NFL Preview: Eagles 2022 Futures: Odds, Picks, and Predictions

There’s plenty of optimism surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles as their decision to change quarterbacks last season paid off handsomely with a trip to the playoffs.

And while Philadelphia is all-in on Jalen Hurts, he’ll need to show progress in his passing game if the Eagles plan to get beyond the Wild Card round.

In anticipation of the upcoming season, FanDuel released a variety of futures on local teams in the NFC East. Today, we’ll focus on the Eagles as we identify some season-long props worth considering to add to your betting portfolio.

While the Eagles can have had a good season, I don’t believe it’s a foregone conclusion they will reach double-digit victories.

According to TeamRankings, the Eagles finished with the ninth softest strength of schedule last season.

Moreover, Philadelphia went just 3-3 in a division that included the Commanders and Giants, who finished a combined 3-9 in the NFC East.

However, both teams figure to be better this season, with Carson Wentz on the move to Washington and Giants’ Daniel Jones is healthy again after missing the team’s final six games due to a neck injury.

The Cowboys are still the Cowboys unless you’re telling me that Hurts is all of a sudden a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Dallas won both meetings against Philadelphia en route to a 6-0 record in the NFC East.

I think this division will be more competitive this season, which is why I like the Eagles to finish under 9.5 wins.

When it comes to Hurts, I’ll stick to what I know, which is backing him to continue his rushing prowess on the gridiron. The Oklahoma product needed only 15 games to finish with 784 rushing yards last season.

The Eagles don’t necessarily need Hurts to be a prototypical drop-back passer for them to have success. They need him to make enough passing plays to stay out of third down and long situations.

For example, the Eagles finished fourth overall in third-down conversion (45.11%). Yet, according to sharpfootballstats.com, when facing a third down with seven or more yards to gain, they drop to 17th in the NFL with a pass success rate of 25%.

Although Philadelphia fans will rave about the potential of their passing game following the arrival of wide receiver A.J. Brown, I don’t see the Eagles turning away from their strength of utilizing Hurts in the running game.

If I like Hurts to go over his rushing yards, I’d have to think there’s also some positive correlation with his rushing touchdowns prop.

Hurts finished with ten rushing touchdowns last season as the Eagles ranked eighth in red zone scoring with a conversion rate of 62.90%.

To get an idea of Hurts’ dominance as a rushing option for Philadelphia, Miles Sanders led all Eagles running backs with 754 rushing yards but still finished with zero touchdowns.

Since I plan to stay clear of any passing or receiving props involving the Eagles, I think it makes sense to double up on Hurts’ rushing props.

As a result, I don’t expect this leopard to change his spots just yet.

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