Looking Back...NFL Season Predictions

A few weeks into the NFL season, I was sitting with my friend and fellow comedian Dylan Shelton at a show, and Dylan said something along the lines of, "Your NFL predictions sucked." He was right. Just a few weeks into the year, and it was already pretty obvious I was headed for a bad season based off my September 5 predictions post. It makes me feel slightly better than many prognosticators and bettors haven't had a great year dealing with the NFL. Bill Simmons's regular weekly picks columns have covered his own personal demise this season. But, it still seems worth it to look back on what went horribly wrong.

AFC East

This isn't impressive. It's pretty easy for anyone to pick New England to win the division, and that's what happened. The records I predicted were all off with the New York Jets actually doing far better than expected and possibly having the chance to be a playoff team had they had any consistency at the quarterback position. I did predict that the Miami Dolphins would not make the playoffs, but had them at 7-9 and not even in the hunt rather than them fizzling out in the final weeks of the season when controlling their own destiny.

AFC North

I had three teams from this division making the playoffs. Oops. Despite the Ravens overspending for Joe Flacco, I still thought they had the elements that always got them to the playoffs. They didn't, and neither did the Steelers (my selection from the AFC to make the Super Bowl. Yikes.) The Bengals dominated the division. The Browns did even worse than I predicted as usual.

AFC South

Houston's incredibly disappointing year highlights this division. With a difficult schedule, many expected Indianapolis to not make the playoffs (I had them at 8-8), but they won the division. To my expectations, Tennessee did better yet still fired head coach Mike Munchak. Jacksonville did better than many expected and have some hope with new coach Gus Bradley.

AFC West

It seemed pretty easy to expect Denver to win this division and Oakland to be at the bottom. But, even with an easy schedule, I didn't expect Kansas City to start off the season 9-0 and make the playoffs. San Diego was also impressive under new head coach Mike McCoy. They were enigmatic at times, and likely could have even had a better record, but found their way into the AFC Wild Card berth.

NFC East

If there's one immediate regret that I had with my predictions, it was thinking that Washington would win this division. They seemed very set up for the wreck of the season that they did have, but the NFC East was wide open with teams that didn't look impressive. Surprisingly, first-year coach Chip Kelly led the Eagles to the title. I was correct in predicting the Cowboys at 8-8, but so was probably everyone else.

NFC North

Green Bay won the division, but not as easily as I expected, but with one of the most entertaining games of the season in a win over Chicago. As the season progressed, Detroit became a disappointment and Jim Schwartz was deservedly fired. For the foreseeable future, this still seems like Green Bay's division.

NFC West

I didn't realize it until now, but I hilariously did not include my records for the NFC West in my original post. I had Seattle winning the division and San Francisco making the playoffs, which wasn't a surprise that it happened. Though, Arizona's performance this year is worth noting, and was nice to see them in the hunt.

NFC South

With the way the season started, Carolina looked like they were preparing for another disappointing year and Ron Rivera to be fired. But, they stepped it up, and won the division with Atlanta being yet another huge disappointment that I expected to win the division. As I predicted, New Orleans did come in as a Wild Card, but it's looking less likely that they'll win the Super Bowl as I forecasted.

Now, for what I expect will be extremely wrong predictions on how these playoffs will turn out:

AFC PLAYOFFS

Indianapolis defeats Kansas City
Cincinnati defeats San Diego

Denver defeats Indianapolis
Cincinnati defeats New England

Cincinnati defeats Denver

NFC PLAYOFFS

New Orleans defeats Philadelphia
Green Bay defeats San Francisco

Seattle defeats New Orleans
Green Bay defeats Carolina

Seattle defeats Green Bay

SUPER BOWL

Seattle defeats Cincinnati

Should I stick by New Orleans? In a way, I should. But, if the road to the Super Bowl runs through Seattle, it's going to be very difficult for any team to walk in there. It's just too difficult to bet against Seattle. In recent years, there's always a team from the first weekend of games that finds their way to the Super Bowl. Despite suspect quarterback play from Andy Dalton, I'll take the risk and say that it's Cincinnati, but I do think that San Diego, New Orleans, and Green Bay have the potential to be those teams as well.

Well, I'm looking forward to my predictions going just as wrong as the season went for me.

    These frightening people get a Super Bowl?