Who’s going to the Super Bowl? Here are each team’s odds of winning and making it to the big game
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While the NFL playoffs don’t begin until Saturday, the odds are out for those looking to bet on who’s going to make Super Bowl 56 as well as who’s going to win it all.
Below are the Caesars Sportsbook odds for each remaining team getting to and winning the big game, and the Green Bay Packers open as the favorite to represent the NFC, with the Kansas City Chiefs opening as the AFC favorite.
The Packers are the overall favorite in the 14-team playoff field, with the biggest underdogs being the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Green Bay Packers
Odds to win Super Bowl: +380
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +170
Next playoff matchup: BYE
Kansas City Chiefs
Odds to win Super Bowl: +450
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +180
Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers at 7:15 p.m.
Buffalo Bills
Odds to win Super Bowl: +800
Odds to get Super Bowl: +325
Next playoff matchup: Saturday, Jan. 15 vs. New England Patriots at 7:15 p.m.
Tennessee Titans
Odds to win Super Bowl: +800
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +340
Next playoff matchup: BYE
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Odds to win Super Bowl: +800
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +360
Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 vs. Philadelphia Eagles at Noon
Los Angeles Rams
Odds to win Super Bowl: +900
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +450
Next playoff matchup: Monday, Jan. 17 vs. Arizona Cardinals at 7:15 p.m.
Dallas Cowboys
Odds to win Super Bowl: +1200
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +600
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Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 vs. San Francisco 49ers at 3:30 p.m.
Cincinnati Bengals
Odds to win Super Bowl: +1800
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +850
Next playoff matchup: Saturday, Jan. 15 vs. Las Vegas Raiders at 3:30 p.m.
New England Patriots
Odds to win Super Bowl: +2000
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +900
Next playoff matchup: Saturday, Jan. 15 at Buffalo Bills at 7:15 p.m.
Arizona Cardinals
Odds to win Super Bowl: +2200
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +1100
Next playoff matchup: Monday, Jan. 17 at Los Angeles Rams at 7:15 p.m.
San Francisco 49ers
Odds to win Super Bowl: +2500
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +1200
Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 at Dallas Cowboys at 3:30 p.m.
Las Vegas Raiders
Odds to win Super Bowl: +4000
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +2000
Next playoff matchup: Saturday, Jan. 15 at Cincinnati Bengals at 3:30 p.m.
Philadelphia Eagles
Odds to win Super Bowl: +6000
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +3000
Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Noon
Pittsburgh Steelers
Odds to win Super Bowl: +6000
Odds to get to Super Bowl: +3000
Next playoff matchup: Sunday, Jan. 16 at Kansas City Chiefs at 7:15 p.m.
NOTE: This story will be updated as lines move and teams get eliminated
Chiefs versus the Steelers, Road to the Super Bowl Begins
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The Kansas City Chiefs finished the season with a 12-5 record and in Week 16 defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-10 at home. This record is important for getting to the playoffs and determining the seeding, but now that the playoffs are here, the 12-5 record means nothing. The Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers will show up on Sunday at Arrowhead and play for four quarters to determine who moves onto the next round. The statistics through the season have no bearing on the outcome of this game. As simple as it sounds, now until the Super Bowl, it is one game at a time.
The Kansas City Chiefs Will Need to Avoid Making Mistakes
The Chiefs will have a tall task facing a veteran Steelers’ defense. The defense is led by linebacker TJ Watt, who tied Michael Strahan’s NFL sack record with 22.5. The secondary has a veteran’s presence with Minkah Fitzpatrick roaming as the free safety. Kansas City will need to attack fast, and the Chiefs can do that on offense. Patrick Mahomes and the offense will need to play mistake-free football, forcing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and company to perform. According to ESPN, Roethlisberger said this about playing the Chiefs
“We’re probably 20 point underdogs and we’re going to the No. 1 team, I know they’re not the No. 1 seed but they’ve won the AFC the last two years, arguably the best team in football,” Roethlisberger said. “We don’t have a chance. So let’s just go in and have fun.”
