2020 NFL predictions Cowboys Steelers am

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2020 NFL predictions Cowboys Steelers am

At an absolute minimum, there will be two teams that make the playoffs in 2020 despite not making the playoffs in 2019. (A suming the playoffs actually happen.) The NFL has added a No. 7 seed in each conference, Tyson Barrie Jersey expanding the playoff field from 12 teams to 14. For that reason, this year's version of the "teams that mi sed the playoffs last year that will make it this year" piece is somewhat likely to be more accurate than it has been in previous years.Another factor that makes increased accuracy more likely is that there are some glaringly obvious bounceback candidates out there, with several prominent teams prime for positive regre sion and/or improvement due to personnel changes at important positions like quarterback or head coach. In the space below, we'll dive into our four teams most likely to make the jump from the outside looking in into the actual playoff field in 2020.Pittsburgh damn near made the playoffs last season despite fielding one of the league's worst offenses. The Steelers scored on only 28.6 percent of their po se sions last season, the third-worst rate in the . Of course, that happened with on the sideline. In four of the previous five seasons, the Steelers ranked inside the top 10 in percentage of po se sions that resulted in a score, and they were inside the top five in three of those campaigns. It's extraordinarily likely that their offense is among the most improved units in the league in 2020 -- a suming Roethlisberger can play more than a game and a half.The Steelers' defense should regre s a bit from where it was last season, even if only because it's extremely unlikely that they'll force a turnover on 19 percent of their opponents' po se sions again. But there is room for the defense to regre s and still be an elite unit. Morgan Rielly Women Jersey They ranked fifth in both yards and points allowed last season, as well as third in defensive efficiency, per Football Outsiders' DVOA. (They ranked third in DVOA against both the run and the pa s, a strong indication of the defense's overall strength.) They return most of the personnel from last year's defense, with the only major change being stepping in for . A full season of on the back end should help make up for that downgrade, though, as should the depth the team added with , , Antoine Brooks, and .The Steelers also still have one of the league's best offensive lines, and their pa s-catching corps looks better than it did this time last year. took a step forward over the second half of last season, and even flashed some skills. They also brought in at tight end, and drafted enormous speedster in the second round. Roethlisberger has no shortage of options to whom he can throw the ball.A schedule featuring games against the NFC East and AFC South helps the Steelers' chances as well, giving them the ninth-easiest slate in the league. Coming into last season, the Cowboys were the poster boys for the type of team we would expect to regre s and mi s the playoffs after making it the year before. Dallas had gone 10-6 and won the NFC East in 2018, but had the point differential of an 8.4-win team and gone 9-3 in one-score games. Teams that overperform their point differential and have far-better-than-.500 records in close games tend to regre s the following season, and that's exactly what happened to the Wendel Clark Men Jersey Cowboys: Dallas went 8-8 last year.However, the 8-8 Cowboys actually had the point differential of a 10.7-win team, with their plus-113 mark checking in as the sixth-best in the NFL. They also went an unsustainably bad 1-6 in one-score games. They are now a team that absolutely screams positive regre sion. If they are simply average at winning one-score games in 2020, they should be something like a nine- or 10-win team.Helping them in that pursuit is the coaching upgrade from Jason Garrett to Mike McCarthy. Your mileage may vary on McCarthy's merits, but Garrett was one of the most damaging coaches in the league for a significant majority of his tenure in Dallas. His conservative nature often put the Cowboys in poor down-and-distance situations and led to their pa sing up opportunities for scores in favor of kicks. He showed very little awarene s of proper clock management or Tyler Ennis Kids Jersey the benefits of things like pa sing on early downs or off play-action as opposed to straight dropbacks. McCarthy is almost Garrett's polar opposite in most of these areas. The new Cowboys coach was among the pa s-heaviest coaches in the league during his time in Green Bay -- especially on early downs. His teams were among the most aggre sive in the league on fourth downs and two-point conversions, belying the reputation he developed due to high-profile conservative decisions like those made in the team's NFC title game lo s to the .Getting league-average strategy and decision-making from McCarthy would represent a big step forward for the Cowboys. If he pursues optimal strategies as often as, say, John Harbaugh and the did last season, that could benefit the Cowboys even more. Dallas should also get an upgrade on special teams, where they hired one of the league's best coordinators (John Fa sel) to take over what was one of the NFL's worst units the past couple years.Throw in a relatively easy schedule (10th easiest in the league) and the Cowboys look like an excellent bet to make the postseason. The Steelers and Cowboys benefit from schedules that rank among the 10 easiest in the NFL. Well, the Colts face the single easiest slate of opponents in the league this season. They have the benefit of playing in the AFC South, their divisional rotation games are against the AFC and NFC North, and they get the and thanks to a third-place finish in the division last year.That third-place finish actually could have been a playoff season, though. The Colts began the season 6-4, only to see knee injury derail their offense and spur a 1-5 collapse down the stretch. Bri sett wasn't the only one to mi s time and play injured otherwise: T.Y. Hilton and (the team's projected top two receivers coming into the year) combined to play just 674 snaps on the year.The team replaced Bri sett with , who has yet to mi s a start due to injury in his career. Even in the event he does suffer an injury for the first time, the Colts still have Bri sett waiting in the wings as one of the NFL's best backups. They added depth at receiver ( Jr.), tight end ( ) and running back ( ), further strengthening a unit that looked capable even while employing a backup plan under center. Rivers already has familiarity with Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni's offense from their time together with the , so he should be able to pick things up more easily than other QBs who change teams. Indianapolis also added one of the league's best interior defenders, swinging a trade for . Plop him into the middle of the defensive line and let him wreak havoc, and things get easier for on the edge, for and the other linebackers, and for the secondary as well. Matt Eberflus will put Bu Bobby Baun Jersey
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