Another week, and right back on track for Andy, with a 121.1-91.58 victory. Doesn’t help when Tony forgets that he started a guy that was ruled out.
| Week 10 | Season | Total points | Weekly average | |
| Andy | 121.1 | 7-3 | 1411.64 | 141.2 |
| Tony | 91.58 | 3-7 | 1265.86 | 126.6 |
Andy: Normally I’m not really one to play a Thursday night stack, but the match-up this week is too good. Well, it looked good on paper anyway. We’ll see if that holds true. (more…)
Andy wins. Partly because he is good at this. Probably moreso because Tony is bad. Either way, barring a miracle, it’s a lost season for Tony.
| Week 7 | Season | Total points | Weekly average | |
| Andy | 147.44 | 6-2 | 1177.5 | 147.2 |
| Tony | 119.34 | 2-6 | 1008.34 | 126.0 |
Tony got his win during Week 3, then managed to shut himself out Week 4 — somehow in editing his lineup, he managed to not technically file a lineup … but the contest moved forward, so he lost his wager. However, we figured out his point total from Week 4 manually and … he would have lost anyway — albeit close, 123.08-120.18. Another 30 yards would have given him a win.
Andy’s still got the lead for the season, but the gap tightened considerably.
| Week 4 | Season | Total points | |
| Andy | 123.08 | 0-1 | 541.06 |
| Tony | 120.18 | 1-3 | 521.40 |
Tony
QB – Russell Wilson vs Min – $8,300 – I have a sneaky suspicion that we may have some overlap in our lineups this week …
RB – James Robinson @ Hou – $6,900 – Sacrificing a little bit at RB this week … (more…)
I remember seeing all over Reddit last year that fans of lots of teams were upset with Adam Rank’s predictions for their team–the Vikings subreddit in particular, with his 5-11 prediction is the one that sticks out. With his 2020 predictions hitting the last couple of days, thought it would be a good time to review his picks last year.
Rank’s NFL.com profile notes that he has been “has been giving his irreverent look on the NFL” since 1995, and if you watch the video it’s clear that he’s a Bears fan (going so far as to have someone else walk in the frame to tap the screen handing the Bears a late season loss to the Packers, so he didn’t have to). And to be fair to Rank, he’s putting his game by game predictions out in June–long before training camp injuries and surprise retirements (hi Andrew Luck!), but even with that…his predictions were…not great.
To get his predictions, I fast forwarded through a YouTube video of all of them (will embed it below)…and while I may have missed something, I had him coming up with an aggregate record of 255-257. From my spot checking, he did seem to have the proper cross game selections (ie, he had Pittsburgh losing to Arizona, then he did have Arizona beating Pittsburgh), so maybe I just missed something.
But here were his overall predicitons:
| 2019 Prediction | Division Rank | Playoff Seed | ||
| AFC East | Patriots | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed |
| Bills | 8-8 | 2nd | ||
| Dolphins | 3-13 | 3rd | ||
| Jets | 3-13 | 4th | ||
| AFC North | Browns | 10-6 | 1st | 4th Seed |
| Steelers | 9-7 | 2nd | ||
| Ravens | 9-7 | 3rd | ||
| Bengals | 3-13 | 4th | ||
| AFC South | Colts | 12-4 | 1st | 3rd Seed |
| Jaguars | 11-5 | 2nd | 5th Seed | |
| Texans | 9-7 | 3rd | ||
| Titans | 3-13 | 4th | ||
| AFC West | Chiefs | 12-4 | 1st | 2nd Seed |
| Chargers | 11-5 | 2nd | 6th Seed | |
| Raiders | 8-8 | 3rd | ||
| Broncos | 2-14 | 4th | 1st Overall Pick | |
| NFC East | Eagles | 13-3 | 1st | 2nd Seed |
| Cowboys | 10-6 | 2nd | ||
| Giants | 5-11 | 3rd | ||
| Washington | 2-14 | 4th | ||
| NFC North | Bears | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed |
| Packers | 12-4 | 2nd | 5th Seed | |
| Vikings | 5-11 | 3rd | ||
| Lions | 4-12 | 4th | ||
| NFC South | Saints | 12-4 | 1st | 3rd Seed |
| Falcons | 11-5 | 2nd | ||
| Panthers | 8-8 | 3rd | ||
| Buccaneers | 4-12 | 4th | ||
| NFC West | Rams | 12-4 | 1st | 4th Seed |
| Seahawks | 12-4 | 2nd | 6th Seed | |
| 49ers | 3-13 | 3rd | ||
| Cardinals | 3-13 | 4th |
It’s easy to second guess those now, knowing how the season turned out–so let’s just jump straight into the comparison:
| 2019 Prediction | Division Rank | Playoff Seed | 2019 Actual | Division Rank | Playoff Seed | ||
| AFC East | Patriots | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed | 12-4 | 1st | 3rd Seed |
| Bills | 8-8 | 2nd | 10-6 | 2nd | 5th Seed | ||
| Dolphins | 3-13 | 3rd | 5-11 | 4th | |||
| Jets | 3-13 | 4th | 7-9 | 3rd | |||
| AFC North | Browns | 10-6 | 1st | 4th Seed | 6-10 | 3rd | |
| Steelers | 9-7 | 2nd | 8-8 | 2nd | |||
| Ravens | 9-7 | 3rd | 14-2 | 1st | 1st Seed | ||
| Bengals | 3-13 | 4th | 2-14 | 4th | |||
| AFC South | Colts | 12-4 | 1st | 3rd Seed | 7-9 | 3rd | |
| Jaguars | 11-5 | 2nd | 5th Seed | 6-10 | 4th | ||
| Texans | 9-7 | 3rd | 10-6 | 1st | 4th Seed | ||
