Your First 2009 NFL Predictions

By JOSH ALPER

Updated 5:20 PM EST, Mon, Feb 2, 2009

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Gary Myers of the Daily News must not have thought all that much of Sunday night's Super Bowl. Why else would his Monday column be devoted to forecasting the 2009 NFL season?

That's right. Before free agency, before the draft and before any clue about how teams will look when they take the field in 2009, Myers has confidently suggested that the Giants and the Patriots will battle in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. He even predicts the final score! It will be Patriots 27, Giants 20, if you're interested.

Why does he feel that way? The Giants are going to replace Plaxico Burress, either with Anquan Boldin, Braylon Edwards or the 29th pick in the draft. The Patriots will either get Tom Brady back or they'll play Matt Cassel and have better luck than they did in 2008. It's just that easy,

Pay no mind to the fact that the Giants will also need to figure out if Brandon Jacobs or Derrick Ward is back, if Osi Umenyiora lost anything after his season-ending knee injury and that they'll actually need to find that replacement receiver. Ignore the fact that the Patriots defense keeps getting older and that their secondary wasn't very good last season. Don't be bothered by Matt Cassel's salary increase eating up tons of cap space that can't be used on other positions.

It's going to be a boring seven months for Myers. Perhaps he could spend the time figuring out why he went into sportswriting instead of stock trading. Clairvoyance like that should at least earn you a few bucks.

Myers even predicts every playoff team for next season, and in the AFC has every team but the Dolphins returning to the postseason. NFL history says there's now way that happens, but why let that stand in the way of a lazy prediction, right?