First off, we need to clear up what a “Bold Prediction” actually is. A “bold” prediction isn’t a prediction like “The Cowboys will win the NFC” or “Colin Kaepernick will throw more interceptions than touchdowns.” These are events that could easily happen, that you could place a bet on and not make any real money if they come in.
A “Bold” prediction pays off big. That guy right now laying $1,000 on the Jacksonville Jaguars winning the Super Bowl? He’s making a “Bold Predictoin.” The guy betting on the Indianapolis Colts isn’t playing the same odds. Not by a mile.
Here are Five Bold Predictions from me. Feel free to share your own with me, if you’d like, either in the comments or by emailing me at adamgreene@getmoresports.com. If I get enough good ones, I’ll share them with the rest of the world.
The Denver Broncos will not make the playoffs
Peyton Manning’s final year in the NFL looks to me like it’s going to look a lot like Brett Favre’s with the Minnesota Vikings. The Denver Broncos are breaking in a new coach and an entire new coaching staff and it’s all looked like Hell in the preseason.
Now, that’s putting a lot of stock in the preseason, but you also have to factor in the beating Manning took last year and the toll it took on him by the end of the season. You also have to look at the schedule, that sees the Broncos playing the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings in the first four weeks of the season. All four of those teams will be in the playoff mix before the season’s over.
The Broncos’ entire schedule looks like that. They play a total of four games against “bad” teams this season and one of those, the Chicago Bears, is coached by John Fox and pretty much their entire former coaching staff. I’m not saying they’ll post a losing record, but there aren’t enough playoff spots in the AFC for 9-7 to make it.
Joe Philbin will be the first coach fired
But it might not happen until the season is over. Since Al Davis died, seeing a coach canned in the middle of the season has become rarer. Philbin, regardless of what anyone says, is in a make-or-break season and unlike guys like Jeff Fisher and Tom Coughlin, he’s not going to make it.
With Tom Brady missing the first four games of the season (unless something stupid happens), the Dolphins are supposed to win the AFC East this season and make the playoffs and the odds-makers say they will. There was even a Harvard study that predicted they’d make the Super Bowl this season. They won’t do any of those things and Philbin will be unemployed after the final whistle of the Dolphins’ Week 17 game.
The St. Louis Rams will make the NFC Championship
The Rams are everyone’s great preseason tease and something always happens to derail their postseason plans, usually in the first half of the regular season. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks the Rams are better than 8-8 this season, but I’m going the other way. I think they’re in it all the way to the penultimate game, losing in the NFC Championship game. And it won’t be to the Seattle Seahawks.
The only thing that’s kept the Rams out of the playoffs and double-digit wins over the last two seasons is quarterback play and Nick Foles solves that for good. The Rams will start the season slow like they always do, but by the end they’ll be something like 11-5 and a team no one wants to play.
Johnny Manziel will win eight games as the Browns’ starting quarterback
And they’ll probably be the only eight games the Browns win. It’s not that Josh McCown is a terrible quarterback. It’s that he’s not a starter in the NFL.
Johnny Manziel completely changed his story over this offseason, voluntarily going to rehab and dedicating himself to becoming the man, the leader and the quarterback the Cleveland Browns need him to be. When the Browns drafted “Johnny Football” he was going to be a bust of Ryan Leaf/JaMarcus Russell proportions. But Johnny Football is gone and no one knows how good Johnny Manziel can be. This year, we’ll get a chance to find out.
12 quarterbacks will throw 35 or more touchdowns this season
Last year, only three quarterbacks threw more than 35 touchdowns (Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck). Tony Romo almost did at 34 and Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees and Tom Brady all threw over 30.
This year 12 guys will do it, with a couple crossing 40 and Rodgers possibly putting Peyton Mannning’s record 55 TDs in 2013 in jeopardy.
So who do I think the 12 guys will be? Both Mannings, Brees, Rodgers, Luck, Roethlisberger, Romo, Philip Rivers, Sam Bradford, Matt Stafford, Matt Ryan and Nick Foles. And Joe Flacco might make it 13.
