other division winners. Those two teams will host the No. 6 and No. 5 seeds respectively over the course of the weekend, the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

Left in the Dust: Remember when the New England Patriots missed the playoffs the year after the perfect season in spite of the fact that they went 11-5? That might have been quite the travesty, but this one might have been bigger. There’s something wrong in the NFL when the Seattle Seahawks can get into the postseason with a losing record, but the 10-6 New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers were both left out of the second season. These two teams became just the sixth and seventh teams in the NFL since 1990 to not make the playoffs with at least ten wins.

Stinky Seattle in Second Season: The Seattle Seahawks have already been mentioned quite a bit in this article, and we are going to talk just a bit more about them here. By virtue of their win over the St. Louis Rams at the end of the regular season, they won the NFC West with the lackluster 7-9 record. Seattle really is still a train wreck right now, as it doesn’t have a quarterback to really count on, and it arguably has both the worst offense and the worst defense of any of the 12 teams in the second season. The Seahawks became the first team in NFL history to win a division and make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, but at least they have this to fall back upon. The last team that made the playoffs as a division champ with a sub-.500 record in the major American sports, the 1981 Houston Rockets went to the NBA Finals.

Click Here To Receive Bonuses Only Available to Bang the Book Customers @ Diamond Sportsbook!

Peyton’s Place: When it’s all said and done, QB Peyton Manning is going to be shattering all sorts of NFL passing records. He’s already up to No. 3 on the all-time passing yards list, and though he might not catch the most likely retired Brett Favre at 71,838 yards, he is probably just two years away from running down the great Dan Marino in that category. Next year, he’ll probably pass Marino in TD passes, as he is just 21 shy for second in that category as well. However, the record that Manning surpassed this year was for most completions in a season. He completed 450 passes this year, beating out New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees by just two completions this year. Both beat out New England Patriots QB Tom Brady, who had 440 completions in his record smashing 2007 season.

Coaching Carousel – AFC: In the AFC, coaching moves clearly aren’t finished yet, as the Miami Dolphins still aren’t so sure what they are doing with Tony Sparano as of yet. For now, Sparano is still safe, but the Dolphins have made no bones about the fact that they are eyeing both Bill Cowher and Jim Harbaugh to take Sparano’s spot. The Cleveland Browns dismissed Eric Mangini after back to back 5-11 seasons, but amazingly, the Cincinnati Bengals gave a contract extension to Marvin Lewis. In the South, the Jacksonville Jaguars appear to be retaining Jack Del Rio, while the Houston Texans committed to keeping Gary Kubiak as long as he fired basically his entire defensive coaching staff. The Tennessee Titans are still at odds with Jeff Fischer, but the fact that Owner Bud Adams has said that it is time for the team to move on without QB Vince Young shows that Fisher might indeed be safe. Out West, the search is on for a new coach for the Denver Broncos, while the shocking move of the year came out of the Oakland Raiders camp, where Al Davis fired Tom Cable after leading the team to an 8-8 record, including a 6-0 mark in the AFC West.

Coaching Carousel – NFC: Things are at least a little more quiet in the NFC. The top two interim head coaches, Dallas Cowboys’ Jason Garrett and Minnesota Vikings’ Leslie Frazier are both going to be retained in all likelihood (Frazier was signed to a contract this week), while the San Francisco 49ers reportedly had a five hour meeting with Jim Harbaugh about their coaching vacancy on Wednesday. The New York Giants committed to keeping Tom Coughlin on the sidelines after he won ten games this year for the G-Men but missed the playoffs, while the Carolina Panthers had their last game in the John Fox era last week against the Atlanta Falcons.

Top Passers: After it was all said and done this year, there were five men that threw for at least 4,000 yards and 22 that had at least 3,000. San Diego’s Philip Rivers led the way with 4,710 yards, narrowly edging out Peyton Manning (4,700) and Drew Brees (4,620), but these two men can say that they are going to the playoffs, while Rivers will be watching from the sidelines. New England’s Tom Brady led the league in TD passes with 36, while New York’s Eli Manning had the dubious distinction of having the most picks in the league this year with 25.

