At long last, the 2023 NFL season is upon us. We are a scant few months away from crowning a champion in Super Bowl LIX, which will be played on Feb. 9, 2025, at the Caesars SuperDome in New Orleans, Louisiana. There are, of course, 272 regular-season games and 13 more playoff contests to be played between now and then, starting with the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs kicking off the season against the rival Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.
How will things shake out during the regular season? We have once again gathered our panel of experts (senior NFL writers Pete Prisco and Will Brinson, and NFL writers Ryan Wilson, John Breech, Jared Dubin, and Tyler Sullivan) to predict the order of finish for each of the league's eight divisions, as well as the wild card teams and which team will both win and lose the Super Bowl.
Here are a few notes before we get to the predictions:
- There was quite a bit more agreement among the panelists this year than last year, when we had the most divided results in the history of this poll.
- We only have two unanimous division winners, but we have three unanimous last-place finishers and we have one division where everyone has the exact same order of finish, with only one exception where one panelist has the third- and fourth-place teams flipped.
- We had eight teams unanimously predicted to make the playoffs, while 20 teams (63% of the league) got at least one vote for a playoff spot and 12 didn't receive any.
- None of the six panelists picked the same Super Bowl matchup and only two picked the same winner. We have one vote for five different teams to win it all, and at least one for nine different teams making a trip to New Orleans for the championship game.
- The only teams that multiple voters picked to reach the Super Bowl: Bills (2), Lions (2), Packers (2).
Alright, let's get to these predictions.
