NFL
Super Bowl LV: Coin Toss, Kick Deferral, and First Score Trends for the Buccaneers and Chiefs

We all know that the coin toss is one of the mainstay props when betting the Super Bowl (you can bet it over at FanDuel Sportsbook, of course), but what about trends right after the coin toss?

Do the Kansas City Chiefs always defer? Do teams against them take the ball to avoid falling behind? What about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' recent decisions?

I wanted to find out to see if I could attack early-game props any particular way, so I pulled coin toss, deferral, first score, and first touchdown data from each of their games this season (via Pro-Football-Reference).

What stands out?

Coin Toss and Early-Game Data

Here's a snapshot of the Chiefs' trends.

Week Game Coin Toss
Result
KC Coin
Toss Win?
Winner
Deferred?
KC Win Toss
& Defer?
KC First
Score?
KC First
Any Scorer
KC First
TD Scorer
1 vs HOU Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Kelce Kelce
2 at LAC Chargers
(received)
No No No No Kelce Kelce
3 at BAL Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Mahomes Mahomes
4 at NE Patriots
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Butker Hill
5 vs LV Raiders
(deferred)
No Yes No No Mahomes Mahomes
6 at BUF Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Kelce Kelce
7 at DEN Broncos
(received)
No No No Yes Edwards-
Helaire
Edwards-
Helaire
8 vs NYJ Jets
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Hardman Hardman
9 vs CAR Panthers
(received)
No No No No Butker Robinson
10 BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE
11 at LV Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Hill Hill
12 at TB Buccaneers
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Butker Hill
13 vs DEN Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Butker Kelce
14 at MIA Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Hill Hill
15 at NO Saints
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Hill Hill
16 vs ATL Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Kelce Kelce
17 vs LAC Chargers
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Pringle Pringle
18 BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE
DR vs CLE Browns
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Mahomes Mahomes
CC vs BUF Chiefs
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Hardman Hardman


And here's the same info for the Buccaneers.

Week Game Coin Toss
Result
TB Coin
Toss Win?
Winner
Deferred?
TB Win Toss
& Defer?
TB First
Score?
TB First
Any Scorer
TB First
TD Scorer
1 at NO Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Brady Brady
2 vs CAR Panthers
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Jones Jones
3 at DEN Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Godwin Godwin
4 vs LAC Chargers
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Brate Brate
5 at CHI Bears
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Succop Evans
6 vs GB Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Dean (D);
Jones (O)
Dean (D);
Jones (O)
7 at LV Raiders
(deferred)
No Yes No No Brady Brady
8 at NYG Giants
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Succop Gronkowski
9 vs NO Saints
(deferred)
No Yes No No Succop N/A
10 at CAR Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Brate Brate
11 vs LAR Rams
(deferred)
No Yes No No Evans Evans
12 vs KC Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Jones Jones
13 BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE
14 vs MIN Buccaneers
(deferred)
Yes Yes Yes No Miller Miller
15 at ATL Falcons
(received)
No No No No Fournette Fournette
16 at DET Buccaneers
(received)
Yes No No Yes Gronkowski Gronkowski
17 vs ATL Buccaneers
(received)
Yes No No Yes Godwin Godwin
18 at WSH Football Team
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Succop Brown
19 at NO Saints
(deferred)
No Yes No No Succop Evans
20 at GB Packers
(deferred)
No Yes No Yes Evans Evans


Note Weeks 16 and 17 when the Buccaneers won the toss and elected to receive.

Here are the combined trends.

Team Games Toss
Win%
Deferral Rate
(In-Game)
Deferral Rate
(Opponents)
Deferral Rate
(Team)
First Score Rate
(Team)
KC 18 44.4% 83.3% 70.0% 100.0% 38.9%
TB 19 42.1% 84.2% 90.9% 75.0% 52.6%


Deferring after winning a coin toss is common strategy in the current NFL, so it's a little telling that 3 of 10 teams to win the coin toss against the Chiefs' high-powered offense did elect to receive the opening kickoff.

