Mark Madden's Hot Take: Eagles over Bengals for Super Bowl LVIII and other NFL predictions

In my prior missive, I predicted the Pittsburgh Steelers to go 9-8 and miss the playoffs.

Now, by way of formulaic preseason drivel, here are the rest of my NFL prognostications:

AFC East winner: Buffalo.

AFC West winner: Kansas City.

AFC North winner: Cincinnati.

AFC South winner: Jacksonville.

AFC wild cards: Baltimore, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami.

Sidebar: Jacksonville will be the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The AFC South is rotten, and the Jaguars’ schedule crosses over with the NFC South. So, that’s 10 games against foes mediocre or, quite often, worse. (I stole this notion from Peter King. Who better?)

NFC East winner: Philadelphia.

NFC West winner: San Francisco.

NFC North winner: Detroit.

NFC South winner: Atlanta.

NFC wild cards: Dallas, Green Bay, Seattle.

Sidebar: That’s right, Green Bay with Jordan Love at quarterback makes the playoffs. The New York Jets with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback don’t.

AFC champion: Cincinnati.

NFC champion: Philadelphia.

Super Bowl winner: Philadelphia.

Sidebar: Jacksonville is a playoff sleeper if the Jaguars get the No. 1 seed in the AFC, thus earning home field and preferable matchups. Don’t count quarterback Trevor Lawrence out of the MVP conversation. But…

MVP: Joe Burrow, QB, Cincinnati.

Offensive Player of the Year: Jalen Hurts, QB, Philadelphia.

Defensive Player of the Year: Myles Garrett, DE, Cleveland.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Zay Flowers, WR, Baltimore.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Will Anderson Jr., DE, Houston.

Coach of the Year: Dan Campbell, Detroit.

Sidebar: At +1100, Hurts is good value for money if you want to get a bet down for MVP. It will come down to Hurts and Burrow. (Burrow is +800.)