NFC Title Odds
The NFC has been an open affair for the last decade-plus. Ten different teams have won the NFC championship over the last 11 years. The only team to win it twice over that span is the New York Giants, champions in 2007 and last year. The last team to win back-to-back NFC titles remains the 1996-97 Green Bay Packers.
Can the Giants repeat this season? Or will another team continue the NFC's recent trend of egalitarianism?
Green Bay looked like it was going to go back-to-back again last year, going 15-1 and earning the top seed on the NFC side of the playoff bracket. But the week off, a struggling defense, some strange coaching decisions and a hot Giants team put an end to that idea in a divisional-round game at Lambeau Field. For this year the Pack tried to address their problems by going big in the draft on defense, hoping that will help get them back to the top. And oddsmakers everywhere are giving them a pretty good chance. Bovada.lv is listing Green Bay as a 10/3 favorite to win the NFC this season.
The San Francisco 49ers are the second pick on Bovada's NFC championship board at 11/2. After a decade-long absence from the playoffs San Fran made it to the conference championship game last season, its first under Coach Harbaugh. So the future appears very bright for the Niners.
The Philadelphia Eagles, a supposed “dream team” that didn't even make the playoffs last year, are the third choice at Bovada to win the NFC this season at 7/1. Philly started 1-4 last year and sat at 4-8 going into the home stretch but won its last four games. With a full season from a healthy Mike Vick the Eagles will be dangerous.
The New Orleans Saints come next at 8/1. New Orleans will be without several key players for various amounts of time this season because of the bounty scandal, and Coach Payton is suspended for the whole season. On top of that QB Drew Brees is unhappy about his long-term situation. But the Saints still have plenty of talent. They're just a big question mark at the moment.
The defending Super Bowl champion Giants are getting 10/1 at Bovada to win the NFC this season. It's not often the defending champs can be gotten at such a generous price, but remember, the G-Men only went 9-7 during the regular season last year.
Elsewhere on the board the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions are both getting 11/1; the Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys are both getting 12/1; and the Carolina Panthers are listed at 20/1.
Rounding out Bovada's NFC championship betting board the Arizona Cardinals are listed at 25/1; the Washington Redskins at 28/1; the Seattle Seahawks at 30/1; the St. Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 40/1; and the Minnesota Viking at 50/1.
