National Football League

2024 NFL odds: Panthers — not Patriots — projected to have worst record

Updated Sep. 11, 2024 12:00 p.m. ET

With the 2024 NFL season underway, bettors are already eyeing which teams they're backing — as well as which squads they're fading.

And all it took was one week for the most-faded team to no longer be that.

For the majority of the offseason, the team favored to have the worst regular-season record was New England. The Patriots parted ways with veteran coach Bill Belichick in January and quickly named former assistant Jerod Mayo his successor.

Though Mayo won a Super Bowl as a Patriots player and worked as an assistant under Belichick since 2019, that wasn't enough to keep the books from projecting the Pats to have an underwhelming season.

However, the Pats pulled off what some thought was the unthinkable in Week 1, beating Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday, 16-10.

Now, they're not expected to be … that bad.

Let's check out the odds for worst regular-season record at FanDuel Sportsbook as of Sept. 10.

2024-25 Worst Regular-Season Record:

Panthers: +260 (bet $10 to win $36 total)
Giants: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Broncos: +850 (bet $10 to win $95 total)
Commanders: +900 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
Patriots: +950 (bet $10 to win $105 total)
Titans: +1100 (bet $10 to win $120 total)
Raiders: +1200 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
Cardinals: +1700 (bet $10 to win $180 total)

In July, New England was at +340 as the team most likely to have the fewest regular-season wins this season. But after Carolina got blasted by New Orleans in Week 1, 47-10, it quickly moved to the top of the oddsboard.

Meanwhile, the Pats dropped to fifth on the oddsboard after their 1-0 start.

"Not much about the box score is pretty, but who cares when you go on the road and knock off an AFC heavyweight," wrote FOX Sports' Dave Helman about the Pats in his weekly power rankings. "This Week 1 formula of swarming defense and an effective run game has won a lot of games, and we now know the Pats can follow it. Their ceiling probably isn’t high, but they can be a pain to play."

Julian Edelman breaks down the Patriots' Week 1 upset over Cincy

As for the Panthers? Helman had this to say:

"There was so much reason for optimism that the Panthers had made serious strides this offseason, and it all fell apart in the span of about 15 minutes in New Orleans. It’s only one week, but getting thrashed by the Saints by 37 points doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that this year will be better than the last."

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