Although the Buccaneers did win the toss against the Chiefs in their Week 12 matchup and chose to defer, the past two times the Bucs won the toss (Weeks 16 and 17), they chose to receive the opening kickoff. They wound up scoring first in both games via passing touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs have deferred on all eight of their wins. So, if the Chiefs win the toss, the trends say they'll defer, getting the Bucs the first possession.

If the Bucs win the toss, the more recent data implies they may take the ball. This makes it pretty likely that it's Tom Brady under center for the first offensive snap of the game.

It's also peculiar that the Chiefs' first-score rate is so low. Brady notoriously hasn't put up points in the first quarter of Super Bowls, but there are a lot of reasons to like the Buccaneers to get going first.

Given that the coin toss should result in a first possession for the Buccaneers, there might be some nice value on the Buccaneers' early-game props -- such as the first-touchdown scorer, team to score first (Bucs are -106), team to have the first field goal (Bucs are -108), the first-quarter winner (Bucs are +122).

First Scorer Data

Here's a closer look at the data on who scored first for each team. This isn't meant to be predictive, per se, but rather to show the dispersion of first scores and touchdowns.

Let's start with the Chiefs.

KC First
Scorer (Any)
Count KC First
Scorer (TD)
Count
Travis Kelce 4 Travis Kelce 5
Harrison Butker 4 Tyreek Hill 5
Patrick Mahomes 3 Patrick Mahomes 3
Tyreek Hill 3 Mecole Hardman 2
Mecole Hardman 2 Demarcus Robinson 1
Clyde Edwards-Helaire 1 Clyde Edwards-Helaire 1
Byron Pringle 1 Byron Pringle 1


Travis Kelce kicked off the scoring with a touchdown as many times (four) as Harrison Butker did with a field goal, but Kelce tied with Tyreek Hill for five of the first touchdowns for the Chiefs. Notably, Patrick Mahomes started three games off with rushing touchdowns.

And now the Buccaneers, which is more dispersed.

TB First
Scorer (Any)
Count TB First
Scorer (TD)
Count
Ryan Succop 5 Mike Evans 4
Tom Brady 2 Tom Brady 2
Ronald Jones 2 Ronald Jones 2
Chris Godwin 2 Chris Godwin 2
Cameron Brate 2 Cameron Brate 2
Mike Evans 2 Rob Gronkowski 2
Jamel Dean (Defensive) 1 Jamel Dean (Defensive) 1
Scotty Miller 1 Scotty Miller 1
Leonard Fournette 1 Leonard Fournette 1
Rob Gronkowski 1 Antonio Brown 1


Ryan Succop
has started the scoring in 5 of 19 games for the Buccaneers, but their first touchdown has been scored primarily by Mike Evans, which he did four times. Notably, Ronald Jones had two rushing scores to start games and did score the first offensive touchdown in the game when Jamel Dean had a pick-six score.

Here's the odds board for the first touchdown scorer at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Chiefs First
TD Odds
Buccaneers First
TD Odds
Travis Kelce +600 Mike Evans +900
Tyreek Hill +600 Chris Godwin +1000
Clyde Edwards-Helaire +1200 Leonard Fournette +1000
Darrel Williams +1400 Antonio Brown +1600
Mecole Hardman +1600 Rob Gronkowski +1600
Patrick Mahomes +1600 Cameron Brate +1800
Sammy Watkins +1600 Ronald Jones +1800
Byron Pringle +2400 Tom Brady +2500
Demarcus Robinson +2400 Scotty Miller +2600
Kansas City D/ST +3000 Tampa Bay D/ST +3700
Le'Veon Bell +4700 Tyler Johnson +4100
Anthony Sherman +9000 Antony Auclair +10000
Darwin Thompson +10000 Jaydon Mickens +10000
Gehrig Dieter +10000 KeShawn Vaughn +10000
Nick Keizer +10000 LeSean McCoy +10000
Ricky Seals-Jones +10000 Tanner Hudson +10000


The Super Bowl is always full of some early surprises, but targeting Mike Evans at +900 as the first touchdown scorer and assuming the Bucs receive the opening kick would be a nice way to begin the action.

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