Plaxico Burress Prop Betting: Which NFL teams would give him a shot?

With no end to the NFL’s lockout in sight as both the owners and players await a ruling from the Eighth Circuit Court on a June 3 hearing over the legality of the owners locking out the players (and no rumors that the NFL has a contingency plan for an eight-game season), there has been an obvious paucity of 2011 NFL props at Bodog. It’s hard to know what the league, much less each team, will look like this fall so obviously determining most props will have to wait.

Thankfully, however, we did have some NFL news this week that will have an effect on some team on the field this season and it allowed us to put up betting odds for a player prop on Plaxico Burress.

Of course Burress is a former New York Giant who caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Eli Manning in the Super Bowl XLII upset of the then-unbeaten New England Patriots. Unfortunately for Burress, his career went down from there.

Midway through the 2008 season, he brought an illegal gun into a New York nightclub and accidentally shot himself. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, tough on guns, pushed for the max on Burress and he eventually was sentence to two years in jail. Plaxico was released on Monday a little more than three months’ early on good behavior. Now the 34-year-old three-time 1,000-yarde receiver wants to return to the NFL.

Who might take Burress

At Bodog Sportsbook, we list the Philadelphia Eagles as the 3/2 favorites to sign Burress, who is an unrestricted free agent. The thinking is that the Eagles would take a chance on him because they did with another star out of jail, Michael Vick, and he has been on his best behavior and played at an MVP level last year. Burress won’t play at that level, but at 6-foot-5 Burress would give Vick and the Eagles a big red zone target that Philly lacks.

The New York Jets are next at 3/1. Their top three receivers – Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards and Brad Smith – are all free agents. And New York coach Rex Ryan is never afraid of potential character risks, plus the Jets are in a win-now mode. The question is whether Burress wants to go back to the circus that is New York City. The Giants are at 12/1 but they have said that Burress won’t be back with them.

The St. Louis Rams are at 11/2 to sign Burress. The Rams are a team on the rise under reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year, Sam Bradford, but he desperately needs receivers – no team is probably more desperate at that position. Plus Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo is a former coordinator on the Giants and thus knows Burress well.

The Minnesota Vikings and Washington Redskins are next at 15/2 each. The Vikings might need a receiver because top guy Sidney Rice will be either a restricted or unrestricted free agent depending on the new labor agreement. The Washington Redskins are very receiver-needy, but they don’t even have a quarterback yet and would appear to be in rebuilding mode so Burress might not make much sense.

The Chicago Bears are at 12/1 and certainly could use a big receiver like Burress as a target for Jay Cutler. But the Bears always have been a conservative franchise and might balk at bringing in such a character risk. Ditto the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are at 10/1. The two other betting options are the Browns and Raiders at 15/1 – never rule out renegade Oakland taking a chance on anyone. Burress can’t sign with any team until the lockout ends.