Running All Over the Competition: There was only one man to top the 1,500 yard mark this year on the ground, that being Houston’s Arian Foster, who ended the year with 1,616 yards. He also led the league in rushing TDs with 16 and was the NFL’s top all purpose yardage man with 2,220 yards. Only 17 men ended up rushing for 1,000 yards this year, several of which were first timers to this illustrious mark. Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles easily led the league in yards per carry at 6.4, and he was the only man that rushed for at least 1,200 yards this year that had fewer than 275 carries. The man with the most carries this year still has some heavy lifting left to do. Atlanta’s Michael Turner toted the rock 334 times in 2010.

Receiving the Top Prizes: Just as there were 17 men that rushed for at least 1,000 yards this year, there were only 17 that had 1,000 yard receiving as well. The best of the bunch was probably Atlanta’s Roddy White, who had the most receptions in the league with 115. Denver’s Brandon Lloyd had 1,448 yards this year to go with 11 TDs to keep him at No. 1 in the league in receiving yards. The man with the most catches in the AFC was Indy’s Reggie Wayne, who was the only player this year, save Peyton Manning of the skill players to play in even 15 of the 16 games for the Colts. Kansas City’s Dwayne Bowe led the league with 15 TD grabs this year, while Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson edged out Pittsburgh’s Mike Wallace for the highest yards per reception average in the league. Jackson had 22.5 yards per catch this year and was the only man that had more than 875 yards this year that had fewer than 50 receptions. Wallace had 21.0 yards per reception this year. The only tight end with at least 1,000 yards receiving this season was Dallas’ Jason Witten, who had 1,002 yards and finished third in the NFL in receptions with 94.

3,000 Yard Passers
Philip Rivers (4,710)
Peyton Manning (4,700)
Drew Brees (4,620)
Matt Schaub (4,370)
Eli Manning (4,002)
Carson Palmer (3,970)
Aaron Rodgers (3,922)
Tom Brady (3,900)
Matt Ryan (3,705)
Kyle Orton (3,653)
Joe Flacco (3,622)
Sam Bradford (3,512)
Josh Freeman (3,451)
Donovan McNabb (3,377)
Chad Henne (3,301)
Mark Sanchez (3,291)
Jay Cutler (3,274)
Ben Roethlisberger (3,200)
Matt Cassel (3,116)
Michael Vick (3,018)
Matt Hasselbeck (3,001)
Ryan Fitzpatrick (3,000)

1,000 Yard Rushers
Arian Foster (1,616)
Jamaal Charles (1,467)
Michael Turner (1,371)
Chris Johnson (1,364)
Maurice Jones-Drew (1,324)
Adrian Peterson (1,298)
Rashard Mendenhall (1,273)
Steven Jackson (1,241)
Ahmad Bradshaw (1,235)
Ray Rice (1,220)
Peyton Hillis (1,177)
Darren McFadden (1,157)
Cedric Benson (1,111)
LeSean McCoy (1,080)
Matt Forte (1,069)
BenJarvus Green-Ellis (1,008)
LeGarrette Blount (1,007)

1,000 Yard Receivers
Brandon Lloyd (1,48)
Roddy White (1,389)
Reggie Wayne (1,355)
Greg Jennings (1,265)
Mike Wallace (1,257)
Andre Johnson (1,216)
Dwayne Bowe (1,162)
Larry Fitzgerald (1,137)
Calvin Johnson (1,120)
Santana Moss (1,115)
Steve Johnson (1,073)
DeSean Jackson (1,056)
Hakeem Nicks (1,052)
Miles Austin (1,041)
Marques Colston (1,023)
Brandon Marshall (1,014)
Jason Witten (1,002)

Related Sports Betting Articles