When it comes to betting the spread at CO sports betting sites, taking the head coach’s tendencies into account can have as much of an impact as the players on the field.
In Colorado, Sean Payton gets a brand new start after he ended his two-year break to become the Denver Broncos’ new coach. He takes over a team that was 7-10 against the spread in 2022 and 5-12 on the field in the one-year tenure of Nathaniel Hackett.
BetColorado.com utilized data from TeamRankings.com to gather every active NFL coach’s record against the spread (ATS), dating back to 2003 when data was made available. We did not include records from interim stints.
NFL Coaches Against the Spread
Colorado sportsbooks have Kansas City listed as the Super Bowl favorites at +625 odds, ahead of the team it beat in last season’s title game (Philadelphia, +850).
Four Young Coaches Top the List
The New York Giants won a playoff game under first-year coach Brian Daboll, who was 14-5 against the spread, so he tops the list with a 73.7 cover percentage. Three of the five times the Giants didn’t cover the spread in Daboll’s first season came while going 0-5 against the Cowboys and Eagles, who eliminated New York with a 38-7 loss in the divisional round.
Detroit coach Dan Campbell ranks second going into his third year, while two coaching their fifth seasons — the Bengals’ Zac Taylor and the Packers’ Matt LaFleur — are third and fourth on the list.
Payton returns to the NFL coaching ranks after spending 15 years with the New Orleans Saints. Payton was 152-89 in the regular season with a 9-8 playoff record that includes winning Super Bowl XLIV after the 2009 season.
Payton’s record against the spread ranks 10th in the league at 140-115-6. Payton’s cover percentage of 54.8 is third among coaches with at least 10 years as a head coach. He ranks behind the Patriots’ Bill Belichick and the Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy.
The Saints were 10-8 in Payton’s final season in 2020 and third-best in the league the year before that at 11-6. According to BetMGM Sportsbook Colorado, the Broncos are a 3.5-point underdog in their home opener against Las Vegas.
Payton started his tenure with some direct criticism of what Hackett, now the offensive coordinator with the New York Jets, left him to clean up. He said Hackett had done one of the worst jobs in NFL history. Payton has apologized, saying he was speaking in his TV commentator voice and not his coaching voice, but the controversy is sure to linger, especially if the Broncos struggle again this season (CO sports betting apps list Denver with +5000 odds to win the Super Bowl).
The Broncos-Jets meeting in Week 5 on Oct. 8 in Denver surely will bring a lot more exposure to that storyline.
