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Patriots’ Super Bowl 55 Odds Fade After Brady Announces He’s Leaving

David Golokhov

by David Golokhov in NFL Football

Updated Mar 9, 2021 · 4:56 PM PST

Rams head coach Sean McVay and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick speak before the NFL Super Bowl 53
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, left, and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick speak before Super Bowl 53. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
  • Tom Brady has announced that he will not return to the New England Patriots next season
  • The Patriots odds to win Super Bowl 55 have dropped from +1200 to +2500 with Brady no longer in the fold
  • Can Bill Belichick lead the Pats to a Super Bowl victory without Brady?

Tom Brady has officially announced that he’s leaving the New England Patriots. As a result, the Patriots 2021 Super Bowl odds have taken a plunge, going from +1200 to +2500.

Will Bill Belichick be able to lead the Pats back to the promised land without one of the greatest of all-time, or is New England destined to enter a rebuild?

Super Bowl 55 Odds

Team 2019 Record Odds
Kansas City Chiefs 12-4 +500
Baltimore Ravens 14-2 +750
San Francisco 49ers 13-3 +750
New Orleans Saints 13-3 +1200
Dallas Cowboys 8-8 +2000
Philadelphia Eagles 9-7 +1800
Green Bay Packers 13-3 +1600
Buffalo Bills 10-6 +1600
Seattle Seahawks 11-5 +2500
New England Patriots 12-4 +2500

Odds taken March 17th

Brady Announces Departure

Leading into Tuesday, there was still hope that Brady would opt to return to Foxborough next season, but on Tuesday he made his intentions clear his career will move elsewhere.

Although he was coming off a shaky finish to the 2019 campaign and is 42 years old, he showed minimal signs of decline.

With a roster better stocked on the offensive side of the ball for his next destination, Brady can still be one of the best in league next year.

Where Do Patriots Go From Here?

The good news for the Patriots is that there are plenty of options for them. They’ve been grooming Jarrett Stidham, so he could be given a chance to lock down the starting job.

On top of that, there are a slew of veteran quarterbacks on the trade market as Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and Nick Foles could all be had for the right price.

The 2020 NFL Draft is also rich with possibilities as Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert are atop the board, and others legitimate college starters in Jake Fromm, Jacob Eason & Jalen Hurts could be taken in the later rounds of the draft.

We know that the Patriots did win 11 games with Matt Cassel as their starter back in 2008 when Brady missed the season.

Offense Has More Issues Than Just Brady

The Patriots losing Brady means that they have to hit reset on their offense completely. In the last few years, they mostly got by with Brady, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski while he was still in the league. Now it’s down to just Edelman, a questionable cast of wideouts and tight ends, and a running game that didn’t do enough in 2019.

Brady was the glue that kept this together and they still finished just 15th in the NFL in total yards; now they need to find a quarterback and at least a couple of quality wide receivers. This offense has a lot of work to do.

What’s the Best Bet?

At this point, I would avoid the Patriots futures. To start, their offense needs a lot of help. Secondly, the AFC East has gotten a lot better in the last couple of days. The Buffalo Bills acquired Stefon Diggs to help their receiving corps and the Miami Dolphins have been big spenders in free agency – including signing Kyle Van Noy away from the Pats.

Beyond all of that, the Patriots have the toughest schedule in the NFL on paper (by 2019 record). Maybe they’ll be worth a look for Super Bowl futures later down the line when we know more about them and their final roster, but for now this isn’t a team that I would be betting on.

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