Top 10 favorites for Super Bowl 53

5. Atlanta Falcons

There was very little post-blown lead in the Super Bowl hangover for the Falcons in 2017. They had 10 regular season wins, along with a Wild Card Round win over the Los Angeles Rams. The line between winning and losing gets even thinner in the playoffs, and an incredibly botched final offensive series of the game is all that really kept the Falcons from beating the Philadelphia Eagles and going to the NFC Championship Game for the second straight year.

New offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian took a lot of heat for Atlanta’s drop-off on that side of the ball, and mostly rightfully so. But Matt Ryan also struggled in Kyle Shanahan’s first season as offensive coordinator in 2015, before rebounding to have an MVP season in 2016. The rapport between a quarterback and a new offensive coordinator can take some time to develop, even with  a veteran quarterback like Ryan in place, so the Falcons’ offense is easily in line to rebound next year.

The Vikings nearly became, until a blowout loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, the first NFL team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium. At this point the Falcons have just as good, if not a better, chance to do it next season and represent the NFC in Super Bowl LIII.