Welcome to the conference championship round! Four teams will square off Sunday, with the two winners set to meet in Super Bowl LVII.
Three of the four participants were in this same spot one year ago, as the Bengals and Chiefs will stage a rematch of last season’ memorable game, and the 49ers will visit this year’s lone newcomer, the Eagles.
Philadelphia is a slight favorite at home, but three of our five pickers believe the Niners will win their 13th game in a row and take the NFC crown. Cincinnati is favored over Kansas City, at least in part because of questions around Patrick Mahomes’s ankle. Only one of our pickers has the Chiefs reaching their third Super Bowl in four years.
In all, our staff envisions three different matchups in Glendale. You can see which writers and editors are sticking to their predictions from when we filled out full playoff brackets and Super Bowl predictions before wild-card weekend.
Here’s who is picking games straight-up for the MMQB this year:
Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter
Mitch Goldich, editor
Gary Gramling, senior editor
Conor Orr, senior writer
John Pluym, managing editor
BOLD denotes an upset pick.
