2023 NFL simulation: 285 game predictions, including playoffs - ESPN

To forecast the 2023 NFL season, ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) simulates the season 20,000 times. That produces our projections, which are filled with probabilities, like the 14% chance the Eagles win the Super Bowl or the 43% chance the Lions win the NFC North.

But life happens only once.

So for today and today only, we're talking in certainties as we dive into the crystal ball of a single simulation — simulation No. 3,818 — to unveil the NFL season before it takes place. In a single sim, almost anything can happen. Then again, the same is true in real life, as the idea of the Vikings winning 13 games or the Broncos falling flat on their faces to five wins in 2022 might have seemed laughable at this time last year.

In simulation No. 3,818, ESPN's FPI played out every game of the 2023 campaign, producing winners and losers, surprise collapses and an exciting race to the Super Bowl. We applied a little creative license to the details, but the results are all from the model. Here's the 2023 NFL season, before it happens (maybe), including scores from each playoff game:

Remember after last season when coach Mike McCarthy kicked then-offensive coordinator Kellen Moore out the door and took over the playcalling? It didn't work out too well in this simulation.

The Cowboys found themselves on the losing end of a New York double feature, falling to the Giants and Jets to open the season before pulling out a 16-10 win over the Cardinals in Week 3. Perhaps barely beating the Cardinals was the most obvious indicator of what was to come, as Dallas stumbled to then lose to the Patriots, 49ers and Chargers to begin the season 1-5.

Things only got worse. After a modest recovery to pull to 3-6 through Week 10, the Cowboys slid again