Super Bowl 2025 odds, prediction: Pick against the spread for Chiefs-Eagles

In many seasons, the Super Bowl selection for this space is made at around 6 p.m.on the Thursday before the Big Game, just in time to make the print deadline. That’s not the case this time.

Rather, this pick already has been published, back on Sept.4 in The Post’s 2024 NFL special section. Those who bought into the prognostication of Eagles over Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl would be holding a +6600 (66/1) ticket at BetMGM and have the opportunity to either double down or hedge to guarantee a sizable profit. It would be great if I were one of those people, but I’ve had too many of my preseason Super Bowl teams end up under .500 or with an injured quarterback over the years to want to tie up too much money for five months on a lottery ticket. The other thing is that this bet has not yet won.

All the Eagles have to do is defeat the Chiefs, the two-time defending champions who are on the cusp of the NFL’s first Super Bowl three-peat.They have to find a way to solve Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, arguably a top-three quarterback-coach duo in NFL history. Here are some of the reasons I believe the Eagles will make it happen. l Saquon Barkley: The former Giant who’s causing owner John Mara to lose a lot of sleep has transformed the Philadelphia offense.

It now has a bellcow runner operating behind an excellent offensive line, and his dominance only serves to make the Eagles’ other weapons — A.J.Brown, Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith — all the more dangerous. Barkley ran for 2,005 yards, making him the ninth to hit that milestone.

He had needed 101 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old record but was held out of the meaningless last game along with most of the Eagles’ other starters. How great has Barkley been? He averaged 5.8 yards per carry in the regular season and has upped that to 6.7 yards per carry in the playoffs.It’s easy to do the math and see how simple it is for the Eagles to get first downs, move the chains, keep t...