For most of the planet, 2020 is a year we’ll be happy to see in the rear view. And the NFL is no different.
While the league was in its off-season when the pandemic brought professional sports, and the rest of the world, to a grinding halt in March, the 2020 NFL season has been shaped by COVID-19 time and time again. From stars missing games due to positive tests to schedules being mangled in an attempt to avoid stars missing games, the impact of the coronavirus is felt on a daily basis.
If all goes to plan, that won’t be the case for the NFL in 2021. So what will happen in football next year? We’ve put together five of our boldest predictions in an attempt to answer that question.
1. Chiefs repeat as Super Bowl champions
Winning his first Super Bowl took Andy Reid more than 20 years as an NFL head coach, but we’re predicting it takes the future Hall of Famer just a little over a year to win his second.
It’s hard to argue against the Kansas City Chiefs being the best team in football in 2020, winning the franchise’s first NFL title since 1969 in February before putting together the best regular season of any team this fall. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is having an MVP-type campaign surrounded by a cast of supporting characters that rivals the NFL’s best, and Reid hasn’t lost a step in the coaching game.
Based on all of that, plus the experience that comes with the ups and downs of making a run to the Super Bowl, we’re tabbing the 2020 Chiefs to become the first back-to-back NFL champions since the New England Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004.
2. Either the Jaguars or Jets make the playoffs next season
From the best team in the NFL to the bottom-feeders, our next bold prediction for 2021 is not quite a worst-to-first forecast but it’ll still be a pretty remarkable turnaround for one of 2020’s two most hapless teams.
The New York Jets won their first game of the season in Week 15. The Jacksonville Jaguars, meanwhile, have just one win of their own – it came on opening weekend – and have lost 14 straight thanks to a messy situation at quarterback and a defence in flux.
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It’s all but a guarantee that both of these teams will have new coaching staffs next season and, after this spring’s draft, two new starting quarterbacks. And we’re predicting one of those refreshed squads will not only make a push for the post-season next year, but play January football.
It’s not that far-fetched because it’s happened plenty of times before. Look no further than the Washington Football Team, which had the league’s second-worst record last season and has a chance on Sunday to win the NFC East.
Sure, the NFC East is a tire fire, but we’re not predicting the Jets or Jaguars will win pretty – only that they’ll be one of the 14 teams competing for the Lombardi Trophy in early 2022.
3. The 2020 NFC East champ will win a playoff game in January
Speaking of the Football Team, we’re predicting whichever of Washington, the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants emerges from the worst NFL division in recent memory will earn a victory on the first weekend of the upcoming post-season.
Sure, this prediction looked a lot bolder a few weeks ago when it didn’t seem like any of the teams in the NFC East even had a shot at reaching seven wins, but whichever team wins the division is almost assured to be an underdog when it hosts a wild-card game in the second weekend of January.
Obviously, all three of these teams have their fair share of flaws, but it’s not entirely implausible that any of them could pull off an upset on Wild Card Weekend.
In Washington, behind Comeback Player of the Year shoo-in Alex Smith and a defence that can single-handedly win a game, the Football Team has overcome numerous obstacles to stay competitive in a division in which they were given no chance. In Dallas, Andy Dalton and the Cowboys trio of wide receivers are finally coming into their own at the right time. And while the offence has been downright awful of late in New York, Giants head coach Joe Judge and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham have put together a defence that has the potential to keep Big Blue in any game.
There’s no denying it will be an uphill battle for any of these teams to win a playoff game in January, but we’ve seen crazier things happen in the NFL in 2020. Get ready to add an NFC East post-season victory to the list.
4. Carson Wentz wins 2021 comeback player of the year
Let’s get back to the Comeback Player of the Year Award.
This year’s honour must go to Smith, who overcame a life-threatening leg injury and 17 surgeries to return to the field in 2020 and help his team compete for a division title.
In 2021, our prediction for the award is also a quarterback in the NFC East — although he may not be playing there when he wins it.
The 2020 season has not gone the way Carson Wentz, the Philadelphia Eagles or any of the rest of the football world expected it to go for the 27-year-old quarterback. Wentz at times has looked like a shell of the MVP candidate that led the Eagles to a 10-2 record in 2017 before a season-ending knee injury.
It’s been a wild ride for Wentz in the time since, but 2020 saw his play fall off a cliff: his 15 interceptions led the league before he was benched in Week 12; he was getting sacked more than any other QB; and his mechanics, accuracy and decision-making were all over the place.
But the Carson Wentz we used to know has to still be in there somewhere, doesn’t he? Just last season No. 11 carried the Eagles to the post-season while throwing for the most yards in a season in franchise history despite playing with practice squad receivers.
While his play at times this season has made many wonder if that version of Wentz is in fact gone forever, we’re not so quick to write off the 2016 second-overall pick just yet. We’re predicting that Wentz, either on a revamped Eagles squad or with a new team after being traded, bounces back in a big way and captures the 2021 Comeback Player of the Year.
5. Jameis Winston will start for the Saints in Week 1 of the 2021 season
With retirement very much on the table for future Hall of Famer Drew Brees, the Saints may have a huge decision to make at quarterback.
Should Brees hang up the cleats, it looks like Sean Payton is going to have three options at quarterback:
Option No. 1: Stick with Taysom Hill, who had ups and downs in relief of Brees earlier this season and is signed for $16.3 million in 2021.
Option No. 2: Bring back Jameis Winston, who has remained on the sidelines in 2020 despite the injury to Brees after inking a one-year, $1.1-million deal in April.
Option No. 3: Attempt to find Brees’s immediate replacement in the draft or on the free-agent market.
Our prediction? The Saints may indeed look to the draft in hopes of finding a long-term solution, but the team brings back Winston on a short-term deal to compete with Hill for the starting job. Winston wins the job in camp, and on opening weekend is the starting quarterback for the Saints — the heir apparent to Drew Brees in the Big Easy.
Think that’s a bit too bold? We beg to differ. Payton said in a mid-December appearance on the Huddle & Flow podcast with NFL Network’s Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter that Winston will have a shot at the job if Brees decides to retire.
Payton also heaped praise on the way Winston has performed in his role this season and said the 2015 first–overall pick “is definitely a starter.”
It sure sounds like Winston will have a shot to win the Saints job, and our final bold NFL prediction for 2021 is that he does just that.
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