The SeedSing 2017 NFL Midseason Redo

Just like I did with the mid point of the NCAA football season last week, this week, after tonight we will be at the mid point, I'm going to do a checkup and redo of my preseason NFL picks. I'll do the division winners and wild card teams, the MVP, rookie of the year on offense and defense, coach of the year and my Super Bowl matchup and champs. I've got a TON to change due to injuries and some surprises. Some stuff I got right, but some stuff I got very, very wrong.

Okay, lets start with the AFC. First off, I do not know who is the best team in the AFC. One week I think it is the Patriots, then the Steelers, hell, I have even considered the Bills as one of the best teams in this conference. It is so out of whack. Anyway, the AFC East is all about the Patriots and the Bills. The Dolphins stink. They are 4-3, better than I thought, but none of that has to do with Cutler, who is out with an injury of course, and they just got their asses whooped by the Ravens last Thursday night. I believe the final score was 40-0. The Dolphins are horrendous. The Jets are much, much, much better than I thought they'd be. I was one of the people that considered picking them to go 0-16. This was when I thought Christian Hackenberg was going to be their starting QB, but they went to Josh McCown, and he has been surprisingly decent. The Jets are still pretty awful, but they are 3-5, and surpassed my expectations of their entire win total in 8 games. Todd Bowles has proven to be a very competent, and good, NFL head coach, given the roster he had to work with coming into this year. The Patriots are a very shaky 6-2 team right now. The offense is fine, but they may be losing Chris Hogan, and they already lost Julian Edelman. They do have a stable of running backs, and they will find some fine receivers and they have Tom Brady and a solid O line. The Patriots problem lies within their defense. Their defense is horrid. Yeah, they stopped Matt Ryan, but every QB prior to that was shredding them. They also have a bad run defense. They are bad on that side of the ball. Maybe they will get some new bodies, but right now, they are bad on defense. The Bills are one of my biggest surprises. I did not think they would be good, but they play incredibly sound defense, and they know their limitations on offense. Tyrod Taylor has been great. LeSean McCoy has been great. Their O line is very good. And their defense is stout. If their offense gives them 20 points, they will win. The Bills are 5-2, and I could see them winning 10 or 11 games. But, I am still going to go with the Patriots to win this division, but barely.

The Chiefs will win the AFC West unless they absolutely blow it. They have cooled off since their 5-0 start, but the rest of the division is not that good. Also, the Chiefs are playing better offense and their defense is very good, even without Eric Berry. The Raiders stink. They were my, along with a ton of people, pick to take a big leap. They have not. Derek Carr is playing timid. Amari Cooper is dropping the ball all the time. They have no run game. And their defense stinks. They'll be lucky to win 7 games. The Broncos are atrocious on offense. Trevor Siemian is not a starting QB. Neither is Paxton Lynch and anyone else they may have on their roster. They could go out and sign Colin Kaepernick, which would be an ideal fit, but they won't, unfortunately. The Broncos defense is really good, as always, and Von Miller is so good, but the defense is wasted by their horrid offense. As stated, Siemian stinks. He cannot get the ball to Thomas or Sanders in stride. They can't really run either because everyone is stacking the box and daring them to throw. 8-8 seems like their destiny. The Chargers have played better since beating the Giants, but they are no better than 7-9 to me. Phil Rivers is too old, they have no go to receiver and they do not give Melvin Gordon the ball enough. They have a good, young defense, which I do like. The Chargers need to retool their offense, but their defense is set. The Chiefs should easily win the West.

The AFC North is an absolute joke outside of the Steelers. The Steelers look to be finally figuring it out, and that should scare teams. They have Brown, Smith-Schuster and LeVeon Bell. As long as they lean on those guys, and not Ben Roesthilberger, the Steelers will be just fine. Their defense has been great too. The Ravens are so bad on offense, and I know they just had 2 pick sixes, but their defense is not what it once was. Joe Flacco is going to probably miss some time and Ryan Mallett is their backup. Yikes. The Bengals stink. Andy Dalton is bad. AJ Green is not getting enough targets. Their three running backs are not that good. Their defense is old, but still dirty. Maybe this is the year the front office finally gives up on Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton. And then we have the Browns. The Browns are an absolute mess. That is all that needs to be said. Steelers are the easy pick for this division.

