AFC South Titans And Colts 2024 NFL Schedules, Odds And Betting Preview

NFL Week 1 Matchups And Odds – My update in Forbes

But as training camp continues and football and fantasy fans get the juices flowing ahead of the 2024 NFL season, sports bettors are pouring through the teams schedules, rosters, stats, odds, futures and props and making bets at leading online sportsbooks. That includes on the AFC teams and NFC teams with AFC South Texans and Jaguars.

AFC West – Chiefs and Chargers
AFC West – Raiders and Broncos 
AFC East – Bills and Jets
AFC East – Dolphins and Patriots
AFC North – Ravens and Bengals
AFC North – Browns and Steelers
AFC South – Texans and Jaguars

Football odds from leading online sportsbooks refresh periodically and are subject to change, including on props and live betting.

Tennessee Titans 

Season Win Total: 6.5 (Under -130) – Bet Under
Division Odds: +900 / AFC Odds: +8000 / Super Bowl Odds: +15000
Record Last 2 Years: 6-11, 7-10
Head Coach: Brian Callahan (1st season)

Titans Schedule, Odds and Props

Division games and advance point spreads (DraftKings)

Week 6 Indianpolis Colts (TEN +1.5 / 44.5)
Week 12 at Houston Texans (TEN +6 / 46.5)
Week 14 Jacksonville Jaguars (TEN +1.5 / 45)
Week 15 at Indianapolis (TEN +4 / 45.5)
Week 17 at Jacksonville Jaguars (TEN +4 / 46)
Week 18 Houston Texans (TEN +3 / 45)

Other Key Games
Week 1 at Chicago Bears (TEN +4 / 43)
Week 2 New York Jets (TEN +4 / 43.5)
Week 4 at Miami Dolphins (TEN +6.5 / 46) MNF
Week 7 at Buffalo Bills (TEN +7 / 47.5)
Week 15 Cincinnati Bengals (TEN +3 / 47.5)

Bye: Week 5

Home: Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Green Bay, Minnesota, New England, NY Jets, Cincinnati
Away: Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, LA Chargers, Washington

Key Player Props (regular season at BetOnline)

QB Will Levis – O/U 3,400.5 Passing Yards / 19.5 Passing TD’s / 13.5 INT
RB Tony Pollard – O/U 775.5 Rushing Yards / 5.5 Rushing TD’s
WR Calvin Ridley – O/U 875.5 Rec Yards / 70.5 Receptions / 4.5 Rec TD’s

Stats and Notes (check back ahead of season for more betting notes). Handicapping and research includes sources and stats from beat writers, team sites and press notes, bettors and newsletters or betting guides like VSiN, Sharp Football, Playbook, CleveAnalytics, ESPN Stats & Info and more including FairwayJay’s proprietary data base and stats.

The Titans no longer have future HOF running back Derrick Henry carrying the ball. Tough sledding for new RB Tony Pollard, as Pro Football Focus ranks the Titans offensive line No. 30 in the league after having “arguably the NFL’s worst offensive line in 2023.” Tennessee drafted OL in the first round of the 2023 and 2024 drafts. Quarterback Will Levis became the Titans starting QB as a rookie last season following their week 7 bye, and defenses stacked the box at a high 70% rate on first downs vs. Tennessee. He showed flashes of good play, but the OL issues didn’t help. Neither did the defense, which finished as the 5th worst defense in the NFL, 3rd worst defending the pass, per CleveAnalytics. First-year head coach Brian Callahan hired his Bill to be the OL coach, and he’s considered among the very best. But we’ll see if new OC Nick Holz (from JAX) will utilize more passing on early downs. It would make sense, as Tennesee faces the NFL’s No. 30 toughest schedule of pass defenses but the No. 4 toughest schedule of run defenses. Levis will operate out of the shotgun more often with 3 WR sets. New HC hires have gone over their win total 55% of the time since 2000 and 58% with win totals of 6.5 or less. But it’s going to be tough for Tennessee to achieve even 7 wins with no position units ranked in the top 10, and three bottom tier units No. 26 or worst at key positions – QB, OL, Def. front seven.

Pro Football Focus Offensive Line Rankings Entering 2024 Season (Titans No. 30, Colts No. 3)

Betting: The Titans are in for a troubling season, and they project to face the sixth-hardest schedule in the league. Tennessee is a candidate to start the season 0-4 before a Week 5 bye followed by a home game vs. the Colts. But then on the road to Buffalo and Detroit and you can see the Titans are in rebuild mode with QB Levis likely taking much heat early season behind a very suspect offensive line. Against top-tier teams, it may still be difficult to support the Titans taking even more points if their offensive and defensive fronts are a trouble spot as projected. Those Week 4 and 7 lines at MIA and BUF likely rise if the Titans struggle early, and Week 2 at home vs. the Jets will too if the Titans lose badly at the Bears in a Week 1 road game. This is the worst team in the AFC South with all young QB’s, and maybe they can squeeze out 2 road wins after going 1-7 on the road last year.

FairwayJay has been a top of the leaderboard point spread prognosticator with 57% ATS success posting his NFL underdog picks weekly the past 7 years. That includes an unmatched 70% season in 2021 going 28-12 ATS. His previous NFL handicapping, strategics and sports betting success included 8 straight winning NFL seasons (57.3% ATS) starting in 2003 while independently documented and a professional handicapper including 52-28 ATS (65%) bursting onto the national scene his rookie year (feature Las Vegas Sun). FairwayJay provided weekly insight on a most popular daily sports betting and handicapping radio show heard in Las Vegas and nationwide on SiriusXM radio.

