Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Surprising NFC team emerges as most popular bet at sportsbooks

By Eric Smithling | Last updated 7/18/23

All aboard the Detroit Lions bandwagon.

The Lions emerged as a trendy team at sportsbooks this summer, becoming the most popular bet to win the NFC, pet BetMGM (h/t Pro Football Talk).

That doesn't mean the Lions are the favorite. The Eagles are rightfully the team with the best odds of winning the conference, but more people have bet on Detroit this offseason than any other team.

PFT notes: "More than 36 percent of the bets on this season's NFC champion have been placed on the Lions, and more than 34 percent of the money placed to win the NFC has been on the Lions."

That's a significant amount of the pie for a team without much postseason success.

The franchise last reached the postseason in 2016 and has yet to advance past the wild-card round since 1991, when it lost in the NFC Championship Game. Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, that's the only season the Lions have played for an NFC title.

The Lions are trending in the right direction, improving to 9-8 in 2022 after posting a 3-13-1 record in 2021. Last season, the Lions ranked fourth in total offense and fifth in scoring (26.6 points per game) but finished last in defense and fifth-worst in scoring defense (25.1 points allowed per game).

Detroit improved its defense this offseason by signing defensive backs C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Emmanuel Moseley and Cameron Sutton. Second-year pros Aidan Hutchinson and James Houston combined for 17.5 sacks as rookies and should only get better. It will certainly help if the additions in the secondary cause quarterbacks to hold on to the football a little longer.

The Lions get an early litmus test against defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in Week 1.

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