It dawned on me over the weekend that we have only a few days to go until the NFL season starts. I've barely given football any thought at all since I'm used to watching preseason games, but eliminating them thanks to COVID-19 has me left with an "out of sight, out of mind" feeling. I don't think anyone can really know what to expect given what we've seen in the other major sports, but since the season kicks off a week from Thursday, here goes.....
1. We are in for some bad football for the first month of the season. I have no doubt that players across the league are in shape, but there's a huge difference between being in shape and being in football shape. The preseason normally gets players there, but since they've been limited to practices this month we are probably bound to see plenty of slopping mistakes and missed tackles for the first few weeks.
On top of that, all the undrafted free agents who normally use the preseason to fight to make the final rosters won't have that option. Coaches will only have practices on tape to evaluate who should stay and who should go. That's not even close to being enough to properly evaluate everyone. The overall quality of play on the field across the league will be shoddy at best.
2. Kyler Murray and Josh Allen will be the next young QBs to take a huge leap forward. Two years ago Patrick Mahomes set the world on fire. Last year it was Lamar Jackson. Murray and Allen will be neck and neck in carrying that torch in 2020. Both QBs had very middling stats across the board in 2019; in fact, Allen had finished dead last among starting QBs in completion percentage. However, Murray will now have DeAndre Hopkins and Allen has Stephon Diggs to help them stretch the field. Their dynamic play will be exciting to watch for fans of both teams, though Buffalo has a better chance at reaching the postseason than Arizona does.
3. The New York Giants will be that sub-.500 team from last year who comes out of nowhere. Much of this prediction depends on just how good QB Daniel Jones will play now that he's the Week 1 starter under center. Just how well he plays depends on what new head coach Joe Judge and OC Jason Garrett can do with him, but there is a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. Jones has a stud RB in Saquon Barkley and two quality WR in Golden Tate and Darius Slayton.
Meanwhile the defense looks to be a whole lot better than it has been the last couple years. Dexter Lawrence, the Giants' first round pick in 2019, has a full season to play alongside Leonard Williams on their defensive line. They also added Kyler Fackrell at DE for pass rush who knows DC Patrick Graham's system.
The Cowboys are still the class of the NFC East, but the Eagles look far too shaky to keep pace and Washington is mired in football hell for reasons everyone already knows. The Giants could be a whole lot better than most people think.
4. The Atlanta Falcons will be forced to have a fire sale by the trade deadline and Dan Quinn will (finally) be fired. The Falcons had peaked a few years ago when they had reached the Super Bowl against the Patriots, and then....well, you know the rest. Now they are mired in salary cap hell, and the bottom will finally fall out underneath them this season. Over the first eight weeks of the season, their opponents include Seattle; Dallas; Chicago; Green Bay; Carolina (twice); Minnesota; and Detroit. Things could get ugly very quickly for them and the season could spiral out of control.
While moving contracts like Julio Jones or Jake Matthews would be next to impossible, they could look to trade guys like Alex Mack, Deion Jones, or Ricardo Allen.
5. Joe Burrow will be the first quarterback taken #1 overall to win his NFL debut since 2010. There have been five other QBs taken #1 overall in the last decade to start Week 1 of their rookie season, and they've either lost or tied (Sam Bradford; Cam Newton; Andrew Luck; Jameis Winston; Kyler Murray). It would be fun if Burrow faced off against another first round QB drafted this year in Justin Herbert, but the Chargers are going with Tyrod Taylor under center to start the season. However, Bengals fans will have something to genuinely get excited about when Burrow takes the field for the first time with a win.
6. It's the final swan song for Ben Roethlisberger. Ben has hinted at retirement in the past; this year all his injuries will finally catch up to him. Frankly, I'd be impressed if he's able to walk around comfortably in his post-NFL career days considering his various injuries. Something will happen to him this season (not that I root for a player to sustain an injury), and it'll be enough that Ben will have to hang up his cleats for good.
7. The Baltimore Ravens will defeat the the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55. Chalk, chalk, chalk. How monumentally boring of a Super Bowl prediction. Conversely, how fun will this game be, too. The Bucs had loaded up for this season, starting by signing Tom Brady and bringing Rob Gronkowski out of retirement. On the flip side, the Ravens are a team stacked with young talent led by Lamar Jackson. The youth will win out over the vets, and Lamar will continue the trend started by Patrick Mahomes last year of a league MVP winning the Super Bowl in his third season (and live up to the promise he had made the night he was drafted by the Ravens).