The AFC South is very close, but the teams all have big time flaws. The Jaguars have a very good defense. A top notch defense. They've had 2 games where they have sacked the opposing QB 10 times. That is amazing. Their problem, Blake Bortles. He is awful. They have Fournette, and when he isn't hurt, he carries that offense. But, when they have to rely on Bortles, it is a disaster. The Texans have Deshaun Watson and he is amazing. They also have DeAndre Hopkins and he is amazing. They have a very explosive offense. They lost JJ Watt and Whitney Mercilus on defense, but they still have Jadaveon Clowney, but not much more. They also have Bill O'Brien and their horribly racist owner, which is their downfall. The Titans are the most inconsistent team in the NFL. They are not grinding games out like they should, but no one is blowing them out either. They just cannot put together a complete game. That will be their downfall. Then we have the Colts. The Colts stink. The Colts are almost as big a mess as the Browns. They should shelve Luck for the rest of the year and try and get a high draft pick. That is their best case scenario. If I had to pick a division winner right now, I guess I'd take the Jaguars, but I have zero confidence in that pick.

So the AFC playoff teams would be the Patriots, Steelers, Chiefs and Jaguars as the division winners, and my 2 wild card, the Bills and, I guess, the Broncos. I'll take the Patriots and Steelers in the AFC title game, and give me the Steelers to outscore the Patriots and make the Super Bowl.

Now for the NFC. Lets start with the NFC East because they have the best team, record wise, in the NFL right now. The Eagles have a strangle hold on this division. They are 3 games up with 8 left to play. Carson Wentz has looked great. They have a solid run game. Alshon Jeffrey has been a great addition. They have a very solid defense. They should coast to the title. The Cowboys are playing better as of late, but the last 2 wins came at San Francisco, and a depleted Washington team. Ezekial Elliot will probably not serve any of his suspension this season, so that helps them. Dak Prescott has been very solid flowing up a very impressive rookie year. Dez Bryant has been fine as their number one wide out. Jason Witten is showing wear and tear finally. Their O line is still very good. Their defense is suspect to me. They have not really faced a tough opponent, outside of Green Bay when Rodgers was healthy, so I want to see this defense stop a quality team. All 4 of the Cowboys wins have come against teams at or below .500. I do not buy them yet. Washington is very poorly coached. Jay Gruden looks so lost out there. Kirk Cousins hasn't been All Pro caliber this year either. They do not have a run game. Their receivers are very average. And while I love Vernon Davis, he is pretty old now. Their defense is very good, but they spend so much time on the field due to their lackluster offense. That hurts teams. The Giants are so, so, so bad. They are bad on every level. I picked this team to win this division, but I was clearly wrong. Their O line is awful. Eli Manning is terrible. They have no run game. and now that Beckham is done for the year, they have no on to catch the ball. The Giants may not win another game all year. The Eagles will coast.

The NFC West is surprisingly decent. Well, I should say, the Seahawks are very good, but so are the Rams. I do not think anyone saw this coming from the Rams. They play very sound defense, which keeps them in games all the time. But their offense has been a big time surprise. I knew Todd Gurley was good, and he is finally showing that again this year. But, who saw this upgrade from Jared Goff, Sammy Watkins and Cooper Kupp? No one. And if you say you did, you are  a god damn liar. Good for Sean McVay, and maybe this team will push for a playoff spot. The Seahawks are good, as always. Their defense is still top notch. They did get roasted by a rookie yesterday, but other than that game, they have put the clamps on pretty much every opponent. Oh, and Sheldon Richardson is starting to wreak havoc. That's scary. The offense goes as Russell Wilson goes. Their run game and O line might be the worst in the NFL though. But, they have deep threats all over the field, and Jimmy Graham looks pretty good again. The O line and lack of a running game may doom this team though. The 49ers are in full rebuild mode, and after playing very hard the first 5 games, they have been destroyed the last three. This is looking like 2-3 years before this team is even close to being .500 and competent. They need pretty much everything. The Arizona Cardinals, my dark horse, has been bad, and now filled with injuries. David Johnson went out week one. Carson Palmer week 6. They traded for Adrian Peterson, but he is well past his prime. Their defense has not looked good, and I'm just waiting for the inevitable Tyrann Mathieu injury. Larry Fitzgerald deserves better than this. I know he wants to stay with one team his whole career, but now is the time to trade him to a real contender so he has one last shot at winning a ring. The Cardinals need to start thinking about a full rebuild. I have the Seahawks winning this division, but the Rams will fight.

