arkeshray
- Apr 10
- 9 min read

Football's Fortune Teller: 5 Bold Predictions For The 2024 NFL Season

Adding some spice prior to the 2024 season

Drake London Hits Double Digit Touchdowns:

I'm starting things off hot right off the bat. Drake London has 6 career NFL touchdowns, but in 2024 I predict that he will have 10+ touchdowns. Many might think this notion is too far-fetched to even be plausible, but Kenny Golladay only had 8 career touchdowns before his 11-touchdown season in 2019.

The quarterback for Golladay’s breakout was Matthew Stafford, a quarterback that new head coach Raheem Morris has worked closely with for the past 2 years. Similarly, new Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins is good at feeding the ball to his weapons.

Check out Kirk Cousins' red zone stats for the last 2 years:

In 2022, Captain Kirk was clearly elite. In 2023, he saw some regression, but he was operating without his wide receiver 1 and a rookie wide receiver for a good chunk of that time. With the aid of Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen has notched 2 seasons with 10+ touchdowns in 2020 and 2021 with 1 of those seasons being a 14 touchdown season. Justin Jefferson has also recorded a 10-touchdown season in 2021.

Now Drake London is not on the level of Justin Jefferson, but, he is better at one thing: jump balls. Justin Jefferson is reported to be 6’1 195. Drake London is 6’4 213. He’s bigger, and when in doubt if you throw it up to London he usually comes down with the ball.

In fact, London is one of the best at contested catches in the ENTIRE NFL. Kirk, who has shown he can play well in the red zone, just has to throw the ball up to him and London will take care of the rest.

People are forgetting that at USC Drake London had 1000+ yards and 7 touchdowns in only 8 games (135.5 yards per game and 0.875 touchdowns per game). Since entering the NFL he has never had a top 20 quarterback or play-caller. Now that he has both he will show the NFL why he was the first wide receiver taken off the board in the 2022 NFL draft.

Bills Still Win The Division

Did you guys think the heat would cool down? Despite all the losses in free agency, I think the Bills will win the AFC East for the 5th year in a row.

Let’s start with the defensive side of the ball. Most of the losses are overblown. The Bills still have a good pass-rushing group, anchored by Ed Oliver at defensive tackle. Greg Rouseeau and Aj Espnesa are a solid to good pass-rushing duo (don’t forget Ed Oliver can rush the passer too), and the D-line is still strong and stout at the point of attack.

The pieces they lost in the secondary are way overblown. I think people are holding on dearly to the past. Yes, they were elite safeties a few years back, but both are now 32+ and good cap-saving cuts by the Bills. Mike Edwards, who they got from the best defense in the NFL last year, was better than both.

The other big "loss" on the defensive side of the ball was T'redavious White. Again, White was great in 2019 and 2020, but he has not played more than 11 games since 2020 and has played 10 total games in the last 2 years. Losing Tre White is not that big of a deal in 2024. A lot of people forget they got Rasul Douglas at the trade deadline, which was a very underrated pickup. He had 4 interceptions in the last 9 weeks of the season and played great football.

Let’s move on to the offensive side of the ball. The loss of Stefon Diggs is pretty big, but it’s not the end-all, be-all as many people are making it out to be. In the last 10 games of the season (including 2 playoff games) Diggs had 2 games over 70 yards receiving (none in the playoffs), 1 single touchdown scored, and was outplayed by Khalil Shakir in the biggest game of the season.

Not to mention he had a huge drop in said playoff game. Stefon Diggs is a great football player, but far too often does he disappear in big games. I know all about the Minneapolis Miracle, man I loved it because it knocked the Saints out of the playoffs, but here are Diggs' overall playoff stats:

In 5 of 14 games he has been held under 40 yards (with 1 game under 10 yards) which is 36%.

In 8 of 14 games he has 60 or less yards which is 57%.

In 10 of 14 games he has been held without a touchdown which is 71%.

In 7 of 14 games he has been held to 4 or less catches which is 50%.

Yes Diggs is a good wide receiver. Yes, he does not show up in big games. Both can be true. Yes the Bills will miss Stefon Diggs, No they are not screwed without him.

In fact, this proves how underrated Khalil Shakir is. He was top 3 in the NFL in epa (expected points added) per target, meaning he was consistently getting open deep down the field.

Curtis Samuel is a great YAC wide receiver who Joe Brady can use creatively to rack up yards. And lost in all the talk about the Bills wide receiver room is how good Dalton Kincaid is. He was lighting it up early last season, and will continue to be a threat next year.

The Bills wide receiver core is by no means perfect, but it is a lot better than people give it credit for. Lucky for the Bills this draft class is chalk full of talent at wide receiver and they can add a wide receiver 1 even if they stay put at 28. Adonai Mitchell would be a great fit in Buffalo as would Ladd McConkey. Whoever, Buffalo decides to add will only help strengthen the wide receiver core.

Lastly, the Bills have Josh Allen. Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson have proven that you can make deep playoff runs in the NFL without a true wide receiver 1 (Zay Flowers is good but not there yet), as long as you have an elite talent at quarterback. Well, Josh Allen is certainly one of those elite quarterbacks (I personally have him as quarterback 2 in the NFL) and I believe this Bills roster is still good enough for him to win the East with.

