The Kansas City Chiefs are currently the favorites to win the AFC Championship and make back-to-back appearances in Super Bowls. They ended a fifty-year drought in championships last season, coming back to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. They largely stood pat in free agency, although they added help on both sides of the ball in the draft. Just behind them are the Baltimore Ravens, who posted a 14-2 record in the 2019 regular season before taking a shocking loss to Tennessee in the divisional round of the playoffs. Which team will emerge from the conference? We have the latest NFL betting odds below, as well as our thoughts on some of the contenders.
NFL Betting: AFC Championship Odds After the 2020 Draft
- Kansas City Chiefs +300
- Baltimore Ravens +340
- New England Patriots +1000
- Indianapolis Colts +1100
- Pittsburgh Steelers +1200
- Buffalo Bills +1300
- Cleveland Browns +1600
- Tennessee Titans +1600
- Los Angeles Chargers +1700
- Houston Texans +2200
- Denver Broncos +3000
- Las Vegas Raiders +3000
- New York Jets +3700
- Miami Dolphins +4000
- Cincinnati Bengals +7000
- Jacksonville Jaguars +7000
The Kansas City Chiefs added Clyde Edwards-Helaire to their offense. The LSU tailback has shown that he can take just one cut and then take the ball to the house. Damien Williams will likely remain the featured back because of Edwards-Helaire’s small size, but Edwards-Helaire could make some big plays on screen passes, jet sweeps, or routes out of the slot. Kansas City also added some key players in their front seven and their secondary on defense that should make them less vulnerable to early offensive rallies next year.
The Baltimore Ravens could have used an edge rusher, and they had ten draft picks, but they didn’t use any of them, letting A.J. Epenesa, Yetur Gross-Matos, Zack Baun and Josh Uche all go by. They did add wide receiver James Proche from SMU in the sixth round. Proche can go up and get balls in traffic, and while he doesn’t have elite burner speed, he was terrific at creating separation and hauling in huge catches in college. The Ravens thought he was a steal in the sixth round.
The New England Patriots are getting a lot of momentum from their history, sitting at third in these odds. Right now, their starting quarterback will be second-year signal-caller Jarrett Stidham. Stidham did show he can play on the big stages by beating Alabama and Georgia in SEC play, but he has extremely limited NFL experience and only has Brian Hoyer and some undrafted free agent rookies behind him on the depth chart. I think the Pats are looking to 2021, when Trevor Lawrence will leave Clemson, so I’m not betting on them to win the division, let alone the conference.
The Indianapolis Colts are also a team that should have longer odds. Their new starting quarterback is Philip Rivers. The Chargers won five AFC West titles in six seasons with Rivers at the helm, but the last one of those came in 2009. Even in 2006, when the Chargers went 14-2 in the regular season, they didn’t even make the AFC Championship, let alone advance to the Super Bowl. Rivers has developed a penchant for throwing interceptions at exactly the wrong time for his team’s chances, while showing just enough flashes of brilliance to keep his job. The Chargers had finally had enough, and now he is in Indianapolis. I think the Colts will have a hard time winning the AFC South, so I’m not picking them to win the conference.
Next come the Pittsburgh Steelers. Never mind that Ben Roethlisberger is returning from an injury that kept him out for almost the entire 2019 season and will have gone through an off-season that is largely virtual, instead of developing in-person timing with his teammates. It’s kind of surprising that the Steelers haven’t released Mason Rudolph, since Devlin Hodges did a better job in Big Ben’s absence. The team did add wide receiver Chase Claypool, giving the offense another weapon across the formation from JuJu Smith-Schuster. However, with the Ravens likely to win the division and the Browns vastly improved, particularly on offense, it’s hard to see the Steelers worth this wager.
