Odds Makers Hint At Possible St. Louis Rams Resurgence In 2015

Every week, pundits and analysts take to the airwaves to predict, guesstimate, and “break down” upcoming matchups. Who is going to win? Why? By how much? Yet, despite some of the horrifically hyperbolic predictions and asinine, overly-biased analyses, those covering the game are not put on trial for their bets. While we still consider these folks “experts,” their opinions are uttered freely, without consequence, even when some fall well-below the .500 mark by the end of each season.

However, there are some in the field who rarely “miss,” and have (literally) made a living hedging bets on winning games, point spreads, and even certain events taking place within the game; we call them the odds makers. The Wise Guys in Las Vegas have built a multi-billion dollar empire on outsmarting the general public with their betting, using advanced analytics and highly-detailed, longitudinal trends to set favorites and spreads for every game, every Sunday (…and Monday…and Thursday).

So, when the real “experts” dropped their odds for Super Bowl 50, some may have been surprised to find where the St. Louis Rams ranked heading into the 2015 offseason…

While some of those odds have changed since being announced in early January, with eager fans already dumping money onto a game that is over 365 days away, the opening line placed the St. Louis Rams t-8th overall to win Super Bowl 50. In fact, at 25-1, the Rams were even with the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, and Detroit Lions all of which were playoff contenders last season or, in the ‘9ers’ case, have been regularly in the conversation.

Since then, the line has changed, with the the eight-way-tie for eighth-place spreading out a bit. In their most up-to-date odds, they have the Rams slotted a 40-1 to win the Super Bowl in 2016, tied with the Arizona Cardinals. In reality, that is probably a solid bench-mark for St. Louis, who will likely start the season in most analysts’ Bottom 10; understandable, to some extend, given that they are currently picking in the Top 10 in the upcoming NFL Draft.

Obviously, it may be a bit too early to read heavily into the opening betting line, particularly with free agency and the NFL Draft still on the horizon. However, it should say something about the St. Louis Rams that the “big brains” in Vegas currently think of the squad as a Top 15, at minimum, roster.