ESPN "Panel of Experts" Pick Chiefs to win SB
 

With the NFL's 100th season upon us, we had a panel of experts from ESPN's NFL Nation give us their predictions for the year and checked them against Football Power Index's prognostications.

PANEL PREDICTS ...
Forty-five writers and editors from ESPN's NFL Nation weighed in with their predictions for the 2019 season. And they foresee another TD-packed Year of Mahomes.

AFC division champs: Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Chiefs

Wild cards: Chargers, Texans

AFC Championship: Chiefs over Chargers

NFC division champs: Eagles, Bears, Saints, Rams

Wild cards: Falcons, Packers

NFC Championship: Saints over Eagles

Super Bowl winner: Chiefs

MVP: Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs

Offensive player of the year: Mahomes

Defensive player of the year: Aaron Donald, Rams

Rookie of the year: Kyler Murray, Cardinals

FPI PROJECTS ...

Football Power Index is right there with the experts, giving last season's semifinalists a major leg up on the pack.

AFC West
Kansas City Chiefs (Projected wins: 10.4 | Overall FPI rank: 1 | Offense rank: 1 | Defense rank 15)

Los Angeles Chargers (Projected wins: 8.8 | Overall FPI rank: 6 | Offense rank: 6 | Defense rank 9)

Denver Broncos (Projected wins: 7.0 | Overall FPI rank: 22 | Offense rank: 28 | Defense rank 2)

Oakland Raiders (Projected wins: 6.5 | Overall FPI rank: 23 | Offense rank: 21 | Defense rank 27)

AFC East
New England Patriots (Projected wins: 10.4 | Overall FPI rank: 4 | Offense rank: 4 | Defense rank 12)

New York Jets (Projected wins: 7.2 | Overall FPI rank: 26 | Offense rank: 26 | Defense rank 22)

Buffalo Bills (Projected wins: 6.7 | Overall FPI rank: 27 | Offense rank: 31 | Defense rank 11)

Miami Dolphins (Projected wins: 5.6 | Overall FPI rank: 32 | Offense rank: 32 | Defense rank 28)

AFC North
Cleveland Browns (Projected wins: 8.8 | Overall FPI rank: 15 | Offense rank: 17 | Defense rank 7)

Baltimore Ravens (Projected wins: 8.5 | Overall FPI rank: 16 | Offense rank: 23 | Defense rank 4)

Pittsburgh Steelers (Projected wins: 8.5 | Overall FPI rank: 17 | Offense rank: 8 | Defense rank 25)

Cincinnati Bengals (Projected wins: 6.0 | Overall FPI rank: 29 | Offense rank: 27 | Defense rank 31)

AFC South
Indianapolis Colts (Projected wins: 9.1 | Overall FPI rank: 5 | Offense rank: 10 | Defense rank 6)

Houston Texans (Projected wins: 8.6 | Overall FPI rank: 8 | Offense rank: 12 | Defense rank 8)

Tennessee Titans (Projected wins: 8.0 | Overall FPI rank: 13 | Offense rank: 16 | Defense rank 10)

Jacksonville Jaguars (Projected wins: 7.5 | Overall FPI rank: 18 | Offense rank: 25 | Defense rank 1)

NFC East
Philadelphia Eagles (Projected wins: 9.3 | Overall FPI rank: 10 | Offense rank: 9 | Defense rank 19)

Dallas Cowboys (Projected wins: 8.3 | Overall FPI rank: 19 | Offense rank: 14 | Defense rank 16)

New York Giants (Projected wins: 6.3 | Overall FPI rank: 24 | Offense rank: 24 | Defense rank 32)

Washington Redskins (Projected wins: 6.2 | Overall FPI rank: 28 | Offense rank: 29 | Defense rank 26)

NFC North
Chicago Bears (Projected wins: 9.1 | Overall FPI rank: 7 | Offense rank: 13 | Defense rank 3)

Green Bay Packers (Projected wins: 8.6 | Overall FPI rank: 12 | Offense rank: 5 | Defense rank 20)

Minnesota Vikings (Projected wins: 8.5 | Overall FPI rank: 11 | Offense rank: 20 | Defense rank 5)

Detroit Lions (Projected wins: 7.0 | Overall FPI rank: 24 | Offense rank: 22 | Defense rank 30)

NFC South
New Orleans Saints (Projected wins: 10.1 | Overall FPI rank: 2 | Offense rank: 2 | Defense rank 23)

Atlanta Falcons (Projected wins: 8.4 | Overall FPI rank: 9 | Offense rank: 7 | Defense rank 17)

Carolina Panthers (Projected wins: 7.7 | Overall FPI rank: 20 | Offense rank: 15 | Defense rank 18)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Projected wins: 6.4 | Overall FPI rank: 25 | Offense rank: 19 | Defense rank 29)

NFC West
Los Angeles Rams (Projected wins: 10.0 | Overall FPI rank: 3 | Offense rank: 3 | Defense rank 13)

Seattle Seahawks (Projected wins: 8.3 | Overall FPI rank: 14 | Offense rank: 11 | Defense rank 14)

San Francisco 49ers (Projected wins: 7.7 | Overall FPI rank: 21 | Offense rank: 18 | Defense rank 21)

Arizona Cardinals (Projected wins: 5.5 | Overall FPI rank: 31 | Offense rank: 30 | Defense rank 24)

Super Bowl chances (make, win):

Chiefs (27.80%, 16.00%)

Saints (26.45%, 15.74%)

Patriots (23.12%, 12.06%)

Rams (21.87%, 11.49%)

Colts (10.73%, 5.55%)

Eagles (9.80%, 4.36%)

Bears (9.55%, 4.48%)

Chargers (7.68%, 3.76%)

Texans (6.74%, 3.32%)

Packers (5.91%, 2.62%)

FPI is a forward-looking measure of team strength based on the expected points added from offense, defense and special teams. Using preseason FPI as of July 29, ESPN Stats & Information has projected each team's strength of schedule rank as well as its chances to win each game on its schedule.

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/27348060/2019-nfl-predictions

Any historical data available to see how this metric has done in the past?

Irrelevant. The generational greatness of Mahomes defies history and analysis.

Super Bowl winner: Chiefs

MVP: Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs

Offensive player of the year: Mahomes

Sounds good to me!

Can't argue that.

Chargers projected 8.8 wins seems low

Where are the Asians to dress up this thread?

Mother ****ers gonna make me drive to Miami to be outside the stadium for the victory

Maybe they're trying to make up for every other publication on Earth that ranks them too high every year for all eternity.

Ok.

ESPN experts? This is a death knell for us this year.

Absolutely wrong. ESPN picked NE to win last year's SB. So this is just icing on the Chiefs' Super Bowl cake.

Chiefs are everyone’s pick to make the Super Bowl.

Yes!

These are always interesting to revisit.