Super Bowl LV props: Five best bets to score the game’s first touchdown

There’s nothing like getting your Super Bowl wagering Sunday off to profitable start, and a surefire way to do just that is hitting on the game’s first touchdown scorer.

Among the myriad of proposition bets, it remains one of the most popular. So with a winning beginning in mind, here are five candidates to tally the first TD Sunday in Tampa.

We start with two worthwhile favorites, throw in two midrange value plays and finish with a longer shot worth taking.

Best bets for the first Super Bowl touchdown

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Tyreek Hill (+600)

This next-level speed demon tied for third in the league with 17 total touchdowns during the regular season, including a career-high-matching three in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-24 Week 12 win in Tampa.

In 50 regular and postseason games since the start of the 2018 season (i.e. the Patrick Mahomes starting era), Hill has found his way into the end zone a whopping 41 times. This includes four rushing scores and a punt-return TD, on 305 total touches, for an average of a TD every 7.4 touches.

Somehow, Hill hasn’t scored on 20 total offensive touches so far this postseason, but expect that to end Sunday. And it could come early – first-TD-of-the-game early.

Leonard Fournette (+1200)

This ballyhooed late-preseason addition only scored three times in his first 10 games with the Bucs but has tallied six TDs in his last six contests, including a score (two rushing, one receiving) in each of the team’s three playoff games so far.

With Ronald Jones’ late-season injury issues, Fournette has assumed the lead role in the Bucs’ backfield and has totaled a team-leading 62 touches this postseason (for 313 total yards) with at least 17 in each game.

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Darrel Williams (+1600)

With rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire and veteran Le’Veon Bell each playing in one playoff game so far due to injuries, Williams has stepped in productively as the Chiefs’ lead running back with 155 total yards and a TD on 31 touches this postseason.

Williams could see a lead workload once again on Super Sunday as CEH was ineffective (7 yards on seven touches) in the AFC title game coming off a high-ankle sprain. Bell is no sure bet to even be active Sunday as he deals with a knee issue.

So, in other words, we could have a second-straight Super Bowl with an unheralded K.C. back with the last name of Williams productively sliding under the radar while the opposing defense focuses its attention on the Chiefs’ top offensive weapons.

Cameron Brate (+3000)

Fellow Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski has much better odds (+1800) to score the first TD, but it’s been Brate who has had the far-more-productive postseason so far as the team’s third-leading pass-catcher with 11 receptions for 149 yards and a TD to Gronk’s 2-43-0 stat line on seven targets.

Brate owns the 11th-best odds (+250) to score a TD Sunday, making his +3000 odds to score the first touchdown (tied for 16th lowest) a bona fide value.

Tom Brady (+3300)

Of Brady’s 32 career rushing TDs, including four this season and seven in the postseason, surprisingly none have come in his nine previous Super Bowls.

So why not shoot for a lucrative long shot payout by banking on the GOAT to kick off his 10th Big Game by checking off one of the last few things he has yet to accomplish?

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