Cashing Out | August 16, 2026 | Hour 2

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Cashing Out with your host, Dustin Sweetilson on VSiN, the SportsBetting Network.

**Doug Kezirian** (0:12)
Hour number two here on Cashing Out. I am Doug Kezirian, Dustin back in the hot seat tomorrow and through the week. We are live here in downtown Las Vegas. I'm at the Circa Resort and Casino. You see the beautiful sportsbook behind me. It's very calm right now, but it was certainly rocking all throughout the weekend. Unusually like active sports calendar with so much going on.
In about 45 minutes, we're going to talk more about baseball card for Monday and go into the props, a lot of pitcher props, things like that. Logan Winser is going to join us, a guy I really respect and bounce a lot of ideas off of because he does a lot of the math approach and he is based in the state of Wisconsin, as is our next guest. So it's the Wisconsin Hour, number two here on Cashing Out. And so let's bring in Nick Whalen, who does an awesome job throughout the week here on VSiN for Prop Points. He's a co-host. He's also senior analyst for Roto Wire. So Nick joins us now via the progressive guest line. Nick, good to be with you. I know we hung out in person here at this beautiful resort in Circa, but good to be connected here on VSiN. How's your weekend going?

**Nick Whalen** (1:19)
I had no complaints, man, no complaints. My wife is actually out of town, so I was on baby duty, was able to offload the baby for a few hours yesterday, get a little golf in here as we enjoy the end of the summer in Wisconsin, but looking forward to really start to dive in on the NFL. I know we'll be talking a lot of football here, and I'll actually be out in Vegas at Circa for contest weekend in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to that as well.

**Doug Kezirian** (1:42)
That's awesome. You couldn't take the baby golfing and obviously protect it with the sun and everything, but obviously kill two birds with one stone?

**Nick Whalen** (1:50)
Look, that negotiation has been entered with the wife. The baby is still, she's only nine months.
So, sitting up is kind of a new development, being out on the course in the sun for four or four and a half hours. It would be a lot to ask. I think at some point it's going to have to happen. It probably won't be until next summer, but I've lost the negotiation on that so far.

**Doug Kezirian** (2:10)
For now. Yeah. So far. Well said. Well said, because you got to chip away on that. Okay. Let's talk NFL futures. You have a lot of good ones here from a lot of different versions, too. You got player props for the upcoming season, various outrights in terms of certain markets like index betting, and then also the conventional win totals. But there's a common theme here. I think the main one that stands out to me is you're very bullish on the Detroit Lions. And it's a chic pick. Obviously, they have a last place schedule.
They're getting the band back together. But there's some concerns, at least I have, with Detroit with a high win total of 10.5. So it's not like I think they're going to miss the playoffs per se and be completely terrible or anything like that. Last year went off the rails. Why are you so bullish on the Lions to be not only over 10.5 wins, but the number one seed market and then also the coach of the year market with Dan Campbell?

**Nick Whalen** (2:59)
Yeah, I will happily admit, Doug, that I probably overexposed on the Detroit Lions. Like you said, you can get them around eight to one for the number one seed. I like them to win the division. I like them, of course, to go over the win total. And really, I am leaning into that schedule. I think it can be a little bit dangerous in July and August to just pick through and say, oh, they're going to win that game. They're going to win that game.
I know these teams are going to look a lot different by the time we get to October and November. But I think it could be this year's version of what we saw with New England last year where we had that same conversation and then the schedule did really end up propelling them throughout the season. Now, the big difference, of course, for Detroit is that their toughest games might all come within their own division. There are no freebies against Green Bay, against Minnesota, and against the Chicago Bears. And I'm also high on this Vikings team. So maybe we'll get into a little bit later who I'm waiting in the NFC North. But part of it is, I think, looking at last year as kind of the year from hell for Detroit, right? It's really two straight years now where they've had a ton of injuries on both sides of the ball. The offensive line was very much up and down. So I would like to say that that health luck, if that's what you want to call it, hopefully comes back around in 2026 But I'm mostly high on this offense. I mean, Gibbs, St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam Laporta, Jared Goff, who, by the way, leads the NFL in both yards and touchdowns over the last four seasons. I think it's about as good of a skill group as you're going to find anywhere in the NFL. And when you start to dig in on that schedule, four of their first five games come against the Saints, the Jets, the Panthers and the Cardinals. I think they have a really good chance to get off to a hot start. And by virtue of somehow finishing last in that division last year, I mean, their non-rotation, non-divisional games come against Tennessee, the New York Giants and the Arizona Cardinals. I know that Giants game could be tricky. That game is also at home. They get the Pats at home. They get the Bucks at home. You know, the only game I think you would look at right now and say, okay, they probably lose that, is at Buffalo early on. And there are only three point dogs in that game right now. I'm not totally sold on the latest version of the Bills.