The SeedSing 2017 NFL Predictions and Picks

For the past 8 days I have given my 2017 NFL countdown. I have ranked the teams from worst to best, in my opinion. Today I'm going to give my playoff predictions and award winners. I'm also going to throw something new into my predictions. This year, not only will you get my MVP, Coach of the Year, etc., I am also going to throw in a player or coach in the "worst" category. For example, I will give out an LVP, or Least Valuable Player award this year. Same with coach and the other awards I will hand out. And for those of you waiting and asking for my 2017 NCAA football preview, I have a big, enormous piece coming next Monday where I will break down the upcoming college season. I know there are some games this Saturday, but I checked the schedule, and only USF will be mentioned on Monday. So for all my college football fans, come back for that on Monday. Anyway, lets get to who I see in the NFL postseason this upcoming season.

I'll start with the AFC first. The AFC East will be easily won by the Patriots. This is the easiest decision by far of my predictions. They have the best QB, coach, players that fit their system, hell, they will even avoid one of those late season losses to Miami because Jay Cutler will find a way to screw that up. Patriots are the East champs by a million miles. Watch out for the Jets to go 0-16 from this division too. It might happen. Buffalo is going to be really bad too.

Some think the AFC West is a bit harder to choose. Not me. I think the Raiders will win this division going away. They have the best offense by far. The Chiefs will put up a fight because their defense is so stout. Same thing for the Broncos. But, the Chiefs offense will not be able to score with the Raiders and the Broncos are starting Trevor Siemian at QB, enough said. Some people think the Chargers are a "dark horse". Not me. I'd be shocked if they finish at .500. The Raiders will win the West with one of the best offenses in football.

If the Steelers do not win the AFC North something really bad has happened. Either they would lose more than half their offense, or some other ridiculous outcome occurs. They are the best team in this division by far. The Bengals might put up a fight, but I lost faith in that team a long long time ago. Like I said, they are the Clippers of the NFL. They are bound to choke. The Browns may be trotting out either Deshone Kizer, or god help them, Brock Osweiler week 1. They are still in the "rebuilding process". And the Ravens are too old and too reliant on a mediocre QB. The Steelers should be heavy favorites to win the North.

The AFC South is about 2 teams, the Titans and the Texans. I'm ready to jump on the Titans bandwagon. I really like what they are doing in Nashville right now and I think Marcus Mariota is ready to take that next step. But, the Texans have a great defense. That will keep them around all year. But, they will wait too long to put Deshaun Watson in at QB, and that will cost them the division. The Jags and the Colts stink, but for different reasons. The Colts have no one besides Andrew Luck, who is still hurt, and T.Y. Hilton. The Jags have no QB. Both these teams will be lucky to win 5 games.

So that leaves my 4 division champs as follows, the Patriots, Raiders, Steelers and Titans. As far as seeding, Patriots 1, Steelers 2, Raiders 3 and Titans 4. My two Wild Card teams are the Texans as the 5 seed and the Chiefs as the 6th. The AFC title game will come down to the Patriots and the Raiders, I think the Raiders will beat the Steelers in a shootout, and the Patriots will return to the Super Bowl for the 4th time in 5 years. They are just too damn good to be stopped.

As far as the NFC goes, it looks to be a bit more open to some. Not to me. The NFC East will be a battle to 10 wins for the title. All these teams have a shot to win the division. I'd love to pick the Eagles, but I think they are still one, maybe 2 years away from taking over the division. Washington will hang around for awhile, but this is the season where I see all of the chances Kirk Cousins and his agent have taken on himself will backfire and they will finish under .500. So it comes down to the Cowboys and the Giants. The Cowboys may seem like the obvious pick. But, when I went through and did my rankings, I found a lot of holes in this team. They will not be as good as they were on defense last year, and I want to see how Prescott handles being the focal point of the offense. The Giants have a great receiving core, a very good defense and that will be enough to push them to be the division winner. It will come down to the end of the season, but the Giants will find a way.

