5 BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2020 NFL SEASON PART 2

BY ADAM GREENE

We’re rolling through our five bold predictions for the 2020 NFL season. We’ve already put the San Francisco 49ers on their respective couches come playoff time and given Chicago Bears quarterback Nick Foles a ticket to Orlando.

What else can we predict?

3. The Indianapolis Colts make it to the AFC Championship

The addition of Philip Rivers on this team can not be understated. Two years ago with a mostly healthy Andrew Luck at QB, the Colts went 10-6 and made it to the AFC Divisional round, only to be knocked off by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last year, with Jacoby Brisett slinging passes, the team went 7-9, but seven of those losses were by a single score. Is Rivers all by himself worth an extra touchdown per game? Absolutely. Add him to an improved Colts roster and the best coach he’s ever played for, Frank Reich, you have the recipe for something special.

Is it good enough to get past Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in AFC Championship? Probably not. Is it good enough to knock off everybody else in the AFC? I think so.

As of right now the Colts are tied with the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots at +1000 to win the AFC. And you never know. Mahomes could have an off day in the title game and send Indy to Tampa.

4. Matt Patricia gets fired right after Thanksgiving

When discussing the worst head coaches in the NFL, one name is near the top of everyone’s list. And while it should be Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys, it’s more than likely Matt Patricia.

Patricia took a team that Jim Caldwell got over .500 repeatedly and found a way to make them worse. You can’t even blame the loss of Matthew Stafford for last year’s collapse as the team was 3-4-1 with Stafford in the line up. 

Saying Patricia gets fired this season isn’t bold, but saying it happens after getting embarrassed on national television following their Thanksgiving game against the Houston Texans is. There is not a game on their schedule preceding it that you could comfortably call a win. There’s definitely not a victory after Thanksgiving with games at Chicago, then Green Bay, at Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Minnesota.

The reason teams make mid-season coaching changes is to offer hope to a beleaguered fanbase. This year, that fanbase might not even be able to attend the games. You have to give them some kind of hope. Plus, the earlier you enter the search for a head coach the more likely you are to get a good one. Washington won the offseason in hiring Ron Rivera specifically because they got a jump on everyone else by pushing the ejector button on Jay Gruden.

5. Joe Flacco takes over for Sam Darnold after Week 8

I take no pleasure in this prediction. Darnold was doomed from the start when the Jets turned in his card. Would he have a different career with another team that actually surrounded him with NFL caliber offensive weapons? I don’t know. I wasn’t a big Darnold guy as he came out of college. I didn’t see what the fuss was about then and it’s definitely not showed up in the NFL.

If you compared his college tape to Marcus Mariota’s or Jameis Winston’s you wouldn’t put them in the same league. And we see what happened with those guys.

There’s always a chance that Darnold can switch it around and save his young career, but here’s the problem; head coach Adam Gase’s job is on the line too. This team opens the year at Buffalo, then they host San Francisco before traveling to Indianapolis. Not only are those three losses, but they might not be close.

That Week 8 game against the Chiefs in Kansas City? That’s a loss today, as I write this. Mark it down and pick your score. Flacco, for his part, has always been underrated. He’s one of the best postseason quarterbacks of his generation. He is, right now, better than Darnold and when Gase’s back is against the wall, he’s going to pull that trigger.

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