Super Bowl Futures Odds Shift as NFL Playoffs Begin

The NFL playoffs are here, and with it, a new favorite in the Super Bowl 57 futures odds.

The Kansas City Chiefs are narrowly favored over the Buffalo Bills to win the NFL’s championship game after securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs over the weekend. We’ll get into the reasons for that below.

In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles looked shaky in a win over the New York Giants’ backups on Sunday, but they did earn the top spot in their conference. Surging San Francisco is the co-Super Bowl favorite in the NFC with Philly.

Going into the playoffs, here are the best odds from major sportsbooks for each team competing for the Super Bowl title.

Last Monday night’s cancellation of the Bills vs. Bengals game following Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the field led to changes on the AFC side of the bracket. After Kansas City’s win over Las Vegas Saturday, they are the No. 1 seed. However, if they play Buffalo in the AFC Championship, that game will be held on a neutral field. 

While that would help Buffalo, what does not is the path to get there. For the Bills to reach the AFC title game, they will have to win two times. First, Sunday afternoon against Miami. If Tua Tagovailoa does not play, the Bills should have no problems in that game. But a potential date against the Bengals in the AFC divisional round will be a difficult challenge. 

KC, meanwhile, is off this week and will play the lowest-remaining seed in the other divisional matchup. That game will be against either Jacksonville, LA Chargers, Baltimore, or Miami. The Chargers put a scare into the Chiefs twice this season, but KC won both of those matchups and would be heavily favored against the other three teams as well. 

Our prediction is out of the AFC is Buffalo, given how their first play on the field after Hamlin’s collapse went on Sunday, they could be destiny’s darlings this season.

Despite his head coach, Nick Sirianni, saying that he was hurting badly, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts stayed out of trouble, didn’t use his legs a lot, but still led Philadelphia to a 22-16 win over a New York Giants team resting all key starters since their playoff seed was confirmed after Week 17.

Hurts led to the team to a 13-1 start before giving way to Gardner Minshew II for two games, which were both losses over the past two weeks. Hurts then had to return this week to secure the No. 1 seed and now gets two more weeks off to fully heal.

Listed as co-favorites, however, are the San Francisco 49ers, led by third-string quarterback Brock Purdy, who is doing his best 2002 Tom Brady impression.

Last year, both the No. 1 seeds (Tennessee and Green Bay) didn’t even reach the conference championship game, losing in their first game. While we see both No. 1s reaching the championship game round this year, we’re predicting a Super Bowl of Buffalo vs. San Francisco.

San Francisco has shown to be oh-so-close in recent years to winning a Super Bowl, reaching the big game in 2020 and falling just short of doing so last year. The difference this year is a quarterback who can put up lots of points, and that could be enough to put them over the top in Arizona come mid-February.

Prediction: San Francisco 49ers (+550)