“We don’t have a chance, so let’s just go in and have fun.” —Ben Roethlisberger on the Steelers’ playoff game vs. the Chiefs (via @steelers) pic.twitter.com/ajZJkG0PSk — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 12, 2022
The Kansas City Chiefs Will Need to Play Good Defense
The Chiefs’ defense has sputtered as of late, but ideally, this is the start of a new season, and this side of the football can stifle the opposing offense. When healthy, this defense has played at an elite level. The secondary plays off of the pass rush provided by the front seven. The Steelers could be getting star wide receiver, Juju Smith-Schuster back from the injured reserve. According to All Steelers Fan Nation, head coach Mike Tomlin talked about the return of Smith-Schuster,
“He’s worked hard in rehabilitation and gotten himself to this point,” head coach Mike Tomlin said on Smith-Schuster’s return. “We simply started his 21-day window. … Good to have him out here, but it’s just part of the process.”
This would be a tremendous boost to morale for the Steelers, but also some internal motivation for the Chiefs. Smith-Schuster was an option in the off-season for Kansas City, and he elected to return to the steel city. Ben Roethlisberger seemed shocked and surprised his team made the playoffs. Even if the star wideout returns it sounds like it wont matter. Michael D’Arcy, a KC Kingdom contributor covered Big Ben’s comments in detail. According to Arrowhead Pride, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo responded to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s comments saying,
“We certainly don’t look at it that way, there are 14 teams that make this tournament, and any team can beat any other teams — and the minute you don’t think that’s the case, that’s when you get knocked out… we’re not taking anything for granted, and hopefully we play that way; we certainly need the top of our game defensively to help our organization get on to the next week.”
There’s been a lot of noise this season… it’s time to make some of our own. We can’t do this alone, Chiefs Kingdom. Together, we are #OneTeamOneVision 🗣 pic.twitter.com/btLEYeojnt — Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 12, 2022
The First Test for the Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs will need to play an all-around game, and this game against the Pittsburg Steelers is the first step in making the Super Bowl. Kansas City is looking to make another run at their fourth consecutive AFC Championship and third consecutive Super Bowl. This mindset going back-to-back-to-back has been many Chiefs’ fans dreams for years. This is not an easy road to the Super Bowl, and teams want to knock out the defending AFC champs. The game is scheduled for Sunday, December 16th, at 7:15 P.M. CT. This matchup will be aired on NBC.
Will Aaron Rodgers finally return to the Super Bowl?
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As the NFL playoffs begin, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are again ranked among the favorites. Will they be foiled once more?
It’s tempting to say the Packers have a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback, except they’ve had two of them, consecutively — Brett Favre being the other — and they won only one Super Bowl with each of them.
Will Rodgers win another one? He and the Packers haven’t returned to the Super Bowl since 2010, when they manhandled the Steelers. They lost in the conference championship game four times — 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020.
At 38 years old, Rodgers is still on top of his game and should claim his fourth MVP trophy this season. He has the second highest career pass efficiency mark in history (No. 1 for anyone who has played longer than five seasons). He is perhaps the single-most talented quarterback ever — even more talented than Tom Brady — but he is not the most successful. He has gone 11 years without returning to the Super Bowl stage.
The popular notion is to blame Rodgers’ supporting cast for the team’s failure to win another title — the same thing fans and media tend to do when LeBron James strikes out — but the numbers don’t support it.
Rodgers has been a different quarterback in the big postseason games (let’s define “big” as the conference championship and Super Bowl). He has appeared in five conference championships and won one of them — the first one, in 2010. Rodgers’ performance in those games has rarely been even close to his performance in the regular season — his passer rating: 83.7 (the NFL average is 88.8).
Rodgers’ pass efficiency rating by the numbers 2010 Regular season: 101.2 NFC championship: 55.4 2014 Regular season: 112.2 NFC championship: 55.8 2016 Regular season: 104.2 NFC championship: 91.6 2019 Regular season: 95.4 NFC championship: 97.2 2020 Regular season: 121.5 NFC championship: 101.6
In five conference championship games he has thrown a total of nine touchdown passes and eight interceptions — this from a quarterback who hasn’t topped eight interceptions for an entire 16-game regular season for 11 years. He is one loss away from setting the record for most losses by a quarterback in the conference title game.
Donovan McNabb and Ken Stabler were also 1-4 in such games. Favre was 2-3, Joe Montana 4-3, Drew Brees 1-2, Dan Marino 1-2, Dan Fouts 0-2. (Steve Young is listed as having a 3-4 record in the NFC championship game, but he started only four of those games and won three of them.)
