The Loop
A two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback is the co-favorite to throw the most picks this season (it's not who you think)
When the casual NFL fan thinks about interceptions, the first guy they think about throwing them is New York Giants veteran quarterback Eli Manning. On one hand, it's fair given Manning has gone full Brett Favre and thrown 20 or more picks in a season three times in his career. On the other hand, the keyboard warriors who get all their NFL information from Twitter would fail to realize that Manning threw the same amount of picks as Tom Brady a season ago, and he also threw one less than NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes. (Manning had six more passing attempts than Brady and four fewer than Mahomes.)
The oddsmakers did notice Manning's INT total a year ago, and have not made him the favorite to throw the the ball to the other team the most times this upcoming season. That distinction belongs to another two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger. If that seems shocking, it shouldn't be.
The longtime Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback led the NFL in interceptions thrown a season ago with 16, and the folks at Sportsbetting.ag are banking on Big Ben to lead the league again. No. 7 is one of the co-favorites at 9/1, with Arizona Cardinals rookie and No. 1 overall draft pick Kyler Murray, Tampa Bay's Jameis Winston, New York Jets second-year QB Sam Darnold and L.A. Chargers veteran Philip Rivers.
To be fair to Roethlisberger, who signed a two-year, $68 million contract with Pittsburgh in April, he also led the league in passing yards in 2018 with a staggering 5,129, edging Mahomes by 32 yards, though Mahomes threw 50 touchdowns to Roethlisberger's 34. Big Ben also threw the most passes of any quarterback with 675, 36 more than the next-closest QB, Andrew Luck. What we're saying is, when you're asked to throw it as much as he does, you're bound to throw a decent amount of picks. Roethlisberger's offensive production makes his interception total something the Steelers can live with.
As for Manning, he checks in at 14/1 for this prop bet, which could have something to do with the fact that he might get replaced at some point this season by Daniel Jones, or the fact that the offense run by head coach Pat Shurmur, which relies on a lot of short passes, will limit his INT total.
Here's the full list of odds for which QB will throw the most interceptions in the 2019 NFL season:
Ben Roethlisberger 9/1
Jameis Winston 9/1
Kyler Murray 9/1
Phillip Rivers 9/1
Sam Darnold 9/1
Cam Newton 12/1
Josh Allen 12/1
Josh Rosen 12/1
Eli Manning 14/1
Patrick Mahomes 14/1
Deshaun Watson 14/1
Baker Mayfield 16/1
Dwayne Haskins 16/1
Marcus Mariota 18/1
Andy Dalton 20/1
Ryan Fitzpatrick 20/1
Jared Goff 25/1
Nick Foles 25/1
Derek Carr 28/1
Jimmy Garoppolo 28/1
Lamar Jackson 28/1
Andrew Luck 33/1
Carson Wentz 33/1
Case Keenum 33/1
Daniel Jones 33/1
Drew Lock 33/1
Joe Flacco 33/1
Kirk Cousins 33/1
Matthew Stafford 33/1
Mitchell Trubisky 33/1
Will Grier 33/1
Ryan Tannehill 50/1
Dak Prescott 66/1
Russell Wilson 66/1
Colt McCoy 100/1
Drew Brees 125/1
Matt Ryan 150/1
Tom Brady 200/1
Aaron Rodgers 250/1