2010 New Orleans Saints: Predictions and Super Bowl Odds

The defending world champion New Orleans Saints have opened at online sportsbooks as a 10-1 favorite to repeat in Super Bowl odds as champions this season with an over/under regular season win total of 10.5 UNDER (-130). While the Saints boast the most explosive offense in NFL predictions, their defense still is shaky and they will be the target of every opponent they face. They also play in a NFC South Division that has two dangerous and capable teams with Atlanta and Carolina. Repeating as Super Bowl champion has proven to be increasingly difficult in NFL betting as the New England Patriots were the last team to do it in 2004.

The Patriots are also the only team to even make the conference championship game in the past 11 years. With quarterback Drew Brees leading the number one ranked offense in the NFL odds last year, points should be plentiful. But the 25th ranked defense is a major concern. New Orleans dodged a major bullet in the NFC championship game when the Minnesota Vikings were driving for the winning field goal late in the 4th quarter before Brett Favre threw it all away with a horrible decision that resulted in an interception.

While the Saints were not powerful on defense their new coordinator Gregg Williams did improve the unit with a more aggressive style that helped propel the Saints to 2nd in the NFL for turnover ratio. The Saints will be a highly popular public betting choice in NFL predictions, at least early on, and that will have the threat of driving down their board value. Even last year New Orleans could only manage an 8-8 mark against the spread while going over the total just 6 times as the odds makers jacked the numbers up sky high in anticipation of public money.