2019-'20 NFL Predictions That Will Probably Be Wrong

There’s something so interesting to me about making somewhat baseless predictions about upcoming sporting events entirely beyond my control. Last time I did so on my blog, it was about the upcoming season for the NBA. I feel pretty comfortable about the predictions I made. Today, I decided to start to do so for the NFL, but my process was a little more stringent this time around; I went through every game of the upcoming season of professional football and manually chose each winner. I then tallied up each team’s record, which I will be rationalizing and explaining here. Let’s save the playoff predictions for later in the season… I’ll need something to post about by then, right? Let’s take a look at my predictions, starting with the home division, of course…

NFC North:

1. Chicago Bears (11-5): Time for me to try to convince you that I’m not biased. Wish me luck. I made a post on this blog recently about why, as a Bears fan, I’m excited for the team’s future. They had the #1 overall defense in the league last season and didn’t regress this offseason defensively. While their schedule may be somewhat challenging, a lot of their more difficult games come later in the season at Soldier Field. I hope that Mitchell Trubisky proves Jim McMahon right and takes the next step in his progression next season. Time will tell, but until then… Bear down.

2. Vikings (11-5): As a diehard Bears fan, the Vikings scare me. The week 17 matchup between the two teams which will take place in Minnesota (that I foolishly have Chicago winning which will inevitably be a must-win nail-biter, and seems like the ideal setup for another double-doink-esk moment.) I’m hoping that the Bears win the tiebreaker and take the division, otherwise it may be very difficult to secure a wildcard spot in a highly contested NFC. The Vikings are a formidable foe for any team, and they could easily make a run next season. I’m just sticking to wishful thinking for now.

3. Green Bay Packers (9-7): I was surprised when the Packers fired head coach Mike McCarthy. There must have been locker room issues that made their way high up in the organization. That being said, any team with Aaron Rodgers at the helm can’t reasonably be considered out of contention on any given Sunday. This might be a rebuilding for Green Bay which leaves many cheesehead fans disappointed, but I still expect the Packers to be above .500 next season.

4. Detroit Lions (6-10): Matthew Stafford is, unfortunately for him, a very good quarterback who isn’t surrounded by enough talent to thrive. Detroit’s challenging schedule this upcoming season will only aggravate this, and I expect a disappointing season for the Lions.

NFC East:

1. Philadelphia Eagles (12-4): The Eagles are only two years removed from a Super Bowl victory. They will be contending with a very difficult NFC East division, but if Carson Wentz returns to pre-injury form like I think he will, the sky is the limit for this team. That’s coming from a Bears fan whose heart was broken by these same Eagles in the wildcard just last season… how are we feeling about that bias conversation from earlier?

2. Dallas Cowboys (11-5): Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are a powerhouse QB/RB combo. America’s team won the NFC East last season, and I don’t expect them to regress as a team, I just don’t think they have what it takes to outplay what I think will be a very impressive Philadelphia Eagles team next season.

3. Washington Redskins (6-10): It’s hard to expect much from a team who hasn’t yet decided on a starting quarterback for the upcoming season. Washington was 7-9 last season and with slight roster shake-ups that made them slightly worse, I don’t see next season going well for the ‘Skins.

4. New York Giants (3-13): New York football is just struggling right now. I don’t think that Eli Manning, as good as he once was, has the talent base around him to support what looks to be a struggling defensive unit. Off year for NYG unless they make some serious changes.

NFC South:

1. Atlanta Falcons (11-5): Okay, now my bias is really starting to show. I do, however, believe that Atlanta has made objective improvements from last season, and under the leadership of QB Matt Ryan could return closer to the form of the team that (unfortunately) handed New England a Super Bowl just a couple of years ago. Wishful thinking has taken the wheel here, but did I ever say I thought that these predictions would be spot on? Quite the opposite.

2. New Orleans Saints (11-5): Now the tiebreaker could really go either way, and if money were being placed here, I’d put it all on Drew Brees to make the big play needed to secure a spot in the playoffs. I see the Saints coming up just short of taking the division, however, but making a deep playoff run after finding success in the wildcard round.

