There are plenty of people who would rather see the Patriots with Jimmy Garoppolo at the helm instead of Tom Brady.
But to oddsmakers, Brady’s four-game suspension doesn’t change the bottom line.
According to Phil Perry of CSNNE.com, the Patriots are still listed as Super Bowl LI favorites by at least one bookmaker.
“Even though Tom Brady will be suspended for the first four games of the season it has not really affected the Patriots Super Bowl odds for a variety of reasons,” Bovada.lv sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley said in a statement. “First, they have a fairly easy first four matchups with the exception of playing on the road in Arizona, which would have been a tough game even if Brady was playing. Also, considering how weak their division is they are still -200 favorites to win it as there is no obvious threat.
“Lastly, when we went through this situation last year we raised the Patriots odds with the suspension news to around 10-1 and saw a ton of money on them even though people assumed Brady was not going to be playing the first four games, so we will not make that same mistake again.”
The Patriots are 6/1 to win it all, followed by the Packers (17/2), Seahawks (9/1), Cardinals (12/1), Panthers (12/1), and Steelers (12/1).
There’s also the small matter that the Patriots have shown a tendency to react favorably in the face of perceived slights in the past, which should serve them well this year, unless David Tyree makes a comeback we haven’t heard about.