Now that the 2019 NFL schedule has been released, the predictions are just about everywhere you look.
Those predictions range from how many wins a team will, to which games will be their most difficult and how deep a playoff run a team can make.
Mike Clay, covering the NFL for ESPN, recently wrote an article comparing his projected win totals for each team to the recent odds provided by Westgate Las Vegas Sportsbook.
Westgate puts the Chargers at 10 wins this coming season and Clay calls that a “push”, giving them 9.9 wins for the year. Here’s how the predictions by both Westgate and Clay break down in the AFC West division.
Westgate
Kansas City: 10.5
Los Angeles: 10
Denver: 7
Oakland: 6
Clay (ESPN)
Los Angeles: 9.9
Kansas City: 9.8
Denver: 6.6
Oakland: 5.1
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It’s a razor-thin difference between the Chiefs and Chargers there as most analysts and fans out there see the division coming down to those two teams just as it did last year. Though these predictions don’t give game-by-game predictions, it would stand to reason that they see the division race coming down to the final game of the season.
But can the Chargers build off their 12-win season last year? As Clay notes, last year was the first time since 2009 that the team won double-digit games. The last time they had double-digit wins in back-to-back seasons came in 2006-2007.
According to the odds by Westgate, the New England Patriots will have the most wins in the league while the Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins will have the least.
Clay has the Patriots with the most at 11.3 and the Dolphins with the least at 3.6.