| Titans | 3-13 | 4th | 9-7 | 2nd | 6th Seed | ||
| AFC West | Chiefs | 12-4 | 1st | 2nd Seed | 12-4 | 1st | 2nd Seed |
| Chargers | 11-5 | 2nd | 6th Seed | 5-11 | 4th | ||
| Raiders | 8-8 | 3rd | 7-9 | 3rd | |||
| Broncos | 2-14 | 4th | 1st Overall Pick | 7-9 | 2nd | ||
| NFC East | Eagles | 13-3 | 1st | 2nd Seed | 9-7 | 1st | 4th Seed |
| Cowboys | 10-6 | 2nd | 8-8 | 2nd | |||
| Giants | 5-11 | 3rd | 4-12 | 3rd | |||
| Washington | 2-14 | 4th | 3-13 | 4th | |||
| NFC North | Bears | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed | 8-8 | 3rd | |
| Packers | 12-4 | 2nd | 5th Seed | 13-3 | 1st | 2nd Seed | |
| Vikings | 5-11 | 3rd | 10-6 | 2nd | 6th Seed | ||
| Lions | 4-12 | 4th | 3-12-1 | 4th | |||
| NFC South | Saints | 12-4 | 1st | 3rd Seed | 13-3 | 1st | 3rd Seed |
| Falcons | 11-5 | 2nd | 7-9 | 2nd | |||
| Panthers | 8-8 | 3rd | 5-11 | 4th | |||
| Buccaneers | 4-12 | 4th | 7-9 | 3rd | |||
| NFC West | Rams | 12-4 | 1st | 4th Seed | 9-7 | 3rd | |
| Seahawks | 12-4 | 2nd | 6th Seed | 11-5 | 2nd | 5th Seed | |
| 49ers | 3-13 | 3rd | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed | ||
| Cardinals | 3-13 | 4th | 5-10-1 | 4th |
I didn’t go through it game by game, but by my count, he got exactly one team’s record correct (the Chiefs, at 12-4), and two playoff seeds correct (the Chiefs and Saints). He did manage to get 15 teams correct on where they would rank in their division–including the entire NFC East. But in total, he missed by a total of 96 games when you take the absolute value of the differences. His worst prediction was the 49ers, who he had at 3-13–they only went 13-3 and represented the NFC in the Super Bowl.
My goal is to put together my own predictions in 2020 (pre-training camp), and see how I do compared to him. I did it once several years ago for fun, and just creating the spreadsheet to make sure you’re not miscounting is a pain–but if anyone else is interested, let me know in the comments below, and I can send you the spreadsheet as well–then maybe we’ll post all of our predictions, and see how many of us can best Adam Rank’s 2020 predictions.
For the record, here’s what I am seeing for his 2020 predictions:
| 2019 Prediction | Division Rank | Playoff Seed | ||
| AFC East | Patriots | 9-7 | 1st | 4th Seed |
| Bills | 9-7 | 2nd | ||
| Dolphins | 7-9 | 3rd | ||
| Jets | 4-12 | 4th | ||
| AFC North | Ravens | 11-5 | 1st | 5th Seed |
| Steelers | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed | |
| Bengals | 4-12 | 3rd | ||
| Browns | 8-8 | 4th | ||
| AFC South | Colts | 10-6 | 1st | 3rd Seed |
| Jaguars | 3-13 | 2nd | ||
| Texans | 6-10 | 3rd | ||
| Titans | 8-8 | 2nd | ||
| AFC West | Chiefs | 10-6 | 1st | 6th Seed |
| Chargers | 3-13 | 2nd | ||
| Raiders | 9-7 | 3rd | 7th Seed | |
| Broncos | 11-5 | 4th | 2nd Seed | |
| NFC East | Eagles | 13-3 | 1st | 1st Seed |
| Cowboys | 12-4 | 2nd | 5th Seed | |
| Giants | 6-10 | 3rd | ||
| Washington | 4-12 | 4th | ||
| NFC North | Bears | 10-6 | 1st | 4th Seed |
| Packers | 8-8 | 2nd | ||
| Vikings | 7-9 | 3rd | ||
| Lions | 3-13 | 4th | ||
| NFC South | Saints | 12-4 | 1st | 2nd Seed |
| Falcons | 7-9 | 2nd | ||
| Panthers | 4-12 | 3rd | ||
| Buccaneers | 10-6 | 4th | 6th Seed | |
| NFC West | Rams | 7-9 | 1st | |
| Seahawks | 10-6 | 2nd | 7th Seed | |
| 49ers | 12-4 | 3rd | 3rd Seed | |
| Cardinals | 6-10 | 4th |
Adam Rank’s 2019 Predictions Video:
Adam Rank’s 2020 Predictions Video
I swear, the numbers we choose for this really are random, I really do draw these out of a hat–although I was tempted to throw this one back, because even I had trouble believing that we got them back to back. I mean, we have covered the best #79, #80 and #81 already–but that was over the course of eight years that we wrote those three, and they weren’t consecutive. Plus, kind of like the question of who is the best #80 in NFL history, in the end it’s not really a debate who the best #56 in NFL history is, right?
We can all agree that the all-time greatest player to wear #56 was…Marty Schottenheimer, right? Seriously, he did wear it for his first three seasons playing for Buffalo, before switching to #57, and finishing his career with #54.
At the same time…it’s a pretty good list of players in NFL history that wore #56–maybe not quite as good as #55 will be, but there are five Hall of Famers that wore it as their primary jersey, a couple more Hall of Famers that wore it for part of their career, and a few pretty good players that aren’t in the Hall that wore it. There’s even a few that are wearing it today–including at least one that may make an updated version of this article someday, if he keeps playing like he has in his first couple of seasons…which his career will probably wrap up right around the time we finish this list.
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