John Middlekauff · Jun 30, 2025
Middlekauff reiterated his pick of the Packers to win the NFC North, set a nine-win floor for the 49ers while being more bullish on them than consensus, and argued Denver's floor with a dominant defense and Sean Payton is about ten wins.
“anything other than nine wins if you're the forty nine ers based on this schedule, based on you know, investing in the quarterback would be viewed as a disaster”
said on air or in an interview · The Colin Cowherd Podcast (podcast) · read the original →
4 checkable claims from this
Each one is scored on its own against the published methodology. A pundit naming several outcomes is graded on each, not on all-or-nothing.
- Season Win TotalsDenver BroncosJun 30, 2025
“if you have a dominant defense with an offensive coach who's proven, like, how are your floor is so high? I mean, your floor is immediately like ten wins.”
Scored 20a naive guess scored 5+30 skillHow this was scored
- team:
- DEN
- naive:
- 9.25
- skill:
- 30
- what happened:
- 14
- season:
- 2025
- zero at:
- 5
- accuracy:
- 20
- baseline:
- 5
- predicted:
- 10
- difficulty:
- 2
- weeks in the season:
- 18
- weeks left when called:
- 18
- Season Win TotalsSan Francisco 49ersJun 30, 2025
“They have no excuse to not win. I think at minimum nine games... anything other than nine wins if you're the forty nine ers based on this schedule... would be viewed as a disaster.”
Scored 40a naive guess scored 5+70 skillHow this was scored
- team:
- SF
- naive:
- 7.25
- skill:
- 70
- what happened:
- 12
- season:
- 2025
- zero at:
- 5
- accuracy:
- 40
- baseline:
- 5
- predicted:
- 9
- difficulty:
- 2
- weeks in the season:
- 18
- weeks left when called:
- 18
- Surprise Team CallsSan Francisco 49ersJun 30, 2025
“I'm more bullish on the forty nine ers than everyone else... I think they're going to come with a fury. I think they got a lot to prove.”
Not settled yet. This is graded once the season it describes has finished.
- Division WinnersGreen Bay PackersJun 30, 2025
“the reason when we did the segment last week about picking them to win the division is they won eleven games where the quarterback was banged up”
Not settled yet. This is graded once the season it describes has finished.