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The New England Patriots are projected to win the most regular-season games in 2018, according to Las Vegas oddsmakers. While that may not be a surprise, the gap between the Patriots and the rest of the league has narrowed since last year.
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The Patriots have won 12 or more games in eight straight seasons, but they opened at 11 Sunday, according to the Westgate SuperBook.
The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers each opened at 10.5 wins. The Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings were projected to win 10.
A year ago, the Patriots opened at 12.5 after coming off a Super Bowl title.
Why has the gap narrowed this year?
"[Quarterback Tom] Brady is going to be 41, and [Jimmy] Garoppolo is gone," Westgate's head football oddsmaker Ed Salmons told ESPN. "There just isn't as much margin of error for the Patriots at this point."
Brady and the Patriots are coming off a Super Bowl loss to the Eagles.
Garoppolo, once thought to be the heir apparent to Brady, was traded to the San Francisco 49ers midway through last season. The 49ers opened at 9 after going 6-10 in 2017. San Francisco made the biggest leap in year-to-year projected win totals after opening at 5 last year.
The Los Angeles Rams, who opened at 6 last year, ended up going 11-5. They are projected to win 9.5 games this year.
"I know both of those teams [Rams and 49ers] have difficult schedules, but the public has shown just a ton of support for them," Salmons said.
The lowest projected win totals went to the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals, with each opening at 5.5. The Browns went 0-16 last year. The Cardinals were 8-8.
The Patriots are favored to win the Super Bowl at 6-1 odds, followed by the Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers at 8-1 and Rams at 10-1.
