Our picks for Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs are in!
Bleeding Green Nation staff members are here to predict the winners of every game on the schedule. We’ll tally the results along the way and see who comes out on top at the end of the season. Feel free to post your own predictions or discuss the writer predictions in the comments.
You, the reader, can also join in on the fun by voting for who you think will win the games (scroll down for polls). I’ll tally those results in a “BGN Community” section under our picks table generated by Tallysight.
After the Conference Championship Round, the collective BGN Community has officially clinched first place in the overall standings! Congrats, y’all. I think that’s the first-ever win for you? Tyler Jackson finished as the top staff member. The playoff standings are obviously still to be decided.
When it comes to the big game on Sunday, the BGN staff is NOT unanimously favoring the Birds. The Eagles opened as 1.5-point home underdogs and that line has remained unchanged, according to FanDuel.
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND RESULTS
Drew: 2-0
Alexis: 2-0
Stolnis: 2-0
BLG: 2-0
Dave: 1-1
Community: 1-1
Tyler: 1-1
Ben: 1-1
Jonny: 1-1
OVERALL STANDINGS
Community: 205-79
Tyler: 203-81
Dave: 198-86
BLG: 194-90
Jonny: 192-92
Ben: 185-99
Drew: 185-99
Alexis: 180-104
Stolnis: 177-107
PLAYOFF STANDINGS
Stolnis: 9-3
Drew: 9-3
Tyler: 8-4
BLG: 8-4
Dave: 7-5
Community: 7-5
Ben: 7-5
Alexis: 7-5
Jonny: 5-7
MAKE YOUR PICK
Vote for your pick below.
(If you can’t see the polls, click here and try opening this article from the front page.)
Poll
Which team will win?
EXPLANATIONS
BRANDON LEE GOWTON
How can I pick the Eagles if I’ve been saying the Chiefs’ threepeat is inevitable dating back to last February?
Saquon Barkley and Vic Fangio are temping me to change my mind.
But I’m not at the point where I can doubt the Chiefs.
I need to see them lose to truly believe it’s going to happen.
CHIEFS 26, EAGLES 23
JOHN STOLNIS
There have been three times in my life I’ve felt this confident about a Philadelphia sports team playing in a championship-level situation. In 2008, I knew the Phillies were beating the Rays in the World Series. I knew it to my core. I also knew the Eagles were going to smoke the 49ers in the 2022 NFC Championship Game. Check my Twitter timeline, I predicted a blowout. I also was sure the Eagles were going to beat Tampa in the 2002 NFC Championship Game. We all know how that worked out. So I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not that I feel so confident in this Eagles team going to New Orleans and preventing the Chiefs’ three-peat, but this team feels like it was artificially generated in a lab to beat this Kansas City squad.
The Eagles have a defense that lives to hit people and tackle in space, which is essentially the entire KC offense. They are not overly reliant on a pass rush to get stops. Saquon Barkley should run all over this Spags defense, in part negating some of his blitz-heavy tendencies. The Chiefs like to play a lot of dime defense, and it’s not hard to envision this offensive line and Saquon running through them like paper mache. Everywhere I look I see match-up advantages for the Eagles. They are the better team. Sure, the Chiefs have only lost one game this year that mattered, in Week 11 against the Bills. But people overlook the fact the Eagles have lost just once since Week 4, and that was a game Jalen Hurts was concussed after just one quarter. In games Hurts has started and finished, the Eagles have won 15 in a row. FIFTEEN GAMES STRAIGHT.
On Sunday, the Eagles will make it 16, and it will be more comfortable than you think.
EAGLES 35, CHIEFS 23
DAVE MANGELS
I am picking the Chiefs because I said before the NFCCG that I would pick the Chiefs. I am picking the Chiefs because Patrick Mahomes is inevitable. I am picking the Chiefs because they are the back to back defending champs.
All that said, I am actually feeling pretty good about the Eagles chances. This is a more balanced team than the 2022 team. The defense isn’t entirely dependent on a pass rush that could be negated by playing on a slip and slide covered in baby oil. In both Denver and Miami Vic Fangio has done a good job holding the Chiefs offense in check, it would be a surprise if this is a high scoring game. The offense has greater balance too, repeatedly showing this year that they can win when the QB isn’t on his game. Last time, Jalen Hurts played out of his mind and it wasn’t enough. This year Hurts still needs to play well, very well, but everything around him is better. The degree of difficulty of being the Chiefs is still sky high, but the Eagles are in position to meet it.
Go Birds.
JONNY PAGE
The Eagles have more talent than the Chiefs. I think that’s pretty clear. The Chiefs’ offense is fascinating to study because it’s so incredibly well-designed, and Patrick Mahomes is unbelievable. But the talent level isn’t very high. If you can stay disciplined and not fall for the misdirection and deception, there isn’t a lot that scares me. This defense has the talent to stop the Chiefs’ offense, and I feel pretty confident about it. However, you can never be too confident when playing Patrick Mahomes.
I think the Eagles should win. But I am still incredibly nervous.
