The online sportsbook Bovada has released odds for Super Bowl XLIX and the Seahawks have been pegged as 9/2 favorites to repeat as champions next season.
If they did, it would be the first time that a team pulled off consecutive championships since the Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004. One of the reasons often cited for the failure to repeat is the “hangover” that comes with the added offseason obligations that come with winning a Super Bowl, but coach Pete Carroll said Monday that the team won’t dwell on Sunday too long.
“The first meeting that we’ll have will be tomorrow. That starts tomorrow. Our guys would be surprised if we didn’t,” Carroll said at his press conference in Manhattan. “We really have an eye on what’s coming, and that we don’t dwell on what just happened. We’ll take this in stride, and we’ll have a big celebration on Wednesday in town and enjoy the heck out of it. Everybody will enjoy the heck out of it. We won’t miss the fun part of it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t set our sights on how this is going to go. They would be surprised if it was anything other than that. I think we are in a very fortunate situation.”
Part of their good fortune is a roster that’s not going to be forced into the kinds of changes that often happen for championship teams. There will be some contract issues in the future, but defensive end Michael Bennett and wide receiver Golden Tate are the most prominent free agents this time around and, as we saw Sunday, the team would get a boost from having a healthy Percy Harvin in the lineup more frequently.
There are plenty of variables, including the possibility that Harvin or other key players won’t be healthy, and a long way before we get to Glendale next February, but it’s hard not to like Seattle’s chances of another strong season in 2014.