Folks, the NFL is opening up training camp today and I couldn’t be more excited. There’s nothing better than football season and after the year that we’ve all had, I’m sincerely hoping that things can go as smoothly as possible so that we can watch a lot of football.
With that being said, I wanted to spoil some of the NFL season for you all and tell you some headlines that you’re going to see this year from big stories that will happen. You can virtually lock all of them in and use these to predict the future.
So let’s get to the headlines!
Headline 1: (NFL Star Player) Tests Positive the Night Before a Game
This is absolutely going to happen and everyone is going to lose their minds when it does. The Big J’s like Darren Rovell will be clamoring for the league to stop playing if this does happen. But when it’s all said and done, it’s inevitable that guys are going to test positive. There’s no way around it. The league should know this by now and hopefully they have a plan in place.
Headline 2: Player Quits During the Season Due to Team Being Bad and COVID-19 Concerns
Do you all remember when Vontae Davis retired at halftime due to the Bills being so bad? This will absolutely happen this season. If a team is bad then players aren’t going to want to risk their bodies even more than normal this year to go 5-11 and they will either opt out of the season or quit football altogether.
Headline 3: Jerry Jones Places Head Coach Mike McCarthy on the Hot Seat
Does football season even happen if Jerry Jones doesn’t place a head coach on the hot seat? I can see the Cowboys getting off to a slow start due to the fact that they have a new coach in a new system and they’ve had no practice. On top of that, their first three games are against the Rams, Falcons, and Seahawks. That’s not an easy group.
If they start 1-2 or 0-3, you can guarantee that Jerry Jones will make a comment like “If our coaching was better than we wouldn’t have lost this game” or “We got beat because the other team did the fundamentals of football better than we did the fundamentals of football due to our coaching situation.”
Putting coaches on the hot seat is in Jerry’s blood. It wouldn’t be a true football season unless it happens.
Headline 4: Is Lamar Jackson Regressing?
Listen, this isn’t a knock on Lamar Jackson. Statistically he’s due for some regression. His touchdown percentage last season was 9%. The league average last season was 4.5%. Good quarterbacks will always have seasons in which they’re above the league average but generally they’re a lot closer to the league average, even if they’re above it. The pendulum will swing unfairly against Lamar Jackson when he doesn’t repeat his insane, video game numbers from 2019.
Headline 5: The New York Giants Will Retain Dave Gettleman for the 2021 Season
As a Giants fan, the worst part about how the NFL has been impacted by COVID-19 this season is that Dave Gettleman has already saved his job. The Giants could go 0-16 and he wouldn’t get fired. The amount of built in excuses that John Mara has for the Giants this season will be the size of Mount Everest. Some of them are legitimate, but keeping Dave Gettleman around any longer will be a mistake.
Headline 6: The Chicago Bears Change Quarterbacks (Again)
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Bears make 2+ quarterback changes this season between Nick Foles and Mitchell Trubisky. It feels like the Bears will give Trubisky every opportunity to win the starting job but when he’s terrible again, they will switch to Nick Foles. Foles will be decent for a game or two and then he will remember that he’s not playing for the Eagles and he’ll stink again. Then Trubisky will come back in and have a game that will have people say things like, “this is why he was the 2nd overall pick” but then he will be awful again.
Headline 7: Aaron Rodgers Hasn’t Spoken to Jordan Love and is Treating Him Like Family
There’s going to be a time this season when there’s a story that breaks about how badly Aaron Rodgers is abusing rookie QB and first round pick Jordan Love. Aaron Rodgers is known to be a terrible teammate and this is easily the worst situation that he’s been put in. Aside from the fact that Kaleb and I called the Packers taking Jordan Love weeks before the draft, taking him was a huge mistake. Aaron Rodgers still has plenty left in the tank and he will likely go and finish his career elsewhere.
Headline 8: Teddy Bridgewater Struggles in Carolina
As a person, Teddy Bridgewater seems like a great guy. As a quarterback, he’s not very good. We here at 366 Sports call him the JFK of Quarterbacks in the sense that if he never got hurt then he’d already be out of the league by now. The media romanticizes what could have been instead of what he is: A mediocre QB who is at best a backup. His stats prove that. Luckily for him he got paid.
Headline 9: Colin Cowherd Bashes on Baker Mayfield When He Struggles
I don’t think people realize how bad Baker Mayfield was last season. Matt dug up some stats on him a few months ago and he was absolutely terrible when the pocket was clean. Read this thread:
You know who’s going to have a field day this season if those trends continue? Colin Cowherd. I can see it now, “You know who’s incredibly overhyped? That’s right, Baker Mayfield. Not only is he under .500 as a starter but he is doing it in TERRIBLE fashion.”
You can definitely lock in this headline.
Headline 10: Derek Carr Benched for Marcus Mariota
Will Marcus Mariota end up Ryan Tannehilling current Raiders quarterback Derek Carr? I’d say that it’s only a matter of time before that happens. Derek Carr clearly isn’t the answer in Oakland for the Raiders and the Raiders should do their due diligence on Mariota.
Headline 11 (Bonus): Philip Rivers Blows Game Late
This is a formality at this point. It will absolutely happen.