3. Carolina Panthers (7-9): Not enough changed in Carolina for me to see any improvement or decline happen for the Panthers in the upcoming season. Cam Newton is still a stellar tank of a QB, but there are too many defensive questions in such a gunslinging division for the Panthers to handle. Stasis in Charlotte.

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-13): When going through each individual matchup for the upcoming season, it was just so difficult to envision Tampa Bay winning very many games next year. A slight slip from last year’s underwhelming 5-11 record, I see Tampa Bay continuing to struggle next year.

NFC West:

1. Los Angeles Rams (11-5): I’ll be the first to admit that last season’s Super Bowl was one of the worst in my lifetime. That goes for the commercials, halftime show, and especially the game itself. That being said, LA is still a powerhouse of a team offensively and defensively. Any offense that has to go up against Aaron Donald and company is facing tough odds, and Todd Gurley II has proven that he was worth the hype coming out of UGA. This is still a playoff team, and I keep forgetting that they’re not in St. Louis anymore.

2. Seattle Seahawks (8-8): The Seahawks had a fairly successful season last year finishing things off at a respectable 10-6. That being said, some of the micro adjustments and scheduling matchups they face this year have me thinking Seattle is going to slip to .500 next year. You should never count out Russell Wilson, but I am doing just that.

3. San Francisco 49ers (7-9): The 49ers have a tendency of being really bad for a long time and then suddenly being really good again, only to repeat the process the next season. I don’t see that changing in 2019-’20. I see a slow start for San Fran followed by a spark that fizzles out in a losing season.

4. Arizona Cardinals (2-14): I don’t really pay close attention to how the Cardinals perform as a team (except for Larry Fitzgerald highlights), and so I thought 2-14 was harsh after going through each matchup for next season. Turns out it isn’t too farfetched from last season’s awful 3-13 record, so I’m sticking with the prediction that the Cardinals continue to nosedive next season.

AFC North:

1. Baltimore Ravens (10-6): Lamar Jackson is one of the most exciting players to watch in the NFL right now. He plays QB with the precision of a pro bowler and the speed of a receiver. Baltimore took the division with 10 wins last season and I see them doing the same this year. If you blink, you might miss them.

2. Pittsburg Steelers (9-7): Big Ben has been a big disappointment the last couple of seasons. I think that the drama in the Steeler’s locker room really hindered them last season, but it also came with talent that is now gone. I see another season ending short of the playoffs for the Steelers next season.

3. Cleveland Browns (8-8): I don’t believe the hype yet. While on paper the Browns’ offense looks like a total powerhouse, I think it will take time for this young unit to mesh and gain chemistry enough to win enough games to clinch a playoff spot in a competitive AFC North division. Still, it’s hard to believe this team didn’t win any games just a couple seasons ago and now people are predicting the Super Bowl for them.

4. Cincinnati Bengals (6-10): It’s really disappointing to see good players go down with injuries. A.J. Green is one of the best receivers in the NFL, but unfortunately it’s likely that he won’t be operating at 100% efficiency next season. Here’s hoping to a quick recovery and, at the very least, an entertaining season for those poor Bengals fans.

AFC East:

1. New England Patriots (12-4): It’s Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. What did you think I was going to predict? It’s hard to tell if the AFC East is bad because the Patriots are so good or if the Patriots are so good because they’re in the AFC East. Either way, Tom Brady will probably clutch his way too another Super Bowl, collectively pissing off every other team’s fanbase.

2. Miami Dolphins (6-10): Again, I don’t pay close attention to all of the teams in the NFL, but being undecided as to who you’re starting at QB just weeks before the season starts is not a sign of success. It’s shocking that a 6-10 record can come second in a division, but here we are. The Marino days are long gone.

3. Buffalo Bills (6-10): A family friend of ours is a Bills fan. I’m not sure if they’re aware that you’re supposed to try to win games, but I’ll always respect the shirtless fans in blizzard weather cheering on the Bills.

4. New York Jets (5-11): The only thing uglier than this team’s offense is their new jerseys. Yikes, yikes, yikes. At least the butt-fumble days of Sanchez kept us entertained. This new Jets team is very New York Knicks like… hard to watch.

AFC South:

1. Houston Texans (12-4): Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans’ offense is one of the most exciting prospects in the NFL. While I’m unsure if 12 wins is realistically achievable for such a young group, that is the number that I’m sticking with. I wish nothing but the best for my favorite Texas football team.

