NFL Best Bets: 2011 season, week 16

I continue to wish I’d spent the last six weeks in Las Vegas, having nailed another 4-0 week and running my totals for the last month and a half to 19-5. That could turn at any time of course, and probably will, but the run has upped my season record to 32-27-1.

Tony only hit two of his four bets last week but he nailed his upset of the week, calling Indy’s first win of the season with a +245 payoff. He’s going out on an even bigger limb with his upset pick this week.

The 2-2 mark puts him at 28-32 for the season.

All in all it would have been a good weekend for both of us to be watching games from a sports book in Sin City. It feels to me like the lines on week 16 games are a little bit tougher, but we’ll make another run at it. Here goes:

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49ers interest in retaining Smith shows downside of lockout

Reports out of San Francisco indicate that the 49ers have a contract on the table aimed at keeping former first-overall pick Alex Smith in the fold for at least one more season.

The on-again, off-again starting quarterback for San Francisco has shown flashes of competence but has been mostly injured or disappointing (not always through faults of his own) during his first six years in the league.

At the end of the season, Smith talked pretty openly about being ready to move on to a new situation where he could get a fresh start. The fans turned on him pretty aggressively at the end of the season and, with a new coach on board in Jim Harbaugh, in a normal year my guess is Smith would already have signed somewhere else.

But this is not a normal year. (more…)