Drinking the Yaterade - Season 75 Predictions
by AST1N | 3 years ago | 0 Comments
Media Media Media
If you were to show me how much league activity was going on, I would swear it was August and not April. Now I love me some media, especially the well thought out and planned pieces. It made me wonder… could too much media be a bad thing? PUT DOWN YOUR TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS AND LET ME EXPLAIN.
The extra media ITSELF is great. Guys are still excited to play their games this late into the cycle and we aren’t worried about who is checked out already? I’ll take it!
BUT… with all this media, it makes it so much harder to take it all in! When we have daily articles, 100 tweets a day, and a pod here and there… some stuff is going to be missed. And some of that missed media could be really great stuff too! My suggestions:
-If you create some high quality stuff, market it out and find that fine line between getting buried/overlooked and overdoing it by retweeting it from 5 different twitter accounts.
-Don’t drop that podcast at 1am!
-And lastly, don’t burn yourself out! This cycle is a marathon and you don’t need to sprint.
I hope some of you get the media equivalent of a “runners high” from this new wave and that we can keep this going for seasons to come.
RECAP TIME!
SEASON 74
They are who we thought they were, that’s why we took the virtual field!
Stop it. I know it’s week three and they currently have a top 10 offense, and just destroyed the Bills. The Jets are not good. It’s fun to root for the underdog, but don’t go wasting money in Vegas because the Jets have an incredible payout. Here are the hard facts. Not only do they pay their OL over $100M, they still have almost $19M in free cap space. The team just isn’t good… they have a bottom 5 team OVR rating and are still giving up FORTY FIVE points a game and over 500 yards a game. I don’t see it.
LOL. Anyone who bought into the hype was a fool. YOU CAN’T FOOL ME ROBOTIC APE.
4 team race??
Look, I know before the cycle started the NFC East was supposed to be up for any of the 4 guys to win each year, and honestly it’s almost been that way. I don’t think anyone could have predicted how bad of a time Tauph has had with the Eagles. They got Mixon in a trade and I absolutely love the move, and Garland is a freak that Tauph needs to get comfortable with. While still only 1-1 so far, keep in mind they are playing without X-Factor Emmett Wright lining up opposite of DeVonta Smith for the first 6 games. This offense should be hard to defend, and once at full strength there is no room for excuses anymore. It’s make it or break it time.
Well IM SORRY that I didn’t predict the Giants coach to bail on his team and let them spiral their way into a giant pit full of scorpions, deadly moths, and ravenous earwigs, while simultaneously frozen solid AND embalmed in a fiery inferno.
Outside of them, the Cowboys finished 8-9 and Eagles were 7-10 and both were pushing for playoff spots at the end of the year.
More Bengay!
Andy and the Titans started out the cycle as a surprise team that was contending for divisional titles. Just like all their older players they have now, they are regressing. They cannot rely on 31 year old Derrick Henry, instead asking 36 year old Russell Wilson and 41 year old Aaron Rodgers, and 33 year old Keenan Allen to help with the work load. Henry’s YPC every year: 6.6, 5.6, 4.9, 4.1. That’s not a trend line you want to see. I think the Titans window to make a push has passed.
Andy made it work. Wilson had a solid season, Henry bumped his YPC back up to 4.8, and Keenan Allen eclipsed 1,600 yards and had more TDs than all other WR/TE combined. I don’t blame him for retiring after Andy demanded the 33 year old to carry the load like that.
Adjust your focus
We typically like to watch a few things: Playoff seeds and who’s going to be drafting early. This season, there is a new focus I will be watching: 3rd in the NFCS. I think both the Falcons and Saints are looking much improved, and while I don’t think they will ever overtake the RamFam, their records aren’t going to tell the full story. The Falcons are 2-0 right now and have shown the ability to throw the ball. If he keeps his INTs in check, he could pull out some surprise wins. The Saints went out and picked up Nathan Peterman and he looks much better in gold than he did in green. Again, INTs will be the downfall for this team, but I like what I am seeing for the most part. It should be a fight for 3rd in the NFCS, with the winner finishing near .500, and I could see either team sneaking a win against the RamFam duo if they aren’t careful.
Falcons 7-10 --- Beat Panthers, but 24 INTs from Love.
Saints 6-11 --- Beat Bucs, but 28 INTs from Peterman.
If these two can fix the turnovers, watch out.
Season 74 Offensive Rookie of the Year – QB/WR Tory Farmer, LAR
What a fun story. A QB turned WR turned QB is now the starting QB for the Rams. While I really, really would love to see Garland be the winner, I just think the Eagles will rely on their running game more and the Rams are going to throw more. Farmer is very athletic but only has 3 runs in the first two games. I would love to see that number increase and to utilize him to his full potential.
Oh, lord have mercy. What have I done?
