Bills Enter 2022 NFL Season as Super Bowl Favorites for 1st Time Since 1991

The Buffalo Bills are the oddsmakers' favorite to win Super Bowl LVII with the 2022 NFL season set to get underway.

Buffalo, which will take on the reigning champion Los Angeles Rams in the league's annual Kickoff Game on Thursday night, is the outright favorite for the first time since 1991, per ESPN's Doug Kezirian.

Here's a look at the updated odds for the top contenders from Caesars Sportsbook:

• Buffalo Bills: +600 (bet $100 to win $600)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: +750
  
• Los Angeles Rams: +1100
• Kansas City Chiefs: +1100
• Green Bay Packers: +1200

"With a rebuilding AFC East, the Bills are almost a certain lock for the playoffs and the clear front-runner for home field in January, which will make them a tough out for any visiting team," Caesars Sportsbook vice president of trading Craig Mucklow told Kezirian.

John Murray, the executive director of Westgate Las Vegas' SuperBook, agreed with that assessment as to why Buffalo sits atop the pre-Week 1 championship odds.

"We really think the Bills are the highest-power-rated team, but just as importantly is where they play," Murray told ESPN. "The philosophy is the AFC West teams will beat each other up and that will allow the Bills to be in a favorable position to have the AFC Championship Game running through Buffalo."

Josh Allen and Co. have posted a 34-15 record over the past three seasons. They reached the AFC Championship Game in 2020 and the divisional round last year, but both times were eliminated from the playoffs by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

The Bills addressed their biggest weakness in the offseason by signing future Hall of Fame edge-rusher Von Miller, and the emergence of Gabriel Davis as one of the league's best No. 2 wide receivers should take some pressure off top target Stefon Diggs.

A slow start is possible for Buffalo, though. The team's schedule is among the league's toughest through the first eight weeks and at least four of those games will be played without top cornerback Tre'Davious White, who landed on the PUP list while recovering from a torn ACL.

The schedule gets a lot easier from that point forward, however, so the Bills have a chance to get hot starting in early November and could carry that toward the playoffs.

When the franchise last stood atop the preseason odds, it was before the second season of its four straight trips to the Super Bowl in the early 1990s.

So far, the Bills' first Super Bowl title has remained elusive, though.