Watch: ESPN's Stephen A. Smith reveals pick to win Super Bowl LVIII
Omar Abdullah from Chicago wanted to know which NFL team ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith liked to win the next Super Bowl. Smith said he hasn’t decided, but made a strong case for the Philadelphia Eagles.
On his morning radio show, Smith said he likes Philadelphia’s odds to not just reach the next Super Bowl, but win the whole thing, something they couldn’t do against the Chiefs last year.
Smith points out that quarterback Jalen Hurts is coming off an MVP-caliber season and alludes to the depth of talent on Philadelphia’s roster. But mostly, Smith thinks the Eagles will win Super Bowl LVIII for one simple reason: They don’t play in the AFC.
He’s not wrong. According to OddsChecker, among the top five teams with the best odds to win the next Super Bowl, three play in the AFC. According to a recent ESPN survey of NFL coaches, executives and scouts, the top five starting quarterbacks in the NFL are all on AFC teams.
Hurts is their top-rated NFC quarterback at No. 6, with his only real competition coming from the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford who round out the top 10.
In other words, if the Bengals’ Joe Burrow wants to go to another Super Bowl, he’ll have to get past teams led by Patrick Mahomes (last year’s MVP), Aaron Rodgers (a four-time MVP), Lamar Jackson (2019 MVP), Josh Allen and Justin Herbert.
The Eagles will see Allen, Mahomes and Rodgers in the regular season, but they also get Kirk Cousins, Daniel Jones and Sam Howell.
It’s a reasonable argument from a man better known for more hyperbolic takes on sports. It’s still early of course, but at the moment Philadelphia has the second-best odds to win it all in 2024. If they do, odds are Smith won’t let anyone forget his mid-summer prediction.
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