The day after the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, odds-makers released their favorites to win the big game in Tampa, Fla., next February. The Cleveland Browns had better odds to win it all than did the Houston Texans.
Nothing has changed on that front; the Browns, who have not won a playoff game since Bill Belichick was their coach in 1994, still have better odds than the six-time AFC South champion Texans, who produced more playoff wins in the 2010s than did the Dallas Cowboys.
What has changed is Houston’s odds have gotten worse.
According to BetMGM, the Texans have 40 to 1 odds to win Super Bowl LV at the end of the 2020 season, the same as the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons.
Keep in mind the Bears have not won a playoff game since the 2010 season, and they lost a wild-card playoff game at home in 2018. Furthermore, not only did they decline the fifth year option for 2017 first-round quarterback Mitch Trubisky, but they also traded with the Jacksonville Jaguars for quarterback Nick Foles and took on his contract.
The Falcons have finished 7-9 the past two seasons. In 2018, Atlanta sustained a five-game losing streak after starting 4-4 that ruined their season. Last year, the Falcons got off to a 1-7 start. The only other teams with one win or fewer by Week 8 were Miami (0-7), Cincinnati (0-8), and Washington (1-7) — in other words, tire-fire rebuilds that didn’t have Matt Ryan under center throwing to Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, and Austin Hooper.
Odds-makers relegating Houston to this lowly status indicates they don’t believe in the offensive talent coach Bill O’Brien has assembled with his general manager powers. However, that is why they play the games on gridiron and not on paper.
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