NFL betting: For the first time this season, the Buffalo Bills aren't Super Bowl favorites
The Buffalo Bills opened the NFL offseason as favorites to win the Super Bowl. They've held that position throughout the season, until now. With Week 12 almost in the books, we finally have a Super Bowl favorite not named the Buffalo Bills.
Kansas City is the new Super Bowl favorite
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday to earn their fifth straight victory. While a victory over this version of the Rams is nothing to write home about, Kansas City is now 9-2 and holds the top seed in the AFC. If the season ended today, the AFC playoffs would go through Arrowhead.
Kansas City is now +400 to win the Super Bowl, which makes them the new betting favorite to win it all. In Patrick Mahomes' first four seasons, the Chiefs have made the AFC championship game all four times. They've won two of those games and of course, have one Super Bowl to show for it.
The Bills are now +450 to win the Super Bowl. Those are the second-best odds in the league which is obviously still a great position to be. However, for the first time this season, they're not the favorites.
Buffalo has been rather unimpressive in recent weeks. Josh Allen has gone from the betting favorite to a 10-to-1 long shot to win NFL MVP. On Thanksgiving, the Bills needed a last-second field goal to squeak past the Detroit Lions. Buffalo was a 9.5-point favorite, but the game was certainly a lot closer than oddsmakers anticipated. Buffalo lost back-to-back games to the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings earlier in the month.
Of course, there's a good chance the AFC comes down to these two teams. They played an epic game in last year's playoffs that saw Kansas City come out on top in overtime. Earlier this season, these teams met in Kansas City with the Bills pulling off a road victory.
New favorite in the NFC as well
Since Week 3, the Philadelphia Eagles have been the betting favorites to win the NFC. Philadelphia started the season with an 8-0 record and looked to be the class of the conference. However, after Week 12, we have a new favorite in the NFC as well.
The San Francisco 49ers are now +230 favorites to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Philadelphia has dropped to +260 to get to the big game, which are still the second-best odds.
San Francisco has won four straight games to get to 7-4. The defense is superb and that was on display when they shut out the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. The 49ers have also shown an ability to make runs in the postseason, getting to the Super Bowl in 2020 and to the NFC championship game last year.
The question with the 49ers will forever be their offense and especially the quarterback position. Kyle Shanahan is viewed as one of the brightest offensive minds in football. At the skill positions, San Francisco features Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle. With that amount of talent, you'd have to feel good about them making enough plays to win games when you consider their defense.
Philadelphia is still 10-1 and sits atop the conference, but it would be naive to not be concerned about them after their performance in recent weeks. The first slight concern came in Week 9 when they beat the Houston Texans on a Thursday night, but were far from impressive in the process. Since then, they lost as a massive home favorite to Washington. They barely escaped with a win against the Colts in Week 11. Just last night, they gave up 33 points to a Packers offense that has struggled all season.
There's certainly enough concern with the Eagles to where oddsmakers are now confident enough to make the 49ers the betting favorites to win the NFC.
Current Super Bowl odds
Here are the current Super Bowl odds for the top 10 favorites at BetMGM:
Kansas City Chiefs +400
Buffalo Bills +450
San Francisco 49ers +600
Philadelphia Eagles +650
Dallas Cowboys +900
Miami Dolphins 12-to-1
Minnesota Vikings 16-to-1
Baltimore Ravens 18-to-1
Cincinnati Bengals 18-to-1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-to-1
