The New England Patriots won their showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, and as a result remain the favorite on the Super Bowl 52 futures odds.
The win over the Steelers gave the Patriots a slight bump on the futures odds up to +240, after sitting at +275 a week ago. New England appears to have two easy wins the rest of the way with divisional games against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, and unless an unexpected upset loss or injury occurs, the Pats should enter the postseason as the Super Bowl favorite.
The Steelers’ loss last week dropped their odds, but they remain second on the Super Bowl board at +600. Losing Antonio Brown to a partially torn calf muscle likely also hurt them, but he is expected to be back for the playoffs. If that changes, their odds could take a major hit, so keep a close watch on that.
Rounding out the top five on the Super Bowl futures are the Minnesota Vikings at +700, and New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles at +900.
From those three the Eagles made the biggest gains up from +1200 a week ago. That likely came due to a stellar performance by Nick Foles in his first game as the Eagles’ starting QB in place of the injured Carson Wentz. That did come against an awful New York Giants squad, but the Eagles will get a chance to prove they’re still a contender with their remaining games against Oakland and Dallas.
Aside from the Eagles, some of the biggest gains on the oddsboard this week were made by the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams.
The Chiefs may have finally turned their season around after posting a much-needed win over the Los Angeles Chargers last week. The Chiefs moved up to +1800 from +3300 after taking over first place in the AFC West. Now all the Chiefs need to do to guarantee a playoff spot is keep winning. That may not be too difficult with their last two games against the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos.
The Ravens aren’t even in possession of a playoff spot but they’re currently getting better odds than a few teams that are, including Tennessee and Buffalo. Baltimore is at +3300, up from +5000 last week, while Tennessee and Buffalo are both at +10,000. Baltimore’s remaining games against Cleveland and Cincinnati might have something to do with that. Buffalo and Tennessee face much harder competition with Buffalo going up against New England and Miami, and the Titans facing the Rams and Jacksonville.
The Rams haven’t clinched a playoff spot yet but they can’t get much closer after crushing Seattle last week to move to 10-4. That also caused the oddsmakers to move them up to +1000 on the Super Bowl futures. Not bad for a team that started the season as a +15,000 underdog on the Super Bowl futures.