The postseason is a different animal than the regular season. It can crush some of the game’s best quarterbacks. Peyton Manning and John Elway are considered among the best quarterbacks of all time (it’s a complete mystery why Elway is rated so highly, as you’ll see), but they stumbled in the playoffs.
Elway, the most overrated quarterback this side of Joe Namath, threw 27 touchdown passes and 21 interceptions in 22 playoff games and had a passer rating of only 79.7 (his overall career rating was only 79.9). He was even worse in the five Super Bowls in which he played, throwing for a total of 1,128 yards, three touchdowns and eight interceptions, which added up to a pass efficiency rating of 59.3 (remember, an average rating is 88.8).
Peyton Manning produced similar results. He played in 27 playoff games (winning 14) and threw 40 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions for a passer rating of 87.4. In four Super Bowl appearances, he threw for a modest 1,001 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions. He had a fine career passer rating of 96.5, but his Super Bowl rating was 77.4. He lost his first two Super Bowls and won the last two, thanks to defense and a running game.
Rodgers is surrounded by a strong team this season, as he was a year ago. The Packers boast two superb running backs, a great receiver, a stout offensive line and finally a strong defense. Is this the year he finally returns to the Super Bowl?
#ChipsAndSips Tailgate at Smart & Final | Jan 16th, 2022 | Smart & Final
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NFL wild-card picks: 49ers stun Cowboys while Raiders’ run continues through Cincy
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Long story short, the longest regular season in NFL history has led to these opening picks for the first “Super Wild-Card” playoff weekend:
49ers 33, Cowboys 28: The Super Bowl has never been won in back-to-back seasons by a wild-card team. The 49ers take this first step to follow the 2020 Tampa Bay Bucs’ lead. And Kyle Shanahan follows the lead of his father, Mike, who coached the 1997 Denver Broncos to the Lombardi Trophy as a wild card. Other such champs: 1980 Raiders, 2000 Ravens, 2005 Steelers, 2007 Giants, 2010 Packers. Line: 49ers +3
Raiders 27, Bengals 26: Derek Carr wins his playoff debut after 127 regular-season games, and it’ll take a fourth-quarter comeback to overtake the NFL’s most exciting young offense. Line: Raiders +5 1/2
Bills 21, Patriots 14: It’s Josh Allen’s third straight postseason and he improves to 3-0 at home in them. It took Allen more than three passes to win this AFC East rematch; counterpart Mac Jones threw only three passes in a 14-10 win at Buffalo on Dec. 6. Line: Bills -4
Bucs 34, Eagles 17: After winning three playoff games on the road as a wild-card champion last year, the Bucs win this opener at home – and don’t be surprised if the NFC’s road goes through Tampa, so long as the 49ers upend Green Bay next weekend. (Disclaimer: This assumes Brady’s bunch doesn’t implode altogether like Antonio Brown, and that the Eagles don’t run wild on the champs.) Line: Bucs -8 1/2
Chiefs 42, Steelers 23: Patrick Mahomes is going for the AFC Championship three-peat. Ben Roethlisberger is going into retirement, 16 years after winning the Super Bowl with a 22.6 passer rating (9-of-21, 123 yards, two interceptions against Seattle). Line: Chiefs -12 1/2
Rams 31, Cardinals 21: The Rams’ scoreboard blared “NFC West CHAMPS” as they walked off their home field as Sunday’s overtime losers to the 49ers. That division title, however, kept them home to rebound against the NFC West runner-up Cards, who end with their fifth loss in six games. Line: Rams -4 Related Articles 49ers-Cowboys injury report: Williams, Garoppolo cleared to go but linebackers questionable
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49ers’ Trent Williams, Elijah Mitchell return to practice for playoff opener at Cowboys
Last week: 8-8 straight up, 10-6 against the spread
Season: 150-119-1, straight up, 133-138-1 against the spread
BONUS PREDICTIONS
The NFL has eight coaching vacancies, three of which come with openings at general manager. Those jobs will go to …
Minnesota Vikings: Jim Harbaugh (GM Tom Gamble)
New York Giants: Brian Flores (GM Adam Peters)
Las Vegas Raiders: Rich Bisaccia (interim tag lifted)
Chicago Bears: Doug Peterson (GM Jeff Ireland)
Denver Broncos: Dan Quinn
Jacksonville Jaguars: Byron Leftwich
Miami Dolphins: Brian Daboll
Houston Texans: Josh McDaniels