The Detroit Lions have gotten off to a hot start this NFL season. They are 5-1 straight up and 5-1 against the spread (ATS) in the betting world.
And according to Craig Carton’s NFC Power Rankings, they’re now the best team in football.
“[The Lions] defense is getting turnovers, pressuring the quarterback, playing lights-out defense,” Carton said on Wednesday’s edition of “The Carton Show.”
“And [quarterback] Jared Goff should be, right now, a top three or four candidate for MVP.”
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FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd is also a believer, as he raved about the Lions on this week’s Herd Hierchy.
“I think Detroit’s really good, and I think they have better talent than Dallas, but we don’t talk about them,” Cowherd said. “7-1 in their last eight games, 13-3 in their last 16, the best offensive line as far as I can tell in the NFL, 3-0 on the road.
“This team is so good … third-easiest schedule remaining. Only team to hold opponents under 100 yards rushing in every game.”
While Carton passionately put Goff and the Lions at the top of his mountain, and Cowherd has them in his upper echelon of teams, the odds always tell a story.
The Detroit signal-caller’s MVP odds aren’t in the top three or four at FanDuel, but they are in the top 10. At ninth on the board, Goff’s current odds to take home the MVP trophy at the end of the season are +1900. The top four are Tua Tagovailoa (+330), Patrick Mahomes (+340), Josh Allen (+650) and Jalen Hurts (+850).
In June, Goff’s MVP odds were +2500.
And when it comes to Super Bowl odds, the Lions currently sit seventh on the board at +1400. Those odds have shortened considerably from +3500, where they sat to win next year’s Big Game after last season’s Super Bowl ended.
One odds market that the Lions do own is the NFC North. There, they sit as the clear-cut favorite at -490 to take the division crown over the rival Green Bay Packers (+850), the Minnesota Vikings (+950) and the one-win Chicago Bears (+8000).
Follow along on FOX Sports for the latest news on the Lions, Goff, the NFL and the rest of the sports world.
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