NFL Playoff Odds 2016: Super Bowl Lines for AFC, NFC Contenders After Week 16

The Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos are still scheduled to play Monday night, but Week 16 has done a lot to shape the playoff race in both conferences.

Washington locked up the NFC East and No. 4 seed, the Jets and Chiefs put themselves in a position for the AFC's final two wild-card slots and first-round byes in the NFC are set after the Cardinals' win over the Packers.

Also trimmed down is the field of potential teams. All six of the NFC's playoff spots are filled, while the Texans could also clinch an AFC South championship with a Broncos loss Monday night. While it's highly unlikely it'll fall out, Denver has not yet clinched a playoff spot. 

With that in mind, here is a look at the latest Super Bowl odds from around the league.

Super Bowl Odds

Team	Odds
New England Patriots	10-3
Carolina Panthers	4-1
Arizona Cardinals	4-1
Seattle Seahawks	8-1
Denver Broncos	11-1
Green Bay Packers	12-1
Cincinnati Bengals	14-1
Kansas City Chiefs	14-1
Pittsburgh Steelers	22-1
Minnesota Vikings	30-1
New York Jets	35-1
Washington	40-1
Houston Texans	66-1
Indianapolis Colts	150-1

 The Favorite: New England Patriots (10-3)

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

There hasn't been a repeat Super Bowl champion in a decade. The Patriots might just be in a position to be the first—if their team can find a way to stay healthy. Already playing without Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Patrick Chung and Devin McCourty, the Patriots lost tackle Sebastian Vollmer in Sunday's loss to the New York Jets.

While most of the aforementioned injuries are not season-ending (Lewis aside), the Patriots are basically being held together by Scotch tape, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski at this point. The Jets were able to pull an upset largely by keeping New England to short, underneath plays while locking down in the red zone. Brady didn't complete a pass of longer than 30 yards, and the Brandon Bolden-Steven Jackson combination at running back managed just 45 yards on 16 carries.

Brady said, per Ben Volin of the Boston Globe:

"

I think we have some mental toughness. A lot of guys have been in and out of the lineup, a lot of guys coming in off the street trying to play and help us win. We just had some bad luck, truthfully. I don’t think we’ve ever used those excuses, and we had opportunities to win this game. Hopefully we can get healthy and we’ve just got to win one game next week.

"

The Patriots are yet to lock up home-field advantage, so they'll need all hands on deck next week in Miami. The Dolphins have tumbled to three straight losses after seemingly righting the ship early in the Dan Campbell era and don't really have much to play for. These are the games Bill Belichick and Co. rarely lose, and New England already handed the Dolphins a 36-7 drubbing earlier this season.

Of all the teams in the playoff hunt, it's perhaps New England that most needs home-field advantage. The injuries are mounting, and getting home field might be the stroke of luck the Pats need to take them to their second straight AFC crown.

Rising: Arizona Cardinals (4-1)

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

The Cardinals could be the best team in football at the moment. Bruce Arians' team earned perhaps its most impressive win of the season Sunday, beating up Aaron Rodgers en route to a 38-8 win over the Packers. Arizona's defense scored two touchdowns, sacked Rodgers eight times and held him to 151 yards through the air. Meanwhile, Carson Palmer had his 11th multi-touchdown game of the season, and David Johnson had over 100 total yards for the fourth straight game.

Cornerback Jerraud Powers said, per ESPN's Josh Weinfuss:

"

It’s great to see. Normally when you have a top offense, the defense is subpar. Or if you have a great defense, the offensive is average. This year’s been kind of unique because the offense doesn’t worry about us. They don’t worry what we’re going to do. They feel like they got to win the game. It’s the same mentality on the defense. We don’t care what the offense does. We got to feel like we got to go win the game on defense.

"

The Cardinals are one of the quietest great teams in recent memory. All season, it's been like the nation has been waiting on the other shoe to drop. It hasn't. Carson Palmer remains a legitimate MVP candidate a decade after his first near-miss, the Cardinals defense has stayed strong despite losing star Tyrann Mathieu to a knee injury and David Johnson has been a star since replacing an injured Chris Johnson.

At the moment, there may be no more complete team in football. Arizona is the only team to rank inside the top three on offense and defense in Football Outsiders' DVOA rankings coming into the week, and those rankings will likely improve after its impressive win over Green Bay. Special teams is the only real area of weakness, as Arizona's kick return coverage ranks among the NFL's worst.

That may wind up playing a factor in January, but right now the Cardinals look like a real threat to Carolina and New England atop the NFL's perch.

Not Scaring Anyone: Minnesota Vikings (30-1), New York Jets (35-1), Washington (40-1), Houston Texans (66-1) and Indianapolis Colts (150-1)

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

Each of these teams has worse Super Bowl odds than the Pittsburgh Steelers, who don't even control their own destiny at this point. The Steelers will need a win over the Browns and the Jets to lose to the Bills next week to make the postseason. Or, alternatively, they'll need to win next week and have Denver lose its next two games.

So, why are these teams still somehow lower on the Super Bowl totem pole? Let's take a look at each situation and examine why.

Vikings: No offensive explosiveness. Teddy Bridgewater's thrown for 14 touchdown passes all season. Andrew Luck had more touchdowns in seven games. Winning a Super Bowl with a quarterback who is averaging less than one touchdown per game seems pretty unlikely in 2015. It's not that Bridgewater has been bad necessarily; it's just that he's been so thoroughly mediocre that it's hard to see him making the big plays necessary for a January run.

Jets: Mostly because I'd put money on the Jets squandering their playoff berth next week against Buffalo. Rex Ryan teams love playing the spoiler, and getting one over on his former team would be a major boon for the Bills coach heading into 2016. There's also the fact that Ryan Fitzpatrick's God Mode performance of the last five weeks (13 TDs, 1 INT) is screaming regression to the mean.

Washington: Washington might actually be the closest thing to a sleeper team on this list. The team is 5-3 since DeSean Jackson's return to the lineup, which has coincided with Kirk Cousins' career-best stretch. Cousins hasn't had a multi-interception game since Oct. 18 and has gone without a pick in five of the eight games since Jackson's return. Still, this is a team with an average-at-best running game and defense with holes all over the place.

Texans: *Draws a big old circle around the part of the depth chart labeled "quarterback"*. Also, Alfred Blue's no Arian Foster.

Colts: Because they have a next-to-zero chance of actually making the playoffs.