Early Super Bowl odds released for 2018 season: Where do the Jacksonville Jaguars stack up?

After the thrilling conclusion of Super Bowl 52, odds for making next season’s big game have been released as the attention turns to 2018.

What a game Sunday night in Minneapolis, as the Philadelphia Eagles secured the franchise’s first ever Super Bowl title with a 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots.

As the confetti has dropped, and the 2017 champions have been crowned, the focus for 31 other teams has quickly turned to next season. Vegas has released the early odds for making Super Bowl 53 for every team:

Coming off an appearance in the AFC Championship game, the Jacksonville Jaguars have 28/1 odds to reach Atlanta in early February 2019, per Bovada. Despite being one of the four teams that remained on conference championship Sunday, those numbers put the Jaguars behind 12 teams heading into next season. In fact, Jacksonville is behind three teams just in the AFC.

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Two of those three you could have probably guessed (Patriots and Steelers), but the third (the Houston Texans) is a bit of a surprise. Now it would be naive to think that Houston won’t be improved next year. Both Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt will be returning from injuries to start the season. But nonetheless, a ton of faith is being put on the shoulders of Watson to be a star, and the Jaguars themselves will have no plans to relinquish control of the AFC South.

The logic behind Jacksonville not having better odds is most likely attributed to the uncertainty at the quarterback position. It will have to be seen when the league year starts whether the Jaguars decide to keep Blake Bortles for another season, and draft an early-round QB to wait in the wings, or if the team will pull the trigger on signing a free-agent like Kirk Cousins.

Despite the question mark at the quarterback position, Vegas still seems to be underselling Jacksonville. There are plenty of reasons to believe 2017 was no fluke, and buy into the Jaguars next season. The monstrous defense will be returning at the least all but one or two core members, and number one receiver Allen Robinson should remain with the team and be a full go in 2018, monumentally helping the wideout corp, and restocking a crucial offensive weapon that was missing on last season’s team that fell just one game short of the Super Bowl.

Regardless of where the Jaguars’ chances have been placed, there’s one thing we learned for sure from the Jacksonville Jaguars this past season: the team couldn’t care less about what the odds-makers think.