2. Indianapolis Colts (12-4): This whole situation is just a bummer. As I’m sure you can imagine, I made these predictions before Andrew Luck made the announcement that he would be retiring from the NFL before the beginning of this season. It’s a shame to see such a good QB lose his love for the game because of injuries, and I hope he recovers quickly both physically and mentally. I feel bad for the loyal Colts fans (not the ones who booed), because I don’t see a lot of success for this team next season. MAYBE a wildcard spot? We’ll see.

3. Jacksonville Jaguars (7-9): It’s actually insane that this team almost made it to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. That was simply one of the biggest fluke seasons that I’ve been alive to witness in the NFL. Perpetually mediocrity haunts the Jaguars, and I don’t see that changing this season.

4. Tennessee Titans (3-13): This is a prime example of me likely underestimating a team that I didn’t realize was as good as they are. Finding out that the Titans went 9-7 last season shocked me, and I don’t see it repeating or improving this year. My picks have me at 3-13. We shall see.

AFC West:

1. Kansas City Chiefs (12-4): It’s a tossup in the West for me this year. Andy Reid paired with the prodigy that is Patrick Mahomes is too exciting to sleep on. I doubt Mahomes will be able to toss another 50 TDs next season, but I do expect lots of statement victories and highlight reel plays.

2. Los Angeles Chargers (12-4): Philip Rivers deserves a ring, man. At 36 years old and surrounded by young talent, this may be his last shot to hoist the Lombardi trophy before he hangs up his cleats. My dream scenario is him coming up just shy in SBLIV against my Chicago Bears.

3. Oakland Raiders (6-10): The Hard Knocks curse will likely strike the Raiders this season. Derek Carr’s injury really put a stop to any momentum that Oakland had going for them, unfortunately. I don’t see a season above water next season for this team.

4. Denver Broncos (1-15): I know it sounds harsh. It wasn’t supposed to. The Broncos are a team that I pay no attention to, so when choosing winners for every game next season I glossed over the fact that I only gave them one win altogether. Oh well, I’m sticking to it. Never met a Broncos fan that I liked.

If you made it this far in the post, thank you for entertaining my baseless predictions and listening to the reasonings behind them. While I’m likely to be far off from what ends up happening, it’s still fun to analyze and guess about things completely beyond your control. I look forward to another NFL football season to kickoff the fall season.

Update: Back To School And The Future Of This Blog

Often when content creators update their audiences about what is going on in their lives and how the scheduling and consistency of their content is going to change, the end is near. Usually if something significant enough is happening to update the audience about it, it’s enough to disrupt the creative process and put to a halt any momentum that was beginning to build. Luckily, that isn’t the case here. This is a happy update.

It’s true, I’m entering a new chapter in my life. I’m back to downtown apartment living right across the hall from my beautiful girlfriend, attending college, and chipping away at the required credit hours I have left until I get the highly-coveted diploma that I’ve been working so hard (debatable) for for the entirety of my academic life. What I do know, though, is that I’ve set myself up quite nicely for the next four or so months. I attend classes on Mondays and Wednesdays only, and the rest of my classes are online. This allows me to regiment and schedule my assignments ensuring that I will be able to complete them comfortably, and maybe, just maybe, write a blog post every once in a while.

OR, write them just as often as I had been over the summer. That’s right, I’m still aiming for 2-3 blog posts per week in the same variety of topics that I have been covering over the past months since I started this project despite the additional work being thrown my way. Established series will continue along with new ones starting soon, album and movie reviews will come as soon as I’m able to hear/see them (lots of good media coming out this fall), and the list of one-off posts continues to grow in my notes app. The biggest update here is that I’m in a good place. School is going well so far, I feel as enthused about writing as I ever have, and I’m excited for what life has to offer me in the coming months.

Thank you for continued support in reading these blog posts, I hope you are as excited as I am for them to continue. Also, enjoy the photo collage from the view in my room. Not too shabby, eh? You can follow me on Instagram here for more similar content.

Album Review: GINGER - BROCKHAMPTON

The self-proclaimed “hardest working boyband” has returned to releasing music with their long-awaited album GINGER. After what was a transitional period for the group musically and personally around the release of their previous project IRIDESCENCE, BROCKHAMPTON has returned to address some the controversies that could’ve easily torn them apart.

