There’s a reason some of us aren’t professional sports bettors; predicting outcomes before they happen is challenging. ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt discovered this firsthand during Tuesday’s late-night edition of SportsCenter. Joined by in-house betting expert Stanford Steve, SVP was served a slice of humble pie regarding his 10 preseason NFL predictions.
Before the NFL season began, @notthefakeSVP made his predictions on how the season would unfold 🔮
Let’s check in and see if any came true 🤔 pic.twitter.com/JrISaQZBJl
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 12, 2025
Here were Van Pelt’s 10 NFL predictions for the season:
- The Atlanta Falcons would win the NFC South (wrong)
- Brock Purdy would throw for the most touchdown passes in the league (wrong)
- Trevor Lawrence will surpass 4,263 passing yards (wrong, but injured)
- There will be six wide receivers to surpass 1,500 yards (wrong, there were two)
- There will be fewer than ten 1,000 yard rushers in the league (wrong, there were 16)
- A kicker will set the record for longest field goal, extra credit if Brandon Aubrey (wrong)
- The Detroit Lions will have home field in the NFC playoffs AND go to the Super Bowl (wrong, but closer)
- The Baltimore Ravens will win the Super Bowl (wrong)
- There will be at least two rookies to pass 1,000 receiving yards, but they won’t match Puka Nacua’s 1,486 his rookie year (correct!)
- The Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins will both miss the playoffs (correct!)
To be fair to Scott Van Pelt, many of these predictions were reasonable. The Ravens winning the Super Bowl? Totally possible. A kicker setting a new record? Also seemed likely. The Lions making it to the Super Bowl as the NFC’s No. 1 seed? Not too far off. But honestly, if this doesn’t highlight the difficulty of predicting outcomes in the National Football League, what does?
