How do the Seahawks start their new era?
The Seahawks without Pete Carroll – is that even possible? That will be shown in our Seattle vs Denver betting tip for the 1st NFL matchday. However, the new head coach Mike Macdonald is no slouch either, as he led the Ravens’ defense to a top 3 spot last year.
Nevertheless, many things will be different in Seattle than under his predecessor, although the team has not changed that much. The playmakers all remain the same and only a few players have been replaced on defense to get back to the good old Legion of Boom
The Broncos, on the other hand, have kept the same coaching staff. However, they have installed a new quarterback. Rookie Bo Nix will also get his first start on Game Day 1 – perhaps a little too early for the still-raw captain.
We doubt he’ll throw many touchdowns yet, which could put some work on the Broncos kicker. All in all, our prediction for Seahawks vs. Broncos is a win for Seattle, who should be a little further along in their development despite a new coach.
Kickoff of the game is on Sunday at 19:00 in Seattle. The game can be watched live on DAZN.
Seattle Seahawks – Statistics & current form
“Goodbye Pete Carroll and welcome Mike Macdonald” is the Seattle Seahawks’ motto at the start of this season and that’s quite a change after 15 years with Carroll on the sidelines. So what does this mean for Seattle and for this season?
Mike Macdonald is a defensive-minded head coach, which should be good for their defense. And it needs to improve after the Seahawks allowed the third most yards (6313) of any team in the preseason. This is also where they should start
Defense must deliver
In the interviews during the offseason, you heard the same thing from all the Hawks’ mouths: “We have to become more physical again”. Or in other words: tougher. With the additions of Jonathan Hankins, Tyrell Dodson and Jerome Baker, the defense has definitely been upgraded.
We expect them to go from a bottom 5 defense to the top half very quickly. That should be evident against the Broncos, which will limit Bo Nix’s TD production
Tips to favor Seahawks
For picks, this means we can either go for some Broncos field goals or a Seahawks win. We prefer the first option, as the Seahawks are favored by 6-7 points at the oddsmakers, which is quite a lot.
The odds on over 1.5 field goals by the Broncos are our number 1 bet for Seahawks vs. Broncos, as this would indicate a well-functioning Seahawks defense. And that’s what we expect.
Key Players:
- QB: Geno Smith
- RB: Kenneth Walker III
- WR: DK Metcalf
- TE: Noah Fant
- K: Jason Myers
Denver Broncos – stats & current form
The Broncos are somehow not making any progress. They hired head coach Sean Payton last season to generate a turnaround, but it’s not really working. Their record in the pre-season was 8:9 and we don’t see the franchise doing much better this year either.
Why? Because they selected a promising quarterback in Bo Nix in the draft, but only have a mediocre O-line and an underwhelming receiver corps at their disposal. Bryce Young learned the hard way how this can end in the preseason
It hangs on many ends
The positive first: Bo Nix presented himself very well in the preseason and did not throw an interception in the two games in which he was allowed to play. However, this was just the preseason and the regular season should look very different.
The TD catchers in the preseason included Marvin Mims, Brandon Johnson and Nate Atkins – the latter even just a fullback. None of them are top receivers, but the sad part is that the Broncos only have two who are really better in Courtland Sutton and Josh Reynolds.
Offensively it should be difficult
So who’s going to catch the touchdown passes? We don’t see a true No. 1 receiver on the team other than Sutton right now, which will definitely have an impact on offensive production. There shouldn’t be many touchdowns, especially at the start of the season.
Wil Lutz will have his hands or feet full and if things go badly, they will start with two losses against the Seahawks and the Steelers. So for Seattle vs. Denver, a bet against the Broncos is preferable for both Game Day 1 and Game Day 2.
Key Players:
- QB: Bo Nix
- RB: Javonte Williams
- WR: Courtland Sutton
- TE: Adam Trautman
- K: Wil Lutz
Seattle Seahawks – Denver Broncos head-to-head / H2H record
To what extent is the last duel from 2022 still relevant for Sunday? Perhaps in the sense that only 33 total points were scored back then, even though the Seahawks defense was still really weak back then.
Should it be better this season, then there shouldn’t be too many more points scored than back then. We therefore see the 42.0 total points as difficult to achieve, which makes betting on under points interesting.
Our recommendation for Seahawks vs Broncos is the odds on under 42.0 points. These can even be combined with a success of Seattle, which increases the value enormously
Seattle Seahawks – Denver Broncos betting tip
All things are new in September – and that applies to both teams, albeit in different places. Since we consider the head coach change at Seattle to be less difficult than the QB change at the Broncos, the Hawks are ahead for us here.
So for Seahawks vs. Broncos a bet on Seattle is a first betting recommendation. However, we can also turn this around. The Broncos won’t reach the end zone often, so there should be a few field goal attempts. Over 1.5 field goals from Denver is therefore a very playable bet
We also have another player bet on offer: on Seattle’s running back Kenneth Walker. He is the clear top rusher for Seattle and is likely to be used more often at the start of the season. That should lead to at least one touchdown in the end
