Quarantine brain is getting to me folks. It has driven me to some dark places in my mind. One of those is chaos scenarios. Now these are scenarios that no one sees coming that end in some grand disaster of sorts. Why not apply that to the NFL?

 

Why not comb through each division and throw out one chaos scenario for each division in 2020. Now I’m putting a time line on these chaos scenarios. They have to go down between now and August first. The other rule, I have to be able to explain them. If I can explain it though, it could happen. So let us fly!

 

AFC North

The Bengals pass on Burrow. Really simple here. Miami calls up Cincinnati and offers all three first rounders and a second for the first overall pick. The Bengals then proceed to pick up the best OT available at 5, Jordan Love at 18, and another corner at 26. They then talk Andy Dalton into staying for one more year, red shirt Love, and roll into 2021 with a new aged passing attack lead by (according to draft twitter) potentially the next Patrick Mahomes.

 

AFC East

Robert Kraft fires Bill Belichick post draft after not drafting a QB. Chaos scenarios by nature have to be chaotic. This is the most chaotic outcome in NFL history. My theory goes like this, unhappy that Belichick let Brady decide to walk, Kraft yanks the rug out from under him and promotes Josh McDaniels to be the next Patriots head coach. Meanwhile the NFL goes into full scramble mode and several mid tier hanging by the seat of there pants coaches are fired to open up room for a potential Belichick signing. In the AFC alone I would envision, The Browns, Jets, Chargers, Broncos, Jaguars, and Texans all cleaning house to get a shot at Belichick. It doesn’t get more chaos theory than that.

AFC West

Derek Carr is cut before training camp starts. In this chaos scenario the Raiders land a QB in the first round and instead of sticking it out with Carr as a backup Gruden just decides to cut ties entirely. This is the one chaos theory that wouldn’t shock me. Gruden has been vocal about wanting to move on. If they got the QB of there dreams in the draft they could call it quits and move on with Marcus Mariota as the potential stopgap/back up. Meanwhile Carr, who despite being boring, is a passable starting NFL QB; would be challenged to find a new home in 2020.

AFC South

The Jaguars flat out announce that as of 2023 they will be moving to London. Is it a chaos scenario? Absolutely. Could it happen? A very outside chance. The team is playing multiple games in London at this point. To me it seems inevitable that the Jags will move over seas within the next 8 years or so. COUNTER POINT: With the whole COVID-19 disaster that might not be the case. If somehow the Jags are financially harmed by say a canceled season it would re set any thoughts of a move to square one.

NFC North

The Lions pull one of those weird mid-July house cleanings. To some, this is a chaos scenario. To me: well I think it is absolutely something that could go down. The Lions are drifting skyward through another directionless off season. They are toddlers running dangerously close to a free way on ramp. Things could get out of hand if they blow the draft, because under this current leadership team this is a team that could very easily go 3-13 or worse, even with Matthew Stafford at the helm, through no fault of Stafford whatsoever.

NFC East

The Redskins trade for Matthew Stafford. I mean there is nothing more chaos theory than this. Rivera and Stafford practically have no connection. Say this deal does go down though the Redskins could quite frankly steal Stafford away. Essentially they could swap first overalls throw in a few second rounders and probably be able to pull off that deal. Perhaps still grabbing Chase Young at 3. Crazier things have happened. I just have a sneaking suspicion the Redskins are going to do something shocking with that pick.

NFC West

The Rams ditch Les Snead post draft. The team has lost so much this off season. You have to look at the Rams as the worst team in the division at this point. In cap hell, a directionless defense, and they are one of the few teams that legitimately has no draft capital. They only have two picks within the top 100 according to www.tankathon.com . Obviously McVay has earned a super long leash but Snead, not so much. He gambled big and lost bigger with the moves he made over the past two years. This is a chaos scenario with a very real chance of happening.

NFC South

Hardest chaos scenario to come up with. These teams have already kind of all made their chaos moves. The Falcons have revamped the offense, the Saints are all in on 2020 or bust, the Buccaneers now have Tom Brady, and the Panthers have fully committed to the rebuild. Could crazy things happen in this division, yes, but not before August first. In fact I would argue this is where the most chaos could go down from Janurary to May 2021 outside of the Panthers, who oddly despite having by far the worst roster have the best future outlook. I’ll throw this out there though. The Panthers truly do go crazy and trade Christian McCaffery for a top 15 pick, then surge up draft boards to grab the QB of the future.
In this time of Chaos, I hope this has given you a bit of respite from the chaos. Please stay safe, practice social distancing and have a terrific week everyone.
E
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