Cris Collinsworth Picks AFC Team (Not Named the Chiefs) to Win the Super Bowl This Season

The NBC analyst called this pick a “stupid” one, but he’s sticking with it.

NBC Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth has a surprising preseason pick to win the Super Bowl.

Collinsworth, in an appearance Monday on Up & Adams with Kay Adams, said his early pick is the Cincinnati Bengals after the team came up just short in each of the past two seasons. The pick, which Collinsworth himself calls “stupid” because of how much more difficult the AFC is compared to the NFC, is sure to raise eyebrows, but makes sense given how good quarterback Joe Burrow has been in the postseason.

“Joe Burrow has a chance to do it all this year,” Collinsworth said. “The last two years, he has been phenomenal.”

🗣️ Joe Burrow has a chance to do it alllllll this year.

📺: @FanDuelTV | @heykayadams | @CollinsworthPFF | @JoeyB pic.twitter.com/wOaJsdKgiv

— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) July 24, 2023

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Collinsworth noted that Cincinnati has gotten off to slow starts each of the past two years after Burrow missed time in camp—with a knee injury hindering him in 2021 before an appendectomy in late July 2022 that disrupted his preseason work. This year, with no such hindrances, Collinsworth believes it’s Cincinnati’s time to shine.

“What I should pick is Philadelphia because they’ve got the easier path… in the AFC, you’ve got to slug your way,” Collinsworth said. “But Joe Burrow walks into this season healthy for the first time, full practice, full ability to get this thing going right off the bat.”

The Bengals have the league’s fifth-best odds to win the Super Bowl, per SI Sportsbook, behind the defending champion Chiefs, 49ers, Eagles and Bills. But Burrow gives his team a chance to win any game, and his sparkling postseason performances in the last two years are enough for analysts like Collinsworth to hop on the Bengals bandwagon anyway.