NFL experts have spoken and they’ve picked the Kansas City Chiefs to keep rolling for another week, this time over the Cleveland Browns.
The Kansas City Chiefs continue to roll, and there’s no reason to believe they’ll stop this week.
After two strong wins at home against the Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos, the Chiefs are back on the road to face the Cleveland Browns. The Browns are, as they seem to always be, in flux—Hue Jackson and Todd Haley have been fired, as defensive coordinator Gregg Williams takes over as interim head coach. While their defense has been strong, their offense has not lived up to the offseason expectations.
So it should come as no shock that the 7-1 Chiefs are heavy favorites this week, despite the game being interesting from a storyline perspective. There’s the potential revenge factor, with John Dorsey’s Browns taking on his former team. There’s also the Patrick Mahomes vs. Baker Mayfield dynamic. They had a comically defense-free shootout in college, and have known each other since Mayfield hosted Mahomes when he first arrived at Texas Tech. But the Browns remain the Browns, and despite showing some promise for the first time in a very, very long time, they’re simply not close to competing with a team at the Chiefs’ level.
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It’s all Chiefs at ESPN, the second time in three weeks that there’s been universal K.C. love.
Jason La Canfora is the only one on CBS’s expert panel picking the Browns. Though like with ESPN last week, he is in last place on the season among the panel, and by quite a bit. He may be firing Hail Mary picks at this point to try and gain ground. Not saying it’s totally illogical to pick the Browns here, but it certainly isn’t the safe pick.
FiveThirtyEight has the Chiefs as a near-sure win this week with an 84% win probability. On the season, K.C. remains the favorites to win the Super Bowl, still at an 18% probability. By comparison, the Browns are at a <1% to even make the playoffs.
This should be a fairly easy win for the Chiefs. The cliche is there aren’t any easy wins in the NFL, and while it’s true a totally hapless team can catch a great team on a bad day and beat them (remember when the Kyle Orton-led Chiefs ended the Packers’ perfect season?), the Chiefs second-half schedule includes the Browns, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Oakland Raiders (twice!). There’s no excuse at this point, if the Chiefs don’t capture a first-round bye, it’ll have been a colossal failure.
But there’s no reason to expect that, and every reason to expect another win Sunday. It’s still early, but things are starting to feel predestined about this team. I’m probably setting myself up to eat my words, and I’m sure the 1999 Minnesota Vikings felt equally predestined among their fans. But it’s still undeniable; there’s something special going on with this team. It’s the intangibles. It’s the eye test. It’s a bit of fan bias, but it’s there.
Unless they lose to the Browns. Then it’s all gone.
But they won’t.