As Chiefs begin season’s homestretch, many NFL experts see KC as Super Bowl favorites
Identifying the midway point of a 17-week season is an inexact science, but over the past few days, many NFL pundits made their predictions for the league’s second half.
The Chiefs, 8-1, are coming off their bye week, and many of those who cover the league like Kansas City’s chances to repeat.
Here is a roundup of what’s being said.
A dozen of the 28 NFL Network experts predicted the Chiefs would defend their Super Bowl championship: Judy Battista, Jeremy Bergman, Gil Brandt, Gennaro Filice, Marcas Grant, DeAngelo Hall, Maurice Jones-Drew, Steve Mariucci, Kevin Patra, Scott Pioli, Adam Rank and Nick Shook.
Pioli, the former Chiefs general manager, wrote this: “Tampa is the first team to play at home in the Super Bowl, but its defense surrenders a touchdown on the game’s final drive to give the Chiefs their second Lombardi Trophy in as many years.”
Charley Casserly, Dan Parr and Marc Ross predicted the Chiefs would advance to Super Bowl LV, but lose the big game.
CBS Sports asked 23 of its analysts from “NFL on CBS” and “The NFL Today” to make Super Bowl picks, and 15 have the Chiefs playing on the final Sunday of the season.
Thirteen predicted the Chiefs to repeat as Super Bowl champions (Nate Burleson, Boomer Esiason, Phil Simms, Trent Green, Melanie Collins, James Lofton, Evan Washburn, Michael Grady, Jason La Canfora, Amy Trask, Kyle Long, Johnathan Jones and Charles Davis).
Two see the Chiefs losing in Super Bowl LV (Rich Gannon and Jay Feely).
Washburn wrote: “The Chiefs have proven to be able to win any style of game and possess the luxury of the ultimate fixer in Patrick Mahomes, while Green Bay will benefit from a weak schedule down the stretch that should give them a bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. A dream matchup in Tampa, with the Chiefs making it back-to-back.”
Sports Illustrated’s eight experts made playoff seeding predictions, along with forecasting award and Super Bowl winners. Five see the Chiefs winning again (Jenny Vrentas, Greg Bishop, Michael Rosenberg, Gary Gramling and Mitch Goldich).
This is an excerpt of what Vrentas wrote: “There’s nothing in the first nine weeks of the season to convince me that the Chiefs over the Seahawks is implausible, so I’m riding that selection out, too. If that’s the case, the scoring record for the Super Bowl — a wild 75 combined points — just might be on notice.”
Cynthia Frelund, the NFL Network’s Analytics Expert, projected the Chiefs would finish with 13.3 wins, the most in the NFL. This is a excerpt from her story: “The Chiefs only have two remaining games with a win projection below 70 percent: Week 12 at Tampa Bay, Week 15 at New Orleans.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