The NFC West is going to be won by the Seahawks. They may be getting a bit older, and relying way too much on Russell Wilson, but the division is pretty porous and their defense is still top 5. The Rams are a dumpster fire. The 49ers are even worse. The Cardinals could make it interesting, but I have zero faith in Carson Palmer. Seattle will win this weak division once again.

The NFC North will once again go to the Packers. They have the best offense in the division, and their defense will be better. Aaron Rodgers is the most reliable QB in the NFL. The Lions limped their way to the playoffs last year, and that "run" will end this season. Minnesota's horrific offense will waste a year of one of the NFL's best defenses. And the Bears are horrible. Remember, they traded away future picks to move up one spot to draft Mitch Trubisky. Never forget that Bears fans. Packers in the North fairly easily.

The NFC South may be the best division in football now. It used to be one of the worst, but things have changed. The Saints may end up in last place in the division with 8 or 9 wins. The Panthers will bounce back, but Cam Newton's shoulder injury scares me a bit. The Buccaneers are going to be dynamite on offense, and they have a pretty decent, young defense. The Falcons were in the Super Bowl last year, return all of their key players and they signed Dontari Poe to help out their defense. But, will they have the Super Bowl hangover? Will they regret hiring Steve Sarkisian? Time will tell. For now though, I'm going to stick with the Falcons. They are too loaded to screw it up, at least in the division. It may take 12 or 13 wins, but they will win the division. Also, don't be surprised if the Falcons, Bucs and Panthers all have double digit wins. This division is really good.

So, the 4 NFC division winners are as follows, the Giants, Seahawks, Packers and Falcons. As far as seeding, I have the Packers 1, Falcons 2, Seahawks 3 and Giants 4. For my 2 wild cards, I legitimately thought about putting both Bucs and Panthers in there, but ultimately I decided on the Bucs as the 5th seed and the Cardinals as the 6th seed. Maybe I just like the Cardinals, and David Johnson, and I want them to prove me wrong. As far as the NFC winner, I'll take the Packers, with ease I might add, over the Falcons. A little revenge from last year's NFC title game. This time it will be at Lambeau though.  

That would pit the Patriots versus the Packers in Super Bowl 52. I'm going with my guys, the Packers. I love what they can be, if they stay healthy, on offense this year. They have so many options. The game will be close, but Rodgers will lead a game winning drive to get his second ring. Go Pack Go. I hope my faith in them will outweigh whatever terrible decisions Mike McCarthy is bound to make this year.

As far as award winners go, lets jump right to the MVP. Some may think I'd pick Rodgers or Brady with the way I talked about the 2 of them in my countdown. Nope. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and pick David Johnson. Not many running backs win this award, but Johnson is so critical and the Cardinals rely on him so much, I feel like he is going to explode this year. He is so awesome. He is the best modern running back playing right now. He will double his awards this season, also winning Offensive player of the Year. The Defensive Player of the Year will go to Jadaveon Clowney. He is going to have a massive year as well, and soon he will be the face of the Texans defense. No more bull shit from JJ Watt, Clowney is going to be the anchor for that very good defense in Houston. Offensive Rookie of the Year will be Dalvin Cook. He is the only good thing the Vikings have going for them on offense. He will get a ton of carries and touches out of the back field, and he is so explosive, he will make some highlight plays. I wanted to pick Leonard Fournette so bad for this, but he is stuck in a horrible situation in Jacksonville. He may get hurt by week 9 because of such a high usage rate. Defensive Rookie of the Year will be Soloman Thomas. He is on a really bad team in San Francisco, but he is the first step in the right direction. I think he will wreak havoc on opposing back fields. Coach of the Year is going to be Dirk Koetter. The Bucs are going to make that Raiders esque leap from last year, and the voters can't get enough of that stuff. The Super Bowl MVP will be Aaron Rodgers, due to that game winning drive I predicted.

