NFL odds: Seahawks the early favorites to win Super Bowl XLIX
Eight teams remain in the hunt for the 2015 Super Bowl title heading into the divisional round of the playoffs, which includes seven division champions and one wild-card qualifier.
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The Seattle Seahawks remain the favorites to repeat at 2/1 odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The defending Super Bowl champions earned the top seed in the NFC by winning the NFC West for the second year in a row. Seattle is coming off a bye this weekend and hosts the Carolina Panthers, who face the longest odds to win the Super Bowl of any team right now at 28/1.
The Carolina Panthers, champions of the NFC South, knocked out the Arizona Cardinals 27-16 last Saturday in the wild-card round. They need to upset the Seahawks and then defeat either the Green Bay Packers or the Dallas Cowboys on the road to reach the Super Bowl.
The NFC North champion Packers, the third favorite to win the Super Bowl at 11/2 odds, host the NFC East champion Cowboys on Sunday. The Seahawks routed Green Bay 36-16 in their regular-season opener and suffered their only home loss to the Cowboys 30-23 in Week 6. Dallas sits at 7/1 odds on the Super Bowl betting lines. The Cowboys were the lone NFL team with a perfect road record during the regular season.
In the AFC, the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos seem to be on a collision course to meet again in a rematch of last year’s conference championship. The AFC East champion Patriots, who lost to the Broncos 26-16 in last year's AFC championship game, are the 10/3 second choice to win the Super Bowl.
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New England must first get through a pesky Baltimore Ravens team that has won at Foxboro in two of their past three postseason meetings. The Ravens are 18/1 to win their second Super Bowl in three years and won at New England the last time they earned the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Baltimore advanced to the Divisional Round with a 30-17 road victory against the AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers last Saturday after sneaking into the playoffs as the last Wild Card team in the conference.
Denver has 6/1 Super Bowl odds and would not have home-field advantage against the Patriots this time around if both teams win this weekend. First, the Broncos host the AFC South champion Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in a rematch of their regular-season opener. Denver held on for a 31-24 win over Indianapolis in the first meeting after leading 24-7 at halftime, as Peyton Manning got some revenge on his former team. Colts QB Andrew Luck had beaten Manning at home the previous year, and his team is at 16/1 on the odds to win the Super Bowl after knocking out the Cincinnati Bengals in a dominant 26-10 home victory last Sunday.
