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Sunday the Seattle Seahawks travel to take on the Dallas Cowboys in week eight of the NFL season. John Cranton, Hollis Barnhart, and Zack Cimini discussed the matchup on Tuesday from a Las Vegas perspective. Watch their discussion and visit today’s picks or head to jimfeist.com for handicapper weekend plays.

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With week seven approaching in the NFL, Zack Cimini, John Cranton, and Hollis Barnhart discuss a key AFC East matchup Sunday. See who they believe will cover the spread in the Patriots vs the Jets.

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Zack Cimini, Hollis Barnhart, and John Cranton discuss a crucial game ATS in the NFL between the Seahawks and Bengals. Get more previews at Youtube and premium plays under the today’s picks section.

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Organizations in the NFL can sometimes get away with hiding a positions depth due to an impact starter. The New York Giants have been able to do this for years as Eli Manning has been a durable quarterback. The backup quarterback role since the 2012 season has been Ryan Nassib’s out of Syracuse.

Nassib had many years under his belt as starter at Syracuse after replacing Greg Paulus in 2009. He was able to transform himself late in his junior season which carried over to a spotlight worthy senior season. When Doug Marrone landed in Buffalo, Nassib’s draft projections shot up to as high as a first round pick.

That didn’t happen but the Giants did draft him as a suitable backup for Eli Manning in the fourth round.

Each time Nassib has had brief action in preseason there has been little to write home about. He has had accuracy issues and does not seem comfortable yet with the Giants offense.

Even though the Giants did switch offenses last year, you’d expect Nassib to show a bit more of development in the pocket and take on the role a bit more as Eli’s backup.

It’s still early in the 2015 preseason but Nassib has to showcase his value a bit more in games two and three.

Eli, who is 34, is likely to get one more hefty contract offer from the Giants in the near future. That will make Nassib expendable when his contract is up as the Giants could bring in someone cheaper via the draft with a higher ceiling.

Nassib could still bounce around the NFL as a backup quarterback due to the veteran starters in the league and overall diluted backup talent throughout the league.

That’s never a goal of someone that has the tools Nassib does. It’ll be interesting to see how he finishes out this preseason and if he can finally clear that rookie hurdle and start to look like an NFL quarterback.

At this stage the Giants are unprepared if Eli were to go down for a length of time. If Nassib were thrown into a starter’s role it’d be a true disaster season.

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Hollis Barnhart and Zack Cimini give out a free play between the Steelers and Jaguars on Friday and also give some handicapping tidbits for preseason football

NFL Preseason Week One Free Play and Handicapping Tidbits from Zack Cimini on Vimeo.

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It’s just about mid-August, which means the future market for the pennant is rounding into form. With an additional wild card spot it has made the odds market more interesting then ever. With teams bunched up all over the place it can be hard not to have tunnel vision when looking at the future market.

It’ll be interesting to see which teams secure a playoff spot and distance themselves from the pack over the next month.

There are currently ten teams above the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL pennant odds. They’re 40-1 to accomplish an AL title and 100-1 to win the world series.

It’s hard to look beyond the cream of the crop of which teams are hot right now. The Orioles, Yankees, Blue Jays, Astros, etc. have the players and manager that draw money attention.

I’m typically not one to follow the money at limited odds, especially this early in the pennant race. Value of the Rays is far too high on where it should be in my opinion.

Their hitting and lineup may not have heralded players but they get the job done. They’ve knocked around some of the best pitchers in MLB this year including Chris Sale and Corey Kluber recently.

With Odorizzi back off the DL it just strengthens a backing of such odds at this time.

It’ll be a hard feat to make the playoffs with all the talented teams vying for a playoff spot. But why can’t they get it done?

Currently the Rays are four games back for the second wild card position. If they were able to secure the spot, I sure don’t want to have that regretful feeling of missing out on 40-1 or 100-1 odds with Chris Archer deciding the wild card game.

Long-shot approved: Tampa Bay Rays—August 10th, 2015