All My 2019 NFL Season Predictions in One Place

Who wins MVP, Rookie of the Year, & yardage titles, plus team over/unders, record predictions, and a Super Bowl pick!

WE ARE OFF AND RUNNING FOR THE NEW NFL SEASON, and already things are off to a wild start. Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger are out injured, Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott are the MVP front runners, and the Miami Dolphins have been relegated.

In the weeks leading up to the NFL season, I wrote something like 300,000 words previewing every NFL thing under the sun. Some of my work was here at Medium, but quite a bit of it was over at SportsBook Review. I previewed every NFL team in-depth, looked at almost every individual NFL award, studied team over/unders, and more.

This article is about two weeks late because of some personal family stuff that took most of my attention lately, but better late than never. You’ll have to take my word on all these predictions below or, ya know, just check the links and you’ll see it’s all there. I have not changed anything. This is just meant to be a resource with everything I thought about the 2019 NFL season in one place.

Most of the award headings below are links to a much longer, in-depth preview of that award if you’d like an explanation or why I didn’t pick someone else. Let me know of any questions in the comments below!

MVP and DPOY

The MVP is the big individual award each year, and it just about always goes to a quarterback. That seems fair since quarterback is almost certainly the Most Valuable Player in all of sports, not just football. The MVP doesn’t always go to the QB with the best stats. Like any sport, it often depends on wins and narrative too, so that informs our picks. And while we’re here, we may as well pick a Defensive Player of the Year since no defender will ever win MVP.

NFL Most Valuable Player: 1. QB Aaron Rodgers GB 2. QB Drew Brees NO 3. QB Carson Wentz PHI 4. QB Jared Goff LAR 5. QB Tom Brady NE

Defensive Player of the Year: 1. DT Aaron Donald LAR 2. LB J.J. Watt HOU 3. LB Von Miller DEN

Quarterback Awards

The great thing about quarterback numbers is that they’re much more predictable than most other positions, and that’s because of volume. Running backs often get 15 or 20 touches a game, and receivers usually top out around 5 or 6 catches a game. But quarterbacks touch the ball on every play and often finish the season north of 500 or 600 passes. Larger sample size means more predictable, so these are typically easier to predict than other positions.

Passing TDs Leader: 1. Aaron Rodgers GB 2. Patrick Mahomes KC 3. Carson Wentz PHI

Passing Yardage Leader: 1. Patrick Mahomes KC 2. Matt Ryan ATL 3. Philip Rivers LAC

Interceptions Leader: 1. Jameis Winston TB 2. Philip Rivers LAC 3. Mitchell Trubisky CHI

Rookies of the Year

The NFL actually awards two Rookie of the Year awards, one for offense and one for defense, so I wrote about both races.

The Offensive Rookie of the Year has already gotten interesting after two weeks. Josh Jacobs and David Montgomery are doing their thing at RB, but the interesting thing is the addition of QBs Daniel Jones, starting this week, and Gardner Minshew, the new Jacksonville starter. If either of those two or Kyler Murray puts up a big and/or winning season, they could win it.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: 1. RB David Montgomery CHI 2. QB Kyler Murray ARI 3. RB Josh Jacobs OAK

Defensive Rookie of the Year: 1. DE Josh Allen JAX 2. LB Devin White TB 3. LB Devin Bush PIT

Comeback Player of the Year

This one is all about narrative, and it almost always goes to a quarterback. That means I bypassed names like Le’Veon Bell and Devonta Freeman and went whole hog on the QBs hype train.

1. QB Carson Wentz PHI 2. QB Jimmy Garoppolo SF 3. QB Joe Flacco DEN

Coaching “Awards”

There’s really only one coaching “award” given out annually to the Coach of the Year, and even that one is far more about narrative and the hot, new coach than it is about coaching greatness, or we’d just give it to Bill Belichick every year. But it’s also fun to predict which coach will be the first one fired that year… even if that’s not exactly an award.

Coach of the Year: 1. Matt LaFleur GB 2. Doug Marrone JAX 3. Kyle Shanahan SF

First Coach Fired: 1. Dan Quinn ATL 2. Bill O’Brien HOU 3. Ron Rivera CAR

NFL Over/Unders

This is the big one before the season. Every NFL team gets a line with Vegas predicting the number of wins for the year, and the league is so volatile that win totals can swing wildly from one season to the next. I went deep and picked every available over/under from both the NFC and the AFC, ranking them from least to most confident.

Here’s all the NFL over/unders in one place if you want a snap shot, and these are my six best bets for the season:

Eagles over 9.5 Ravens over 8.5 Dolphins under 4.5 Jaguars over 8 Lions over 6.5 Chargers under 9.5

NFL Team Recognitions

Of course, there’s more to bet on than just NFL over/unders. You can bet on all sorts of things. I wrote about which team would be the last one to lose a game, which would win the fewest games this season, and which teams could make a surprise run to the Conference Finals. And of course we picked our annual worst-to-first division winner!

Worst to First Division Winner: 1. Jacksonville Jaguars 2. New York Jets 3. Detroit Lions

Last Undefeated Team: 1. Kansas City Chiefs 2. Philadelphia Eagles 3. Denver Broncos

Worst Record in the League: 1. Miami Dolphins 2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3. Oakland Raiders

Best Bets to Make the Conference Finals: 1. Baltimore Ravens +550 2. Philadelphia Eagles +260 3. Jacksonville Jaguars +600

A Few Other Predictions for the Road…

In case you haven’t seen enough from everything else above, here’s a few other prediction columns I wrote before the season…

• NFL rushing title winner
• Points scored by every NFL team
• Alternative over/unders for each team
• Antonio Brown fallout and betting implications

Final 2019 Season Predictions

NFC East

Eagles 11–5 Cowboys 9–7 Redskins 7–9 Giants 6–10

NFC North

Packers 10–6 Vikings 9–7 Lions 8–8 Bears 8–8

NFC South

Saints 10–6 Falcons 9–7 Panthers 8–8 Bucs 6–10

NFC West

Rams 11–5 Seahawks 8–8 49ers 7–9 Cardinals 5–11

AFC East

Patriots 11–5 Jets 8–8 Bills 6–10 Dolphins 4–12

AFC North

Ravens 10–6 Browns 9–7 Steelers 9–7 Bengals 6–10

AFC South

Jaguars 9–7 Titans 7–9 Texans 7–9 Colts 6–10

AFC West

Chiefs 10–6 Chargers 9–7 Broncos 8–8 Raiders 5–11

NFC Playoffs

Rams and Eagles BYE Saints over Cowboys Packers over Falcons

Rams over Packers Eagles over Saints

Eagles over Rams

AFC Playoffs

Patriots and Ravens BYE Chiefs over Chargers Browns over Jaguars

Patriots over Browns Ravens over Chiefs

Ravens over Patriots

Super Bowl

Eagles 27, Ravens 21 ■

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