Midway point spurs new round of Super Bowl picks

With the NFL regular season at its halfway point for many teams, a new batch of Super Bowl LIII prognostication was unleashed.

Look for the New England Patriots vs. the New Orleans Saints in Atlanta. Or maybe the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Los Angeles Rams.

At least those were the prevalent forecasts for the Feb. 3 matchup in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as pundits reassessed the league in recent days:

■ On NFL Network, Pro Football Hall of Famer (and former Falcon) Deion Sanders predicted the Patriots vs. the Saints in Atlanta. “Without a shadow of a doubt, Tom Brady and them are going to be there,” Sanders said. Former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew disagreed with Sanders, predicting a Chiefs-Rams game in Atlanta.

■ Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, via his radio show on New York’s WFAN, said the Chiefs and Rams are the league’s two best teams because of their talented offenses. “They’re putting up so many touchdowns and scoring so many points that you can see where they are the top two,” Esiason said. “Even though the Patriots beat the Chiefs (4340), let’s face it: The Chiefs that night (were) a little less amped up.”

■ USA Today’s six-person midseason panel predicted a New England-New Orleans Super Bowl. The Patriots got three of the six votes to win the AFC, with the Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Chargers drawing one apiece. The Saints drew four votes to win the NFC, the other two going to the Rams.

■ CBS Sports’ panel of six was evenly split on the Patriots or Chiefs as AFC champion and on the Rams or Saints as NFC champ. That was a change from the panel’s preseason forecast of the Green Bay Packers as Super Bowl LIII winner.

■ And how do Las Vegas oddsmakers see the Super Bowl at this point? The Chiefs and Patriots are the co-favorites to win the AFC at 9/4 odds, while the Rams are the NFC favorite at 7/4, followed by the Saints at 7/2, according to Vegas Insider. (The Rams and Saints meet today in New Orleans.) The undefeated Rams are currently the favorite to win

GETTY Starting the regular season with an 8-0 record, Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and the Rams are among the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl in February.