Eagles vs. Lions Odds, Picks & Predictions: Target Total in This Battle of the Animals

The Eagles enter the season as a popular Super Bowl sleeper, as they made huge improvements to their roster in the offseason.

Their first game, though, is an away game against the Lions, who were better than their three-win record last year would indicate. The Lions are another popular sleeper pick, not to make the Super Bowl by any means, but as a possible sleeper playoff team. Let’s dive into the matchup.

Eagles vs. Lions Betting Odds Week 1

Taking out the quarterback, one could make the argument that the Eagles have the best roster in football. Offensively, PFF gives the Eagles the No. 1 offensive line in the entire NFL, stating that they don’t have a single below-average starter along the line. They might have the best tackle duo in the NFL as well.

At receiver, the Eagles traded for A.J. Brown in the offseason, and because of that trade PFF gives them the fourth-best wide receiver group in the NFL. They also have a talented trio of running backs in Miles Sanders, Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell.

Of course, quarterback is the most important position in the NFL, so it might not matter how good the rest of the Eagles offense is if QB Jalen Hurts doesn’t take a step forward.

Hurts certainly wasn’t bad last year, but he wasn’t necessarily good, either. PFF ranked him 20th in terms of passing quarterbacks last year. If the Eagles want to make any noise this year, Hurts will need to make major improvements as a passer.

Defensively, the Eagles might have the deepest defensive line in the league after drafting defensive tackle Jordan Davis in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, along with signing elite pass-rusher Haason Reddick.

They are also strong at the cornerback spots, pairing four-time Pro Bowler Darius Slay with James Bradberry.

The Eagles roster is talented and deep, but again it all depends on how Hurts performs.

Overall, the Eagles are looking to make the leap from good to great, whereas the Lions are just looking to not be one of the worst teams in the NFL. The poor Lions haven’t won a playoff game since the 1991 season, meaning they haven’t won a playoff game in my lifetime (I’m 30).

The last time they even made the playoffs was back in 2016. The year after they missed the playoffs at 9-7, and they haven’t won more than six games since.

So, at this point, the Lions would welcome mediocrity. Unfortunately, they just don’t have the roster to do that quite yet. They will be strong along the offensive line (PFF ranked them third-best OL), but that is mostly where their strengths come to an end.

Their skill positions are on the rise, but still young and inexperienced. But, mostly on offense, they will struggle at quarterback with Jared Goff at the helm. He finished last year ranked 31st (out of 37 QBs that qualified), according to PFF.

Defensively, things don’t look much better for the Lions. They finished last year with the fourth-worst DVOA in all of football and didn’t do much in the offseason to improve the unit. They did draft Aidan Hutchinson with their second overall draft pick in this past year’s NFL draft, but one player won’t fix a defensive unit sorely lacking talent.

This is a game in which we are targeting the total as our official play, with the over being a nice value. As mentioned above, the OddsJam line prices this total at 49, but using the OddsJam line shopping tool, we can get this total at 48.5 at only -105 odds.

This is a Positive Expected Value bet that we are going to take advantage of. Be sure to check out the lines yourself before locking in your bet to get the most value possible!

Eagles vs. Lions Betting Pick: Over 48.5 | -105 at PointsBet