After several grueling months of wondering whether we were even going to see pro football this year, we’re finally extremely close - within 10 hours - of the kick off of the 2020 NFL season. The Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the high-powered Houston Texans in what promises to be an exciting match-up.

In honor of the impending season, the staff writers at Hogs Haven - 12 of them - corralled their vast football knowledge and deployed it in an attempt to predict the future. In the eighth annual edition of this series, the site's writers and analysts were asked to guess team and individual award winners for this season, including an in-depth set of prognostications about our very own WFT.

Enjoy the predictions below, and please add your own in the comments below, as we prepare to embark, once again, into the most wonderful time of the year.

(listed alphabetically by last name)

WFT and NFC East Predictions

• Once again, our fearless leader, Ken Meringolo, was the only one among us who was bold enough to predict that the WFT would make the playoffs. Ken has the Burgundy and Gold racking up eight wins, winning the NFC East for the first time since 2015 and getting knocked out of the playoffs in the wild card round. Ken and I were the only writers to have the WFT winning more than six games (8). James and Scott both predicted 4-12 records. Everyone else predicted 5-11 or 6-10.
• Of the eleven writers polled who were not named Ken Meringolo, 80% of them picked the Cowboys to win the NFC East crown. Tom and Matt-in-Bris-Vegas both picked the dirty birds to take the division crown. No one picked a second NFC East team to make the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
• The picks for WFT’s best offensive player were decidedly tilted, 8-4, to Scary Terry, with Dwayne Haskins the runner up. Chase Young was the runaway defensive winner in this category with 8 votes, follow by Montez Sweat (2), Landon Collins (1), and Matty I (1).

Super Bowl Picks

• All but one of the participating Hogs Haven scribes picked either the Ravens (6) or the Chiefs (5) to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl (Mark picked the Texans). Things were decidedly more split in the NFC where the Saints (7), Vikings (2), Bucs (1), Packers (1), and Seahawks (1) all received votes.
• Kansas City and Baltimore were the only clubs that received more than one vote to win the Super Bowl, with KC edging the Ravens out by a margin of five to four. The Seahawks, Bucs and Saints also received votes.

Other Prediction Trends

• There were only three categories where there was unanimous agreement: The Ravens will win the AFC North, the Chiefs will win the AFC West, and Chase Young will be the Defensive Rookie of the Year.
• Bruce Arians (3) and Mike McCarthy (3) were tied for the most votes for Coach of the Year. Joe Burrow (6) narrowly edged out Clyde Edwards-Helaire (5) in the Offensive Rookie of the Year category. Nick Bosa collected the most votes (5) for Defensive Player of the Year, with TJ Watt (3) second, and Aaron Donald, Danielle Hunter, Joey Bosa, and Darius Leonard among the other vote getters.
• Eleven of us predicted the Steelers would make the playoffs as a Wild Card in the AFC, with the Bucs and 49ers both collecting nine votes as NFC Wild Card entrants.
• There was general agreement that the Jaguars (10) would be the worst team in the league, but the Panthers and Jets also notched votes in this category.

So there you have it; we’ve made all of our best guesses for the forthcoming NFL season. Now we get to enjoy the fruits of our labors and finally get to sit back and watch some football, and hopefully see the WFT play well enough to make us proud.

After the confetti drops at Super Bowl LV, I’ll be back to do a full accounting, at which time you can either mock us for our fortune-telling failures or erect virtual statues to praise and worship our infinite wisdom and foresight.

In the meantime, let us know what you think of our picks and share your predictions for the season in the comments section. Happy season kickoff day and HTTR!