What The Other "Experts" Say

I'm mostly posting this here so we can look back at it at the end of the season, and compare what we predicted against what the "professional" experts predict. My theory is that they all suck, and won't be any closer than us to hitting on the final standings...

So here are some teams and numbers from 18 "experts" - 12 from ESPN.com, SI's Dr. Z and Peter King, 3 more guys from SI, and NFL.com's TMQ (although TMQ did not pick conference champs or Super Bowl champ, other than guessing one of the participants in the Super Bowl would be a team that didn't appear on MNF during the season).

AFC Champion:
Colts - 9 votes
Patriots - 7 votes
Steelers - 1 vote

NFC Champion:
Vikings - 5 votes
Panthers - 4 votes
Eagles - 3 votes
Falcons - 3 votes
Rams - 1 vote
Redskins - 1 vote

Super Bowl XL Champion:
Colts - 5 votes
Patriots - 4 votes
Eagles - 3 votes
Panthers - 2 votes
Steelers - 1 vote
Falcons - 1 vote
Rams - 1 vote

Now to check in on the good ol' Seahawks and Packers, the teams that get the most attention right here...

Of the 15 "experts"... Only 4 picked Seattle to win the NFC West, and 1 picked them to make the playoffs as a Wild Card.

For the Packers, only 1 picked them to win the NFC North, and only 1 picked them to make the playoffs as a Wild Card. In fact, 16 of the others picked the Vikings to win the division. The only person who did not pick the Vikings picked the Lions, and he's obviously smoking some strong hashish.

Generally, people analyzing Seattle pointed to poor defense and dropped balls as being their main weaknesses. Do these people even pay attention to the off season? Seattle will have 7 new starters on defense, including a couple veterans who have had very impressive pre-seasons (Jamie Sharper, Andre Dyson, Chuck Darby, Kelly Herndon) and some exciting young blood (Marcus Tubbs, Lofa Tatupu, D.D. Lewis). And the main WR spreading the dropsies disease, Koren Robinson, is gone, replaced by sure-handed Joe Jureviscious. And yes, I probably massacred that spelling.

So let's revisit this thread in January, and see how these clowns did.