With just five days until the Denver Broncos kick off their 2020 NFL season against the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night Football (10:10 p.m. ET, ESPN), the team received devastating news for one of the best defensive players in the league.
Von Miller, who has 106 sacks since joining the league in 2011, reportedly suffered an injury to a tendon in his ankle that will likely require season-ending surgery according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
While defensive players don't typically have significant effects individually on a team's playoff chances, Miller is one of the exceptions.
According to The Action Network's updated NFL simulations, the absence of Miller for the entire season would result in a loss of .2 wins for the Broncos, with Denver's playoff chances dropping from 25.13% to 21.93%.
More importantly — for bettors that is — is the effect this key injury is having on odds for Denver's Week 1 game against Tennessee.
Titans vs. Broncos Odds Movement
As recently as Tuesday night, this game sat at a pick'em at DraftKings Sportsbook.
However, once news of the severity of Miller's injury began to surface, the Titans vs. Broncos spread jumped to Titans -2.5, the current market consensus.
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At the time of writing, 69% of spread bets have taken the Titans and expect that one-sided action to continue unless heavy Tennessee money eventually pushes this spread to -3.
At that point, don't be surprised to see sharps buy back the Broncos considering the value of that number in NFL spread betting.