Eagles 31. Chiefs 24.
Gulp.
ALEXIS CHASSEN
Despite the perception that the Eagles only do enough to win, the Chiefs have actually scraped by far more times this season. With the way the Eagles were playing in the NFC Championship Game, there’s no way I can bet against them. It wasn’t even a hard decision — mostly because I’m an admitted homer, but also because Philadelphia’s roster is way more stacked, the defense is young enough and physical enough to make Patrick Mahomes uncomfortable for 60 minutes, and they haven’t given me a reason since Week 4 to doubt them. Not once.
Mahomes is without question someone you don’t want to let have the ball in the final minutes of the game… unless the Eagles are up three scores. I think the game ultimately ends closer than it should be, but heading into the fourth quarter, I think the Eagles have a sizeable enough lead to withstand the late-game heroics of Andy Reid’s crew.
DREW HAMM
As most likely the only Eagles fan that everyone I know in Minnesota knows, I’ve been asked roughly 4,000 times how I’m feeling about the Super Bowl since the Birds steamrolled the Commanders. My answer has always been “I’m as confident as I can be.” This is a good answer because it allows the question asker to decipher if I think the Eagles will win or if they’ll lose in a soul-crushing fashion. It’s also a good answer because it keeps the conversation short and I don’t have to show these casual acquaintances how mentally ill I am when it comes to sports. However, I know I am amongst mentally ill friends here and so I will give you my real answer: I think the Eagles are going to win. They are better than they were two years ago and the Chiefs are worse. Saquon Barkley appears to be an unstoppable tidal wave of 60-yard touchdown runs, the likes of which I haven’t seen since watching Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon run for 408 yards in three quarters against Nebraska in the snow. Philadelphia’s defense is young, athletic, and violent. Their offensive line is veteran, massive, and violent. AJ Brown and Devonta Smith are really good. Jalen Hurts is really, really good. The Eagles, to put it succinctly, are good.
Stolnis noted the times he was supremely confident in a Philadelphia sports team winning and I actually have two of the same ones. I knew the Phillies were going to beat the Rays in the World Series. But I was also 100% sure the Eagles would beat the Bucs in the NFC Championship Game during the last game at The Vet. Here’s how I know the Super Bowl will be like the ‘08 World Series and not the 2002 NFC Title Game…I was at that NFC Title Game and I didn’t even live in Philadelphia during the Phillies’ World Series run. So, from Minnesota with love: Go Birds.
TYLER JACKSON
I’m irrationally confident in this Eagles team heading into the Super Bowl.
For starters the Eagles have the best defense in the NFL and when I go across the board I can’t find a receiver-defensive back matchup that scares me. Vic Fangio has this unit playing at an elite level and does what Jon Gannon did not – adjust. This Chiefs offense isn’t one that threatens you with big plays and rarely attempts them. They’re facing Patrick Mahomes but I’ll talk my chances making him consistently beat me with 14-play drives. Much is being made of Mahomes’ 8-0 record against Fangio. The stat that sticks out to me is the 10-2 TD-INT ratio. That’s 1.25 TD passes per game against Fangio defenses. I’ll be over the moon if Mahomes is under two touchdown passes.
On the flip side the Eagles are constructed to handle the Chiefs defense. If Spags wants to stay in two-high shells all day, I believe Kellen Moore will be more than happy to spam the run game and considering the stage, I wouldn’t be surprised to see over 12 designed QB runs to complement Saquon Barkley and take advantage of box numbers.
When the Eagles need to take to the air, I like their chances there too. Jalen Hurts has been a top 10 QB against the blitz this year and the Chiefs had their second highest blitz percentages of 2022 and 2023 when they faced Hurts. They’ve shown exactly how they want to approach him and he’s shown he’s improved against it.
Overall I believe it comes down to the Eagles offense. I trust Vic Fangio and the defense and he’s proven it time after time this year when facing the likes of Lamar Jackson, Jordan Love, Jayden Daniels and Matthew Stafford. The offense has had its inconsistencies even as recently as the NFCCG when there was trouble picking up blitzes and sorting protections. If Hurts and the gang can get to 30 points, they’re bringing the Lombardi down Broad St. next week.
Eagles 31, Chiefs 21
BEN NATAN
Look, I am as pessimistic as they come, but the Eagles are winning this football game.
Yes, a quarterback who lost his first Super Bowl appearance has never gone on to win a Super Bowl. But a team has never threepeat either. History is on the line either way, and I am picking the team that feels like they have something to prove.
Vic Fangio is not looking for real estate in Arizona. He has locked himself in a room to cook up a way to stop the force of Patrick Mahomes. Kellen Moore seems to be staving off head coaching aspirations to game plan for the Chiefs defense.
The Eagles are a more talented team than two years ago. The Chiefs are less. Jalen Hurts is laser focused. Saquon Barkley is doing something unprecedented. Jalen Carter is playing as good as any defender in the NFL. The Eagles are winning this thing.
Eagles 27. Chiefs 20.