To fully appreciate the importance of this album, you need to be familiarized with BROCKHAMPTON as a group and with the drama they’ve collectively been through. The rap group formed after meeting on internet forum kanyetothe.com in 2015. Shortly after meeting, the group moved into a house together and started making music. The group took the internet and hip-hop community by storm after releasing the SATURATION Trilogy, which consisted of three outstanding albums within the same year (2017). After finding success, allegations of sexual misconduct came out against one of the group’s biggest members Ameer Vann. These allegations, along with other personal drama stemming from Vann, lead the rest of the group to elect to kick him out of the group. This sort of decision clearly wasn’t an easy one for the group, but in their mind, it had to be done. IRIDESCENCE, the first album of BROCKHAMPTON’s that came after the Vann incident, was chaotic and disjointed in many ways. It was evident that there was emotional pressure on the group, and they still needed time to process what they had been through. GINGER is the opposite of IRIDESCENCE in many ways, and it is a project about embracing those around you who are still there after shared trauma. This is an amazing project.

What makes BROCKHAMPTON special is getting to know the personalities of all of its members. Whether you prefer Joba, Matt Champion, Kevin Abstract, or Bearface most, every artist has a unique style to contribute, and collectively their stories are greater than the sum of their parts. Having what feels like a connection to this group after getting to know and love their music over the past years makes their emotional rawness throughout this project so powerful. Each member shares their experience over the last year, and each is different - Joba turning to religion, Dom still feeling resentment and anger for the person who betrayed him which comes to a tipping point during the bone-chilling “DEARLY DEPARTED”, or Matt Champion’s reservations to completely blame Ameer altogether. At the beginning of this album, even apparent in its opening lines, it’s clear that the group is lost, but by the end, they are embracing and thankful that they still have each other.

This album is forever going to be cemented as a defining moment in BROCKHAMPTON’s discography. While it isn’t the lightning in a bottle that the SATURATION Trilogy was, this album is powerful thematically while still providing countless catchy hooks, impressive instrumentation, and some of the best tracks I’ve heard in a long time, specifically “SUGAR” which is just fantastic. I laid out the criteria for what defined a perfect score from me in a previous blog post, which basically states that a perfect score means that I wouldn’t change a single thing about the project. There are only some small tweaks I’d make to GINGER. It does exactly what it set out to do, and does so in glorious style. This is a must-listen, and my current album of the year (always subject to change).

Favorite Tracks: “SUGAR”, “DEARLY DEPARTED”, “VICTOR ROBERTS”

Least Favorite Track: “LOVE ME FOR LIFE”

SCORE: 8/10

Album Review: So Much Fun - Young Thug

So Much Fun is the first full-length album from Atlanta’s beloved Young Thug since he released Beautiful Thugger Girls in 2017. The album finishes at just over an hour in runtime, features other Atlanta rappers such as Future, 21 Savage, and many others, and will appeal to passionate Young Thug fans. Unfortunately for me, this album’s novelty wore off rather quickly and has me wishing that Young Thug had made some small improvements that would’ve been to this project’s betterment.

I’ve come to the realization after posting as many of these reviews posts as I have up to this point that I’m much more forgiving the sooner that I write reviews after I first listen to a project. This recency bias has led me to giving undeservedly high scores to inadequate projects, such as Chance The Rapper’s The Big Day or Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project. Had I given these projects more time to “sink in”, I would’ve scored them significantly lower. I suppose my initial optimism is both a blessing and a curse. Having recognized my own inherent biases, I decided to give Young Thug’s project a few days before I gave it a score. I’m hoping that my confidence in the score doesn’t change over time, despite how it may be controversial and harsh to some.

One of Young Thug’s most appealing and defining characteristics is his instantly-recognizable voice. An instrument of its own, Thug’s voice and adlibs have become synonymous and in close association with Atlanta rap. That appeal, however, doesn’t help overcome what I found to be stale instrumentals and lackluster bars throughout this project. After the bangers that are “Ecstasy” and “Hot” early on in the track listing, things start to slow down pretty significantly. 19 tracks of incredibly similar tracks become droning at a point, and while this album generally is as much fun as its title suggests, it does nothing to differentiate itself from the other music being put out right now. Taking more creative risks, trimming the filler around the edges and reducing the runtime for this project could’ve made it something special and noteworthy.

