The 2026-27 NFL season is finally upon us and there are more betting options available than ever at legal sportsbooks, from Super Bowl to MVP to season win totals. Our panel of experts — Michael Fiddle, Matt Jacob, Jeremy Pond and Matt Russell — will be contributing all season to our Yahoo Sports betting coverage.
Now is a perfect time to catch up on all of our preseason NFL betting content, but if you haven’t and need a shortened version, here are their favorite futures wagers heading into the season.
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Trey Hendrickson to win Defensive Player of The Year (25-1)
Fiddle: This offseason, the Ravens added edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and hired former Los Angelers Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to head coach. Minter will still call the defensive plays. Defensive linemen and edge rushers in Minter-led defenses have always improved compared with their pass rushing success rate on previous teams.
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Hendrickson should get to the quarterback more often and could pile up a lot of sacks. Add in Baltimore’s early-season schedule, including a Week 1 trip to face the Colts and Daniel Jones coming off Achilles surgery, and this is a no-brainer long-shot preseason award to target.
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The lead candidates for this award all have stiffer competition out of the gate. Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald limit one another’s ceiling numbers and play the 49ers. Denver Broncos DB Patrick Surtain II is playing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Week 1. The Houston Texans’ duo of edge rushers are playing Josh Allen & Co. in Week 1. I like both targeting Hendrickson and fading some of the shorter odds players as well.
Kenneth Walker over 950.5 rushing yards (-114 at FanDuel)
Pond: The biggest personnel issue Kansas City needed to address in the offseason after a 6-11 campaign was at running back.
Well, the Chiefs immediately solved that problem when free agency opened and landed Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker. Gone are Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt from a mediocre backfield; in comes Walker, who will be the featured, three-down back for head coach Andy Reid.
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I was high on Walker heading into Seattle’s postseason run to the Super Bowl triumph, then grew even more optimistic about his chances to shine when Zach Charbonnet was lost for the season with a torn ACL in the Seahawks’ playoff win against San Francisco.
And as expected, Walker carried Seattle in style. He ran for more than 300 yards and four touchdowns, including a 49-yard romp into the end zone in the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory against the New England Patriots.
This will mark the 10th season Mahomes will lead the Chiefs under center and he will finally enjoy something that hasn’t happened since the two-time NFL MVP took the offensive reins: haven’t a 1,000-yard rusher.
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Walker has achieved twice so far in his career, and he should help lead the Kansas City offense into a deep postseason run.
Dak Prescott over 3,950.5 passing yards (-114 at FanDuel)
Pond: Since 2009, the Cowboys have only made the playoffs seven times, with their most recent trip coming in the 2023 campaign.
Yet, while Dallas has been generally disappointing to its fan base, Dak Prescott hasn’t had trouble putting up big numbers through the air during his career. I expect we’re going to see big things from Prescott again, as the Cowboys look to end their latest postseason drought.
The only thing that could keep Prescott from eclipsing this number is his health. Over the past seven seasons, Prescott has missed large chunks of three of them. Since 2019, the quarterback’s healthy-to-injured seasons have happened every other campaign and — you guessed it — he’s coming off a season in which he started all 17 games.
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In those four healthy seasons, Prescott tore it up. He passed for 4,902, 4,409, 4,516 and — most recently — 4,552 yards last season.
As for this year’s Cowboys, the offense should once again be one of the most electric in the league. Dallas finished fourth in total points (571) a season ago, sitting just behind the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle and Detroit.
Prescott has marque WR duo CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, arguably the best 1-2 combo behind Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, at his disposal again. Throw in running back Javonte Williams (134 receptions combined in his last three seasons between time spent in Denver and Dallas) and an array of sure-handed tight ends, led by Jake Ferguson, and you have a potent group primed for another stellar offensive campaign.
I find it extremely difficult to imagine Prescott won’t wind up somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,300-4,500 yards passing come season’s end.
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Carnell Tate under 775.5 receiving yards (-114, FanDuel)
Russell: As humans, we’re wired to root for human achievement, but when it comes to season-long player props in the NFL, the under is often the better play, especially for a rookie receiver whose selection early in April’s NFL draft was met with something like, “Oh … really?”
When the Titans picked Jeremiah Smith’s Ohio State running mate, Carnell Tate, the teams behind them were delighted to get a defender falling in their lap. That doesn’t mean Tate can’t be great, but we can only go off of his in-game performances almost anytime the Buckeyes played an adequate defense from a team with anywhere near their talent.
Last season, Tate had just 12 total receptions in games against Texas, Washington, Indiana and Miami — and in 2024, he had 11 total catches against Oregon (twice), Penn State, Indiana, Tennessee, and Notre Dame.
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Of the 33 quarterbacks to get 200-plus snaps during a game-state where neither team had a win probability of 80% or higher, Cam Ward was 32nd in EPA/Play (Expected Points Added/Play) and 31st in CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected).
Tate can have success when players around him are putting him in a better situation to succeed, but not the other way around. With Elic Ayomanor a year ahead of him, and Calvin Ridley likely to get Ward’s first read on most plays, Tate is likely to struggle against pro defensive backs — the kind he would have seen against the college teams listed above.
Denver Broncos under 9.5 wins (+110)
Jacob: Momentum is a massive intangible in the NFL. So, too, is the schedule and how it sets up. Not exactly breaking news, I know — but the obvious is worth stating in reference to the Denver Broncos’ 2026 win total.
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Last year, on the way to going 14-3 and capturing the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the Broncos gained steam while taking advantage of a highly favorable schedule.
After knocking off the lowly Titans in Week 1, Denver suffered consecutive losses to the Colts (road) and Chargers (home) by a combined four points.
From there, the Broncos went 13-1. They won nine games against teams that were on vacation by mid-January (Chiefs twice, Raiders twice, Bengals, Jets, Giants, Cowboys and Commanders), and two against opponents that lost their only playoff game (Chargers and Eagles).
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Denver also defeated Houston (1-1 in the postseason) and lost to Jacksonville (another one-and-done playoff entrant).
In other words, the NFL schedule makers did the Broncos a solid last year. Spoiler alert: It won’t be a cakewalk in 2026.
After opening in Kansas City, Denver faces — in order — Jacksonville (home), the Rams (home), San Francisco (road), the Chargers (road) and Seattle (home). Good luck building early-season momentum.
Things ease up from there, with trips to Arizona, Carolina, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas and the Jets interspersed with home games against Kansas City, Las Vegas and Miami. But the finishing stretch is no joke: Buffalo (home), New England (road), the Chargers (home).
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Will Denver again field an elite defense? Absolutely. Will quarterback Bo Nix make more strides in his third year with coach Sean Payton? Probably.
Will it translate in the win-loss column like it did last fall? Doubtful.
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