The New England Patriots continue to excel without Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, and the oddsmakers are noticing.
New England improved to 2-0 last week with a win over the Miami Dolphins and they did it without Brady, Gronkowski and, for most of the game, Jimmy Garoppolo. The Patriots’ backup quarterback went down with an injury, which gave third-string rookie QB Jacoby Brissett his first taste of NFL action.
After all that, and with Brissett getting his first start Thursday night, the Patriots remain Super Bowl 51 favorites at +450. That’s up from +650 last week.
While the Patriots remain on top the Pittsburgh Steelers have pushed their way into the No. 2 slot at +700. That’s up slightly from the +750 odds they were getting a week ago. The Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 24-16 in Week 2. The Steelers are only two weeks away from the return of running back Le’Veon Bell, which will give their already stout offense another boost.
The Steelers’ move up to second on the Super Bowl 51 odds means the Green Bay Packers were bumped down a notch to No. 3. That’s the second week in a row the Packers have dropped down the odds list. Currently they sit at +800. Last week they were +700, and a week earlier they were the Super Bowl favorite.
It’s not hard to see why the Packers are fading. Green Bay lost to Minnesota last week and their offense has been a big disappointment this season with only 278.5 yards per game, good enough for fourth last in the league. The return of Jordy Nelson has done nothing to jolt the Packers offense to life and that needs to change or they will continue to head in the wrong direction on the odds.
Sharing +800 odds with the Packers this week are the Arizona Cardinals. For the Cardinals +800 odds are a good thing, as they’re up from +1400 a week ago. Handing out a 40-7 beatdown to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will do that. If you missed out on the Cardinals at +1400 last week you may have missed their most profitable odds of the season if they continue to fire like they did against Tampa Bay.
Rounding out the Top 5 on the Super Bowl futures are the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers, both at +1200. That’s a drop for Seattle, who was listed at +850 last week. The Seahawks also appear to be in trouble right now after scoring only 14 points in their first two games.
Carolina is at +1200 for the second consecutive week. After they pounded the San Francisco 49ers 46-27 it looked like Carolina might improve on the odds. That might be the case this week depending on how they do against the Minnesota Vikings.
Even after an injury to Adrian Peterson the Vikings saw a rise up the odds to +1600 from +2000 this week thanks to their win over Green Bay.