Prepare For The NFL Season With Player Values

The NFL season starts in about 9 hours with the Baltimore Ravens playing the Denver Broncos. To say I’m stoked is an understatement. I was so ready to get ready for the season that I wrote about 9 great resources for betting football a few weeks ago on Vegas Chatter.

Do what I say not what I do. As much as I wanted to prepare for the season I haven’t studied a lick about the NFL. I’m going in fairly blind and I hate that. I’ll just ease into the season with some (very) light action.

While making the rounds on twitter the other day I found an article on Grantland detailing how the smart guys in Las Vegas value NFL players. This is information that you won’t typically find in the mainstream media.

Quarterbacks

Peyton Manning: 7 points
Tom Brady: 6.5 points
Aaron Rodgers: 6 points
Drew Brees: 6 points

Non-Quarterbacks

Adrian Peterson: 2.5 points
Calvin Johnson: 1.5 points
C.J. Spiller: 1.5 points
Arian Foster: 1.5 points
Jamaal Charles: 1.5 points

I look at this point value list as something similar to a gamblers individual football game version of WAR in baseball. The complete list is much longer for each group in the Grantland article. Knowing the approximate value of players to other gamblers allows you to adjust to any spread if/when one of these guys gets hurt. You may or may not agree with the numbers but it’s a good baseline to work from.

This article is written by RJ Bell from Pregame.com who recently started writing for Grantland. RJ knows a lot of sports bettors in Las Vegas and has a lot of betting specific information to share. RJ’s column seems like it will have some useful information if you’re looking for another resource to prepare for the NFL week. If you don’t need another 5 minute read follow @RJinVegas.

Photo: CBS