Chiefs vs. Buccaneers: Super Bowl 55 Odds, Predictions Before NFL Honors

The NFL Honors will award the best, brightest, and dynamic players in the league for their contributions to a most unique 2020 season Saturday night in what will serve as the warm-up for Sunday's Super Bowl 55 and the showdown between Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs and Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A star-studded game featuring young stars looking to establish their legacies with a second ring and veteran players looking to add to theirs with their first, it will captivate audiences with drama, explosive plays and spectacle only the most prestigious event in sports can provide.

Who will take home the trophies Saturday night? What are the current betting odds for Sunday's big game and will it be Brady or Mahomes who hoists Lombardi when all is said and done?

Find out in this preview of the league festivities.

Viewing Info and Odds

Perry Knotts/Associated Press

This year's big game will emanate from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and have roughly 22,000 fans in attendance. This year, in appreciation of their hard work on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL will give 7,500 tickets to vaccinated healthcare workers for free.

Viewing information for those not in Tampa is as follows:

• Network: CBS
• Start Time: 6:30 p.m. (pregame programs throughout the day)
• Broadcast Team: Jim Nantz and Tony Romo

Current odds (via Draft Kings) continue to suggest a close game, with the Mahomes-led Chiefs (-3) a slight favorite over the Bucs.

An over/under of 55.5 suggests there will be significantly more points put on the board than the last time Brady played in the Super Bowl, 2019's 13-3 yawner over the Los Angeles Rams. 

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NFL Honors Predictions

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The best and brightest of the 2020 NFL season will be celebrated at 9:00 p.m. Saturday night on CBS in this year's NFL Honors presentation. 

Below are the night's top honors and predictions for the players and coaches who will host those awards.

• AP Most Valuable Player: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers
• AP Coach of the Year: Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
• AP Offensive Player of the Year: Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans
• AP Defensive Player of the Year: Aaron Donald, DT, Los Angeles Rams
• AP Comeback Player of the Year: Alex Smith, QB, Washington Football Team
• AP Offensive Rookie of the Year: Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings
• AP Defensive Rookie of the Year: Chase Young, DE, Washington Football Team
• AP Assistant Coach of the Year: Brian Daboll, OC, Buffalo Bills
• Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year: Justin Herbert, QB, Los Angeles Chargers
• Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year: Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks
• Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
• FedEx Air Player of the Year: Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills
• FedEx Ground Player of the Year: Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans
• Bridgestone Clutch Performance Play of the Year: Hail Murray Bets Buffalo 
• Deacon Jones Award: TJ Watt, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Rodgers is the obvious MVP of the 2020 season. Fueled by Green Bay's drafting of quarterback Jordan Love in the first round of last May's draft, and benefited by year-two in head coach Matt LeFleur's offensive scheme, the Packers legend tossed 48 touchdowns to just 5 interceptions while completing 70.7 percent of his passes.

Cerebral and precise, he spent the season picking other defenses apart, including the top-ranked Rams squad in the divisional round of the playoffs, en route to the award. While he would absolutely rather be playing Sunday than accepting the award, he joins fellow Packers icon Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the only players to win three MVP trophies.

Look for the NFL to honor the outstanding season of Buffalo Bills QB Allen with the FedEx Air Player of the Year.

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski ended an 18-year playoff drought in Cleveland and has Baker Mayfield playing like the elite, franchise quarterback he was expected to be when the team drafted him No. 1 overall in 2018.

Super Bowl 55 Pick

Associated Press

Sunday's match-up against the Chiefs would not be the first time Tom Brady encountered a seemingly unstoppable offense on football's grandest stage.

His first ring came at the expense of The Greatest Show on Turf at the end of the 2001 season. The potent Atlanta Falcons of 2016 put up 28 in a hurry in their Super Bowl battle with Brady...and we all know how that ended up.

The 2018 Rams had one of the most prolific offenses in recent history but under the bright lights, and with The GOAT standing across the field, wilted.

The Chiefs, Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill and Tyrann Mathieu have been here before, sure. Last year, they outscored the San Francisco 49ers to take home the Lombardi Trophy and cement their status as the frontrunners for the foreseeable future.

There is something entirely different about playing Brady in these circumstances, though. There is a different aura, an inescapable sense that No. 12, with the ball in his hands, will make every throw necessary to keep his team in a position to win. We have seen it so many times before, that last crucial drive down the field for the go-ahead score.

The earlier showdown between these teams, a KC win by three, doesn't matter. The regular season was an eternity ago and these Bucs are a different unit. 

The defense is more ferocious and playing with speed. Linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White will hit tight end Travis Kelce early and often, trying disrupt chemistry with Mahomes.

Carlton Davis, Antoine Winfield Jr., Sean Bunting-Murphy, and Jordan Whitehead will look to contain Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman and force Sammy Watkins or Demarcus Robinson to beat them. Don't forget Jason Pierre-Paul, either.

The defensive end has a Super Bowl ring to his name, one he earned by doing what few have done on that stage: disrupting Brady and beating him with the Giants in 2012.

Tampa Bay has its own array of weapons, from Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to grizzled veterans Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski, to whom Brady will distribute the ball in search of his latest Super Bowl touchdown.

The game will be star-studded but do not be surprised if it is a Cameron Brate, Ronald Jones II, or Scotty Miller, relative unknowns to the casual football fan, that catches the pass that delivers the greatest of all-time ring No. 7.

Prediction: Tampa Bay 34, Kansas City 31