The Super Bowl confetti has settled, and the dim hangover of no football until September is packing a punch that no amount of coffee or breakfast food can cure...

Look on the bright side, though. The NFL's 100th season absolutely popped off.

There was a serious changing of the guard at the quarterback position with Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Patrick Mahomes and more outpacing greats like Brady, Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Manning, Rivers...

The Bills are finally a legit team once again after hitting ten wins for the first time in decades.

The Titans went on an absolutely ridiculous run to make the AFC Championship game on the backs of Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, and AJ Brown.

Eli Manning retired.

Tom Brady's future is up in the air.

Jason Garrett is finally out of Dallas.

This season was wild.

This year' I gave both preseason predictions and midseason predictions.

It's time to get out the red pen that teachers use, and see where I was right, and where I was wrong.

Super Bowl

  • Preseason Prediction:Chiefs over Eagles
  • Midseason Prediction: Patriots over Saints
  • Actual: Chiefs over 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs Victory Parade
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I should have just stuck to my guns. I got the Chiefs part correct.

The Eagles were not the worst pick in the world to make the Super Bowl, they just got decimated by injuries and severely limped into the playoffs.

I changed my pick midseason because the Chiefs were dealing with a Patrick Mahomes injury that looked like it may have been serious, and the Ravens had not yet fully hit their stride. I knew the Pats would slow down a little after the hot start to their season, but I figured they would still be good enough to make the Super Bowl.

Going into the playoffs, I was so confident in the Saints' chances to make the big game. The Vikings loss was a humongous gut punch.

Playoff Predictions

San Francisco 49ers v New Orleans Saints
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For both the AFC and NFC, I correctly picked that the Pats, Chiefs, Packers, and Saints would make the playoffs. The rest of my picks were flat-out wrong.

Me selecting the Falcons, Chargers, Panthers, Colts, and worst of all, the Browns to make it now look outrageously stupid.

We all make mistakes...

NFL MVP

  • Preseason: Aaron Rodgers
  • Midseason: Aaron Rogers
  • Actual: Lamar Jackson
Baltimore Ravens v Cincinnati Bengals
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To be fair, I did have Lamar Jackson as my dark horse at midseason. This was just before Jackson really started to push his game into maximum overdrive.

The first half of the season clicked for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, but as the second had wore on, the Packer offense seemed to run out of juice more and more with each passing game.

Don't let the NFC Championship game appearance fool you, this team needs work. It has no killer instinct, no passing game out side of Devante Adams, and they simply cannot adjust to the ebbs and flows as games wear on.

Offensive Player of the Year

  • Preseason: Aaron Rodgers
  • Midseason: Michael Thomas
  • Actual: Michael Thomas
Arizona Cardinals v New Orleans Saints
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Two different starting quarterbacks, an NFL-record 149 receptions, and more than 1,700 yards. Michael Thomas' twitter handle is "@cantguardmike". How fitting.

Defensive Player of the Year

  • Preseason: Darius Leonard
  • Midseason: Jamie Collins
  • Actual: Stephon Gilmore
New England Patriots v Cincinnati Bengals
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Gilmore led the league with six picks and 20 passes defended. A lot of people (mainly people who have essentially made hating the Patriots online their side hustle) have been pointing out that Devante Parker burned Gilmore for 137 yards in week 17.


Offensive Rookie of the Year

  • Preseason: Kyler Murray
  • Midseason: Kyler Murray
  • Actual: Kyler Murray
Arizona Cardinals v Minnesota Vikings
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Hallelujah, FINALLY a clean sweep!

I actually disagree with this one... slightly. Don't get me wrong Murray had a great year, but AJ Brown had a more explosive season with the Titans, racking up more than 1,000 yards, eight touchdowns, and more than 20 yards a catch.

Still, Murray had a more than solid season on an extremely flawed Cardinals team.

Defensive Rookie of the Year

  • Preseason: Devin Bush
  • Midseason: Nick Bosa
  • Actual: Nick Bosa
Carolina Panthers v San Francisco 49ers
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You could easily make the case that if the 49ers won the Super Bowl, Bosa would have been selected as the Super Bowl MVP. He forced Patrick Mahomes into his worst game of the season (for about three quarters), with Bosa and Deforest Buckner consistently collapsing the pocket.

It was the culmination of a stellar year for Bosa where he notched nine sacks.

Comeback Player of the Year

  • Prediction: Cooper Kupp
  • Actual: Ryan Tannehill
New Orleans Saints v Tennessee Titans
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This award could have gone multiple directions: Jimmy Garoppolo coming back from a torn ACL to lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl, Darren Waller overcoming his checkered past to be a solid offensive weapon for the Raiders.

Then there's Cooper Kupp, who also came back from an ACL tear to torch defenses for 1,161 yards and ten touchdowns.

However it was Ryan Tannehill who barely edged out Garoppolo for the award.

Tannehill took over the starting job from Marcus Mariota after the Titans limped to a 2-5 record to start the season.

However, he did not look back and the man who was meant to be the face of the Miami Dolphins franchise led the Titans to the AFC Championship Game after leading the league in passer rating.

Quite simply put, the Titans were better with Tannehill at the helm leading comebacks. Now a discarded quarterback in this league looks to have the starting job at least for the next year.

 

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