Steve Wilks is certainly not tolerating any prima donnas among his troops. Wide receiver Robbie Anderson got in a spat on the sidelines with his position coach, Joe Dailey, last weekend, and now Anderson is out the door.
Actually, that was only part of the rationale behind the Anderson trade because we have found out since then that the Carolina Panthers are conducting something of a fire sale.
This past week, BetOnline customers saw running back Christian McCaffrey dealt off to the San Francisco 49ers. Hence, it’s kind of a state of confusion as Carolina lines up this week to face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who should be in a nasty mood after losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The game time for this one is 1 p.m. Eastern time at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
Carolina got a 6th and 7th-round draft pick from the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for Anderson, who once had a rapport with Sam Darnold when both of them were with the New York Jets. Darnold is close to being able to come back from injury, but we have no idea what’s going to go on at the quarterback spot.
Baker Mayfield is also questionable with an ankle injury, and Jacob Eason saw some action in last week’s 24-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
But right now, it looks like PJ Walker, who played with Anderson and for-fired coach Matt Rhule at Temple (try to follow along), will get the start.
There have been some questions about how the Panthers might use McCaffrey and how much since he was suddenly traded bait. It’s just not a very happy situation in Charlotte right now, and it has deteriorated quickly.
So maybe this is a really bad time to be facing the Buccaneers, who come in with a record of 3-3, losing three of their last four games. The 20-18 defeat by the Steelers last week was pretty painful, and there is a clip going viral of Tom Brady telling his teammates that he didn’t leave his wife and kids so that he could lose to a rookie like Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett. Ouch.
So will the Bucs try to make a statement, or will they be happy just to grind out a win? That makes a very real difference regarding wagering against the spread.
At BetOnline, here are the NFL betting odds on Sunday’s contest:-
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -13 (-115)
Carolina Panthers + 13 (-105)
Over 39.5 Points -110
Under 39.5 points – 110
Do you want to hear an interesting trend? NFL teams that have lost when laying double digits one week, then have been favored by double-digits again the next week, have covered ten straight times. Of course, this trend might be better furthered if Tampa Bay really wants to get some frustrations out.
These clubs met last on January 9th, with Tampa Bay coming away with a 41-17 victory, as the Panthers managed just over 300 yards on offense.
We are going to be completely honest with you; we don’t know who will wind up getting the most snaps at quarterback. It appears that no one for the Panthers has been an answer. And ultimately, someone other than Matt Rhule is going to be answering for that one. Quite possibly general manager Scott Fitterer?
We have a little theory here, though – whoever plays QB for the Panthers, Wilks, the interim coach, is going to look to keep things a little under control by establishing a ground game. Naturally, that becomes more problematic with McCaffrey out of the picture. But one way or another, Tampa Bay can make this opponent one-dimensional. Fans can place wagers on top NFL betting sites, accordingly.
Whether this allows them to cover a big pointspread on the road is another question. We might lean in that direction for purposes of doing a parlay, but our principal move here might be to go under the total, as it would be upset if Carolina were able to put together more than a couple of scoring drives.
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