Good morning everyone! Let’s have a short week full of football. My apologies for no newsletter yesterday, I got drunk on a golf course. And Sunday I didn’t get the chance to write it because my girlfriend brought her cat to my apartment for the first time. It went great, he’s the best little (very big) guy.

Tomorrow is another example of the NFL attempting to monetize a day of the week. They have Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays in the deep January winter. Now, Wednesdays. The 2026 season will kick off in Seattle as the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks get fingered (I think that’s what they call it when they get their little rings?) and host the New England Patriots, whom they beat a mere 7 months ago to win Super Bowl 60. I’ll tell you what, the NFL knows how it market its product. Goddamn that has me hype. Ball on Wednesdays! And we aren’t even talking about Australia yet. This week is crazy!

Anyways, as always, here are my NFL season predictions. Roast me in the comments if you hate my picks.

I’m taking the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams to be the number one seeds in each conference and earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Two of the best defenses in the entire NFL with pretty electric offenses to go along with the defense. I see both of those teams winning a lot of games.

In the AFC, the Bengals, Texans and Titans all finish with the same record but miss the playoffs, losing their respective divisions by one game. I think the Bengals will be improved, but they have to keep Joe Burrow upright. Their offensive line is still very bad. The Texans are down a couple pieces on offense, but their defense is elite. I could see the defense carrying them, but I’m skeptical they will even be an average offense. The Titans have been my sleeper team since post NFL Draft back in April. I’m a believe in Cam Ward despite the narrative surrounding his preseason play. He wasn’t great, but that’s kind of the point of preseason. I think the defense is going to be really good and that just may be enough to get them above .500.

In the NFC, no teams with the color red make the playoffs. Not that hot of a take considering the Bucs and Falcons are both bad. The Commanders and Cardinals aren’t good either. The 49ers are the only one that I think has a chance to make playoffs (outside of the entire NFC South bc yuck). But even I think the NFC South will come down to the Panthers and Saints. It does feel like everyone is picking the Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl all of a sudden, but I still have the Eagles owning that division. They will look a bit revamped on offense I think and their defense will be great if healthy.

A few other notes:

Okay, now for the Playoffs. I’ll list out my bracket because I can’t find the screenshot and don’t want to re-enter every pick from every NFL game over the full 18-week season. That’s my bad, here are the matchups.

I’m not picking a Super Bowl winner this year, just the matchup.

Broncos vs Rams. What a glorious game it would be. The two teams play each other early on in the season, week 3 Sunday Night Football in Denver.

This really isn’t too much of a homer pick. The Broncos were right on the doorstep last season until Bo Nix’s tragic injury. As I said before, I think these are the top two defenses in the NFL. The Rams are going to be a really difficult team to beat this season if they stay healthy. They have an incredible defensive line and last season’s MVP at quarterback.

I have the Ravens and (spoiler alert) Lamar Jackson having an MVP caliber season. I think this is the year that Jackson can get Baltimore back in the AFC Championship game. In the NFC, I think the Seahawks are going to be damn good again. Something gets me so hype about watching the Seahawks and Rams right now. It might be the best rivalry in the NFL right now.

Most Valuable Player
QB Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
I think the Ravens are going to be much improved in 2026, and I think Jackson is going to be able to play free. He’s the best offensive player in football when he’s healthy in my opinion. A little bit of a shake up for the team with John Harbaugh no longer the head coach.

Offensive Player of the Year
WR AJ Brown, New England Patriots
This award has morphed into whatever skill position player is the best in the league. Last season, Drake Maye threw for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns. New England lost its 1,000-yard receiver from a season ago so Brown has a path to being the alpha while being thrown to by last year’s MVP runner-up.

Defensive Player of the Year
EDGE Myles Garrett, Los Angeles Rams
This is certainly the favorite pick, but Garrett has won two of the last three DPOY awards and finished top 5 in DPOY voting every season since 2022. He’s the best defensive player in the entire sport.

Rookie of the Year
RB Jeremiyah Love, Arizona Cardinals
Using a top-3 draft pick on a running back isn’t always the best move. But I like the long-term path Arizona is on - they’ll have their chance in 2027 to draft a new quarterback. I expect them to feed Love and free agent signee Tyler Allgeier often.

Coach of the Year
Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions
As you can see in my predictions above, I have the Lions as the 2-seed in the NFC. If that happens, I think Campbell will get national recognition from bringing Detroit back from last place in the NFC North to hosting a playoff game. The offense should still be electric, and as a long as the defense stays healthy the Lions are going to be hard to beat.

Comeback Player of the Year
TE George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
This is one of the most electrifying tight ends in the league, so the fact he could be on the field Thursday night less than 8 months after tearing his Achilles shouldn’t surprise anyone. Kittle is a badass motherfucker and straight up an awesome dude. Even with Aaron Donald’s return and people wanting to give the award to Patrick Mahomes (despite barely missing any games last year), I still think Kittle has a great path to the award.

Not to be confused with BALD being beautiful, which of course it is. I know there’s at least one person reading this that is into bald men. 😉

Boldness can take you a long way in life. It means accepting some risk, trusting yourself enough to go out on a limb, and doing the thing that feels a little scary because standing still feels worse. I’ve moved across the country several times now. Every move came with uncertainty and plenty of “what am I doing?” moments. But each move has ultimately put me in a better place than before.

That’s the thing about being bold: it is not about pretending there is no risk. It is about deciding the potential reward is worth it anyway. I’ll give you a perfect example. My girlfriend is obsessed with the hot sauce at a place called Lucy’s. Rather than steal it, which I acknowledge could’ve easily been done, I boldly asked the waitress if we could take it home. She let us have it. And now we have one bottle of Lucy’s hot sauce that we didn’t have to steal.

We are one day away from NFL football that actually counts. Preseason? It does not mean shiiiiiit. Once the games matter, everyone gets a little more cautious. Everyone talks themselves out of the players, teams and predictions they secretly believe in. Because being wrong loudly is scary.

Not round here, partner.

I am choosing to be the boldest version of myself. These takes may make me look Jimmy Neutron brain, or they could be screenshotted and held against me later. That is the price of being so bold, or having massive “cojones.” That’s for my Spanish speaking literal ball knowers.