Now that the dust of the free agency has settled and teams have acquired/extended players, it’s time to take another quick look at the latest NFL Futures odds to win the AFC, NFC, and Super Bowl championship.
NFL Futures Update for 2014 / 2015 Season
[sc:NFL240banner ]It doesn’t look like the Seahawks will be suffering a post-Super Bowl hangover. Built as they are on cheap contracts like Russell Wilson’s ($2.99 million/year), the Seahawks had the ability to get even stronger this season. Seattle signed free agent defensive tackle Michael Bennett and is reportedly getting close to locking up former Minnesota Viking defensive end Jared Allen. As such, the Hawks are priced at +500 to win the Vince Lombardi in Arizona next year, the lowest odds among all teams.
The Seahawks are followed by the Denver Broncos, who are +650 to win it all.
After a disappointing finish to their record-breaking campaign last season, the Broncos are squeezing the last ounces of Peyton Manning’s talent. Manning will be 38 when the new season kicks off in September, a year after he broke seemingly ever quarterback record on the books.
Denver enters 2014 without key pieces of its 2013-2014 campaign, namely WR Eric Decker and CB Champ Bailey. Instead, the team has signed former New England Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib and former Cleveland Browns cornerback T.J. Ward. There are holes left on the roster of the Broncos but as it stands, they are still the team to beat in the AFC. Denver is priced at +240 to win back-to-back conference championships.
Rounding up the top 5 Super Bowl favorites are the San Francisco 49ers (+700), New England Patriots (+750), and the Green Bay Packers (+1,500). Behind them are the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers, two teams that had opposite results during the frenzied free agency.
The Jimmy Graham situation isn’t over yet for the New Orleans Saints. But that aside, the Saints – labelled as a +2,000 to win the Super Bowl XLIX and +950 to win the NFC – have made good moves during the free agency, signing safety Jairus Byrd and giving right tackle Zach Strief an extension. As for Graham, QB Drew Brees believes that the franchise tight end “will be on the field in Week 1.”
Meanwhile, the defending NFC South division champion Carolina Panthers have had a rather unimpressive offseason thus far. The Pantherscut WR Steve Smith and saw a number of players depart including Ted Ginn, Brandon LaFell and Domenik Hixon. This leaves QB Cam Newton without a big chunk of his receiving corps from last season to try and defend the division title.
As it stands, Carolina is +2,000 to win the Super Bowl next February and +1,000 to reign in the NFC.
The next big event for the NFL this offseason will be the rookie draft on May. After that, the odds on teams that scraped the bottom of the standings last season like the Cleveland Browns (+7,500), Oakland Raiders (+10,000), Buffalo Bills (+7,500), and the Jacksonville Jaguars (+10,000) could change.
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