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With the Seattle Seahawks missing the playoffs in 2017 for only the second time in the Pete Carroll era, and the first time since 2011, many fans were elated when the team fired Darrell Bevell, Tom Cable and Kris Richard. Behind Pete Carroll’s historic defense and Russell Wilson proving to be the best quarterback in franchise history, many were extremely enthusiastic at the prospects of building a high powered offense around Wilson to pair with Carroll’s defense.
That led to significant disappointment from many fans, however, when the team chose Brian Schottenheimer, Mike Solari and Ken Norton, Jr. to fill the spots the fired coordinators had left open. So, while fans were disappointed in the moves by the team, what did the oddsmakers in Las Vegas think of the changes?
Updated NFL futures odds from @LVSuperBook to win Super Bowl LIII pic.twitter.com/ENs4aesWs0
— Covers (@Covers) February 13, 2018
As you can see, Vegas puts the current odds for the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl at 25/1, having dropped from 20/1 when they opened. Of note is the fact that the initial odds of 20/1 opened on January 7, which was prior to the Hawks making changes to its coordinators. Thus, following the changes to the coordinators, Vegas has dropped the odds of the Seahawks by 20%. Vegas isn’t always correct, but it’s correct enough of the time that that drop might be concerning.
In addition, following the Los Angeles Rams winning the NFC West division in 2017, the Rams currently have better odds of winning Super Bowl LIII according to Vegas, while Seattle currently shares the same odds - 25/1 - as the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers have only won 13 games over the past three seasons combined, while the Hawks have registered double digit victories in five of the last six seasons. Further, the Hawks currently have worse odds than the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and the Houston Texans.
In short, Vegas doesn’t have very high expectations for the Seahawks in 2018, but hopefully the team will surprise some people. The offseason is long, and there’s a lot of time for potential changes between now and the opening of training camp in July.