No Team Beat Expectations More Than Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With a 13-3 season record, the Green Bay Packers were the NFL’s overachievers, at least in the eyes of bookmakers.
The preseason over/under win total for Green Bay was nine at Bet Online. Led by an MVP-caliber season by Aaron Rodgers, the Packers exceeded that total by four, tops in the NFL.
“The Packers as an organization got a lot of criticism for how they handled the draft,” explained Adam Burns, the sportsbook manager at BetOnline.ag. “Rodgers was said to have not enough options offensively or at least not good enough receivers outside of (Davante) Adams. Plus, their picks in the draft, according to media, ‘made no sense’ if they were going to be able to compete for a title this season. Adams’ dominance, (Robert) Tonyan’s emergence, the continued excellence of their offense line, and the other receivers performing marginally better has proved most people wrong in their pre-eason assessments when it came to the offense of the Packers. Plus, Rodgers has been spectacular after two good-but-not-great seasons.”
Here are the preseason over/unders at Bet Online.
Team
Nine wins: Over (13)
Aaron Rodgers
4,055.5 passing yards: Over (4,299)
26.5 touchdown passes: Over (48)
8 interceptions: Under (5)
Added together, Rodgers has gone from someone not even on the front page of MVP candidates to the overwhelming favorite.
“The reason Rodgers wasn’t seen as one of the more likely candidates was because of the lack of receiving weapons, the regression of touchdowns passes in 2018 and 2019, and the amount of touchdowns Aaron Jones had the last two season,” Burns said.
Aaron Jones
949.5 rushing yards: Over (1,104)
11.5 total touchdowns: Under (11)
Davante Adams
103.5 receptions: Over (115)
1,299.5 receiving yards: Over (1,374)
9.5 touchdowns: Over (18)
Allen Lazard
684.5 receiving yards: Under (451)
4 touchdowns: Under (3)
Za’Darius Smith
13 sacks: Under (12.5)
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Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.