Brian Westbrook knows 18-game NFL seasons are coming; doesn’t mean he likes it
The former Eagles running back, speaking from experience, also offered an interesting thought on Carson Wentz's ability to stay healthy this season.
Brian Westbrook, like every other former or current NFL player, wakes up each morning with twinges here, and soreness there.
During his nine-year career, he had the ball in his hands more than 2,000 times on runs, receptions and returns in the regular season and playoffs. Most of those plays ended with someone pounding on his knees and slamming at his joints.
So when the subject of the NFL potentially moving from a 16- to an 18-game schedule comes up, the 200-pound Westbrook grimaces like he just ran full-speed into a 300-pound lineman.
“Preseason games are different,” Westbrook said. “You’re only playing for a quarter or a half. And it’s not the same, effort-wise. To play two more games when guys are already beat up, that’s just tough.”
The league’s collective bargaining agreement will be up after next season, and one of the proposals for the new CBA is eliminating two preseason games and adding two regular-season contests.
Westbrook, who will be 40 in September, is nothing if not a realist.
“I’m more concerned for the players,” he said, “but I think it’ll happen.”
Westbrook is an investor with Seventy-Six Capital, and was at the Center City Marriott on Wednesday as FanDuel’s mobile sports betting app entered the final day of testing in Pennsylvania.
Westbrook’s group is involved in sports betting, and he knows quite well that nearly 80 percent of sports bets in neighboring New Jersey are done on mobile phones or online.
Pennsylvania is finally getting its online gambling act together in time for football season. A source at Parx Casino said its mobile app, which had been available on only Android, was to be Apple-compliant by Wednesday evening.
About the Birds
Westbrook likes the Eagles’ outlook this season, but he pointed to the health of the offensive line and youth in the secondary as his top questions — but no mystery is larger than whether Carson Wentz can make it through 16 games.
Westbrook, speaking from experience, is confident.
“When I think about Carson this year, I just remember the years that I went into the season and all I did was rehab. I just wasn’t prepared,” Westbrook explained. “I wasn’t ready. My body [eventually] caught up, but it was hard. I kind of feel like that’s what Carson has been doing the last couple of years. To me, this year, his ability to work out and to train and get better makes a huge difference.”
Even though he missed the final seven games last year with a back injury, Wentz has been fully healthy for the offseason program, which Westbrook said should pay dividends.
“That’s not to say he won’t get hurt. But it’s to say when healthy, I hope he’s on a different level," Westbrook said. "And the talent that they’ve put around him is so much better than it was last year, that it should predict for a better offensive football team.”
FanDuel’s over/under for Eagles wins this season is 9.5, though the odds are fairly prohibitive at -155. By comparison, Westgate in Las Vegas has the Eagles’ win total at 10 with the odds at even money.
(Translation: Bettors who put $100 on over at FanDuel would win $64.51 if the Eagles win 10 games. Those who put $100 at Westgate would win $100, but the Eagles would have to win 11.)
“I would take over, over, over,” Westbrook said. “I [already] went on the record and said they’d win 13. So I can see them being an 11- or 12-win team.”