The NFL preseason is finally over.
The 53-man rosters have been set.
That means, at long last, the 2023 season is upon us … in eight days?!?
Yep, the Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions in the NFL kickoff game Sept. 7.
That’s still kind of a long wait for fans who have been ready for some football since the moment Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs defeated Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LVII in February.
In an effort to kill some of that time, let’s take a look at which team is the betting favorite to hoist the Lombardi Trophy five or so months from now, based on the odds listed Wednesday by FanDuel.
No real surprise here.
The Chiefs are listed as favorites at +600 to win their second straight Super Bowl and third in five years.
Of course, that’s not as easy as it sounds. No team has repeated as the NFL champs since the New England Patriots did it following the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
So which team has the next-best odds to win it all this season?
Again, no surprise — it’s the Eagles at +800. They’re followed by the Buffalo Bills (+900), who were the second seed out of the AFC last year and lost in the division round of the playoffs. Then come the two teams that lost in the conference championship games, the Cincinnati Bengals (+1000) and San Francisco 49ers (+1000).
The top 10 (really 11 because of a three-way tie at No. 9) is rounded out by the Dallas Cowboys (+1300), Baltimore Ravens (+1800), New York Jets (+1800), Detroit Lions (+2100), Miami Dolphins (+2100) and the Chargers (+2100). Only two of those teams missed the playoffs in 2022 — the Lions (who won eight of their last 10 games to finish 9-8) and the Jets (who finished 7-10 but added four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers at quarterback).
The 2021 champion Rams aren’t expected to return to form after a 5-12 season last year. Their Super Bowl odds are listed at +6500, which is the same as the Washington Commanders and better than only the Las Vegas Raiders (+7500), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+7500), Indianapolis Colts (+10000), Arizona Cardinals (+18000) and Houston Texans (+18000).
Mahomes has been given +600 odds to win his second straight and third overall league MVP award. He’s followed by fellow quarterbacks Josh Allen of the Bills (+700), Joe Burrow of the Bengals (+700), Justin Herbert of the Chargers (+900) and Hurts (+1200). Five quarterbacks are listed at +1600 — Rodgers, Dak Prescott of the Cowboys, Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tua Tagovailoa of the Dolphins and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens.
OK, that was fun. Let’s see how long we’ve got till the season starts now.
Oh.
Still eight days.
Well, good luck with that.
