Recapping past and present Hogs Haven writers’ predictions for the 2024 NFL Season
One of Hogs Haven’s annual traditions is the writers’ season predictions. For the past few seasons Bobby Gould, formerly known as KyleSmithForGM, has been compiling and publishing the results. A few days ago, Bobby notified me that he is unable to continue in that capacity. In keeping with Hogs Haven’s next man up philosophy, I made a pledge to carry the torch for my fallen comrade. (Don’t worry, Bobby’s fine.)
This season, nine former and current Hogs Haven writers made predictions on topics including division winners and Wild Card teams, Super Bowl Champion, first pick in the draft, NFL honors, and the Commanders’ season results.
The 2024 overall winner was the man himself, Bobby Gould, who correctly predicted 10 out 27 total categories. There was a three way tie for second place between LASkin, Mark Tyler and Andrew York, with eight correct. And the bronze medal was split three ways between myself, Bill-in-Bangkok and Bryan Stabbe with seven correct.
Here are the writers’ complete predictions, with correct answers in green highlight:
Analyzing the Writers’ Picks
Division Winners
This year there was only one unanimous correct choice. All nine writers predicted the Kansas City Chiefs to win the AFC West division.
All nine writers incorrectly predicted the San Francisco 49ers to repeat as NFC West division winners.
The second most predictable division winners were the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East and the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North, each picked by eight writers.
Overall, the writers had an easier time predicting division winners in the AFC (27 correct picks) than the NFC (18 correct picks), although that was mainly due to everyone being right about the Chiefs and everyone being wrong about the 49ers. The NFC South, and the AFC East also proved challenging, with only three writers apiece successfully prediction the winners.
Wild Card Teams
Predicting Wild Card teams proved more challenging than Division Winners.
Of the three Wild Card teams in the NFC bracket, six of the writers correctly picked the Packers. The Vikings and Commanders understandably flew completely under the radar.
In the AFC, the Chargers were picked by just three writers, while the Broncos and Steelers took everyone by surprise.
Championship Winners and Champion Tankers
Only four writers correctly predicted the Chiefs to win the AFC Championship. To our credit, none predicted the Elgses to win the NFC Championship or Super Bowl.
The writers were equally poor at predicting which team would win the tank to secure the first overall pick in the draft.
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
NFL Honors
Predicting NFL Honors winners proved to be particularly challenging.
The category with the most correct picks was Offensive Rookie of the Year. Four writers, predicted Jayden Daniels to win ORoY. I am proud to say I was one of them.
Three writers correctly picked Joe Burrow to win Comeback Player of the Year.
Defensive Rookie of the Year, Jared Verse, and MVP Josh Allen were each picked by single writers.
Nobody picked Kevin O’Connell to win Coach of the Year, which is in keeping with the fact that nobody picked the Minnesota Vikings to even make the playoffs.
Similarly, no writer picked Saquon Barkley to win Offensive Player of the Year or Patrick Surtain II to win Defensive Player of the Year.
Commanders’ Season
The Commanders’ miracle season started with very low expectations. All nine writers predicted that the men in burgundy and gold would finish the regular season with a losing record and miss the playoffs. That is quite understandable when you consider that the 12-win regular season record and Divisional Playoff win were both high marks since the 1991 Super Bowl season, and it was the first year of a total franchise rebuild.
That’s a Wrap for 2024
I think it’s safe to say that 2024 was the most thrilling season for Commanders’ fans since the World Wide Web became publicly available in the early ‘90s. It wouldn’t have been much fun at all if anyone could have predicted how it turned out.
As we put that one in the record books, have a go at predicting what lies ahead in 2025?