NFL Predictions 2019: Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns Are Candidates To Disappoint, Miss Playoffs

It happens every year. A few teams begin the NFL season as perceived title contenders, only to miss the playoffs and not even come close to reaching the Super Bowl.

The case will be the same in the 2019 season. Several teams will fail to meet expectations, though predicting the culprits isn’t exactly easy.

The Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars led the way last year. The two teams were among the Super Bowl favorites in the 2018 preseason after trips to the conference championship game. Neither one made the postseason.

Who might fall in that category for 2019? Let’s look at a couple of candidates to disappoint in the upcoming season.

Cleveland Browns

The 2019 Browns’ bandwagon has gotten a little too full. Cleveland certainly has enough talent to reach the postseason, but expectations are starting to get out of hand.

There are sportsbooks, such as FanDuel in New Jersey, that give just six teams better Super Bowl odds than the Browns. Cleveland is the consensus betting favorite to win the AFC North, something the team hasn’t done in three decades. The Browns are only two years removed from going 0-16, and despite their improved play in 2018, the team still finished with a losing record.

Cleveland had one win over a team that finished .500 or better last year. Freddie Kitchens is surely an upgrade over Hue Jackson, but nobody knows if he’s a good head coach. The Browns have plenty to prove on defense after the unit finished 30th in yards allowed. The team’s two biggest offseason additions—Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon—have both been derailed by injuries in each of the last two seasons.

Baker Mayfield and Myles Garrett are both going to be stars. They can lead the Browns to their first winning record in 12 years. It still might not be enough to make the playoffs with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in the division.

A 9-7 record should be viewed as a success, but the preseason hype would suggest otherwise.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers are always viewed among the top Super Bowl contenders with Aaron Rodgers on the roster. Only four teams had better title odds than Green Bay at the start of last year’s preseason, and the Packers are in the exact same position this preseason at some sportsbooks.

We’ve learned that having Rodgers under center no longer guarantees you a playoff spot. The Packers missed the postseason in each of the last two years, winning just 13 total games. Rodgers missed most of the 2017 campaign with a broken collarbone and he played all of last season with a knee injury. Whether you want to blame injuries or not, the 35-year-old is not a cure-all for Green Bay’s deficiencies.

Green Bay tried to fix their weaknesses in free agency, spending a ton of money to improve a unit that hasn’t ranked higher than 15th for six straight years. Like the Browns, the Packers have an unproven rookie head coach in Matt LaFleur, who didn’t exactly impress as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator last season. Are we so sure that LaFleur’s scheme and a mediocre receiving corps is going to produce substantially better results than what Green Bay achieved under Mike McCarthy?

The NFC North might be the NFL’s best division. The Chicago Bears are a playoff contender, even if they regress. The Vikings might be the most complete team in the division, yet they somehow have much worse odds than the Packers.

A few key loses to their rivals could put Green Bay in third place, wasting another year of Rodgers’ prime.