Edition #150: MAILBAG!!!

Edition #150

Intro:

Man, these 50 editions have gone fast. We’re halfway to 200 editions! Crazy!

To celebrate this, I decided to do a mailbag with many questions from subscribers. Let’s begin!

MAILBAG:

Question #1: Who do you think will win the Super Bowl this year?

This team has the easiest division in the NFL, has one of the best QBs in the NFL, and could be the most underrated team in the NFL.

The Atlanta Falcons.

I hate that everyone is saying that this year’s going to be the Packers year. However bad the field conditions were versus the Eagles in Brazil, that’s a playoff team. That’s the kind of team you need to beat if you want to be a Super Bowl Champion. I love how young this team is and there’s a bright future ahead for each of these guys, but this year’s not their year, especially with all these veterans who can really play.

The Falcons on the other hand have the easiest path to division winners. Their division consists of the Panthers (the worst team in the NFL), the Saints (we could all argue that they’re the 5th worst team in the NFL), and the Buccaneers (who for some reason made it past the Eagles in the playoffs, but they lost key assets in the offseason). With a QB in Kirk Cousins (one of the most underrated QBs in the league), role players like Drake London, Jessie Bates III, Kyle Pitts, and Matthew Judon, and star players like Bijan Robinson, there’s no way this team doesn’t make the playoffs.

No one can stop these Falcons, as long as they perform in the playoffs which I certainly think they will.

As I said, I would love it if the Falcons win the Super Bowl (and they could ⬆️!), but most likely it’s going to be the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes is unstoppable and with receivers like Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown instead of Kadarius Tony and MVS, he’s going to do even better than last year. It would be boring if the Chiefs won again, but it could happen with how good the team is.

Question #2: What’s your opinion on the LLWS? Isn’t it just a rec all-star championship?

The Little League World Series.

The only year I watched it was when I was super super young, and I was playing the Little League circuit. I wanted to grow up as fast as I could, so I could make the all-star team, skip school, and play ball. Well, I did make the all-star team, we just didn’t win.

Look, the LLWS isn’t supposed to be competitive. Heck, unless you’re a kid younger than the minimum age to play there, I don’t even know why you watch it. Obviously it’s a rec all-star championship because these are 11 & 12-year-old kids. They’re going to make errors. You can’t expect them to be perfect.

The LLWS can’t even compare to travel ball. Like I said in a previous comment, TB (Travel Ball) players pay $300 a month. Maybe even more. That's why they have the best coaches, best equipment, and all these other stuff. For the LLWS and Little League, it’s $250. That’s it. For 2 months of play, tons of hours of practice, and coaches who train you (volunteers), it’s $250.

Question #3: Who will be the biggest surprise of the MLB postseason?

I was going to say the Dodgers, but I’m not going to.

I think the Mets are going to be the biggest surprise of the MLB postseason. First off, the Mets are for some reason in the Wild Card race. That’s the biggest surprise of all especially after they basically gave up at the start of the season. Now, if the standings were to be how they are today, the Mets would end up facing the Brewers. They could easily get past this team with the amount of injuries the Brew Crew is facing. Then they would face the Phillies, the top seed. Well, if you didn’t know, the Dodgers aren’t the only chokers in the field. The Phillies are good ones too. In this divisional matchup, the Mets could easily best the Phillies too, moving on to the NLCS. If the stars align, they would be facing the Dodgers. I’m not even gonna talk about that series, because the Mets are easily gonna win that one.

And there you have it, a Mets team that no one thought was going to do anything, just made the World Series. Whether they win or lose, the Mets will be the surprise of the MLB postseason as long as they make it.

(Another answer could be Shohei Ohtani. This is the man’s first time in the playoffs, but while he’s played with a big-market team the whole year and has faced pressure so many times this season, I’m not sure how good he’ll do in the playoffs. He could be a surprise. In a bad way.)

Question #4: Will the 49ers be jinxed this season?

I wouldn’t say jinxed, but I do think that they won’t perform as good as they did last season. Here’s why.

This is a team that’s going to be facing the Jets, Rams 2x, Chiefs, Cowboys, Packers, Dolphins, and Lions this season. Those are playoff teams and good ones if I have to be specific. Even if they are successful in the regular season, you never know what’s going to happen in the playoffs. One player who’s going to be jinxed is Christian McCaffery and for obvious reasons. He’s on the cover of Madden.

The 49ers going 11-6 (my prediction) doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re jinxed, but you can’t expect the 49ers to bring the same level of performance. There is obviously going to be a drop in play. The Eagles are a great example of that.

Question #5: Which RB is going to perform best in a new home?

I think we have to compare Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley for this one.

Saquon showed us on Friday that he’s going to be a Philly legend. I mean dang. This man put on some type of show vs the Packers. In his first game as an Eagle, he put on a 3 touchdown performance to “carry” the Eagles to victory (pun intended). Barkley finished with 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, while also having 23 receiving yards in a score. 

Meanwhile, Derrick Henry, the new runningback for the Baltimore Ravens also scored a TD for Baltimore but only finished with 46 yards on 12 carries.

Now this is only the first week, so we can’t make any decisions yet, but man oh man did Barkley give us a good first impression.

Josh Jacobs is the last person I was to compare. He started off the game incredibly bad with the Philly pass rush eating him up alive. But, in the second half, Jacobs suddenly turned on another gear and finished with 84 yards in 16 carries with one fumble.

With only the week 1 stats, I’m going to say that Barkley’s going to have the best season of his career, and Henry is going to have his worst (look the guy is getting old). Jacobs isn’t going to have the best, but neither is he going to have the worst season.

Question #6: Are there more flags being called as the years go on?

I can’t believe there’s an actual site that tracks these things…

It’s certainly been fluctuating. In 2021, there were 3909 penalties called. In 2022, there were 3726. In 2023, there were 3831. In 2024, we’re already looking at 46 total penalties from only 4 teams! From 2010-2016, we were even seeing these total flag number going to 4000!

But, because of the new kickoff rules and it being new to the NFL, many more flags are being called this season. We may see a new record-high amount of flags this season.

If you want to learn more, you can check this site out.

https://www.nflpenalties.com/

Conclusion:

And thank you for reading this edition. I have a lot more questions, but because I’m trying to make these short reads, I’ll put those off for another time. Thank you and I’ll see y’all later!!