Season 74 Defensive Rookie of the Year – DE Marcus Sweat, WFT
While he’s not the athletic freak of his cousin Montez, he is much stronger and still raw. As he starts to progress, he is only going to become scarier. I think this DROY award voting will actually be very close and not have obvious break out stars like we did last season, so it’s anyone’s award to win if they get hot enough.
17 solo tackles, 6 sacks. Whoops.
I will say that the DPOY was a pretty tight contest and cases could be made for a lot of the guys on the ballot.
Season 74 Offensive Player of the Year – QB Lamar Jackson, BAL
For the love of anything and everything, don’t mess this one up voters. He is going to deserve the award this season. Don’t overlook his running.
Lamar had another Lamar year, but Lamar Lamarred his way into having too many turnovers, which the voters will always heavily focus on.
Season 74 Defensive Player of the Year – MLB Patrick Queen, BAL
Once again, another DPOY award that I am just shooting in the dark on. Queen? Jamin Davis? Through two games, there isn’t anyone screaming “PICK ME!”. And no, I refuse to pick Maxx Crosby out of spite.
Man, it was such a tight race for DPOY that I just can’t remember who won. I think it was probably that one guy who had a handful of interceptions or something.
Season 74 MVP – Lamar
Don’t.
Mess.
This.
Up.
I mean… if my prediction was that RZ would probably mess this up…
Season 74 Super Bowl
Houston Texans 34, San Francisco 49ers 37
When in doubt, take the 1 seeds from the previous season and the team that’s been to 3 of the 4 SBs from the AFC. Sexy picks just make me look bad next month.
HEY! I actually got one of the teams correct, and that they would lose!
… and I don’t want to hear “But Field, they have made 80% of the SBs this cycle, it’s not that hard.”
SEASON 75 BITCHES
What goes up, must come down
Alright, who saw the NFC N having all four teams 8-9 or better? No one. Absolutely no one. And it will never happen again. We are going to see some regression. Packers had to blow their team up and are now starting a youth movement, and it’s a good thing Glenn drafted very well, but it will take some time and development. I think the Lions make the biggest jump up from 4th place and actually make a WC spot. Bears will regress to 6-7 wins, and Packers down to 4-6 wins.
Race for 1st
As we speak, there are 7 teams without a win. There are also 7 divisions with a winless team. The race for the first overall pick looks to be exciting if it stays this way. If I include the 1-2 Broncos and only those winless teams, this is what I would predict to be the draft order come the end of the season (I don’t care if you traded away your first, if applicable)
- Giants
- Jets
- Browns
- Broncos
- Colts
- Rams
- Packers
- Saints
AFC Sleeper Pick
Kansas City has been under the radar this entire cycle, even though they have had double digit wins in every season outside of the first one. They, like pretty much everyone else in the AFC, decide to crumble come playoff time (1-4 record in the last 4 post seasons) and because of this, don’t get the attention they probably deserve. It also doesn’t help when Kevin wins the division over you, but that’s another story for another day. Will we see KC finally bounce back and make that push again? Maybe?
‘Tis a scratch
The Panthers, Footballs, and Dolphins all sit at 1-2 to start the season. I think they all can and should finish with double digit wins. Miami will push it with 9-10 wins, but the other two will be very fine. Don’t get sucked in to early successes/failures.
Season 75 Offensive Rookie of the Year – TE Jamal Walker, GB
And then TE Jamal Walker, GB gets suspended in S76 for eventual stat padding. I think Kirkland separates himself from the other rookie QBs in the class, but low completion %s and INT issues could derail this thing quick.
Season 75 Defensive Rookie of the Year – MLB John Patton, HOU
I think this becomes a two man race between Patton and Tampa Bay’s MLB Kionte Goode, but I give the edge to Patton based on his big hitting abilities and potential for more forced fumbles. Both guys should excel.
Season 75 Offensive Player of the Year – HB Saquon Barkley, BAL
Let’s be real here. Adel is going to run Barkley into the ground both on the ground and in the air. And he should. And we can all hope and pray that M23 will include a feature that will actually hurt guys who get overused. A 2,200 total yard season is not unattainable, as he could very well go over 1k rushing and receiving.
Season 75 Defensive Player of the Year – EDGE Danielle Hunter, MIN
7 sacks in 3 games. He is probably looking at 20+ if he stays healthy. This also assumes people stop throwing the ball right at Minkah 50x a season. That being said, Minkah will probably win.
Season 75 MVP – QB Davis Mills, HOU
Safe bet here. Sometimes you take the guy with the best odds and lowest payout. He only makes mistakes when he knows the defenders will drop the ball anyway. Won’t take sacks so he won’t fumble. That’s a recipe for votes.
Super Bowl 75 – Baltimore Ravens 31, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17
The NFC is wide open and I could make a case for any of them, so I figured it was Roc’s turn. It is also probably unwise to not take Houston here, but that makes for a boring article. I already hooked Mills and Patton up.