{"id":875128,"date":"2026-08-31T15:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875128\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:08:19","slug":"2026-nfl-offensive-rookie-of-year-book-exposed-on-49ers-wr-dezhaun-stribling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875128\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Offensive Rookie of Year: Book exposed on 49ers WR De’Zhaun Stribling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the NFL preseason<\/a> is in the rear-view mirror, I will look at some award updates from the various sportsbooks in this space until the regular season kicks off a week from Wednesday in Seattle. Today, let’s break down NFL<\/a> Offensive Rookie of the Year, with odds and trends courtesy of BetMGM<\/a>. And I’ll tell you right now the player taking the heaviest action is a surprise \u2013 at least to me. I’m also hoping he’s there when I pick in my Fantasy Dynasty draft on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But first let’s look at the favorites, and they are Cardinals<\/a> running back Jeremiyah Love<\/a> at +500 and Raiders<\/a> quarterback Fernando Mendoza<\/a> at +550. No real surprise there, as they were the first two offensive players off the board back in April, with Mendoza going No. 1 overall and Love third.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans can stay up to date with information from our\u00a0NFL news<\/a>\u00a0page, and bettors should also look for picks from the SportsLine Projection Model<\/a>\u00a0and our\u00a0experts<\/a>\u00a0during the 2026 NFL season.<\/p>\n

Love opened as the +300 favorite because he was expected to be the featured back in Arizona from the get-go, but his odds have risen no doubt because of a high-ankle sprain suffered in the preseason opener against Mendoza’s Raiders. Now it’s a race to be ready for the Sept. 13 opener at the Chargers<\/a>. Probably 50\/50 right now. Love did look good in his limited action, rushing 11 times for 58 yards and catching three passes for 14 yards.<\/p>\n

Mendoza, meanwhile, had some issues in his three preseason games \u2013 he was tied at +500 with Love entering the finale — and will be the backup to open the season behind veteran Kirk Cousins<\/a>. The offensive line is a major question mark, so the Raiders might just want to keep Mendoza healthy until that group jells. So neither of the two favorites may be on the field Week 1.<\/p>\n

BetMGM is not exposed on either player winning the award because neither is in the top three of handle or tickets. No. 1 on both — and where the book is definitely exposed — is on 49ers<\/a> receiver De’Zhaun Stribling<\/a>, who was the first pick (No. 33 overall) in Round 2 this year. That was the Niners’ initial pick in the draft after trading down first from No. 27 to 30 and then from No. 30 to 33 for additional picks.<\/p>\n

San Francisco needed a game-breaking wideout, and last season at Ole Miss, Stribling was a big-play guy with 55 catches for 811 yards and six touchdowns. Then he ran a blazing 4.36 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. Last year’s Niners didn’t have a single offensive player break the 20 mph-mark with the ball in his hands, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Their wide receivers averaged only 127.7 yards per game, which ranked 21st in the league.<\/p>\n

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Stribling looked a bit buried on the depth chart initially behind incumbent Ricky Pearsall<\/a>, a 2025 first-round pick, and free-agent additions Mike Evans<\/a> and Christian Kirk<\/a>. But Pearsall already has been lost to a season-ending injury, so that moved Stribling up immediately \u2013 although the team did bring back veteran Deebo Samuel<\/a> after that injury — and he has shined in camp and the preseason.<\/p>\n

“He gets the job done. Strib gets the job done,” Evans said recently. “He’s a rookie, but he’s a pro. He’s been a pro \u2014 the way he practices, the way he prepares. He’s going to make a lot of plays for us this year.” <\/p>\n

BetMGM bettors sure think so, as Stribling ranks No. 1 at the book in handle (13.5%) and tickets (9.4 %) to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. That has moved him from an open of +8000 to win the award to now a +750 fifth-favorite behind the two guys listed above, Titans<\/a> wideout Carnell Tate<\/a> (+600) and Seahawks<\/a> running back Jadarian Price<\/a> (+600) — I rather like Price. <\/p>\n

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Believe it or not with all the talent they have had over the year, the Niners have never had a winner \u2013 a handful of Defensive Rookies of the Year, though. Yet the book isn’t the most\u00a0exposed on Stribling, who has a season Over\/Under totals of 649.5 receiving yards. <\/p>\n

That would be long-shot Cyrus Allen<\/a>, a Chiefs<\/a> fifth-round receiver out of Cincinnati. Allen got plenty of targets in the preseason and has a chance to become the team’s No. 3 wideout to open the year with Xavier Worthy<\/a> banged up and Rashee Rice<\/a> an injury risk himself. Allen opened at +20000 for OROY but is down to +6600 with 5.2% of tickets and 4.5% of handle.<\/p>\n

Another wideout in the Saints<\/a>‘ Jordyn Tyson<\/a>, the No. 8 overall pick in the draft, has risen from an open of +700 to +8000 because the former Arizona State star may not debut in the regular season until October off a hamstring injury suffered in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the NFL preseason is in the rear-view mirror, I will look at some award updates from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[444707,1258,64,63,615,16089,123563,86694,411010,283642,28664,103353,251833,133458,147338,1240,1280,1250,3052,21176,1249,593,56403,80881,32043,5345,11777,9029,1262,1254,85,1253,22958,21178],"class_list":["post-875128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-nfl-offensive-rookie-of-the-year-odds","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-betting","tag-cardinals","tag-carnell-tate","tag-christian-kirk","tag-cyrus-allen","tag-dezhaun-stribling","tag-deebo-samuel","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-jadarian-price","tag-jeremiyah-love","tag-jordyn-tyson","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-mike-evans","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-awards-odds","tag-nfl-futures-odds","tag-nfl-odds","tag-raiders","tag-rashee-rice","tag-ricky-pearsall","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-titans","tag-xavier-worthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}