We're Halfway Through the Regular Season... Here Are My Predictions

I can't believe we are halfway through the regular season already… but here we are. For this weeks post I want to give my half way through the year predictions for awards, playoffs, Super Bowl and a few other bold predictions and takeaways after the midway point of the NFL season.

Award Predictions

Coach of the Year- Kyle Shanahan

Comeback Player of the Year- Christian McCraffrey 

Offensive Rookie of the Year- Emeka Egbuka

Defensive Rookie of the Year- Carson Schwesinger

Offensive Player of the Year- Jaxson Smith-Njigba

Defensive Player of the Year- Micah Parsons

MVP- Sam Darnold

I will keep this part short as so far this year I feel like a lot of these are gimme picks… for instance, I think Emeka Egbuka could regress for the rest of the season and still win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. I am giving the Coach of the Year award to Kyle Shanahan for job he has done despite a very injured roster. He has found ways to win and has the niners on the brink of another playoff birth in the NFC halfway through the year. 

Seahawks Quarterback Sam Darnold is my MVP at the halfway point. It's safe to say his performance last season in Minnesota wasn't a fluke for Sam Darnold, he is yet another QB whose early career was ruined by the dumpster-fire of an organization known as the New York Jets. This pick is the slight result of recency bias as I am riding high on him after his 330 yard and 4 TD performance last Sunday night against the Commanders… but this guy can play, and you can see him getting better and better as the year goes on. 

Playoff Predictions

Now we come to playoff predictions, I took into account the schedules for these teams to finish out the season as well as took into account how teams have balanced out as the season has gone. 

AFC

1- Buffalo Bills

2- Denver Broncos

3- Jacksonville Jaguars

4- Pittsburgh Steelers   

5- New England Patriots

6- Kansas City Chiefs

7- Indianapolis Colts

A few surprises here for the AFC, at least given the way things are lined up if the playoffs were to start today. The Colts dropping all the way to the 7th seed and losing the AFC South to the Jaguars is probably the most surprising, but if you look at the Colts schedule coming up… they've got a lot of hard games, a lot harder then their first of games went. As for the rest of the picture the Bills taking the division back from the Patriots isn't a shocker to me, though I could see the Patriots being one of those teams with more wins then most of the division winners. The Chiefs don't win their division but sneak into the playoffs over other teams like the Chargers and Ravens just feels right to me (as much as I hate it). I also have the Steelers winning the division at 9-8 or 10-7… big surprise right. 

NFC

1- Tampa Bay Buccaneers

2- San Francisco 49ers

3- Philadelphia Eagles

4- Detroit Lions

5- Seattle Seahawks

6- Green Bay Packers

7- Minnesota Vikings

The NFC was hard to make a prediction on, there are a lot of good teams in the NFC who were at play for the Wild Card, but ultimately I gave it to the teams that have proven history and the most winnable games left on their schedule (sorry Rams fans). Speaking of winnable games, the 49ers have an insanely easy schedule to finish the season, and with a roster that will only get healthier (hopefully), I wouldn't be surprised if this team was in the hunt for the number one seed come January. 

Super Bowl Prediction

This was a very fun exercise for me, especially when it got down to the championship games, which saw the Bills hosting the Chiefs and the Eagles hosting the Seahawks. For the first time ever I have Josh Allen and the Bills beating Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs and advancing to the Super Bowl. And Sam Darnold and the Seahawks overwhelming the Eagles in the playoffs. Then there were two, the Bills and the Seahawks. 

This may be a surprising for some to see the Seahawks making it all the way to the Super Bowl, but I think that this team gets hot at the right time and makes a playoff run. As for the Bills, they've looked the part this season (as they have for the past few) and will be another one of those teams that gets hot right at the end of the season. 

And for the winner of this prediction, I've got the Buffalo Bills bringing home the Lombardi for the first time ever in a high scoring shootout with the Seattle Seahawks.