RADIO.COM Sports Super Bowl LV expert picks

Narratively speaking, Tom Brady winning another Super Bowl, at 43, in his first season with Tampa Bay, would be almost too perfect. If you wrote that screenplay, they’d laugh you out of the room. It’s just not believable. And if you think Brady won’t make it his life’s mission to one-up Michael Jordan’s six rings, you don’t know him very well. The Chiefs have had a number of close calls this season, but the fact remains that Kansas City has won 25 of its last 26 games with Patrick Mahomes under center. We know the Bucs’ defense is relentless (fourth-most sacks, fifth-most takeaways during the regular season) and that Sunday will be a de facto home game for them playing at Raymond James Stadium. But none of that deterred Mahomes when he dusted Tampa for a season-high 462 yards in Week 12 with deep threat Tyreek Hill accounting for over half that yardage (13-269-3 on 15 targets). And so what if the Bucs are at home? The Chiefs haven’t lost away from Arrowhead since Week 10 of 2019. Expect both offenses to come out firing in an entertaining slugfest that more than lives up to the hype.

I truly think this game can go either way. What I do know is that we're not going to see Tyreek Hill go for 200 yards in the first quarter this time around. But what I also know is that the Chiefs really haven't lulled at any point this season — the same can't be said about the Bucs — and they're firing on all cylinders after scoring five times (three through the air, two on the ground) against a very good Bills team. I see the Bucs with more empty drives than the Chiefs in this one, even if only by a margin of one or two, and that will make the difference.

It’s out with the old and in with the new for Super Bowl LV. While Tom Brady seeks an impressive seventh Lombardi Trophy, his first with a new team – which happens to be playing in its home stadium – it will be Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs who come out on top. Both teams are pretty evenly matched, but, as usual, it is going to come down to who can make the plays when it counts most in the fourth quarter and I just cannot bet against a Mahomes-led offense when it matters most. Sure, Brady has proven to do this time and time again, but he is also more prone to mistakes at this stage in his career than Mahomes, which will be the difference in this game.

I would have liked to be different from everyone else, but I picked the Chiefs to repeat at the outset of the campaign, and even though they've sleepwalked at times this year, they're 17-1 this season. Eventually, the Chiefs are going to get burned by digging themselves a hole at the beginning of games, but Mahomes and the Chiefs are turning into one of the great teams in NFL history. As silly as I'll feel picking against Tom Brady if the Bucs win, I think Sunday will prove to be the second title in an eventual dynasty.

This game is tough to call, but I have a slight lean to the younger, relatively better-rested team. The Super Bowl will mark just the third game for Kansas City since Jan. 3, while the Bucs played an extra game without the benefit of the bye week. Tampa has looked good since recovering from a midseason swoon, but the Chiefs beat a hot Browns team with their backup quarterback, then thrashed a good Bills team in the AFC title game. KC and Mahomes seem unstoppable.