USA Today Releases Their Controversial NFL Predictions & Super Bowl LXI Winner For 2026
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
USA Today has released its projected final standings for all 32 teams, complete with playoff picks and a Super Bowl LXI champion.
It’s hard enough predicting winners each week. However, Nate Davis has already run through the entire season, guessing where each team will finish.
Some of his projections won’t raise many eyebrows. But there are a few in there that should leave some fanbases scratching their heads.
Among the biggest surprises, Davis projects the Dallas Cowboys to reclaim the NFC East with an 11-6 record while the Philadelphia Eagles fall to 8-9 and miss the postseason entirely. He also tips the Chicago Bears to win 12 games and earn the NFC’s No. 2 seed under Ben Johnson.
The AFC predictions contain plenty of bold calls, too.
Davis sees the Miami Dolphins finishing with the league’s worst record at 1-16, while the Denver Broncos win the AFC West after another step forward under Sean Payton. He also sees Kansas City bouncing back from its torrid 2025 campaign, though he still has them finishing behind Denver in the AFC West.
Davis explains…
Using the most current information amid a few iterations of this exercise, I predict winners and losers for all 272 regular-season games to arrive at my projections. The outcomes allow me to apply tiebreakers, when needed, to determine and slot the 14-team playoff field – seedings in parentheses – before forecasting a champion. Warning: Past performances − generally a nice ROI there − are no guarantee of future returns.)
Several Surprise Picks Lead To One Massive USA Today Prediction
Some of Davis’ boldest projections involve teams taking the next step after falling short in last season’s playoffs.
The Los Angeles Rams are tipped to finish 14-3, tying the Seattle Seahawks for the NFL’s best regular-season record while capturing the NFC’s top seed. Davis also thinks the Buffalo Bills will return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1993 after defeating the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game.
He has the Rams defeating the Bills in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.
Super Bowl 61 (Inglewood, California)
Rams def. Bills
Prediction pieces always age in one of two ways.
They either look remarkably insightful, or they become a time capsule of takes that everyone laughs at by Thanksgiving.
The irony of predicting 272 NFL games is that nobody remembers the correct picks.
They remember the spectacularly wrong ones.