Now, for the awards no one wants to win. The 2017 Jets will go down as one of the worst NFL teams ever, and Christian Hackenberg will be a big, big reason why. He is atrocious. He can't even break huddles properly and his press conference skills are terrible. He may be a worse QB than Blake Bortles. He is your 2017 least valuable player. The biggest reach, which will make this guy the worst offensive rookie is the Bengals taking Joe Mixon. What the hell were they thinking? How long until he gets suspended for hitting a woman? He does not deserve to be playing professional sports. No one should ever put their hands on a woman, ever. This also applies to the worst defensive rookie, Jourdan Lewis. He broke my heart when that story came out that hehit his ex girlfriend. I know the charges were dropped, but the damage had already been done. I'm done rooting for Jourdan Lewis. The worst coach of the year was tough. I feel bad for Todd Bowles because he didn't ask for this from the Jets. Doug Marrone is going to have a rough go in Jacksonville, but he won me over when he said he didn't want the game to be in his QB's hands, and he was going to give Fournette the ball 300 plus times. That was some serious shade thrown at Bortles. No, those guys are in poor situations. The worst coach of the year will be Jason Garrett. Technically, he is usually one of the worst coaches, but that will be magnified this year due to the Elliot suspension. He cannot call a game properly and he is emotionless on the sidelines. Garrett has had more than his shot and he has done absolutely nothing but blow it for that team.

Well, there you have it, my entire 9 day 2017 NFL preview. Tell me in the comments why I'm wrong or tell me on Twitter or anywhere else you can find me. Thanks.

Ty

Editor's Thoughts - I have no real disagreement with Ty on the playoff teams. Because I am a pathetic homer, I do think the Bengals will get in the playoffs, and get blown out in the first round again. I am also putting the Vikings in, but they will miss an extra point to lose their Wild Card playoff game. Oakland and Tennessee are on the verge of being great, but the Patriots will find a way (maybe not legal) to win the AFC. The NFC will find some random team to be the underdog to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. I am going with a 9-7 or 10-6 New York Giants team led by Eli Manning and his 30 interceptions.

The Giants will win the game 8-7 after two fourth quarter field goals and a safety in the final seconds. We will live in a world where Eli Manning has three rings.

RD

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His lack of faith in the Bengals maybe be logical, but where is the fun in that.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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College Football Proved in Week One Why it is the Best

The first weekend of the college football season is officially in the books, and I have some quick thoughts about what we saw this past weekend.

First off, isn't it great to have football to watch again? Look, I like baseball, but nothing, not even basketball, compares to my love for football season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. I spent my entire Saturday watching college football games.

My first main takeaway, RD was right and I was way wrong on Oklahoma. I assumed that they had the firepower and talent to overcome their head coach ineptness. Well, Houston made me look stupid, and made RD look right. When they got out to an 11 point lead, Oklahoma that is, I thought that they'd cruise from there. That was not the case. Houston took the first punch, then punched back way more than Oklahoma could handle. The 109 field miss return was the icing on the crap cake that has become Bob Stoops' calling card. Oklahoma could not recover, and they have a big hill to climb if they want in the playoff at the end of the year. They can still do it, but their chances are very, very slim. And how good did Houston and Greg Ward Jr look? They are truly a team worth watching, and they could definitely crash the playoff this year. Their last 2 wins, Florida State last year in the bowl game, and Oklahoma to open this season, are legit, and so is Houston.

The Thursday before, the games were mediocre. The only "marquee" team was Tennessee, and they struggled. Appalachian State is an okay team, and they will forever haunt me for what they did to the Wolverines all those years ago, but Tennessee was supposed to crush them, especially at home. Well, that did not happen. They needed a fourth quarter comeback, and had it not been for a miracle play from their running back, they would have fumbled away their win. Tennessee may not be as good as some thought they would be. But, it is only week one. 

Friday night had some good games, most notably Stanford-Kansas State. This game was closer than I thought, but we still got to see some great running by McCaffery. He made great cuts and zipped through holes and ran over tacklers. That kid is good. Michigan State looked a bit disjointed in their game against Furman on Friday night, but they won. It was sloppy, but it goes down as a W. 

