Since 2006, the Seattle Seahawks are 12-7 straight up and 9-9-1 against the spread in 19 postseason games. That postseason win total could grow this season if the calculations of one sports prediction website are correct.
Super Bowl LI projections: Seahawks, Steelers lead pack according to computer simulation
Computer simulations indicate that Super Bowl LI could be a matchup between Seattle and Pittsburgh, with the Seahawks the champions.
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Seattle is going off at +1000 on the odds to win Super Bowl LI at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. This puts the Seahawks just behind the current betting favorites of New England at +600 and Green Bay at +850.
But according to PredictionMachine.com, the Seahawks should be the favorite to win the championship this season. The website has simulated out the entire 2016 season 50,000 times. In these simulations, Seattle wins the NFC an impressive 19.6 percent of the time, and goes on to win the Super Bowl 11.7 percent of the time.
Green Bay isn’t too far behind with a 16.5 percent chance of winning the conference and a 9.7 percent chance of winning the Super Bowl, but Seattle’s better projections and longer odds offer strong value on the Seahawks.
Seattle’s most common opponent in the Super Bowl over the course of these 50,000 simulations was the Pittsburgh Steelers, who advanced to the Super Bowl 14.8 percent of the time. The Steelers were hit hard by the injury bug in 2015, but a healthy season this year could lead to big results. Pittsburgh converted just under half of its projected Super Bowl berths into wins, taking home the championship at a 7.3 percent clip.
Pittsburgh is one of four teams in the AFC being given odds greater than 5 percent of winning the Super Bowl this season. That group of contenders includes New England at 6 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent and Cincinnati at 5.3 percent.
Concerns at the quarterback position have the defending champions all the way down to +1800 on the Super Bowl LI betting board at the sportsbooks, but Denver’s defense should keep the Broncos afloat in what looks to be a pretty wide open race.
Four of the top five most likely Super Bowl winners are from the NFC, with the Arizona Cardinals (8.9 percent to win the Super Bowl) and Carolina Panthers (6.3 percent) rounding out the most likely projected contenders. Carolina and Arizona are each going off at +1200 on the odds to win Super Bowl LI.
