The wild ride that can be seen in the Titans’ Super Bowl odds movement

The Tennessee Titans are one win away from making a Super Bowl appearance, and they’ve taken one of the most unlikely paths to reach an AFC title matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs. Tennessee’s success can be attributed to a much-needed quarterback change, the timely peak of the NFL’s most physically imposing running back. Let’s take a look at how the Titans’ Super Bowl odds have climbed throughout the year at DraftKings Sportsbook.

A slow start

Tennessee’s Super Bowl odds opened at +5000 ahead of Week 1 but plummeted after losing four of their first six games. Marcus Mariota wasn’t looking like the quarterback they drafted him to be in 2015, and it appeared the Titans’ hopes of even making the postseason were slipping down the drain. The low point was when they were at +10000 ahead of their Week 7 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers. But that matchup would be the first game Ryan Tannehill started in 2019 and marked the beginning of an epic turnaround.

Tannehill turned heads

Tannehill threw for 505 yards and five touchdowns in his first two starts to help Tennessee topple the Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Weeks 7 and 8. This helped the team’s Super Bowl odds drop to +8000 ahead of a Week 9 game against the Panthers, which the Titans lost. That caused their odds to jump to +10000 for the next four weeks. Tennessee rebounded after that and topped the Chiefs the following week before blowing out the Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts, and Oakland Raiders. Tannehill was exceptional during that three-game stretch and benefited from the tremendous performance of running back Derrick Henry.

Henry’s dominance

Henry had only eclipsed 100 rushing yards once in 2019, ahead of Tennessee’s Week 9 loss to the Panthers. But after that, he got rolling. Henry reached the century mark in each of his next four contests. He averaged just under 150 rushing yards per game and ran for seven scores between Weeks 10 and 14. After spending four weeks at +10000, Tennessee improved to +6600 ahead of Week 14 and matched its regular-season best of +4000 the following week. Henry’s 211-yard, three-touchdown performance in Week 17 was instrumental to his team making the playoffs.

The postseason

Tennessee squeaked into the playoffs with a 9-7 record and was considered a longshot to reach the Super Bowl from the start of the postseason. They were +5500 before they beat New England at Gillette Stadium and +3000 before defeating the top-seeded Ravens and likely 2019 MVP Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. The Titans have force-fed Henry a minimum of 30 carries per contest for three straight games, limiting the opposition’s number of possessions while running the clock at the same time. That method has helped them reach +700 odds ahead of the AFC title game. Tennessee will face a Chiefs team they have already beaten and that had to come back from a 24-0 deficit in their last home game. The Titans have a chance to shock the world and get a shot at winning its first-ever Super Bowl in February.

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