After taking their Super Bowl rematch with the Atlanta Falcons with relative ease, the New England Patriots remain entrenched as the favorite on the Super Bowl futures odds.
New England’s odds improved slightly from last week up to +325 after residing at +450 a week ago. The Patriots have three wins in a row and five in their last six games, but they haven’t started running away with the AFC East yet.
While the Patriots are still No. 1 on the odds list, there is a new No. 2 with the Philadelphia Eagles moving up. The Eagles are listed at +700, up from +850 last week when they were the oddsmakers’ third choice. The Eagles have earned their boost up the odds list after winning five straight. Philadelphia is also the only team left with only one loss, which could be hard to maintain with road games against Dallas, Seattle and the Rams all coming up.
Rounding out the top five on the Super Bowl futures are the Pittsburgh Steelers at +750, and the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks, both at +1000.
Pittsburgh seems to have righted the ship after some early-season struggles to win back-to-back games. The Steelers could be primed to continue winning and improving their Super Bowl odds with games against Detroit, Indianapolis, Tennessee and Green Bay coming up.
The Chiefs looked like they might be the ones to dethrone the Patriots atop the Super Bowl futures a few weeks ago when they were the lone remaining undefeated team in the league. Instead, the Chiefs have lost two in a row to drop down to +1000 from +850. Kansas City is still in first place in a messy AFC West but needs strong showings in the next two weeks against Denver and Dallas to prove that early-season success wasn’t merely a fluke.
The Seahawks have been hovering around the same odds for most of the season while the oddsmakers try to figure them out. Seattle has won three straight but with two of those victories coming against lackluster opponents in Indianapolis and the Giants, the Seahawks still have something to prove before they’ll get a significant rise on the Super Bowl odds.
One riser to watch on the odds this week is the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams are up to +1800 on the Super Bowl futures, after sitting at +2500 last week. To see how far the Rams have come, just look at where they were on the Super Bowl odds back in Week 1. That would be +15,000, by the way. The Rams enter their bye this week in first place in the NFC West and should have their showdown with Seattle on December 17 circled on their calendar.
One of the biggest drops this week should surprise no one, as the Green Bay Packers’ slide continues. Without Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay fell to New Orleans and subsequently fell to +3300 on the Super Bowl futures. Look for that drop to continue indefinitely with Rodgers out.