The Dolphins have yet to prove they can beat good teams (Tua is also 1-6 against the Bills in his career) and the Jets have a terrible offensive line paired with Nathaniel Hackett calling plays. Not only that but Aaron Rodgers is 40 years old coming off a torn achilles and in 2022 he showed signs of regression (tried a lot of hero ball). The Patriots are a dumpster fire with holes all over the roster, I feel confident taking the Bills to win the east.

Texans Lose In The Divisional… Again

This is by no means Texans hate. I like the Texans, in fact, I think they won the offseason. They added key pieces on both sides of the ball and upgraded their roster as a whole. But I can’t help but wonder, isn’t this how we saw the Jaguars last offseason?

Trevor Lawrence went toe to toe with the MVP in the playoffs and lost, CJ Stroud went to head to head against the MVP and lost. The Jaguars added a 29 year old wide receiver to be their wide receiver 1, the Texans added a 30 year old wide receiver to be their wide receiver 1. Trevor Lawrence was hyped up to be the next big thing:

CJ Stroud is being touted as the next big thing...

Now the comparisons do not completely line up. One could argue that the Texans added a lot more defensively than the Jaguars did. I would agree. One could also argue that Stroud is a lot better than Trevor Lawrence. I hold out on that debate as the sample size for Stroud is far too small. I will say that: a 5 interception season is very very hard to replicate (Tom Brady only had 2 in his entire career).

Not only that, but if Anthony Richardson stays healthy the AFC South will be extremely hard to win. Also, Mac Jones had 22 touchdowns in his rookie season, won rookie of the year, took the Patriots to the playoffs, and since then has been absolute garbage. I am by no means saying Stroud is Mac Jones (he is a lot better than Jones), but I am saying that projecting off a rookie season does not always work out.

I think Stroud and the Texans will win 10-11 games, probably win the division, but lose once again in the divisional round. Stroud is due for some regression interception-wise, and a healthy Bengals and new-look Chargers might be new faces for them to meet in the playoffs. Not to mention almost every AFC team got better, especially within their division. The Jaguars added an elite DT, the Titans added an elite CB, and the Colts resigned an elite WR. It will be tough sledding for the Texans and I do not buy into the contender’s hype.

Marvin Harrison JR Will Be Top 5 In The NFL In Receiving Yards

Now some of you might think this is a complete stretch, a rookie coming into the NFL and being top 5 in yards? Blasphemy. But believe it or not this has happened three times in the last 4 years alone: Justin Jefferson in 2020, Ja'marr Chase in 2021, and Puka Nacua just last year. Marvin Harrison Jr is a better prospect than all of them. In fact he is the best wide receiver prospect we have seen in over a decade.

As a big Julio fan I would have to argue that Julio Jones was a better prospect than Marvin, but for now I digress.

Now you might be thinking "If it's happened so often and he is such a good prospect why is it a hot take?" The issue lies within his potential landing spots. MHJr is most likely going to be a Patriot or a Cardinal, 2 spots where fans might think his career would not thrive.

Let's start with the Patriots. Jacoby Brissett is currently slated to be the Patriots starting quarterback. This is barring any potential pickups in the draft. If Marvin Harrison was to be drafted here, I certainly don’t think many NFL fans would think he would be top 5 in receiving yards.

However, I think he would be. For 1: his target share would be absolutely ridiculous. The Patriots wide receiver core is currently horrendous. It includes: Demario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, KJ Osborn, and Jalen Regaor. In essence, there would be no one competing with Harrison Jr for targets. Secondly, MHJr has dealt with bad quarterback play his entire collegiate career. Kyle Mccord (Honda Mccord is his alias) was terrible and Harrison never had less than 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns with him.

If Marvin Harrison is truly better than Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson (he is a better prospect than both) and both put up over 1000 yards as rookies in bad situations (Wilson did it with Mike White at quarterback) then I have no problem predicting Harrison to amass 1300+ with a decent quarterback.

If he was to go Arizona I think he smashes 1400+ with ease. Kyler is a great quarterback and Deandre Hopkins had 1400+ with him back in 2020. Kyler is a great quarterback who does not enough love from the average NFL fan. I promise you guys that if Kyler gets Marvin Harrison, both will have elite seasons.

Jordan Love Will Lead The NFL In Touchdown Passes

Jordan Love had a season as good as CJ Stroud (arguably better) but does not get half as much love as Stroud. Love was second in the NFL in touchdowns and since week 10 (filtering for when Kyler Murray came back from injury) he was tied first in the NFL for most total touchdowns with 20. For context this was 4 more than Stroud, 5 more than Lamar, and 8 more than Mahomes in the same time frame.

Love started of the season slow (aside from week 1), but picked it up massively as the season went by.

In his last 6 games (including playoffs) Jordan love had 2+ touchdowns in each of them. In his last 11 games (including playoffs) he had 10 games with 2+ touchdowns and and 4 with 3+ touchdowns. I don't know what they're putting in the water in Green Bay but clearly it's leading to some elite quarterbacks.

"Just blitz Jordan Love and he wont be as elite".

If only it were that easy.

Jordan Love will continue to light it up next year.

Now enjoy this Jordan Love touchdown to end my article.

These are 5 of my bold predictions for the season! Thanks for reading. If you agree or disagree with my reasoning let me know!

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