Browns Named as Potential Award Winners on Popular Podcast

Today on The Athletic Football Show podcast, hosts Robert Mays and Nate Tice posted their annual NFL prediction show. They selected their predictions for division champs and wild card teams, name award winners and stat champions, and wrap it all up with their MVP and Super Bowl picks.

In addition they also selected a secondary player for each award based on favorable betting odds that provide value. While Micah Parsons was chosen by both as the projected winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award, both mentioned Myles Garrett as a real possibility.

Mays said, "this might be the season where even though he is no longer in the top two or three betting favorites, that's a sneaky one where I think this honestly might be his best chance when you look at the rest of this Browns defense and this Browns defensive line."

Browns Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz was selected by Nate Tice as his choice for Assistant Coach of the Year. Tice said "he has an identity, they've added through the spine of the defense so I think the talent is there, they have the name recognition too where they maybe rack up some sacks so people notice that."

Finally, Nick Chubb was named the projected rushing champion by Robert Mays. Mays called him the best running back in the league. I don't anticipate an uptick in touches for him but if he settles somewhere around 300 (carries) and the efficiency stays where it has for the last few years, to me he's as good of a bet as anyone."

Tice really agreed with Mays and only chose a different running back due to knowing that Mays would also choose Chubb. When it came to predicting overall results for the team, however, both hosts stopped short of predicting a playoff appearance for the team.

They both said they were tempted to include them but Tice picked the Ravens to win the division while Mays chose the Bengals. They each called the AFC North the toughest division in football and Mays picked the Ravens to join the Bengals as a playoff team while Tice picked both the Bengals and Steelers for the playoffs.

You can listen to the entire episode here.