Early NFC Championship Odds Heading In To Wild Card Weekend

Saying that the odds to win the NFC Championship remains a wide open race is a wild understatement.

Considering that all teams are falling in such close quarters – aside from the Seahawks – the gauntlet to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XLV betting is on.

Which team stands out amongst all others?

[Off topic: by the way, do you want to get a 55% bonus on your first deposit here at BetOnline? Find out more exciting details HERE.]

Let’s get one thing straight before we press on which team should be earning your trust when it comes to the odds to win the NFC Championship. The sports cosmos has been sending you signs all year that the unexpected is upon us, and I don’t have to point too far to indicate the proof. After all, the San Francisco Giants are your World Series Champions.

That’s why you have to throw out some of the strong metrics when it comes to the NFC Championship odds. Sure, it seems like there’s one definitive conference favorite but that really isn’t the case. On any given Sunday (or Saturday), anything can happen.

6. Seattle Seahawks (+4000 odds to win NFC Championship)

I made a case that the Seahawks are in that dangerous “absolutely nothing to prove” territory that makes teams play balls to the wall. Am I nervous about this team in the slightest? Yes. For all we don’t know about Charlie Whitehurst, there’s also a boat load we don’t know.

5. New Orleans Saints (+400 odds to win NFC Championship)

The fact that the defending champions survived the Super Bowl hangover, the Madden Curse and injuries to their rushing game throughout the year is miraculous. But the Saints were football’s wonder child last year. As a loss to the Bucs prove, they still have a long way to go and I still have my suspicions that they don’t make it out of Seattle alive.

4. Green Bay Packers (+500 odds to win NFC Championship)

With Ryan Grant, this team would be hands down the best team in the NFC. Their defense is one of the best in the league. And in all honesty, I don’t trust Aaron Rodgers in the post season yet.

Neither should you.

3. Atlanta Falcons (+175 odds to win NFC Championship)

Here’s my fear about the Falcons: they’re a team that punches you in the mouth and drags you by your hair across the field. They impose their will on you. No team has been able to force them to play out of their comfort zone, though Baltimore came close. Aside from Tony Gonzalez, this team doesn’t have that many veterans and eventually a young team succumbs to the pressure of being “the man”. What happens when Atlanta is forced to chase somebody on the scoreboard? The next two teams can definitively do that.

2. Chicago Bears (+450 odds to win NFC Championship)

On paper, the Chicago Bears are the most balanced team in the conference. I’m not even kidding. They have a proven rushing game, and their short game is slightly better than Atlanta’s. The secondary poses some serious issues, but a front-seven bolstered by Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher almost diffuses that. And for all the crap that Mike Martz, Lovie Smith and Jay Cutler have taken over the years, they are somehow overcoming their own deficiencies.

Off paper, however, they’re a team that can implode on itself just as well as explode on the scoreboard. Nobody in their right mind is going to wager on their odds to win the NFC Championship, but that goes against what the cosmos has been telling us. It’s been 25 years since they won the Super Bowl. The cross-town Blackhawks and Giants proved that this is the year of ending droughts. Is it their turn?

1. Philadelphia Eagles (+450 odds to win NFC Championship)

Yes I’m caught up in the Michael Vick hype train. Yes I know Andy Reid is still coaching this team. I’m obviously aware that this team has been slowed by an entire season of drama and war on the gridiron. Still, I can’t ignore that this team can never be counted out. From DeSean Jackson to Vick to McCoy to Asante Samuel, this team has big time playmakers on the field that can turn the tide at any given moment. It’s the year of Unexpected Champion in sports betting, and no team would surprise me more than Philadelphia winning their first Super Bowl ever. That’s why they’re getting the nod in odds to win the NFC Championship from this handicapper.

Bet on the NFC Championship odds, click here!