The NFC North is now the Vikings to lose after Aaron Rodgers was lost for the year due to a broken collarbone. I know that the Packers say he could be back, but do not rush him back. Save him for next year. I also know that I picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl this year. Well, that will not happen now. Brett Hundley is not being given a fair shot. McCarthy is way too scared to open up the playbook for him. I still think they should go after Kaepernick too. Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson, Davante Adams, they are all great, but only with Rodgers at QB. They will not see the kind of passes they usually see until next year. Ty Montgomery has been okay as a full time running back, but he gets hurt way too much. I do really like this Aaron Jones kid though. He has been a revelation. Martellus Bennett hasn't lived up to my expectations, but he is still a quality tight end. The defense is not where I thought it would be right now either. They still give up way too many chunk plays, and they have a hard time getting opposing teams off the field on third down. This is a lost year for Green Bay. The Vikings have one of the best defenses in all of football. That will easily carry them to 10 wins. What has been surprising is how decent their offense has been. They extend drives, they run the ball well, and Case Keenum has looked average, which is good for him, this year. The Vikings are good. The Bears have a really good defense, shockingly, and 2 great running backs. What they don't have is a confident QB and they have no receivers. Trubisky has looked very, very below average since he became the starter. And the receiving corps, I cannot name one guy off the top of my head. I also do not think John Foxx wants to be there. The Bears defense will keep them in games, but they are no more than a 5 or 6 win team. The Lions are exactly what I thought they were going into this year. They have some explosive plays on offense, but they can never seem to finish off drives. They also don't have any real solid running backs. It is not like they like to run anyway. They have okay receivers, but no one that scares any corner like Calvin Johnson did. They will be a tough win for teams, but they look like a 7-9 team. The Vikings will run away with the North.

The NFC South is bad, and I thought it was going to be the best division in the NFL. The Saints are the leaders right now, and I do not think they have looked as great as some others do. They finally have a run though. Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara have been so good for them. Getting rid of Adrian Peterson was also a great move. But, Drew Brees and this group of receivers are not putting up the numbers that I thought they would. Some of that is due to their much improved run game, some due to old age. The Saints also have a very opportunistic defense now, which they have never really had. They are much better than I thought they would be. The rest of the South is a mess. The Panthers look so bad on offense. Cam Newton looks off. They are trying way too hard to get McCaffery the ball. Kelvin Benjamin and Devin Funchess are fine, but not world beaters. Their defense is very average too. Luke Keuchly got another concussion. They can stop the run, but struggle at stopping the pass. What hurts them most though is self inflicted wounds. Just look at their recent game against the Bears. Two pick sixes, and they got beat by a team that threw the ball 7 times. The Panthers are going nowhere fast. The Falcons seem to have major Super Bowl hangover. They are not nearly as explosive on offense as last year. They do not run the ball enough. Matt Ryan is reverting back to being a mid tier QB. Julio Jones cannot get enough touches. They are basic on offense. Their defense is okay, but not elite. They just do not look like the same team I watched last year. And then there is the Buccaneers. I loved this team going into this year. I thought they had the goods on both sides of the ball to take a big leap. Well, their offense is bad. Jameis Winston seems to have regressed, and he is hurt. Doug Martin a middle of the road running back. Mike Evans can't get open. Desean Jackson is not being used correctly. Same with OJ Howard. The defense is incredibly mediocre. They don't do anything that wows anyone or jumps off the page. They are 2-5, and with no bye week, they will be lucky to finish with 6 wins. The Saints will win this division because they are the only team in it that plays competent football.

So my NFC playoff teams are, the Eagles, Seahawks, Vikings and Saints as the division winners, and my 2 wild card teams are the Rams and, I guess the Cowboys. The NFC title game will be the Seahawks and the Eagles, and I am going with the Eagles to go to the Super Bowl.

I cannot tell you how much I would loathe watching the Super Bowl I picked. I despise both the Steelers and the Eagles. My Super Bowl winner will have to be the Steelers. They have the talent and experience. Ugh, I feel gross now.

As far as award winners, my MVP, Carson Wentz. I'd love to go Deshaun Watson, but they won't give it to a rookie. My offensive rookie of the year is Deshaun Watson though. He is also my offensive player of the year. My defensive rookie of the year, I guess TJ Watt because the voters do love the Watt family for some reason. My defensive player of the year, and I am going to go out on a limb here, but anyone from the Jaguars D line. They have 2 games with 10 sacks like is said earlier! That's amazing! Coach of the year will be Doug Pederson because he will get to the Super Bowl in the super watered down NFC.

Okay, there's my midseason NFL redo. Hopefully Carson Wentz doesn't get hurt like David Johnson did. And lets also hope that the second half of the NFL is much better than the first half of the year. And also, can Colin Kaepernick please get signed already. Enough is enough.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He literally vomited in his own mouth when he wrote down the Super Bowl Pick. All Pennsalvania is not what he wanted.

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