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There is something ESPN uses called the Football Power Index (FPI):
“A team's FPI rating combines its efficiency ratings on offense, defense and special teams -- based on each unit's expected points added per play -- with the sum of all three squad ratings yielding the overall FPI rating.”
Those ratings then are utilized to simulate the NFL season 10,000 times to give the FPI their numbers on teams and the chances a team has to win their division, make the playoffs, make the Super Bowl and even win the Super Bowl.
The ratings part is a little off to me, simply because they have the Arizona Cardinals ranked 25th. I don't know what that means exactly, but they are 25th in the FPI rankings.
The Cardinals are predicted to go 8-8 on the season, but the FPI gives them an 18.7% chance to win the division. The Seattle Seahawks are projected to win the division and have the second best odds in the entire NFL of winning their division at 75.8%. The New England Patriots are first at 92.3%.
The reasons I don't quite grasp their ranking is because they have a 33.2% chance to make the playoffs, which is higher than half the teams in the NFL. Someone smarter, Gungus, AndyStandsUp, my seven year old, can explain the difference in the rankings and the likelihood of making the playoffs
They sit tied for 20th in chance to win the Super Bowl, at 0.7%, along with the Washington Redskins.
Yet, they have a 2.4% chance to make the Super Bowl, which moves then up to 18th in the rankings.
Overall, you can read the article here, explain it to me in the comments if it makes sense to you. Basically, the numbers don't like Arizona in 2017.
Can they overcome?