Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions. After a half-century drought that was the longest in the NFL at the time, the Chiefs finally raised the Lombardi trophy in Miami this past Sunday with a thrilling 31-20 comeback win over the San Francisco 49ers.
While it will take some time for the players, coaches and football fans in Kansas City to digest everything that just went down on the biggest stage of them all, the oddsmakers have already turned their attention to next season with the release of the 2021 Super Bowl odds. Let’s take a look at some of the early favorites:
Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl 55 Odds: +600
It took 50 years for the Chiefs to climb to the top of the NFL championship mountain. Now that they have arrived, there is a very good chance they will remain there for some time. Mahomes is only now entering the prime of his career and the Kansas City offense is absolutely loaded with weapons.
Even if they don’t do much on the defensive side (to bolster the unit), the offense alone should get them to double-digit wins and a playoff spot next year.
San Francisco 49ers
Super Bowl 55 Odds: +1000
While Kansas City won the Super Bowl, an argument can be made that the 49ers were the league’s best team from start to finish this season. San Francisco survived the toughest division in the NFL to finish atop the tougher of the two conferences in the regular season.
The Niners also had a double-digit lead with under eight minutes to go in the Super Bowl before things went south in a hurry. The 49ers have already gone from worst to first in a short span, so perhaps they are primed to take that next step and win it all next season.
Baltimore Ravens +800
Super Bowl 55 Odds: +800
If the Chiefs were to fall, is it more or less likely that the team that takes them out is based in the AFC? The Ravens were the darlings of the NFL this season and if it wasn’t for running in to a red-hot Tennessee Titans team, they very well could have challenged for a Super Bowl.
Now the defending No. 1 seed from the AFC gets a full offseason to add to its arsenal on both sides of the football in order to challenge Kansas City for NFL supremacy next season. One key here is the Ravens have much more cap space to work with than the Chiefs.
Baltimore will have about $48 million to work with while the Chiefs have just about $19 million.
New England Patriots
Super Bowl 55 Odds: +1400
While the Green Bay Packers might be a decent value play at +1600, it’s impossible to overlook the Patriots in this spot. New England had won four of the last six Super Bowls while actually getting to five of them before falling short against the Titans in the playoffs this season.
After an incredible run, the Patriots have a full arsenal of draft picks and a substantial amount of salary cap space ($44 M) to add some real weapons to an already impressive roster. The main question is whether or not Tom Brady is coming back. If he is, they’ll again be one of the teams to beat. However, the 14/1 odds suggest seem to indicate that he’s not a sure thing to return.