I think I’m one of eight billion people who love “The Wire” and “Breaking Bad.” Those are the two best TV shows I’ve seen and it isn’t particularly close. ^[1]“Seinfeld” is all alone in third with a pretty big gap after that, too. “The Wire” had an amazing volume of unforgettably vivid characters. Below is my list of memorable “Wire” characters. To be a real test of unforgettableness, it’s got to be off the top of my head, so I’m sure I’m going to forget somebody, but here goes and I’ll include the first thought that jumps to mind:

Omar (“man’s gotta have a code”), Bunk (“f***”), McNulty (“f***”), DeAngelo (library), Stringer (mastermind), Avon (winner), Brother Mouzone (bow tie), Cedric (good posture), Garcetti (that’s actually the mayor of LA, I mean the Baltimore mayor), Clay Davis (“sheeeeeet”), Bunny (“New Hamsterdam”), Keisha (car chase scene), Lester (wood carving), Bodie (corner), Prop Joe (large), …

Ah, Prop Joe. Prop Joe was a very large and very reasonable drug kingpin. His name apparently stemmed from saying “I’ve got a proposition for you,” so we could certainly see him getting into prop bets. So, in honor of Prop Joe, I’ll cover some intriguing season prop bets. ^[2]The actor who played Prop Joe, Robert F. Chew, sadly passed away in January 2013. Most of these bets are only available online, which continues to be a legal gray area. Like Prop Joe, I would never directly touch anything slightly questionable, so I will be referring to bets made by my good friend Rawls. ^[3]Definitely not this Rawls who is the enemy of all that is good. We’ll start with his favorite prop bet for 2014 and go from there in descending order.

Rawls’s Prop Bet #1: $76 On Any Team To Win at Least 14 Games (Odds: 3/1)

At first glance this bet seems to have a lot of merit. Since the 1987 strike, at least one team won 14 games 15 out of 26 times (57.7%). In the last 15 years, it’s even better, hitting 10 out of 15 times (66.7%). The bet only needs to win 25% of the time to break even, so this looks fantastic.

But Chase brought up a point that Rawls missed: schedule strength. The years without a 14-game winner in the last 15 years include 2012 and 2013. Rawls dismissed that as a blip, but it comes in part from two of the best teams in football playing in the same division. Moreover, the last run of years without a 14-game winner (1993-1997) also happened during a time of NFC dominance, at least until ‘97. The Cowboys played the Packers and Niners every year during that span, for example. This season, the best teams in football may have it even tougher. The Niners and Seahawks have to play each other twice, and each has one of the four hardest schedules in football this year. The Broncos get the NFC West, the Saints have the sixth-hardest schedule, and the Packers have above-average schedule strength. Only the Patriots have an easy schedule amongst the main threats to win 14 games.

But here’s why this bet still seems pretty good. Teams can come out of nowhere to win 14 games, too. The ’98 Falcons, ’99 Jaguars, ’06 Chargers (over/under of 9 before the season), and ’10 Patriots (over/under of 9.5 or 10) fit that bill to varying degrees. Rawls generally prefers the scarce resource (wins) to be distributed equally, but he couldn’t pass up this bet.

Rawls’s Prop Bet #2: $10 On Arizona Cardinals to Have Worst Record in Football (Odds: 40/1)

The odds do not reflect those available now, but those available when Rawls pounced. The Arizona Cardinals are an interesting team, maybe the most interesting team in the NFL this season. Their variance of potential outcomes seems high to me, even though Football Outsiders and Chase’s projections from Vegas spreads do not really agree. Rawls and I are both more bearish on the Cardinals and see a wider range of possible outcomes. On the plus side:

1) Improvements on the offensive line: They get Jonathan Cooper back for his redshirt season and they now have a competent left tackle in Jared Veldheer.

2) Potentially good performances at the skill positions: First, there’s Andre Ellington, #1 on Football Outsiders’ Top 25 Prospects list (5.5 yards per carry last year) and a player they liken to Jamaal Charles in terms of potential. Then, there’s buzz around the receiving corps, with Michael Floyd and John Brown in addition to a now perhaps fully-healthy Larry Fitzgerald.

3) Patrick Peterson: A Revisesque shutdown corner changes a defense.

But there’s also the case against the Cardinals:

1) Low ceiling and low floor at QB: For this season, Rawls prefers 14 out of 15 NFC QBs to Palmer. There’s certainly debate about that, but he would take Palmer ahead of only Shaun Hill and he’s not even totally sure about that. In fairness, FOA projects Palmer to improve on his just below league-average DVOA from last year and Rawls knows less. ^[4]One more point against Palmer, though: Falling off a cliff is possible for a QB of his age and performance profile.

2) Losses in the front seven: Three very good players (Karlos Dansby, Daryl Washington, and Darnell Dockett) from last year won’t play a snap this year, as Chase discussed in his 538 preview.

3) Age: The Cardinals were the oldest team in the league last year. There will eventually be a year when John Abraham stops getting sacks.

4) Schedule: The biggest reason Rawls offers for this bet. Their schedule is a killer, the hardest in the league at least according to Vegas and close to the hardest by any measure. Rawls actually liked the Cardinals last year and that was because they had the AFC South, against which they went 4-0.

5) Plexiglas: The Cardinals over/under before last season was 5.5. That was too low because they were replacing historically bad quarterback play in 2012 with close-to-average potential, but the Cardinals may feel the tug of regression pulling them down at least a little.

Anyway, the Cardinals are fascinating. Rawls could go on about them forever.

Rawls’s Prop Bet #3: $15 on Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Make the Playoffs (Odds: 13/2)

Note that Football Outsiders likes this bet, too. They give the Bucs a 28.3% chance of making the playoffs, enough to make this a clear winner. My coach projections really like Lovie Smith, too, since he succeeded both in St. Louis as defensive coordinator and in Chicago as head coach. Rawls didn’t love that Carl Nicks retired after he made this bet, but loved that a compensating transfer quickly brought the Bucs right back to where they were (Logan Mankins).

Rawls’s Prop Bet #4: $20 on Aaron Rodgers to Win MVP (Odds: 13/2)

Rawls rues missing 8/1 on this bet. He doesn’t care for too much treasure accumulating in the hands of a single man and so he bets on Manning fatigue this year. He thinks Rodgers is likely to be basically tied for the best quarterback in football this year, which may be good enough. The division is now much better on offense than on defense, too. The Bears, Lions, and Vikings, had the 17th, 20th, and 30th-ranked pass defenses according to DVOA in 2013, respectively.

Rawls’s Bet #5: $20 on Minnesota to Win Over 6 Games (Odds: -145)

Rawls always wants to elevate the downtrodden. He likes Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater and that’s enough for him to like the Vikings to bounce back this year.

Summary

Prop Joe and Rawls thus have agreed on this set of bets below for the 2014 season. In the table, I’ve also put my Vegas bets from earlier in the summer, along with one additional bet I made with a certain notable Jets fan.

Note that Rawls also liked Rex Ryan at 25/1 to be first coach fired when those odds were available. It is plausible that Geno Smith could implode and the secondary could be a real problem. But Rawls couldn’t support additional suffering for a fan base that knows so little glory.