The Denver Broncos opened as 4.5-point favorites for tonight's game – the ESPN Monday night regular-season debut of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman — at the Seattle Seahawks'in Russell Wilson's return to the Pacific Northwest, but Wilson's new team has taken 92% of the handle at BetMGM and 86% of the tickets to push that number to 6.5. It did get to -7 at a few books early today but is back to -6.5 across the board.
In his career as a road favorite, Wilson is 21-26-2 against the spread. Geno Smi th beat out Drew Lock to be Wilson's replacement (for now) in Seattle and Smith is 6-3 ATS in his starting career as a home underdog. Smith has actually covered eight straight starts dating to 2014 and his Jets days, among the longest active streaks in the NFL. The third-most popular player prop wager at BetMGM is on Wilson Over 12.5 rushing yards. He topped that total in seven of his 14 games last year with Seattle.
Wilson is Denver's 12th starting QB since Peyton Manning retired following Super Bowl 50. It will be very interesting to hear the reception Wilson gets tonight. He's set at over/under 1.5 touchdown passes (Over -148 favorite) and 252.5 passing yards (Under -131 favorite). Wilson will join Tom Brady, Manning, Brett Favre and Joe Montana as the only QBs to win 100-plus games with a team and later face that team. Only Manning lost his homecoming in 2013 at the Colts. Wilson also joins Brady and Favre as the only QBs to win at least 50 games in a stadi um and then return to face their old team in that stadium.
The two most popular player prop wagers at BetMGM are both on'Denver running back Javonte Williams: +650 to score the game's first touchdown and -110 for an anytime TD. He had seven total touchdowns last year as a rookie.