2019 hot takes almost seem too easy. It’s been an absolute whirlwind of a week in the world of football. Andrew Luck (everyone else got a Luck pun in, so I get one, let’s not fight about it and move on) made one of the most drastic career decision arguably since Barry Sanders. It really goes to show just how physical the game really is, and how quickly everything can change. The Colts went from legitimate title contenders (Sports Illustrated had them advancing to the AFC Championship) to Vegas putting them as a sub .500 team at over/under 6.5 wins.
So it would certainly be the Texans division to lose at this point, but they just lost starting running back Lamar Miller for the season. So with all the uncertainty surrounding the NFL, allow me to make the bold predictions that will get some people to agree with me, and trigger others into a Twitter rampage. I’ll even sprinkle in some college football. Here they are, in spice levels from mild to ¡Muy Caliente!, my 2019 hot takes.
2019 Hot Takes
Mild Takes
The coolest of my 2019 hot takes. These are some more likely ones that won’t get under your skin quite as much. If these bother you, you won’t be ready for ¡Muy Caliente!
Melvin Gordon & Zeke Both Sign
I had a couple of fantasy drafts this week, and the chatter about these two was nonstop. Is Jerry Jones poking the bear too much? Is Zeke really staying in shape in Cabo? Why won’t Melvin sign? Why don’t they just trade him already? All of these are valid questions but are really alarmist. Below backs are a dying breed in today’s NFL, so having them holdout is the new norm. Dallas has the best offensive line in football, and Dak needs him in order to be successful. Is Jerry Jones being absurdly petty?
Yes, he is. When isn’t he? Never. He will be back. As for Gordon, he really has no leverage. The Chargers need him to be Super Bowl contenders, but can still be a dangerous team without him. He’s not a free agent, and no other team is going to sell the farm for him due to his injury history. So the standoff here is really fruitless for Melvin here, but he might squeeze out a couple more million for the year just to keep both parties happy. The Chargers window is closing with Rivers, and they are in win-now mode.
No More 4 Week Preseason
So this might not technically qualify as a 2019 hot take. That’s because it won’t go into effect this season. But I digress.
This is a long time coming, especially with the fiasco in Canada this year and the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement imminent. There’s just no reason for the preseason to be this long. The only reason it is still four weeks is that owners want the money from it. The solution is very simple and has already been floated around. Install an 18 game season with a 16 game limit per player (with exceptions for QB, K/P, and other specialists) and shorten the preseason to two weeks. The argument against an extended season is injury concern. Players get injured during the preseason too. Football is a game of injury, it’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality of it. Owners concerned about losing preseason revenue will more than recover and exceed it with an added home game and/or extra prime time slot. Sorry preseason lovers. Wait, no I’m not.
Heisman: Tua Or Trevor
This is probably one of the easiest Heisman races to call in recent memory. The two best teams and the two best quarterbacks, which at its core, is what the Heisman is really about. Unless a running back has a Ron Dayne-esque (he won….really) it’ll come down to these two. Being a Clemson fan, I know it’ll sound biased when I say Trevor Lawrence is the current favorite over Tua Tagovailoa, but there’s a sound rationale behind it.
Nick Saban is the Bill Belichick of the college game. He takes his opponents best players out of games, utilizes his superior talent in every position, and puts his quarterbacks in the best positions to be successful. Tua is athletic, and a heck of a quarterback and he will throw and run for a lot of touchdowns this season. However, Alabama doesn’t need him to be the focal point of the offense for them to be successful.
They can always lean on the best offensive line in the game and five-star skill players and still make it to the championship. Trevor Lawrence is the engine that makes Clemson go. His arm talent is the best in the college game, his football IQ chased Kelly Bryant to Missouri, and Dabo Swinney is going have him throwing 35-40 times per game. Oh, and he’s a true sophomore. Clemson is going to put up firework shows every week, and the Heisman voters love style points.
