<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re a single slate of games into the season and while many in fandom and punditry will want to overreact over what we saw in Week 1., I prefer to get bold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t take the idea of a \u201cbold prediction\u201d lightly. There\u2019s nothing \u201cbold\u201d about predicting the Detroit Lions will miss the playoffs. A \u201cbold\u201d prediction would be saying that very Lions team will not only make the playoffs, but go all the way to the Super Bowl. I\u2019m not doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I am sticking my neck out to deliver my annual selections of unlikely and unexpected outcomes that I totally see coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS WILL WIN FEWER THAN SIX GAMES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A year after returning to the postseason, the Patriots are about to fall to Earth like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. It\u2019s been so long since Bill Belichick has been forced to play two years in a row without Tom Brady, you can be forgiven for thinking last year would be a return to normalcy. Oh no. This year is what Belichick sans Brady regularly looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Super Genius\u2019 first foray into head coaching, he led the Cleveland Browns to exactly one winning season in five tries before getting fired after the 1995 campaign. His New England tenure started no better, with a 5-11 record with Drew Bledsoe as his starter in 2000. In 2001, the year they won their first Super Bowl, they opened the year 0-2 with Bledsoe at QB. Brady only took the reins when Bledsoe was injured in their Game 2 loss to the New York Jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Belichick has made the playoffs as a head coach exactly twice without Brady under center, in 1994 with the Browns and last year with the Patriots. That\u2019s a stat that will not change in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The opening week 20-7 lackluster showing against the Miami Dolphins was no aberration. In fact, looking at the Pats schedule, I see three consecutive losses coming at the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and at the Green Bay Packers. The fact is, picking New England to go 5-12 might be a stretch, with a middling second-year quarterback, poor skill position players and some of the worst assistant coaches on both sides of the ball not only in the NFL, but perhaps in NFL history. Of course, two of them are Belichick\u2019s kids, so there\u2019s no fixing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. MATT RHULE WILL BE THE FIRST HEAD COACH FIRED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott potentially missing the first eight weeks of the season with an injured hand, a lot of the \u201cfirst coach fired\u201d talk will rightly be aimed at his head coach Mike McCarthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jerry Jones is notoriously slow at firing a head coach, much to his team\u2019s detriment. Also, McCarthy does have the excuse of losing Prescott for half the season. He was a dead man walking the minute Sean Payton \u201cretired\u201d from the New Orleans Saints, but I do think McCarthy will make it to Week 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt Rhule? It wouldn\u2019t shock me to see him in the bread line before this article is posted. Rhule went 5-11 his first year and when the league added a 17th<\/sup> game in 2021, Rhule made sure to lose it, going 5-12. He\u2019s started the 2022 campaign 0-1 with his personally selected quarterback, Baker Mayfield, losing his own revenge game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Panthers have one of the three worst rosters in the league. Not all of that\u2019s on Rhule. He can, at least, share that blame with general manager Scott Fitterer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carolina plays at the New York Giants this coming Sunday and if they drop that game, and there\u2019s no reason to believe for a second they won\u2019t, the guillotine blade moves that much closer to Rhule\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. TOM BRADY WILL RETIRE AT THE END OF THE SEASON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s plenty of rumors surrounding Tom Brady and his family off the field. His long absence from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in training camp was suspicious to say the least. The tabloids are blowing up with marriage turmoil<\/a> and, while Brady looks like he can still play at his normal level after one game, he\u2019s got a massive $375 million broadcast deal<\/a> with Fox waiting on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve stopped predicting the demise of Brady\u2019s quarterbacking ability. But he\u2019s done pretty much everything he could do in the league. More than any man ever has. It has to end sometime and this looks like the last ride to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. COOPER KUPP WILL NOT LEAD THE NFL IN CATCHES OR RECEIVING YARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t a shocker that the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Buffalo Bills on the NFL\u2019s Thursday Night season opener. It\u2019s how they lost that I don\u2019t think anyone was prepared to see. What wasn\u2019t lost was Cooper Kupp, who still managed to catch 13 passes for 128 yards and a score. His catches, after a game, lead the NFL. His yardage is good for fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With such a strong start, you\u2019d think that Kupp would once again have the inside track on leading the league in one of those categories, if not claim the triple crown again. Here\u2019s why I don\u2019t think he will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rams offense was off. Allen Robinson was barely targeted and that will change. The presence of Odell Beckham Jr. at the game and in the pregame ceremonies all but guarantees his return to the team at some point. Plus, Van Jefferson, LA\u2019s deep threat and No. 3 receiver, was out against the Bills. He should be back on the field soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson, OBJ and a healthy Jefferson will steal Kupp\u2019s catches and yards. He\u2019ll still have an elite season and I think he\u2019ll probably lead the receivers in TD catches again. I think that Justin Jefferson and Devante Adams will probably split the other two titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While all of NFL punditry might have been clutching their pearls and fanning themselves on their fainting couches after the 49ers lost 19-10 to the Chicago Bears Sunday, I was not surprised at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I called it<\/a>. I felt that one in my soul, frankly, and it\u2019s just the beginning of a rough season for the Niners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I didn\u2019t think (in the preseason) that San Francisco would finish with a losing record, just that they wouldn\u2019t make the playoffs. After Sunday, everything is on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, hey, they should stick with Lance. And I\u2019m not just saying that because the Rams are my team. They drafted him to be the guy and you have to take the good with the bad early. He can only learn by playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, as I said all offseason, the idea that he would take this team to the same place Jimmy Garoppolo did, a proven winner who played in two NFC Championships and a Super Bowl, in his first season with the keys, was simply ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <\/em>@TheFirstMan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Connect with us our socials on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE We\u2019re a single slate of games into the season and while many in fandom and punditry will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23522,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23520\/revisions\/23522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}