The Jets and 49ers won't cross paths during the 2017 regular season, which means that the only way they'll meet is in Super Bowl LII. And while the odds of that aren't quite literally astronomical -- NASA figures that "no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years," and presumably, one of these two teams will appear in a Super Bowl before then -- it still underscores just how terrible these two franchises have become in recent years.
Don't forget, the Jets went to back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010, and the 49ers were one fourth-down stop from winning Super Bowl XLVII. But New York is coming off a 5-11 campaign and spent much of the offseason getting worse. San Francisco, winners of just two games in 2016, hireed coach Kyle Shanahan in February to change their fortunes.
For now, however, both outfits are among the league's worst, a reality underscored by the chances they'll face off in the Super Bowl seven months from now.
The Golden Nugget issued odds last week on every Super Bowl matchup, and while a Patriots-Cowboys get-together has the shortest odds at 7/1, the Jets and 49ers are at the other end of the spectrum. Specifically, we're talking about 5,000/1 odds. For some perspective, a Browns-49ers matchup is only 3,000/1. The Browns, it's worth mentioning, won just once last season.
If you're looking for a silver lining, there's this: 5,000/1 are long odds indeed, but there is a precedent. Thirteen months ago, Leicester City did the unthinkable and won the English Premier League after beginning the season as -- you guessed it -- 5,000/1 long shots to outlast Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, Manchester United and the like.
In May, South Point Casino in Las Vegas pegged the 49ers' 2017 win total at 4.5. Looking at the schedule, that sounds about right. On the other hand, the Jets' 5.5 win total seems preposterous. Of course, these totals were issued several weeks before New York continued its roster purge, most recently dumping the second-leading tackler in team history, David Harris, and trying to trade its only proven pass catcher, Eric Decker.