The Athletic’s NFL Insider Panel Overwhelmingly Picks Winner In Patriots-Texans Divisional Round Game

Prior to the start of the playoffs, none of The Athletic’s 42 NFL staff members picked the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

Following their convincing wild-card round win vs. the Los Angeles Chargers, the Patriots were suddenly the AFC favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook.

With DeMeco Ryans’ Houston Texans facing injury concerns ahead of Sunday afternoon’s AFC Divisional Round game against New England, Mike Vrabel’s Patriots are slight favorites in the matchup.

For the second week in a row, The Athletic asked a panel of NFL coaches and executives to pick winners for the weekend’s contests and the results were revealed on Friday.

New England gained the majority of votes in the game vs. Houston, as seven of the 10 panelists picked the Patriots to defeat C.J. Stroud’s group.

As NFL National Insider Jeff Howe noted, the group of voters were “primarily focused on one man: Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.”

“The way Drake is playing — other than this past week, I don’t think Drake is going to have two in a row like that,” an executive said. “That’s a really tough place to play. I don’t know if the Texans are going to run the ball and possess it enough to keep Drake Maye off the field.”

If the Texans are to pull off the road upset, they’ll likely do it on the strength of their defense.

New England wideout Kayshon Boutte was among the Patriots players who expressed confidence in his team’s offense on Thursday though, saying that Houston’s defense isn’t “one of the toughest” and that they’re “not too complicated.”

One panel member cited the Texans’ lack of a run game as a possible deciding factor on Sunday.

“The Texans’ running game isn’t there,” the executive said. “You want to have faith in that defense, but I don’t trust the offense to take enough pressure off them.”