None Of The Athletic’s 42 NFL Staff Members Pick Patriots To Win Super Bowl
The Athletic’s 42-member NFL staff recently made their playoff predictions and the results were revealed on Saturday.
Among the slew of questions posed to the media members were “Who will be in the AFC Championship Game, who will win and why?” and “Who will win the Super Bowl and why?”
Despite finishing the regular season tied atop the NFL standings, earning the No. 2 seed in the AFC and boasting MVP candidate Drake Maye and Coach of the Year contender Mike Vrabel, the New England Patriots received no votes for Super Bowl champion.
“Picking a Super Bowl LX champion this year should come with a warning label — do so at your own risk. But we tried,” The Athletic posted on Bluesky.
Furthermore, while the full results for the AFC champion question weren’t published, none of the seven voters whose comments were included for that prompt have New England winning the conference.
Both NFL senior editor Jim Ayello and senior writer Ian O’Connor have the top-seeded Denver Broncos defeating the Patriots in the AFC title game.
“The Patriots are a year away. Home-field advantage combined with elite defense and coaching and very sound QB play is a winning Broncos formula on the road to the Super Bowl,” O’Connor wrote.
“I hate the AFC. I don’t truly believe in any team in that conference. But forced to pick, I’ll take the Broncos, mostly for mathematical purposes, as they have to win only one game to get there,” Ayello added. “And for a similar reason, I’ll take the Patriots to make the conference title game. I don’t think the banged-up Los Angeles Chargers pose much of a threat, so while it’s not a bye, New England has the easiest path to Round 2. Give me the Broncos as AFC champs. The defense isn’t actually elite, but it is still good and can slow down the Patriots, while Denver’s offense can do just enough to win.”
Minnesota Vikings writer Alec Lewis, meanwhile, has the Jacksonville Jaguars knocking off New England in the AFC Championship Game and NFL senior editor David DeChant picked the Houston Texans to eliminate the Patriots in the same round.
“I’m taking Jacksonville. Why? Because it’s one of the weirder years ever, so why not?” Lewis said.
“In a conference full of untrustworthy teams, give me the quarterback (Drake Maye) and defense (Houston) that were most trustworthy in the regular season,” DeChant added. “This would be the Texans’ first AFC Championship Game appearance … and oh, what the heck, they’ll make their first Super Bowl, too, winning 20-16 in Foxboro.”
The sixth-seeded Buffalo Bills were the AFC favorite in the survey, garnering 38% of the vote, the Broncos “have their fair share of backers, too” and the third-seeded Jaguars got six votes.
New England hosts the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC wild-card round at 8:15 p.m. ET on Sunday night.