A small trip out to CO kept me from writing last week but I am back here now. Short and sweet today is what I am aiming for, we’ll take a look at division round weekend, then peak at what’s going on in college basketball and the NFL. Let’s ride.

What Division Round Losers Need

Detroit Lions

For Dan Campbell to have the best off-season of his career. Both coordinators in Detroit are gone. Part of what made the Lions such a juggernaut these past few years was Campbell’s support staff. Now he’ll be tasked with finding a new crew to help him continue to elevate Jared Goff and get the most out of a hand picked defense.

Next year, the Lions will be healthy defensively and get DPOY candidate Aiden Hutchinson back in the mix. The big off-season question will be who Campbell picks to run the Goff-led offense. Jared Goff had probably his worst day as a Lion in two years in the divisional round. The question will become, do the Lions stay the course or begin to look at other potential answers at quarterback? It starts with Dan Campbell, he’s made a loser into a contender, now the real test, can he survive attrition and keep them there?

Houston Texans Division Round Takeaway

The Texans need to upgrade the offensive line, decide whether they are going to bet on Steffon Diggs again coming off an ACL, and once again get CJ Stroud more weapons.

Stroud showed through this playoff run he can adapt, I have no doubt the offense will improve in 2025 but the Texans needs to fix glaring holes on there O line first. Tank Dell’s return from injury is still a total mystery so I think it’s fair to want the Texans to be aggressive in adding weapons as well. The draft is deep at running back, adding a dynamic young successor to the Mixon backfield would be a good move for this team. Next year the mandate for the Texans will be clear, be good enough to be in the top four of the AFC and try to get to the conference title game with Stroud still on his rookie deal.

Los Angeles Rams Division Round Takeaway

Is Matthew Stafford the future? For the record I really think it would be foolish to move off of Stafford at this point. The roster around him is young and emerging and they really are another great draft away from opening another Super Bowl window, especially in a weak NFC. Ditching Stafford now would be foolish in my opinion but if you read the tea leaves it appears McVay is mulling that decision.

Again the best way for the Rams to attack this off season is retain free agents, maybe bring in some more youth at wide out and continue to draft well. If McVay wants to blow up his QB situation so be it, he would be wise to have an answer though, it would establish a troubling history of McVay and his signal callers falling out of favor quickly.

Baltimore Ravens Division Round Takeaway

Move on from Mark Andrews. The veteran tight end is aging and he cost you a trip to the conference finals. Is a coaching change warranted? No. The Ravens are one of the best run organizations in the league, draft best player available, retain your top talent and run it back next year. Lamar Jackson has January demons to slay but it’s helpful that he’s consistently a top 3 NFL QB, the window is still open.

Conference Title Predictions

NFC

Jayden Daniels is a monster. Never has a rookie QB reached a Super Bowl, that changes this year. The Eagles are a deeply flawed offense with a bad passing attack, an injured defense and a figurehead coach due for a huge mistake. The Eagles are paper Lions, but they can’t beat Washington. The rag tag Commanders keep winning and get to New Orleans.

Prediction: Commanders 31 Eagles 20

AFC

Am I the stupidest sports writer in America? Because I am about to pick the Bills in arrowhead. This is it. This is my last stand, if Kansas City somehow prevails yet again I will not pick them to miss a Super Bowl until the year after they do. I don’t think about the three peat. I think about a BIlls team built to beat the Chiefs. I’m picking fun, and freedom, and fandom. I am picking Josh Allen and not looking back. Lifes to short to root for the evil empire.

Prediction: Bills 34 Chiefs 28

College Basketball: A short list of teams who WON’T win it all.

My buddy and I are scouting teams to put a 25 dollar future on that I gifted him for Christmas. We’re coming up with a list of names of teams we think have a shot at the whole thing, I’ve started crossing some names off. Here are five that today I am confident are in the top 25 but don’t have a shot at the title.

1. Uconn: Not enough depth, not enough dawgs, mentally fragile coach that losing is tearing apart. Yikes.
2. Kansas: Same story as last year, dynamite starting five, not much more than that. How far can Hunter Dickinson take you? I just don’t know.
3. Wisconsin: Call me a hater, I’ll believe it when I see it.
4. Mizzou: Another team that I just can’t see making a deep tourney run.
5. Mississippi State: Northern bias, they could if everything broke right, every game is a rock fight. Kind of boring to watch so they nab a spot on this list.

Avs takeaways

• If Mikko Rantanen wants to get paid like a super star he can’t have five game stretches where he disappears, that’s what is happening right now.
• The third line of Logan O’Connor, Parker Kelly and Kiviranta is the hardest working line on the Avs and the reason is winning scrappy close games if the top two lines worked as hard as they did the Avs would be juggernauts.
• The goaltending is very good, and I mean elite level.
• The Avs season has been defined by 5-7 game winning streaks followed by 2-4 stretches, and those usually come at home, the team should change that if they want a top three slot or any chance at home ice advantage at any point in the playoffs.
• I would say the Jets game tonight is big but if they win this one and then drop two on the road trip it won’t really matter. The Avs need to find their game between now and valentines day to carry some momentum into the stretch run.