Upcoming Draft Could Affect Eagles’ Future Odds
By Jeff Glauser
What could the Eagles’ Super Bowl odds be after the draft?
In the world of sports gambling, it’s never too soon to check the crystal ball.
Future odds, a popular predictive and proactive betting tool, allows someone to bet on the outcome of a team’s overall performance for the upcoming season. It can relate to a team’s chances to win the Super Bowl, the conference or its division.
Following the conclusion of the 2015 regular season, the Eagles’ future odds of winning Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5, 2017 in Houston ranged anywhere from 40-1 to 60-1, putting them in the mid-to-lower half of the league—an accurate reflection of a team fresh off a pedestrian 7-9 campaign.
At that time in January, the Seahawks, Patriots and Steelers were the consensus picks of having the best chance of winning it all next year, all as high as 8-1—interestingly ahead of both of this year’s participants, the Broncos and Panthers. The Packers were as high as 9-1 as recently as February.
Eagles
The hapless Browns, by far, had the worst chances, at 200-1. A frequent visitor to Las Vegas, perhaps the now-deposed Johnny Manziel will lay some coin on that line.
Many Philly fans may be pleased to know that the 49ers, now led by the exiled Chip Kelly, were generally the next team above Cleveland.
Since then, the Birds have been quite active, making wholesale changes to its personnel. However, although some outlets have bumped their chances of at least winning the conference from 32-1 to as high as 20-1, the flurry of moves has not yet significantly moved the needle for them.
That said, according to Zack Jones of SportsBookReview.com, a leading sportsbook ratings and analysis site since 1999, it may not be until April’s draft that Vegas will make its own assessment of the Eagles’ future.
“We all know about the soap opera that has taken place in Philadelphia over the past few seasons,” Jones said. “And with a new coach at the helm, the draft should tell us a lot about the direction of the team.”
For example, will the focus be on rebuilding, or reloading? Considering the recent contract extension of Sam Bradford and signing of Chase Daniel, if the team selects another quarterback in the first round, it could be a clear indicator of the former. However, if the top selection is instead an offensive lineman like Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley (Jones also sees Michigan State’s Jack Conklin as a potential fit for the Eagles), it would signal an intention to try and contend now.
As for the crapshoot which is the NFC East, that’s where the Eagles’ odds to prevail increase.
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Jones said that although many pundits were shocked by the Eagles decision to stick with Bradford, the rest of the division has its own question marks at the QB position as well. The Cowboys are still rolling with the oft-injured Tony Romo, now 36 years old, and the Giants’ Eli Manning is also approaching the twilight of his career. Meanwhile, with Robert Griffin III officially off the Redskins roster, Kirk Cousins will look to build off an impressive first full year as a starter without looking over his shoulder.
“Should the Eagles get the right pieces around Bradford and give him time to execute, Philly might just be able to prove themselves as the best of the group,” Jones said. “This doesn’t say much for their Super Bowl odds, but when looking at the division, it could book their ticket to the playoffs.”
And after two years of a disappointing postseason draught, there’s a good chance many fans would willingly take that bet.