Texans sit at 10th-best odds to win next year's Super Bowl after entering 2023 with the worst
Sports books generally gave Houston the worst odds of winning Super Bowl LVIII before the 2023 regular season.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Super Bowl Sunday is mere days away, bringing a genuinely unpredictable 2023 season to a close.
How unpredictable? Did you think the Houston Texans would be a playoff contender with rookies at quarterback and head coach?
Well, the football world and sports books didn't think so.
In August 2023, before the season's first snap, the Texans had the 32nd-best odds to win Super Bowl LVIII. Glass half-full.
For the glass-half-empty crowd, they had the worst odds of the 32 teams of the NFL at +20,000, or 200-1 odds, meaning if you bet $100 on an unproven squad with C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson Jr., and DeMeco Ryans and they won the Super Bowl, you would win $20,000.
Of course, the implied probability is half of one percent.
The video above is from a Jan. 31, 2024, report on Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik's return to the team.
Ya-da ya-da ya-da ya-da, Stroud makes history in his first year, blah blah blah, Texans win the division on the final weekend.
Eyewitness Sports brought up the past to give you context to what football minds think now. As of Friday, a day after the Texans swept the rookie awards at the NFL Honors ceremony, ESPN Bet laid +2,000 odds, or 20-1, for Houston to win Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Feb. 9, 2025.
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It's a remarkable leap for a team many wrote off because of prior reputation-dinging calamaties in recent years - Jack Easterby, the Deshaun Watson scandal, Bill O'Brien as GM, that DeAndre Hopkins trade.
The Texans tied with the equally promising Green Bay Packers for the 10th-best odds to lift the Lombardi Trophy.
SEE MORE: How will Texans follow impressive 2023? By facing 7 playoff opponents in 2024
Houston's odds are better than Jacksonville at 35-1, the Jim Harbaugh-coached Chargers at 25-1, and even the Cleveland Browns at 40-1.
For those wondering, Super Bowl LVIII teams, the 49ers and the Chiefs, hold the best odds next year.
What may this imply? There's confidence in the Texans to build off the sudden success of a 10-win regular season in the weak AFC South. After all, you win the division, and you get to host a playoff game.
This also means that Houston has become an up-and-coming destination for marquee free agents. Sportrac's NFL Team Salary Cap Tracker currently ranks Houston with the fourth-largest cap space heading into the 2024 season at $69.8 million.
That's prime space to upgrade the roster with studs like running back Saquon Barkley, Jacksonville's Josh Allen, or wideout Mike Evans, who has expressed a desire to play closer to his Galveston hometown.
Whatever is implied, Texans fans are excited about what's possible, and sportsbooks seem to be as well.
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