Super Bowl futures thrive on longshots.
But some rival betting odds of Halley’s Comet, the collapse of world currency and a midsummer snowstorm.
Welcome to the DraftKings Sportsbook futures board for the New York Giants, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles. Want to make New Jersey online sports betting friends laugh?
Say you have updated Super Bowl odds on all three entering December. Combined, they are +160000 or 1600-1.
The definition of a Super Bowl longshot
The Jets were a mere +100000, or 1000-1.
The Giants are far better at + 50000 or 500-1.
The 5-7 Eagles were a+ 10000, a 100-1 pick, a relative chalk.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers held down the favorite’s role at +500 and the Kansas City Chiefs are next at + 750. That means some teams have to occupy the bottom at staggering numbers.
The Giants, Jets and Eagles are about as remote to win a title as any three teams in any pro football market can get. They looked long before the season started, all roughly +8000 or 80-1, but as the season winds into the final third, none are looking liike NFL Playoff teams. The Eagles have the best chance, albeit a flickering one. So, the odds got bigger.
At least they all made the first cut.
The winless Detroit Lions will soon be the first team not listed. There will be one less team in the 1000-1 neighborhood of the Jets, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.
“We’re going to take them off the board very soon,” Johnny Avello, the director of race and sportsbook operations for DraftKings, told PlayNJ.
Eagles, Giants and Jets going through a long rebuilding cycle
Regarding Super Bowl expectations, the Giants, Jets and Eagles have performed about as expected. All will flirt with their initial over-under win totals without threatening to win the big game.
The Eagles at least covered the spread against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season in a 28-22 loss at + 7. Against the elite teams in the league, they look about one touchdown a game short. That’s not too bad considering their regional competition.
The Jets won two games last year and cleaned house with the coaching staff. They have a spirited attitude with new coach Robert Saleh and quarterback Zach Wilson, the second pick in the draft.
Otherwise, they have holes galore. They will address them with a multitude of early draft picks, but the turnaround may be slow. They took the first step, surpassing last year’s win total with a third of the season remaining.
“The Jets have been hopeless and they will have a high Super Bowl futures number again next year,” Avello indicated. “They have too much to overcome.”
The Giants have not reaped benefits from off-season acquisitions like Kenny Golladay, Kyle Rudolph and Kelvin Benjamin. But those players had enough sizzle to provide Big Blue some pre-season Super Bowl respect.
“The Giants are never going to be really high to start the season, maybe 100-1,” Avello said, “because if you have a good Daniel Jones, a healthy Saquon Barkley and that strong defense, you at least could picture them in a Super Bowl.”
Super Bowl betting nostalgia angle
All three teams will watch the 2022 Super Bowl at home, but they are at least proud NFL franchises.
The Jets and Eagles have one Super Bowl championship apiece. The Giants have four. All have prevailed as underdogs in the big game.
The Jets still own the largest upset in Super Bowl history. They were 18-point underdogs to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Sure, it was so long ago that their quarterback Joe Namath has gone from pitching Beauty Mist Panty Hose to Medicare Advantage commercials, with no Super Bowl in between. So long ago that the Jets have the league’s longest Super Bowl drought of 53 years.
But they still own the game that changed NFL history, one that brought respect to the old AFL and expanded the footprint of the entire NFL.
When Namath guaranteed the Jets would defeat the Colts, the two previous AFL teams had lost the first two Super Bowls by a combined 44 points.
The Giants have been one of the league’s top Super Bowl performers, with a 4-1 record. New York has wins over the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and two over Tom Brady’s New England Patriots. They only lost once, to the Baltimore Ravens in 2000. They were only favored once, against Denver.
The Giants forever became part of Super Bowl lore in 2008 by denying New England the league’s first perfect season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The G-Men were a whopping 12-point dog against the Patriots but won the game 17-14.
The Eagles have the freshest Super Bowl memory of all. Just four years ago, they completed a magical Super Bowl run with Carson Wentz, Jason Kelce, Nick Foles, Doug Pederson, Philly Philly and a triumph over Brady’s Patriots, 41-33.
They even made the postseason the following two years. But the slide down includes last year’s 4-11-1 season and a helter-skelter 2021 campaign that will land them in the .500 neighborhood.
Super Bowl triumph by association
The Eagles gained an indirect link with a Super Bowl champion via coach Dick Vermeil.
In 1980, Vermeil led them into the Super Bowl, where they were beaten by the Oakland Raiders 27-10.
After Vermeil retired and became an analyst, he got the coaching bug in the mid-1990s. But negotiations between Vermeil and the Eagles broke down.
“I am not going to beg Jeffrey Lurie to coach this team again,” Vermeil said.
Vermeil ultimately returned and did reach the summit in 1999. His St. Louis Cardinals have parlayed the longest pre-season futures odds, 300-1, into a Super Bowl victory.
The long odds were for good reason. St. Louis had gone 4-12 the year before winning it all. One of the major changes was the emergence of Kurt Warner, due to injury.
Along these lines, former Jets coach Pete Carroll won a Super Bowl championship with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014. He was 6-10 with the Jets in 1994.
As for Big Blue
Well, no former Giants head coaches have gone on to win the big one.
But one of their former assistants became so famous that the Super Bowl championship trophy bears his name.
Yes, Vince Lombardi was an assistant coach with the Giants but they refused to make him a head coach. Lombardi instead won the first two Super Bowls with the Green Bay Packers.
That was always one decision the Giants wish they had back.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
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