2026 Tremendous Bowl Predictions: Professional Make Picks Forward of Wild-Card Weekend

[ad_1] Our NFL writers have made their Tremendous Bowl picks. Between them, they picked six groups to make the large sport and three of them to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

The AFC is huge open with out the Chiefs or Ravens concerned this season, though that would imply a transparent path for the Payments to lastly break by. Within the NFC, 4 of our writers had the Rams making it to Santa Clara.

This is what we expect will occur.

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Let’s begin right here: the Rams are probably the most full workforce in soccer.

We all know what Matthew Stafford is able to — he’s turned in an MVP-worthy season at 37 — however he’s supported by a speeding assault that performed its finest ball down the stretch, averaging 157.0 yards per sport during the last six video games of the common season. Mix that with a defensive entrance that may play at an elite stage, you have got a Los Angeles workforce that shall be very troublesome to cease, even with a tricky highway to Tremendous Bowl LX as a No. 5 seed.

On the AFC facet, the Texans have a protection able to main all of them the best way to Santa Clara — even when it confirmed some cracks down the stretch. The massive query is its offense, which has underwhelmed all season. However C.J. Stroud has proven sufficient in important moments and has the sort of playoff expertise early in his profession that, mixed with Houston’s defensive prowess, provides the Texans a path to the Tremendous Bowl in a wide-open AFC area.

That doesn’t imply that recipe shall be sufficient to win the Lombardi Trophy, although.

If the Rams-Texans season opener was any indication, a sequel in Tremendous Bowl LX may also be low-scoring. And I don’t see Stafford shedding out to Stroud with every part on the road.

I’m not a betting man in any respect. I’ve coated the league lengthy sufficient to understand how a lot one thing surprises me each week. However final 12 months, I used to be in Las Vegas for a weekend and put $10 on the Texans at 25:1 to win the Tremendous Bowl. They didn’t, in fact, however a 12 months later, it simply is smart to me, with nothing to realize now. Houston’s protection is the most effective unit on both facet of any playoff workforce, and its offense is rounding into type. Houston has received 9 straight, with three playoff groups in that run, they usually’re favored on the highway in opposition to a Steelers workforce that wanted a missed area objective to get in.

The NFC is a tricky name, and Ben already has Rams-Texans predicted, so there’s no enjoyable in repeating that. Philadelphia’s protection is coming collectively, and its offense has but to click on on all cylinders the best way it’s able to, even when it’s not the identical as final 12 months’s speeding assault. Seattle and Chicago, as prime seeds, have inexperienced coaches and quarterbacks, so the savvy of Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts could possibly be sufficient to get them three wins and a ticket to Santa Clara.

The Payments might have a transparent path on the AFC facet, with out Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson. However that doesn’t imply it’ll be all clear if Buffalo makes it to the Tremendous Bowl. As straightforward as it's to think about the Payments making the Tremendous Bowl, it’s additionally simply as straightforward to see them shedding it. And it’s not simply their (tragic) historical past within the massive sport. No, the Payments have one of many worst run defenses within the NFL(fifth worst in yards per sport and 2nd worst in yards per carry). They've one of many worst receiving corps within the NFL. And so Josh Allen has needed to be the carrying drive for almost all of the season. I can’t think about him profitable 4 video games in a row like that in opposition to playoff-level competitors.

The Rams, in any case, are effectively geared up to beat the Payments. L.A. has an excellent speeding assault, led by Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. It solely will get extra threatening when contemplating the Rams popularized 13-personnel (with three tight ends) to play bully ball this 12 months. However even when the Payments can maintain it shut in opposition to the Rams, then Allen should take care of Matthew Stafford, a well-qualified MVP candidate this 12 months. Stafford received’t buckle in a shootout — nor will he wilt within the fourth quarter.

That’s why I’m selecting L.A. to win this one.

Tom Brady on Payments’ Tremendous Bowl window, Can Josh Allen make them a win? | The Herd It doesn’t matter that they should go on the highway to get there. With the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs out, that highway is obvious for the Payments. Their nemesis, their playoff bugaboo, is out of the best way. How might this not be their 12 months?

Karma apart, they do have all of the substances: A robust protection, a harmful operating sport, and a quarterback able to taking part in like an MVP. And in these methods, they appear precisely just like the Los Angeles Rams — one other workforce that appears buried within the wild-card pack, however looms as one of the crucial harmful threats of their convention.

Each these groups shall be unfazed by taking part in in hostile environments. Each are able to stifling defenses and offensive explosions. And each can trip their battle-tested coaches and quarterbacks when the going will get actually robust.

And in Tremendous Bowl LX, rely on the Payments to mount one final second-half comeback that, in some ways, has been 32 years within the making. Josh Allen will safe the MVP with one final game-winning drive. And this time Western New York can breathe simpler, as a result of it received’t come down to 1 remaining, wayward kick.

[ NFL Playoff Bold Predictions ]

It’s Josh Allen’s time to lastly test the field by profitable a Tremendous Bowl and incomes an NFL title for a Buffalo franchise ravenous for a Lombardi trophy. First off, top-tier quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow now not stand in his means, with their groups surprisingly failing to succeed in the postseason this 12 months.

Though the Payments should hit the highway, the reigning NFL MVP continues to be the most effective participant left on this 12 months’s playoffs. And Allen has a succesful operating mate in James Prepare dinner, who led the league in speeding through the common season. Sure, Buffalo’s protection stays a weak spot for this workforce and should carry out extra persistently in important moments within the postseason.

However no participant is scarier on the finish of the sport with the ball in his palms, and I anticipate Allen to placed on his Superman cape and lead Buffalo to the winner’s circle this postseason. Doing it in opposition to the most effective protection within the league in Seattle within the Tremendous Bowl shall be icing on the cake for Allen.

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