Hot Takes
No Playoff Win For Browns
This has moved into the Hot Take category, and some people may argue it belongs in the ¡Muy Caliente! section of my 2019 hot takes. Can anyone tell me why? I get it, the Browns are the sexy pick. They have Baker Mayfield, ODB, a new coach in Freddie Kitchens, a Sports Illustrated cover, and elegant mustaches. They even have a winnable division, and for some reason (stupid money, I cannot express how stupid of money it is) have the 3rd best odds to WIN THE SUPER BOWL. Besides Myles Garrett, the defense is anonymous.
The offense is supposedly stacked, but the coaching is new and they haven’t played a full season together yet. They have a relatively soft schedule and should make the playoffs one way or the other, but they aren’t on the level of the AFC playoff contenders. Maybe they get lucky and get the Texans and squeak out a win in a wildcard round, but they don’t match up against New England, Kansas City, or Los Angeles. I’m not saying the Browns won’t be entertaining to watch, or that they won’t be dangerous. They just aren’t playoff winners yet.
Daniel Jones Doesn’t Start
Listen, New York, it’s called rebuilding. I know that’s an odd term to throw around up there, but this isn’t baseball. You can’t just chuck money at the problem to make it go away in the NFL. It’s a chance to start something new, and that means a multiple year process. A process that will only be slowed down by throwing a first-round draft pick to the wolves too early for no reason.
I understand that Eli is old and at the end of his career, but this team isn’t making the playoffs regardless of who’s under center. The good news is that Eli is more than willing and has been open about mentoring Jones, and that isn’t something that should be taken for granted. There are plenty of quarterbacks that have publicly come out against the expectation of helping an understudy (Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco just to name two recent examples).
Saquon Barkley will be more than enough to keep games entertaining and allow Jones to spend the year learning and getting a feel for the offense. If Patrick Mahomes can learn and thrive from a year of backing up Alex Smith, just think of the amount of knowledge there is to learn from a two time Super Bowl winner. Don’t worry, I hear you from the back. “But Nick! Patrick DID start 1 game! Daniel Jones should at least start once, right?!?!” No. The Chiefs had their playoff spot locked in. The Giants aren’t going to make the playoffs. Enjoy Barkley, and root against the Jets.
Ohio State Will Miss CFP
Before you burn me at the Horseshoe, let me explain Buckeye fans. First of all, the Big Ten is incredibly competitive. As always, Michigan is going to be the most important game of the season and that’s going to be essentially a coin flip if everything goes to plan and it’s on the road in Ann Arbor. Not to mention tough matchups against ranked Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State. The second reason for this take is the quarterback position. Justin Fields is talented and gifted athletically, but he was essentially a gimmick quarterback at Georgia and just waltzed into Columbus and took the job with little effort.
I’m not entirely sold on the idea that Fields is ready to lead an Ohio State team through an extremely tough schedule and the adversity that comes with it. The last thing is the real elephant in the room, the void left by Urban Meyer. If you’re not a Buckeye fanatic, you would have zero idea who Ryan Day is. Even in the media, Jim Harbaugh made sure Meyer’s shadow won’t go away anytime soon. While Day I’m sure has earned the job, his resume seems odd to say the least. Here’s a quick rundown:
- 2002: New Hampshire TE coach
- 2003-04: Boston College General Asst.
- 2005: Florida General Asst.
- 2006: Temple WR Coach
- 2007-11: Boston College WR Coach
- 2012: Temple OC/WR Coach
- 2013-14: Boston College OC/QB Coach
- 2015: Philadelphia Eagles QB Coach
- 2016: 49ers QB Coach
- 2017: Ohio State co-OC/QB
- 2018: Ohio State Interm HC/OC/QB Coach
That’s…..a lot of moving around. I’m not so certain anyone moving around that much would be able to build consistent recruiting classes. Sure, being at a school that literally tried to trademark the word “the” will automatically land some star recruits, but this head coaching situation is in its infancy and nothing is certain.
