The NFL season runs for 18 weeks, with a total of 272 games played.  The title winners are then decided through the NFL Playoff (a postseason tournament) which culminates in the Superbowl.

The league is made up of 32 teams that all play against each other over the 18 week season. Of the 32 teams, 20 have won the championship at least once since the introduction of the Superbowl in 1966.

The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers hold a joint record for most wins – 6 each. 6 of the 20 winning teams have only won the title once.

There are 12 teams that have never won the Superbowl and been NFL champions. So, what are the chances of one of these teams winning the title for the first time?

Teams that have never won the title

There are 12 NFL teams that have never one the title:

Minnesota Vikings
Buffalo Bills
Cincinnati Bengals
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons
Los Angeles Chargers
Tennessee Titans
Arizona Cardinals
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars

What are the chances?

The NFL is different from a lot of the major sports leagues around the world. We do not see the same winning teams dominating year after year. It is more than possible that a team could rise through the ranks and take the title for the first time.

As we mentioned earlier, there are 12 teams (out of 32) that have never won the title in the NFL. Their chances of winning are technically 1/32 for winning the title each year.

However, sports and sports betting is never that easy.

The odds will vary from year to year when it comes to a team’s chance of winning. There are a lot of things that can influence these odds for the bookies. Here are just a few:

How well they did last year
What their overall winning record is
If they have changed their manager
How well their star players performed in pre-season
If they have brought any new players into their team
How much money they the team has invested in their training camps
How they performed throughout the season
Whether they have ever won the Superbowl before

2022 odds

So, how are our 12 yet-to-be champions looking for 2022?

Well, the Buffalo Bills are surprisingly well ranked, considering they have never won the Championship. They are the 5th highest ranked team for 2022 – with odds ranging between +220 and +540.

At the opposite end of the list, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions are holding up the bottom of the table. The Lions showed odds of over +20,000, and the Jaguars of over +30,0000.

It is also worth noting that the Los Angeles Chargers are hosting the Superbowl this year. The statistics show that only 1 team that has hosted the Superbowl has ever played in it. That is 1/55 teams. That being said they are showing average odds of +3000 to win.

The average odds for one of the 12 teams that have never been champions to win next year is +9500.

These odds are slightly better than they have been in previous years – where the odds of a team winning for the first time have been between +9750 and +13000.

NFL superstitions

There are three supposed curses that the Superbowl tournament is afflicted with:

A team that host the Superbowl never gets to play in it (this was the cause until 2020 when the Tampa Bay Bucs because the first team to play – and win- at home)
If a team loses the Superbowl they will have a bad season next year, and most likely won’t make the Playoffs
Teams don’t win the Superbowl consecutively  (only 7 teams have ever done this, and there have never been more than two wins in a row)

There are superstitions, rather than concrete facts. However, many of them can be backed up with selective statistics.

They can however affect both the odds of a team winning the championship and how people will be on certain teams.

For example, a team being told they are going to host the Superbowl at the start of the season has resulted in that team not playing in the Superbowl 54/55 times. So, you will be less likely to see good odds on this team.

As we mentioned above the LA Chargers are hosting the Superbowl this year, so the curse suggests it would be unwise to bet on them.

Summary

The average odds for a team to win the championship for the first time in 2022 is +9500. Some teams (the Buffalo Bills) have a much higher chance. While others have odds of over +20,000 to win. The LA Chargers may also be hit by the Home Team Disadvantage Super Bowl curse in 2022.