FairwayJay’s NFL handicapping contest success includes back-t0-back 60% seasons and top 6% finishes in the Westgate SuperContest.

Indianapolis Colts 

Season Win Total: (8.5 Over -120) – Bet Under
Division Odds: +300 / AFC Odds: +3300 / Super Bowl Odds: +6600
Record Last 2 Years: 9-8, 4-12-1
Head Coach: Shane Steichen (2nd year)

Colts Schedule, Odds and Props

Division games
Week 1 Houston Texans (IND +1.5 / 48.5)
Week 5 at Jacksonville Jaguars (IND +2.5 / 47)
Week 6 at Tennessee Titans (IND -1.5 / 44.5)
Week 8 at Houston Texans (IND +4 / 48)
Week 16 Tennessee Titans (IND -4 / 45.5)
Week 18 Jacksonville Jaguars (IND -2 / 46.5)

Other Key Games
Week 2 at Green Bay Packers (IND +7 / 47)
Week 3 Chicago Bears (IND -2 / 47)
Week 4 Pittsburgh Steelers (IND -1.5 / 44.5)
Week 7 Miami Dolphins (IND +1 / 49)
Week 10 Buffalo Bills (IND +2 / 46.5)
Week 11 at New York Jets (IND +4 / 46) SNF
Week 13 at New England Patriots (IND -2.5 / 44)
Week 15 at Denver Broncos (IND -2.5 / 44.5)

Bye: Week 14

Key Player Props (BetOnline, BetUS)

QB Anthony Richardson-O/U 3,200.5 Pass Yards / 18.5 Passing TD’s / 8.5 INT
RB Jonathan Taylor – O/U 1,075.5 Rushing Yards / 9.5 Rushing TD’s
WR Michael Pittman, Jr. – O/U 950.5 Rec Yards / 87.5 Rec Yards / 4.5 TD’s
WR Josh Downs – O/U 600.5 Receiving Yards / 53.5 Receptions / 2.5 Rec TD’s
DE Laiatu Latu – O/U 6.5 Sacks / DT DeForest Buckner – O/U 7.5 Sacks

Stats and Notes – The Colts were one play away from winning the AFC South in HC Shane Steichen’s first season, Then, they elected to throw a pass on 4th-and-1 at the Texans 15-yard line to little used rookie RB and he dropped the pass. Quarterback Anthony Richardson played in only four games and was on the field for just 173 snaps last season as a rookie (59.5% completions), but showed promise and upside as a big dual threat. Colts head coach Shane Steichen is recognized as a great offensive mind having been OC for the Chargers (QB Herbert) and Eagles (QB Hurts), and the Colts were the fastest paced team in the NFL lasst season. Bettors like Richardson to break out and RB Jonathan Taylor to rebound (holdout first 7 games LY) if both stay healthy operating behind PFF’s No. 3 rated offensive line to start the season. For the fifth consecutive season, the Colts play a team with the No. 1 overall pick from that year’s NFL Draft – Week 3 vs. Chicago (QB Caleb Williams). The Colts defense allowed 350 yards per game last season to rank in the bottom quartile of the league, and allowed at least 29 points at home in 4-of-5 games to start last season. The Colts overachieved last season with 9 wins in HC Steichan’s first season after just 4 wins in 2022. Indy finished just 20th in DVOA and 16th in net yards per play while going 6-3 in one score games. Creative and innovated HC Steichen’s schemes were elite with the Colts offense that played the No. 1 most games vs. top-10 defenses with backup QB Gardner Minshew (FA to Raiders) taking over for injured Richardson. The Colts were an NFL-best 8-0 when leading at halftime last season, but that won’t happen again and they won’t be leading as much this season. Indy made few personnel changes, and they played the No. 4 easiest schedule of offenses in 2023 including the No. 5 easiest schedule of passing offenses. Still, the Colts defense ranked No. 31 in blitz rate and No. 30 in pressure rate last season, and that’s an area of concern entering 2024.The Colts will play three teams off bye weeks and two other teams with extra prep time off playing in Thursday night games. They rank #30 in net rest edge and face some extremely difficult situations.

Betting: There are only three division games in Week 1, but the Colts fit this strong home ‘Dog situation. NFL divisional home underdogs are 10-2 against the spread (ATS) in Week 1 over the past six years (2-2 last year). Since 2012, they are 18-4 ATS, and since 2010 divisional home underdogs are 24-7 ATS with 19 outright wins. Divisional ‘Dogs are 40-18-1 ATS (69%) home or away in Week 1 over the past 12 seasons (5-3 last year). The Colts are 10-1-1 ATS at Houston since 2013. Indianapolis will play the fifth-hardest schedule in the league during the first 12 weeks. Turnovers were a key to Indy’s success last year as they went 7-0 when they won the turnover battle, and 0-6 when they lost it with more turnover troubles. Despite the upside of QB Richardson, I’m not betting on the Come for the Colts in 2024. They need a strong start to the season, because I see a potential 1-5 or 0-6 stretch starting in Week 7 playing five playoff teams from last season.

You can bet on it.

AFC South Titans and Colts originally posted at OSGA on Aug. 16.