This is an average album to me. While some of the highs are very high, the project as a whole didn’t keep me entertained and focused all the way through until its conclusion. I completely understand the appeal of this project to some, it’s just nothing special to me. Except for “Ecstasy” and “Hot”… those tracks really are so much fun.

SCORE: 5/10

Push Yourself

I used to dread this time of year. As a kid, and even until recently, the beginning of August signified the ending of so many other things. As every Summer came to a close and school started approaching sooner and sooner, I was always upset that I had to go and learn new things, as if that’s somehow an inherently bad thing. I saw Summer as a chance for me to turn off the knowledge-acquiring part of my brain, depriving it of the vital nutrients in the form of information and activity it desperately craved without me even knowing it. Now, this time of year doesn’t upset me - it excites me.

In two weeks I will have begun my first week of my junior year of college. Most of the summer breaks prior to this one in my life have consisted of very little self-imposed cognitive challenge, but I took a different approach to this summer, and I’m here to share that with you. I’ve decided that self-betterment both in physical and mental health is good, cool, and what we should all be striving for. While not all of my time away from school has been necessarily productive, I’ve made a conscious effort to turn my hobbies and habits into beneficial acts that I enjoy every day. I’ll give you a few examples.

1) Despite being an English major in college pursuing a degree that will enable me to get a job in content writing and management similar to what I’m doing on this blog (another positive thing I’ve done this summer) but instead for a big company, my college requires that I take a Spanish class to graduate. While this antithetical idea used to really bother and confuse me, I’ve decided to instead embrace it. I’ve taken something that used to be a chore and made it fun, because I see it as very useful and even impressive to be multilingual. I’ve “game-ified”, as my dad says, learning the Spanish language, by using DuoLingo’s awesome and addicting lessons and quizzes. This is in no way an advertisement for their site, but I highly recommend it if you are wanting or needing to learn a new language.

2) My and my girlfriend’s family have been attending a weekly trivia night at a local restaurant on Mondays throughout the summer. While I think myself as somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades (and one day master of one: writing), the one category that I really can’t contribute much to is world geography. I just don’t know where countries are in relation to one another, but I’m trying to change that. I’ve been doing non-assigned studying of world maps in an effort to increase my general knowledge in that area, and so far I’m seeing results. If there’s something you feel like you don’t know enough about, go learn it.

3) I think it’s a misconception to associate highly-skilled chess playing ability with high general intelligence, but maybe that is common thought for a reason. I’ve always played chess (see my blog post about that here), but this summer I’ve done a more conscious effort to track my progression and made more of an effort to see improvement in my own game. There’s always more room for improvement and you can always get better at the things you love.

4) When people say that they’ve deleted their Instagram accounts and have felt much happier without them, that confuses me. I understand the damaging effect that needing constant approval and validation via internet points, clicks, and likes can have on people, which I try to avoid like the plague, but I think that these people are viewing the social media site in the wrong headspace. I thoroughly enjoy it and would miss it if it were suddenly gone. I see it as a photo gallery, a scrapbook, something to plan / schedule, and to reflect on regularly which is a lot of fun. Sentimentality and nostalgia can be cultivated along with our natural enjoyment of aesthetically pleasing design to build a gallery to share with the world and to reflect on ourselves. That’s what I’ve done with my Instagram this summer.

There are many more examples of efforts I’ve made to better myself this summer. Instead of reacting and getting flustered by political headlines, I’ve instead created a master document that is a culmination of research, sources, and reasoning that I’m using to place myself in the current toxic political climate. There are plenty of things that I haven’t completely figured out yet, too, like finding a workout plan that suits me, getting a grasp on a healthier sleeping schedule (I’m a natural night owl), or dealing with my general anxiety that affects other aspects of who I am when it’s in full-swing. The point of this post and the point of what I’ve been practicing is that it’s good to push yourself. Life is both short and long at the same time, and taking advantage of the capabilities that you’ve been blessed with should not be taken for granted. Always try your best, always strive for better, always push yourself.

And enjoy the journey.