If you’ve been listening to VSiN or following any coverage this week leading up to these otherwise meaningless exhibition games, you know there are coaches who try to win while others are mostly concerned with evaluating young talent and getting out of these games as healthy as possible.

It’s tempting to jump on the bandwagon and back the good preseason coaches and fade the bad ones, but the fact is the oddsmakers know all the records and trends we handicappers do, and make you pay a premium to bet that way.

Indianapolis opened pick ’em at Buffalo, but bettors have steamed the Colts to three-point road favorites due in large part to head coach Frank Reich’s 3-1 straight-up and 4-0 against-the-spread record last year. Instead of chasing that steam, I’m more inclined to take the Bills +3 — though there are reports of Buffalo’s lack of depth on the offensive line, so I wouldn’t call that my best bet.

Everyone seems to know by now that Baltimore’s John Harbaugh is the best long-term preseason coach at 30-15 ATS and 18-3 ATS since 2014, so books opened the Ravens between -3 and -4¹/₂ over the Jaguars in their preseason opener. Guess what? Bettors still laid the inflated line up to -5 at several books. As of early Wednesday night, it was Ravens -4¹/₂ at William Hill, and I still think that’s too high for a preseason game where most games are a virtual coin-flip.

These teams have been practicing against each other this week, so I expect an even game. Besides, we’re not likely to see much of Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson or Jacksonville’s Nick Foles. Instead, I’ll take the Jaguars’ Gardner Minshew over the Ravens’ Trace McSorley as they’ll likely have more of an impact on the outcome.

The play: Jaguars at +4¹/₂ or better vs. Ravens.