WARNING!
You are about to enter the ¡Muy Caliente! Section of my 2019 hot takes. If you are not sure if you’re able to handle this level of take, consult your fandom, ego, and friends. If after reading you experience: scoffing sounds, are-you-kidding-mes, and/or the urge to flame me on Twitter, please refer to my handle at the end of the article.
¡Muy Caliente!
The Jets Make The Playoffs
This is the Andrew Luck effect. If you asked me a week ago if the New York Jets are going to make the playoffs, I would’ve ignored your question. The Colts no longer having a locked up spot opens the door for teams like the Jets to make a run. Let’s think about the reasons here. They added a top 5 running back in Le’Veon Bell, Sam Darnold is a young quarterback on the rise, and their schedule is INCREDIBLY easy. They have the Bills twice and the Dolphins twice. That’s four wins.
They have a four-game stretch of the Giants, Redskins, and Oakland Raiders, and Bungles (not a typo) That puts them at eight victories. There are home games against Cleveland, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. They can easily steal one, if not two, of those three. They also play Jacksonville. That is definitely a path to 9-7/10-6 and I really think that’s good enough to snag the sixth seed in the AFC. Who else is going to fill that slot in the AFC realistically? I’m throwing my money on the Jets to make it. Don’t be surprised when it happens.
Chicago Will Miss Playoffs
The Windy City still hasn’t let go of the infamous double-doink. With an absolute farce of a training camp, Matt Nagy trotted out NINE kickers. Not only is that an incredibly silly amount. But he has created an atmosphere of total paranoia and pressure. He would routinely draw unnecessary attention to the kicking game, even to the point of Panthers coach Ron Rivera “helping them out” by freezing a kicker in a preseason game.
Having a tough schedule and being in the NFC North isn’t helping things either. Aaron Rodgers is back, the Vikings are always competitive, and the Lions are really good at winning divisional games they have no business in doing so. They have games against the Chiefs, Chargers, Saints, and Rams. Matt Nagy is creative offensively, but it’s not crazy to say that Mitch Trubisky is really not much better than a middle of the road quarterback. Sure, their defense will keep them in games, but at some point, you need to score points.
They’re not letting themselves rely on the kicking game, so where do you go from there? A receiving corps headed by Taylor Gabriel and Allen Robinson? Cohen as a scatback? There really aren’t many explosive options there. The defense can’t keep up the insane pace of last year, it’s simply unsustainable. With so many high powered offenses, Chicago is on the outside looking in.
Kansas Flirts With Bowl-Eligibility
I know. It’s a homer pick. The biggest of my 2019 hot takes. I also realize that it just sounds stupid. However, Les Miles is a hell of a football coach and there is literally zero pressure on him and the team this year. The Mad Hatter can go full-on crazy with the athletes at his disposal, including Pooka Williams, who is going to compete for the Big 12 rushing title, who leads the league in all-purpose yards (2 for 1 hot take special!). The non-conference schedule is favorable as well. Indiana State, Coastal Carolina, and Boston College.
Those are actually winnable. Now here’s the funny part. Kansas has been so historically bad for so long, no Big 12 team wants to lose to them. If they get behind at any point, panic will set in. Ask Charlie Strong and Texas what that feels like. The Jayhawk players know that too. Do you know who leads the Big 12 in interceptions last season? Kansas with 16. Most of those defenders are back. Do you know what’s dangerous about the Jayhawks this year? They have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they get to five wins, watch that momentum get them to a shocking upset and then to six. It’ll be a really fun team to watch.
Agree with me? Want to yell at me behind the anonymity of the internet? I want to hear from you! Drop your own takes and ask me your questions about football this year! If I get enough, I’ll start doing mailbag specials and Q&A. Thanks for reading my 2019 hot takes.
Happy Football New Year!
Nick Rellihan (@Rellihan51)
