Super Bowl LV preview + off-season predictions
After one of the strangest NFL seasons in history, the “Covid season” is coming to an end. As we near this end, we would normally take a look back at the season and look at some of the greatest plays, players and games, but because of the distinctiveness of the 2020 season, we’re going to skip that. Instead, we will take a brief look at the big game this weekend, and what to expect from it, then move on to what we can expect from the upcoming offseason.
Super Bowl LV is going to provide something that true fans of the sport may never get again; two generational talents at quarterback facing off in the big game. This fact alone could make LV one of the greatest games in NFL history, but there’s more. This will be the first league championship played in a teams home stadium, ever. This has almost happened several times before, one example being in the 2014 season when the Arizona Cardinals made it to the wildcard round but lost to the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. The big game that year was in fact, in Phoenix.
Some things to expect this Sunday is a large amount of offense. The Chiefs and Buccaneers ranked first and seventh, respectively, this season offensively. What will decide this game, however, is which defense decides to take their talent to the next level. Both defenses are solid, but the Buccaneers have the advantage, ranking sixth in the league as opposed to the Chiefs ranking in the middle of the pack at sixteenth. If the Tampa Bay defense can hold the Chiefs off on just one or two drives, that tips the odds into their favor massively. This will be a tall task though, considering the amount of talent the Chiefs offense has with big names such as Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and Mecole Hardman -just to name a few- all starting.
Though we can go on and on about the final game of the season this weekend, most of what we can say has already been said time and time again, so we will go ahead and move on to discussing the upcoming offseason.
This year we will see some of the most prolific moves in league history. This is partly due to the “Covid season” we just endured. Resulting in reduced revenue because of the lack of ticket sales, thus less cap space for teams. The New Orleans Saints, for example, at the time of writing this are currently over $100 million above the cap limit after restructuring Drew Brees’ contract. This will be a situation common throughout the league, so look forward to some massive trades and unexpected releases of star players coming in the next 6 months. The other reason we say it will be a prolific offseason of movement, is that roughly half the league has a quarterback opening. Yes, you read that right, the most important position of an NFL team is open on roughly half the teams in the NFL. Whether these openings have come from retirements, expiring contracts, or players getting cut, there will be many spots that will need to be filled. This should be interesting and something to watch when April rolls around with the draft, for this is one of the most loaded drafts for quarterbacks we’ve seen in recent history. So whether a team decides to move up in the draft to snag one of the big named stars, or sit back and risk it with a lesser known player, or even try the free agent market and see if they can snatch a seasoned veteran. Whatever happens in the coming months, true football fans will have quite the time keeping up with breaking news.
To close out todays update we want to give everyone a reminder to prepare themselves. Prepare for the incredible game this weekend, and prepare for the electrifying offseason we are all about to witness. And with that, until next time, so long!
