National Football League

2023 NFL odds: Buffalo Bills' Super Bowl odds shorten ahead of Week 17

Updated Dec. 28, 2023 10:31 a.m. ET

The Buffalo Bills are taking the scenic route to their hopeful destination: Super Bowl LVIII.

Buffalo (9-6) is currently seventh on the oddsboard at +1100 to win the Super Bowl. And if the playoffs started today, the Bills would be a wild-card team.

But again, it's been a long, winding road.

At the beginning of the season, the Bills' odds to win the Big Game were +900. Then, in Weeks 5-12, they lost five of eight games.

That midseason losing skid lengthened their Super Bowl odds all the way to +3000.

After a Week 13 bye, Buffalo turned it around with three straight wins over the Chiefs, Cowboys and Chargers. That streak helped shorten the Bills' Super Bowl futures to +1100. Their odds to win the AFC East also moved from +1100 to +200.

Buffalo still has two games left on the regular-season schedule before knowing its postseason fate. But if it wins out, it is in.

The first game is a Week 17 date with New England (4-11) on Sunday. Buffalo is an 11.5-point home favorite.

According to FOX Sports host Craig Carton, the Bills are a team to watch, if the league wasn't already on notice.

"I think Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills go to the AFC Championship Game," he said on Wednesday's edition of "The Carton Show." "I think they win the last two games, they get the division, and I think the Buffalo Bills are an AFC Championship squad.

"The Bills are playing really good football."

Craig Carton reveals his latest AFC and NFC Power Rankings for Week 17

Speaking of good football, Allen might be in the midst of an MVP-caliber season. But Allen's odds to win NFL MVP have risen and fallen during the course of the Bills' up-and-down season.

After Buffalo's 3-1 start, Allen's odds to win MVP were +400 and at the top of the oddsboard at the beginning of October. By the time Buffalo hit its midseason lull, his odds got as long as +2000.

Now, with 3,778 passing yards and 27 touchdowns on the year, Allen's odds to win MVP are +1100. He's fourth on the board behind Lamar Jackson (-210), Christian McCaffrey (+550) and Tua Tagovailoa (+750).

"I don't think Josh Allen has a chance to be the MVP of the NFL," Carton said. "I guess the theory is that if Lamar Jackson forgets how to play football in the last two weeks and Christian McCaffrey forgets how to run straight over the last two weeks … he's gonna get a lot of love."

Stay tuned to FOXSports.com as the NFL playoff picture and MVP race unfold