5 bold NFL predictions for 2021

For a lot of the planet, 2020 is a 12 months we’ll be glad to see within the rear view. And the NFL is not any completely different.

Whereas the league was in its low season when the pandemic introduced skilled sports activities, and the remainder of the world, to a grinding halt in March, the 2020 NFL season has been formed by COVID-19 time and time once more. From stars lacking video games as a result of optimistic checks to schedules being mangled in an try and keep away from stars lacking video games, the influence of the coronavirus is felt each day.

If all goes to plan, that will not be the case for the NFL in 2021. So what will occur in soccer subsequent 12 months? We have put collectively 5 of our boldest predictions in an try and reply that query.

1. Chiefs repeat as Tremendous Bowl champions

Profitable his first Tremendous Bowl took Andy Reid greater than 20 years as an NFL head coach, however we’re predicting it takes the longer term Corridor of Famer just a bit over a 12 months to win his second.

It’s laborious to argue in opposition to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs being the very best crew in soccer in 2020, profitable the franchise’s first NFL title since 1969 in February earlier than placing collectively the very best common season of any crew this fall. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is having an MVP-type marketing campaign surrounded by a solid of supporting characters that rivals the NFL’s finest, and Reid hasn’t misplaced a step within the teaching sport.

Primarily based on all of that, plus the expertise that comes with the ups and downs of creating a run to the Tremendous Bowl, we’re tabbing the 2020 Chiefs to develop into the primary back-to-back NFL champions for the reason that New England Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004.

2. Both the Jaguars or Jets make the playoffs subsequent season

From the very best crew within the NFL to the bottom-feeders, our subsequent daring prediction for 2021 shouldn’t be fairly a worst-to-first forecast nevertheless it’ll nonetheless be a reasonably exceptional turnaround for one in all 2020’s two most hapless groups.

The New York Jets received their first sport of the season in Week 15. The Jacksonville Jaguars, in the meantime, have only one win of their very own – it got here on opening weekend – and have misplaced 14 straight because of a messy scenario at quarterback and a defence in flux.

It’s all however a assure that each of those groups could have new teaching staffs subsequent season and, after this spring’s draft, two new beginning quarterbacks. And we’re predicting a type of refreshed squads won’t solely make a push for the post-season subsequent 12 months, however play January soccer.

It’s not that far-fetched as a result of it’s occurred loads of instances earlier than. Look no additional than the Washington Soccer Crew, which had the league’s second-worst report final season and has an opportunity on Sunday to win the NFC East.

Positive, the NFC East is a tire fireplace, however we’re not predicting the Jets or Jaguars will win fairly – solely that they’ll be one of many 14 groups competing for the Lombardi Trophy in early 2022.

3. The 2020 NFC East champ will win a playoff sport in January

Talking of the Soccer Crew, we’re predicting whichever of Washington, the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants emerges from the worst NFL division in current reminiscence will earn a victory on the primary weekend of the upcoming post-season.

Positive, this prediction regarded rather a lot bolder just a few weeks in the past when it didn’t appear to be any of the groups within the NFC East even had a shot at reaching seven wins, however whichever crew wins the division is sort of assured to be an underdog when it hosts a wild-card sport within the second weekend of January.

Clearly, all three of those groups have their fair proportion of flaws, nevertheless it’s not fully implausible that any of them may pull off an upset on Wild Card Weekend.

In Washington, behind Comeback Participant of the 12 months shoo-in Alex Smith and a defence that may single-handedly win a sport, the Soccer Crew has overcome quite a few obstacles to remain aggressive in a division wherein they got no probability. In Dallas, Andy Dalton and the Cowboys trio of large receivers are lastly coming into their very own on the proper time. And whereas the offence has been downright terrible of late in New York, Giants head coach Joe Decide and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham have put collectively a defence that has the potential to maintain Huge Blue in any sport.

There isn’t any denying it is going to be an uphill battle for any of those groups to win a playoff sport in January, however we have seen crazier issues occur within the NFL in 2020. Prepare so as to add an NFC East post-season victory to the record.

4. Carson Wentz wins 2021 comeback participant of the 12 months

Let’s get again to the Comeback Participant of the 12 months Award.

This 12 months’s honour should go to Smith, who overcame a life-threatening leg harm and 17 surgical procedures to return to the sector in 2020 and assist his crew compete for a division title.

In 2021, our prediction for the award can be a quarterback within the NFC East — though he might not be enjoying there when he wins it.

The 2020 season has not gone the way in which Carson Wentz, the Philadelphia Eagles or any of the remainder of the soccer world anticipated it to go for the 27-year-old quarterback. Wentz at instances has regarded like a shell of the MVP candidate that led the Eagles to a 10-2 report in 2017 earlier than a season-ending knee harm.

It’s been a wild experience for Wentz within the time since, however 2020 noticed his play fall off a cliff: his 15 interceptions led the league earlier than he was benched in Week 12; he was getting sacked greater than some other QB; and his mechanics, accuracy and decision-making had been all over.

However the Carson Wentz we used to know has to nonetheless be in there someplace, doesn’t he? Simply final season No. 11 carried the Eagles to the post-season whereas throwing for essentially the most yards in a season in franchise historical past regardless of enjoying with follow squad receivers.

Whereas his play at instances this season has made many marvel if that model of Wentz is in truth gone perpetually, we’re not so fast to put in writing off the 2016 second-overall decide simply but. We’re predicting that Wentz, both on a revamped Eagles squad or with a brand new crew after being traded, bounces again in a giant manner and captures the 2021 Comeback Participant of the 12 months.

5. Jameis Winston will begin for the Saints in Week 1 of the 2021 season

With retirement very a lot on the desk for future Corridor of Famer Drew Brees, the Saints might have an enormous choice to make at quarterback.

Ought to Brees dangle up the cleats, it appears like Sean Payton goes to have three choices at quarterback:

Choice No. 1: Persist with Taysom Hill, who had ups and downs in aid of Brees earlier this season and is signed for $16.3 million in 2021.

Choice No. 2: Deliver again Jameis Winston, who has remained on the sidelines in 2020 regardless of the harm to Brees after inking a one-year, $1.1-million deal in April.

Choice No. 3: Try to search out Brees’s quick alternative within the draft or on the free-agent market.

Our prediction? The Saints might certainly look to the draft in hopes of discovering a long-term answer, however the crew brings again Winston on a short-term deal to compete with Hill for the beginning job. Winston wins the job in camp, and on opening weekend is the beginning quarterback for the Saints — the inheritor obvious to Drew Brees within the Huge Simple.

Assume that’s a bit too daring? We beg to vary. Payton stated in a mid-December look on the Huddle & Circulate podcast with NFL Community’s Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter that Winston could have a shot on the job if Brees decides to retire.

Payton additionally heaped reward on the way in which Winston has carried out in his position this season and stated the 2015 first–total decide “is certainly a starter.”

It positive appears like Winston could have a shot to win the Saints job, and our ultimate daring NFL prediction for 2021 is that he does simply that.