The San Francisco 49ers are the lukewarm favorite in 2010 NFL preseason betting to win the NFC West. The 49ers are listed just ahead of Arizona and Seattle in NFL preseason lines. San Francisco opens up preseason action in Week 1 with a game at Indianapolis on August 15th.
2010 NFL preseason betting will likely have the 49ers as underdogs on the road at Indianapolis but they could be a good bet in that contest. The Colts have very little behind quarterback Peyton Manning who won’t seem much action in the preseason opener. The 49ers host the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2 of the preseason on August 22nd in a game that can be seen on NBC. The 49ers travel to Oakland in week 3 while they host San Diego in Week 4.
The 49ers are considered long shots in NFL preseason lines to win the Super Bowl at odds of 30-1. They are in the NFC West though and that means they can make the playoffs. The 49ers are the 6-5 favorites to win the NFC West. It is basically the same San Francisco team from a year ago as the team didn’t do much of anything in the off-season.
San Francisco has a great running back in Frank Gore and some nice receiving talent in Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis but they have a huge question mark at quarterback in Alex Smith. He has never proven he can play consistently at the NFL level. The 49ers did sign David Carr in the off-season but how much faith anyone can have in Carr is in serious debate. The 49ers need to run the ball with Gore to be effective and last season they didn’t do that nearly enough. The 49ers drafted two offensive linemen in hopes of upgrading a weak offensive line.
The defense has a lot of talent including nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin and linebacker Patrick Willis. The defense was the fourth best in the NFL last season in terms of points allowed. Head coach Mike Singletary is a defense-first coach and San Francisco is solid on that side of the ball. For the 49ers to take a step forward and win the NFC West this season they need the offense to do its part. That probably means Smith has to play well at quarterback and whether he can do that or not is anyone’s guess.