Week 10 Panel Picks: Niners and Seahawks Expected to Bounce Back, No Love for the Jags
We’re into the second half of the season. Thus far, the 2023 NFL season has been fairly predictable. If you don’t believe me, look up “nfl standings”, and you’ll see that in almost every division, the teams are in the exact order that you would have expected at the start of the year. For instance, in the AFC West, the Chiefs at 7-2, Chargers at 4-4, Raiders at 4-5, and Broncos at 3-5 seems very predictable. Up north, The Lions with a 1.5 game lead, with the Vikings lurking, and the Packers and the Bears in the shadows is just how you probably drew it up. It’s contributed to a respectable 61.6% success rate.
As for the ATA standings, they’ve been lackluster. Nobody could have predicted the savant of NFL knowledge, Josh Sun, sitting in a pile of stench in last place for the entire season. Our first-place race features the two most unfamiliar guys on the panel—the only two gentlemen who did not attend Concord-Carlisle High School—George Constable and Theo Randall. Hopefully, there is more drama to come. Here are the standings through nine weeks.
Primetime Games
Early Window
Late Window
Most alike picks: There was a lot of variety on the panel this week. The pairs of Ray/Jackson, Josh/Theo, and George/Rahul all had two different picks.
Least alike picks: I picked six different results from George and Jackson.
Most upsets picked: Josh picked four upsets despite being in the majority on all but one of them.
Fewest upsets picked: George and Theo only picked two upsets. There seems to be a theme here.
Most picks with majority: Josh and Theo were in the majority for 13 out of 14 games.
Most picks against majority: Ray, Jackson, and I all found ourselves in the minority four times.
What Stands Out?
Kyler Murray has returned, and shows. They’re receiving a pick for the first time since week 5, and it’s just their fourth of the year. George clearly believes that Murray is a difference maker compared to Josh Dobbs and Clayton Tune if he believes that the Cardinals will take down a mediocre Falcons team this week.
These primetime games are lame. I mean, Roger Goodell, who' is in charge of coming up with these? Bears vs Panthers on Thursday Night would be better suited for Tuesday at midnight in my opinion, let alone on primetime. At what point in the season can we flex snoozefests like Jets vs Raiders out of primetime for games like San Fransisco vs Jacksonville? It’s a good thing I have a busy few days, because I don’t know if I could survive Colts vs Patriots on a Sunday morning. I’m disappointed, NFL.
With the Browns playing the Ravens this week, the maximum number of votes that AFC North teams could receive was 21. How many votes did AFC North teams receive? 21. This division is a juggernaut, it’s a bloodbath, its got four playoff caliber teams, and two Super Bowl contenders. No division rivals its difficulty.
SEA is locked three times vs WAS. WAS beat NE. NE beat BUF. BUF beat TB. TB beat CHI. CHI beat LV. LV beat GB. GB beat NO. NO beat IND. IND beat TEN. TEN beat CIN. CIN beat BUF. BUF beat MIA. MIA beat LAC. LAC beat NYJ. NYJ beat PHI. PHI beat MIN. MIN beat SF. SF beat LAR. LAR beat ARI. ARI beat DAL. DAL beat NYG. NYG beat WAS. WAS beat DEN. DEN beat KC. KC beat MIA. MIA beat CAR. CAR beat HOU. HOU beat JAX. JAX beat PIT. PIT beat BAL. BAL beat DET. DET beat ATL. ATL GB. GB beat LAR. LAR beat SEA in week 1. A reminder that nothing is guaranteed in this league.
Weak 10 doesn’t feature the league’s best teams, and no, that’s not a typo. It’s always going to be a down week when Kansas City, Miami, and Philadelphia are all on bye.
Playoff Picture
Let’s pretend our majority pick in each matchup won this weekend. Here would be the playoff matchups on Wild Card Weekend if that were the case.
AFC
(1) Baltimore Ravens vs BYE | Baltimore hasn’t held the first seed in the AFC all season.
(2) Kansas City Chiefs vs (7) Buffalo Bills | The most recent playoff matchup between these two teams was the 13 second comeback.
(3) Miami Dolphins vs (6) Cincinnati Bengals | Cincinnati beat Miami 24-16 last season without Tua Tagovailoa.
(4) Jacksonville Jaguars vs (5) Pittsburgh Steelers | The last time these two teams faced off in the playoffs, it was a battle of Blake Bortles vs Ben Roethlisberger.
NFC
(1) Philadelphia Eagles vs BYE | This is Philadelphia’s 7th straight week projected as the 1 seed.
(2) San Francisco 49ers vs (7) Minnesota Vikings | San Francisco beat Minnesota in the divisional round in 2019—Kirk Cousins’ deepest playoff run as a Viking.
(3) Detroit Lions vs (6) Dallas Cowboys | Detroit and Dallas are the only cities that host a Thanksgiving game every year.
(4) Atlanta Falcons vs (5) Seattle Seahawks | This is fourth time this year that these teams have been projected to match up in the playoffs.
Hopefully your team gets a W this week (unless it’s the Browns). Enjoy week 10!