It might sound crazy to try and predict the entire NFL playoff field after just one week of action, but we specialize in crazy. Week 1 turned the NFL upside down, and you can mostly blame the two teams in Los Angeles for that. The Rams were the Super Bowl favorite going into the season, but right now, it's hard to envision them even winning their division after they got blasted 27-7 by the 49ers in Australia.
And then we have the Chargers. They usually wait until the playoffs to let their fan base down, but this year, they did it in Week 1 with a stunning 26-14 loss to the Cardinals. As if that's not enough, EVERY team in the NFC South is 0-1, making that possibly the most unpredictable division in the NFL this year.
Actually, I take that back; nothing is unpredictable for us here, and that's because we have our resident analytics expert, Stephen Oh, who simulated the rest of the season to see how things will end up playing out. For those of you who are not familiar with Oh's work, let me just say this: If AI was human, it would be Oh. They say don't overreact to Week 1, but our simulation has run the numbers and reacted accordingly.
With that in mind, let's get to the projections. Before the season started, the Chiefs were kind of a question mark, but that's not the case anymore after their dominant 31-10 win over the Broncos on Monday night. Our projection model is now feeling confident that the AFC West will go through Kansas City this year.
If this projection holds up, that means we'll have two new playoff teams in the AFC with the Bengals and Chiefs getting in. The biggest surprise here might be that the reigning AFC champion Patriots are projected to miss the postseason. In the NFC, the computer has three teams in the NFC West making the playoffs.
Before the season started, our computer surprisingly projected the Seahawks to win the NFC West over the Rams, which looks like a smart pick right now after the way Week 1 played out. Despite their ugly loss in Week 1, the Rams are still projected to make the playoffs, but just barely. Oh, and did I mention that we have a surprise winner coming out of the NFC South?
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