NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL’s final four teams at the end of last season will start off as the top four going into the start of the 2019 season.Which is not all that surprising. Even less so is the team at the top: the defending champion New England Patriots. The Patriots received eight of the 12 first-place votes for 376 points in balloting Tuesday by media members who regularly cover the NFL.The Patriots will begin their quest for a seventh Super Bowl on Sunday night when they host the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two teams are tied for the most with six.“The defending champs have a chance to make it to four straight Super Bowls Womens Joejuan Williams Jersey , and who’s going to say they don’t have a chance? Even with a 42-year-old quarterback and a 67-year-old coach,” Newsday’s Bob Glauber said of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.The Kansas City Chiefs, who lost to the Patriots at home in overtime of the AFC championship game, earned two first-place votes for 357 points.“Did defensive coordinators come any closer in the offseason to figuring out how to stop Patrick Mahomes?” Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk asked of the reigning league MVP.The New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams, who met in the NFC championship game, each received a first-place vote and were third and fourth, respectively.“After two excruciating playoff setbacks, the Saints are poised to represent the NFC in Miami Feb. 2,” said Ira Kaufman of Fox 13 in Tampa, Florida.Those two teams started a run of five consecutive teams from the NFC in the poll.The Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears Authentic Joejuan Williams Jersey , who faced off in a memorable NFC wild-card game last season, followed at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. The Eagles advanced when Cody Parkey missed a 43-yard field goal in the final seconds. The Bears have Eddy Pineiro as their kicker now as they host the rival Green Bay Packers on Thursday night in the NFL’s regular-season opener.“Secondary issues critical with (Vic) Fangio gone,” Fox Sports’ John Czarnecki said of the former Bears defensive coordinator who was hired in the offseason to be the head coach of the Denver Broncos.The Seattle Seahawks follow at No. 7 after making a big trade for defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney last weekend.The Pittsburgh Steelers will have a different look on offense this season now that wide receiver Antonio Brown is with the Raiders and running back Le’Veon Bell with the New York Jets. They will start the season at No. 8.The Los Angeles Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys, teams that both lost in the divisional round of the playoffs last season, are tied at No. 9 to round out the top 10 teams. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has never been in the business of publicly discussing his strategies. So when he dismisses analytics, that dismissal needs to be taken with a grain of salt.Belichick was asked today how much consideration he gives to analytics when deciding whether to go for two or go for it on fourth down, and he answered, “Less than zero.” He added that “Analytics is not really my thing.”That’s long been Belichick’s public talking point; in 2016 he scoffed at analytics websites by saying, “I’ve never looked at one. I don’t even care to look at one. I don’t care what they say.”But while Belichick rarely uses the buzzword “analytics” as anything other than a pejorative Joejuan Williams Jersey Boys , it’s clear from studying the Patriots that they do, in fact, think about statistical analysis in sophisticated ways. In fact, Belichick’s Patriots have consistently been ahead of the curve on statistical analysis, and when other teams have gotten the best of them — such as the Eagles in the Super Bowl two seasons ago — it’s often because those teams are relying on analytics as well.One of Belichick’s most trusted advisors is Ernie Adams, the Patriots’ football research director, who was a municipal bonds trader before he worked for Belichick, first in Cleveland and then in New England. Many of the methods that sports statistical analysts use are rooted in the same methods used to analyze economic data. Adams understands both, and that makes him valuable to Belichick.Looking at Belichick’s strategies, it’s clear that he thinks along the same lines as analytics experts. In the NFL draft Youth Irving Fryar Jerseys , Belichick prefers trading down to trading up, and he particularly likes to trade a pick this year for a higher pick next year. That suggests that he’s studied the economic phenomenon of hyperbolic discounting.On the sideline, the most controversial call of Belichick’s career appeared to be influenced by analytics: When Belichick went for it on fourth-and-2 from his own 28-yard line in a 2009 game against the Colts, it was the analytics people who said he had made the mathematically correct decision, while most football fans and media members thought Belichick had lost his mind.That approach to analytics goes to the very top of the organization. The Patriots’ official website wrote in 2016 that “You may not find a bigger believer in data and analytics than New England Patriots Owners Robert Kraft.”A belief in analytics runs deep within the Patriots organization. Belichick isn’t in the business of announcing that publicly, but there’s little doubt that he has a firm grasp of analytics.