The two-time defending Super Bowl champions are sure to have plenty of primetime games this fall, once we know for sure where the NFL’s 32 franchises will play when the league releases its full schedule on Wednesday.
Following an NFL tradition, the defending Super Bowl Champions will play in the NFL’s Thursday night opener again in 2024, which raises the question of how teams that play in such a contest fare later on that season.
Utilizing Champs or Chumps, BetKansas.com broke from Kansas sports betting updates and looked at how teams ended up the rest of the NFL season after playing in the Thursday Night Football season opener. The data set covers both teams who played in the game over the last 10 seasons.
Season Performance Of NFL Teams In First Game of Year
The data below may help you decide how to bet on Kansas sports betting apps this NFL season opener. Here's how NFL teams perform after opening the season on Thursday Night Football.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
|---|---|---|
10+ Wins During Regular Season | 13 of 20 | 65.0% |
Making The Playoffs | 14 of 20 | 70.0% |
Advance Past Wild Card Round | 12 of 20 | 60.0% |
Winning Divisional Round | 8 of 20 | 40.0% |
Winning Conference Championship | 4 of 20 | 20.0% |
Winning Super Bowl | 1 of 20 | 5.0% |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
Can Chiefs Continue NFL’s TNF Success Rate?
Over the last decade, 13 of the 20 teams (65%) that played in the first NFL game of the regular season went on to win 10 or more games, with 14 teams (70%) making the playoffs and 12 of them (60%) getting past the Wild Card round of the postseason.
Throw in eight of those 20 teams (40%) that won their Divisional Round contests, four of 20 (20%) that won their respective Conference Championship games, and one of those 20 teams (5%) that went on to win the Super Bowl and you have the full portrait of how opening night teams have fared at season’s end of late.
As of now, it seems like oddsmakers are taking the approach of riding with Andy Reid’s team until someone dislodges them from their lofty perch, with BetMGM Kansas listing the Chiefs alongside the San Francisco 49ers as the Super Bowl favorites at +550, ahead of the Baltimore Ravens, who enter the league year at +900.
It’s also worth mentioning that no NFL franchise has ever won three consecutive Super Bowls, though three teams have played in three such contests in a row in the league’s history, which is something that impacts the Chiefs Super Bowl odds, still, Kansas City will look to accomplish come February 2025.
USA Today photo by Geoff Burke.