Saturday was the real kickoff. I mentioned the Houston-Oklahoma game, but there were a lot of other things I saw in those early games. The Big Ten, save for Northwestern, looked pretty good. Ohio State and JT Barrett absolutely pummeled Bowling Green. Michigan crushed Hawaii. Iowa ran all over Miami of Ohio. The mid to lower level teams, like Maryland, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska pummeled their opponents. Nebraska also did a fantastic tribute to their fallen punter. It was moving. Yeah, Northwestern got beat, but don't sleep on Western Michigan. They are a good football team. And as far as Rutgers goes, they stink.

The biggest win for the Big Ten came in the afternoon games, when Wisconsin beat LSU. LSU was supposed to be the second, or first overall team in the SEC. They have a great, great running back that was going to run all over Wisconsin. Wisconsin was also coming off an okay season, but they were breaking in a new QB, and their running back was coming off injury. Well, Wisconsin completely controlled every facet of that game. They "held" Fournette to under 150 yards, and forced LSU's QB to try and win the game, which he did not, throwing one of the most errant interceptions I have ever seen. But, I don't put this loss solely on Brandon Harris, I put it on Les Miles. He has become so vanilla. His offense is so predictable, and when you can get them out of their comfort zone, you have a great chance at beating them. The game was ugly, but it was exactly what Wisconsin wanted it to be, and they won. LSU is still a ways away from competing big time in the SEC.

In some other afternoon games, the competition looked good. UNC-Georgia was a very good game. I think I may have been a little low on Georgia in fact. If Nick Chubb can stay healthy, Georgia can be a very good team. Maybe they become the team that challenges Alabama in the SEC. Washington looked good, absolutely crushing Rutgers, Rutgers is not good. But, Washington looked pretty good. UCLA laid an egg against Texas A&M. They had no flow and Josh Rosen looked like he may have taken a step back. A&M won, but I don't think they are great either. Trevor Knight does not appear to be an elite QB, but that is the best they have. And, as I said, they got the win. Other ranked teams, like TCU, Oregon and Oklahoma State crushed their opponents, but TCU and Oregon both gave up more points than they should have against their opponents.

The night games on Saturday, one was great, the other, not so much. Alabama let USC stay in the game for one quarter, then realized that they are Alabama, and dismantled USC. That was an old fashioned whooping. USC looked like a very overmatched JV team against a very young, inexperienced Alabama team. As much as I loathe Nick Saban and Alabama, that team is great, and he is a great college coach. The Clemson-Auburn game was sloppy, but entertaining. Clemson won, but it was a dogfight, and Auburn had a chance at the end. Deshaun Watson did more than enough, at least in my eyes, to prove why he is the best player in college football. The game was also played at Auburn, which is a tough spot for any team, and Clemson still pulled out the victory.

 Sunday featured one game, Notre Dame-Texas, and that game was incredible. I fervently despise both teams, but that game was great. There was little to no defense played, but it was fun. Brian Kelly lost that game for Notre Dame. And, before you call me out for being a Notre Dame hater they would have won if he kept Deshon Kizer in at QB. But, he kept taking him out, and Kizer was unstoppable. So were the 2 Texas QB's. The freshman was more of a threat to throw, but Swoopes, man did he look good running the ball. And their running game was awesome. The way it ended, in double overtime, was excellent. That was a great, great game.

Last night, FSU came back and beat Ole Miss. For as bad as FSU looked in the first half, they looked great in the second half. The freshman QB calmed down, and the o line started to open holes for Dalvin Cook. Ole Miss is overrated. They came out guns blazing, but after the second quarter, they looked gassed, and it seemed that FSU figured them out. This game went as it was supposed to go.

There were a lot of good games, and this was a very good opening week. I don't like that they called the Oklahoma-Houston, Wisconsin-LSU and FSU-Ole Miss games, "neutral" site games. Houston got to play in Houston, Wisconsin got to play in Green Bay and FSU got to play in Orlando. Those are all home games. That was an unfair advantage for Oklahoma, LSU and Ole Miss, but that is just a nit picky thing of mine. Other than that, this season is off to a very promising start. I cannot wait for this Saturday to come so I can watch some more football. The best sport is finally back.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He can breathe easier this weekend because the Wolverines did not have their regular Rodriguez / Hoke bad loss in week one. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.