Kyle Crabbs gives his prediction on if the Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars or New York Giants can make the NFL Playoffs this season after selecting at the top of the 2025 NFL Draft.
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00:00Among the three teams that picked at the top of the 2025 NFL draft,
00:04which one has the best chance to make the playoffs in 2025?
00:08I've got my pick. Let me tell you why.
00:13I'm Kyle Krabs with A to Z Sports, and if you've watched football for any period of time,
00:18you very quickly learn the lesson that you can never really never say never as it pertains to
00:23worst of first or worst of playoffs. And last year's Washington Commanders is an excellent
00:28example of exactly that. Washington had decades of downtrodden seasons and under Dan Quinn with
00:36Jaden Daniels at the quarterback position, experienced a resurgence like few teams have
00:40ever experienced playing in the NFC Championship game and even winning one of their head-to-head
00:46matchups against the Eagles in the regular season. Of the teams that picked in the top three of this
00:51year's draft, who has the best chance to make a run to the postseason? Everybody's favorite pick
00:57on a worst-to-first candidate is the New England Patriots, of course, who picked number four and
01:02drafted Will Campbell, an offensive lineman, to go and help protect quarterback Drake May. They
01:07added head coach Mike Rabel. They spent a ton of money in free agency. Some of the rest of the AFC
01:13East is regressing from a team and talent perspective, so it's a fair call-out to make,
01:18but that's too low-hanging fruit for me. I want to look at the top three. The Giants at three,
01:24Jaguars who traded up to two, and the Tennessee Titans at one. Let me tell you first why I don't
01:29think it's going to be the New York Giants. The schedule is absolutely brutal to open for New York,
01:35and this team's under a lot of pressure. There's pressure from the media, there's pressure from the
01:40team, there's pressure from the fan base. Brian Dable's on the hot seat, Joe Shane is on the hot seat,
01:45and for that team to open this year with road games against Washington and Dallas before then
01:50hosting Kansas City and the Chargers with the seasons that those two teams just had,
01:56it's a brutal first month, but it doesn't stop at the first month. You look at the rest of the
02:01schedule, they've got a trip to New Orleans, and then they play the Eagles twice in three games
02:06with a trip to Denver. They're sandwiched in between the two. They go home against San Francisco
02:10at Chicago, Green Bay, at Detroit, at New England. That's the start of the schedule for
02:15the Giants, and Brian Dable's just looking for a quarterback that's going to execute his offense
02:20as it called. I don't think he's going to find it in Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson,
02:24during the entirety of the let Russ cook era, but between the end of his tenure in Seattle,
02:29his time in Denver, and his time last year in Pittsburgh, he's a touchdown to check down style
02:33passer. He likes to take shots down the field. He's really good at throwing those moon ball vertical
02:38shots, but if he doesn't like what he sees, more often than not, he's going to make a risk
02:42adverse decision and get the ball to the back of the check down underneath, but that puts the
02:47offense in a box, and it doesn't execute the calls as they're designed, which has me curious
02:52how soon it will be before we see Jackson dart behind center, and perhaps it's sooner rather
02:58than later, and maybe he becomes the next Jayden Daniels. I'll be smart enough to never say never
03:02in that regard, but I think the probabilities are against it, and therefore, I'm fading the Giants
03:08being that team, especially in the NFC East with a rebuilt Dallas team and two NFC championship game
03:14representatives from last season. Now those two AFC South teams, I'm picking the Titans, and a lot of
03:21it has to do with the schedule as the reason why. Jacksonville's going through a lot of change.
03:26They changed head coach. They made a late decision to change the executive and the general manager
03:31responsible for football operations, hiring James Gladstone. Trevor Lawrence is a more proven product
03:35right now than what Cam Ward is at the NFL level, but Jacksonville's got new on the offensive line,
03:41new offensive scheme, new defensive scheme, new coach. It's a lot of new, and the Jaguars only play
03:48four games in their home stadium after October 13th this season. You contrast that to Tennessee,
03:56who has to be road warriors early on, but then they only play three road games in November and December
04:02combined at the end of their schedule. And one of those is a matchup in week 18 in Jacksonville
04:09against the Jaguars. So for two teams that picked at the top of the 2025 NFL draft, you may see the
04:15stage set in week 18 for dramatically different odds this time around for teams that made wholesale
04:22changes. But thanks to the schedule and some continuity within the coaching staff, the front office,
04:27and some of the personnel on the offensive line, you could put me down as the Titans having the best
04:33odds to make that playoff run in 2025.