Super Bowl rematch gets tight betting line after NFL schedule drop

The 49ers were 2-point favorites over the Chiefs in their 25-22 overtime loss in the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.

San Francisco is 2½-point home favorites over Kansas City at Caesars Sportsbook in the regular-season rematch in Week 7 on Oct. 20.

The game is one of nine playoff rematches on the NFL schedule released Wednesday night. Caesars has already posted lines on Weeks 1 and 2 and other select games. It plans to post lines on Weeks 3 through 17 on Friday.

“That’s going to be one of the bigger handle games of the year, I’m sure, as long as there are no injuries through the first six weeks,” Caesars head of football Joey Feazel said of the Super Bowl rematch. “For the most part, our home field advantage is two points across the board. We gave the Niners a slight edge for their roster.”

The Chiefs are 3-point home favorites over the Ravens in the NFL season opener Sept. 5 in a rematch of last season’s AFC title game. Kansas City is a 1-point road favorite over Buffalo on Nov. 17 in a rematch of last season’s divisional round matchup.

“The Chiefs are the bane of the Bills’ existence,” Feazel said. “We still think the Chiefs are better, even on the road.”

Kansas City, the +550 favorite at Caesars to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls, is a 4-point home favorite over the Bengals in Week 2.

Christmas, Thanksgiving lines

The Chiefs are 4-point road favorites over the Steelers on Christmas Day, which falls on a Wednesday. Kansas City will play on every day of the week except Tuesday. The Chiefs will become the first team since the 1927 New York Yankees — the football version — to play games on six different days of the week during a single season.

Also on Christmas, Baltimore is a 1½-point road favorite over Houston in a rematch of last season’s wild-card playoff game.

In the annual Thanksgiving Day tripleheader, the Lions are favored by 4½ over the Bears, the Cowboys are 9½-point favorites over the Giants and the Packers are favored by 3 over the Dolphins.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and Lions quarterback Jared Goff will face their former teams in Week 1 on “Sunday Night Football.” Detroit is a 3½-point favorite over Los Angeles in a rematch of last season’s wild-card game. The Lions won 24-23 at home Jan. 14.

“We opened at 3½ and we saw a little bit of sharp action on the Rams,” Feazel said.

Caesars lowered that line to 3 on Thursday before bumping it back up to 3½.

Sharp action also caused Caesars to move a few other lines, including Atlanta’s Week 1 home game against Pittsburgh. The Steelers drew some sharp action at +3 that caused the line to dip to 2½ before inching back to 3.

“A couple sharps are coming in on some totals under,” Feazel said. “We saw how low scoring games were the previous couple of years and sharps are on that trend, especially on lower-scoring teams like the Commanders and Patriots.

“We’re in the middle of trying to figure out how low we’re going to go on these totals moving forward.”

Caesars opened the Broncos-Seahawks Week 1 total at 45½ and it has been bet down to 42½. Nine Week 1 games have totals of 44 or less.

A year after Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four snaps into his first game with the Jets on “Monday Night Football,” the four-time NFL MVP and New York are 6-point road underdogs at San Francisco in the first Monday night game of the season.

“Hopefully he comes out with with that American flag again and does not get injured this time,” Feazel said.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.