With the NFL regular season over and some teams already firing coaches, the teams that didn’t make it to the playoffs will be looking at some NFL stats as to why they didn’t make the playoffs. Teams like the Baltimore Ravens, who made the playoffs last year, might be looking at the stat of sacks given up by their offensive line. While they were missing plenty of star players due to injuries, they lost most of their games by three points or less, showing that they still had close games even without their top-tier talent on the field.
The Chicago Bears, another team that gave up plenty of sacks just like the Ravens did, have a roster of talent close to the Ravens’. However, they did much worse in the season compared to the Ravens. The Bears would fire their head coach over the poor performance, which makes people wonder if it’s just coaching that’s the problem with these teams that missed the playoffs.
Will a New Head Coach Mean Success for Teams That Missed the Playoffs
Head coaches can make a difference with a team, but sometimes that success is short-lived. Other times these new coaches can be complete busts for the team. To better understand, we can look at two coaches and what they did with their teams before they got fired this NFL season.
Matt Nagy, the former head coach of the Chicago Bears, came to the NFL with a team that made significant moves to improve their defense for 2018. In his first year with the Bears, Nagy would lead the team to a 12-4 record and take them to the playoffs for the first time since the NFL 2010-11 season. Nagy would win Coach of the Year for 2018, but his remaining time with the Bears were seasons of disappointment where the Bears would finish at .500 or below.
Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, came to the NFL with a team that was trading away their best players for draft picks. The Dolphins organization’s actions led people to speculate that the team was tanking to get the number one draft pick. But Flores did something people didn’t think he would, or could, do with the Dolphins team, win games.
Flores would finish his first year with the Dolphins with a 5-11 record. The following year he would take the team to a 10-6 record and finish his time with the Dolphins with a 9-8 record. In both winning seasons with the Dolphins, the team was only one game out from making the playoffs. While his coaching turned the team into a contender to make the playoffs, he was still fired due to his altercations involving players on the Dolphins roster.
With those two coaches, we see one that only had success for a brief time while the other was improving a rebuilding team that ownership gutted. That means a coaching change is only as good as the person coaching the team.
Can Teams That Missed the Playoffs Offer Betting Opportunities for Next Year’s NFL Season
While teams and players that missed the playoffs might be looking to next year’s season to improve, gamblers might be looking at those teams for an opportunity to make some wagers on them for the next season. These teams can now offer better odds when futures betting comes around for the next NFL season. Teams like the New Orleans Saints and the Baltimore Ravens, two teams that have been playoff teams over the past three seasons, can make it back into the playoffs next season after narrowly missing the playoffs this year.
Futures gambling can allow for people to bet on teams like those two to either make the playoffs, win their division, win their conference championship, or even win the Super Bowl. These teams missing the playoffs might give them higher payout odds when the futures come out for the next NFL season. If the teams that missed the playoffs look like they can turn it around for the next season, gamblers can take advantage of the futures early and potentially cash in later.
