the 97th national football league season gets underway this thursday as the annual kick-off game sees super bowl 50 champions denver broncos host last year's national football conference champions carolina panthers.
after such a thrilling nfl season last term, which saw gary kubiak's broncos win the ultimate crown, we cannot wait to see how this eagerly anticipated nfl campaign is going to pan out.
we're going to do our best to give you our prediction on the top four games of the opening weekend, which includes the mouth-watering super bowl rematch between the denver broncos and the carolina panthers. will either of those two be able to get back to the showcase game again? we’ve got our betting tips and live odds comparison for that game coming up.
there's also a tasty looking fixture between the dallas cowboys and new york giants, as well as a number of other exciting matches to get our teeth into. stand by for what promises to be another enthralling season of nfl action, starting with thursday's big game at the sports authority field at mile high.
there's no other place to start than the opening fixture of the 97th national football league between kubiak's talented denver and ron rivera's solid panthers. last year's much-changed super bowl winners are the underdogs to seal the win on home turf, and carolina will no doubt be out for revenge in this one.
the broncos may have beaten the panthers in california back in february, but they head into this fixture with a very different offence. last season's main man peyton manning has now retired, and trevor siemian looks to have got the nod over both paxton lynch and mark sanchez as first choice quarterback.
although it will be interesting to see how denver's new attacking style works out, they still pose an extremely astute defence, which should see them through in their opener. of course, we fully expect rivera's men to have their moments at mile high, but we can't see anything other than a home victory in this one, even if they are the slight underdogs.
the best betting odds you can get on a denver broncos win are 13/8 with william hill, and we think there's certainly value in that decent price.
the next exciting clash we're going to focus is sunday's fixture between john harbaugh's baltimore ravens and rex ryan's buffalo bills, which takes place at the m&t bank stadium in maryland.
the baltimore ravens had one of their worse seasons for a number of years last term, earning a poor regular season record of 5-11, and they won't want to kick off their new nfl campaign with a defeat at home to the bills in this one. buffalo ended last term with a decent 8-8 record and, unfortunately for the ravens, we predict ryan's troops will open up this season with a win at the m&t bank stadium on sunday.
baltimore did not do an awful lot of business during the off-season, whilst the bills pulled off some shrewd recruitment plays. buffalo will be looking to build on their 8-8 from last season, starting with a win in their opener on the weekend.
despite the ravens being the slight favourites with the bookies, we like the look of bet365's odds of 29/20 for a bills victory in baltimore.
one of the standout fixtures of the opening weekend of nfl games is the new york giants' trip to the at&t stadium to take on the dallas cowboys. these two divisional rivals will be eager to put on a show in front of the watching public in texas.
when these meet, there's usually fireworks, and we're predicting a real ding-dong battle between the pair at the at&t stadium. being at home, dallas will start the game as favourites, even if they are without their influential quarterback tony romo, who broke a bone in his back during pre-season.
nevertheless, dallas are coming up against a side who struggled for consistency last year, as the giants ended their 2015 season with a 6-10 record. although ben mcadoo was named their 17th coach in their franchise history in january, it's difficult to foresee what kind of season awaits the four-time super bowl winners.
we can see jason garrett's team making home advantage count, and bet365 are offering very good odds 20/23 for a home triumph in the moneyline betting.
last up we take a look at one of the most intriguing encounters from the opening weekend of national football league fixtures, as marvin lewis' cincinnati bengals make the trip to the metlife stadium in east rutherford, new jersey to take on todd bowles’ new york jets.
the jets, who narrowly missed out on a play-off place last season, will be looking to go one better this time around. however, they go into their opening fixture as the slight underdogs. the bengals had an excellent 12-4 regular season record last year, but suffered defeat in the first round of the nfl play-offs for the fourth successive year. they will desperately be looking to put that right this season.
despite the jets having home field advantage, we can see only one winner in this one, and that's lewis' cincinnati. the bengals were extremely strong on the road last term, and at 6/4 (betvictor) to be winning at half-time and full-time, we predict they will bring home the bacon to cap a profitable first round of betting.