This week am turning my attention to the NFC to see which each team would like Santa Claus to bring them!

Dallas Cowboys

This has been a very disappointing season. The Cowboys started off with so much promise with all their offensive stars and a brand new coach and it’s just been one big let down. Getting Dak back is a short term fix and whilst they still have a chance of a playoff appearance in a grim division I’m sure most Cowboy fans are looking to next year. So instead of Mike McCarthy at the helm I’m giving them the Oklahoma Sooners coach Lincoln Riley to inject some positiveness into this team.

Washington Football Team

On the other side of things, the Football Team have probably overachieved versus where most pundits thought they’d be. Alex Smith is the surefire comeback player of the year and has shown promise. The other thing Smith is good at is mentoring young QBs so I’m giving the Football Team a top ten pick and Zach Wilson out of BYU to sit behind Smith for a year before taking the Football Team on in 2022.

Philadelphia Eagles

On the verge of a very low key quarterback controversy I’m going to give the Eagles exactly what I gave to the Bengals – a new o-line. It doesn’t matter who’s back there if they can’t stay upright for very long.

New York Giants

The Giants are building under Joe Judge and a 5-2 record over their last 7 games shows that. Wayne Gallman has done well but wouldn’t it just be better to have a fully fit Saquon Barkley?

San Francisco 49ers

Such high hopes of a ‘revenge tour’ after a disappointing end to the Super Bowl in February but all ruined by the injury bug. So a fully fit roster is what Santa is bringing to Santa Clara (or, Phoenix as it currently is!)

LA Rams

Goff was good against the Cardinals. Bad against the 49ers. And this has been the story of his career with the Rams. For Christmas this year I give Goff the gift of consistency to ensure that this offence is always clicking.

Arizona Cardinals

Another foot of height for Kyler Murray? Maybe but let’s not be mean and accept the fact that Murray can play at a decent level irrespective of his height. He can even do it with a dodgy O-Line so I’ll forego that in favour of some help on the interior of the defensive line. Hassan Reddick is ok and when fit, Chandler Jones is one of the best in the league. Both would be better if opposing quarterbacks were feeling pressure from the middle of the line as well.

Seattle Seahawks

One of the most unbalanced teams in the league. Great on offence, terrible on defence giving up over 400 yards of offence a game. So I’m giving them the gift from another horribly unbalanced team – the Seahawks get the Bears defence.

Green Bay Packers

A lot of fuss made about the Packers not getting any wide receiver help for Aaron Rodgers in the offseason. But he seems to be doing ok with what he’s got. The defence is probably good enough to get them far in the playoffs but how much better would it be if they could stop the run? So for Christmas, the Packers get a shiny new defensive tackle to stop the run. Someone like Tedarrell Slaton out of Florida who they might be able to get at the end of the second round.

Chicago Bears

In this scenario let’s ignore the fact that I just gave away their defence but safe to say, the issue with the Bears is not there. You could go a number of places here, a new coach, a new QB, a new O-Line and for that matter alone, I’m replacing the guy who put it all together. I’m giving the Bears a new GM to replace Ryan Pace.

Detroit Lions

Heading in to a rebuild year and like the Bears there’s a lot to be done. The Lions will be getting a new coach and a new GM and Christmas is about getting what you want, rather than what you need (right? First world problems right there!). With that in mind, The Detroit Lions get a fit Kenny Golladay on a new contract.

Minnesota Vikings

After Sunday’s game a new kicker won’t be far from the top of the wishlist. At the start of the year they had what looked to be a nice looking pass rush with Danielle Hunter on one side and Yannick Ngakoue on the other. Now Ngakoue is in Baltimore and Hunter is on IR for the rest of 2020. As such I’ll give Hunter back to this Vikings team to continue their push for a playoff spot.

New Orleans Saints

Top of the NFC. Winning games with a backup quarterback. A defence that’s good and getting better. Should they maintain the No.1 spot in the NFC and living in a dome there’s one thing that could really push the Saints to the Super Bowl – a full stadium. That ground rocks when it’s full and the Saints could use them all back and, like everyone wants, an end to the misery of COVID-19!

Atlanta Falcons

Raheem Morris has proved this team can win. The defence needs work still but all the pieces are there on offence. I’ll give the Falcons the gift of time and let them go back to the end of last year when they should have fired Dan Quinn.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs have ALL the pieces to win the Super Bowl. This is a roster bursting with talent on both sides of the ball. But they’re not getting the most out of it. To combat that, I’m giving Brady his old mate back to run the offence the way he likes it run. Welcome to Florida Josh McDaniels.

Carolina Panthers

in the big scheme of things, it’s been a good year for the Panthers. They’re showing progression under new head coach Matt Rhule and it’s a young core of players who should only get better. The defence is starting to gel and they’ve got playmakers there. But how much better would it be if Luke Kuechly was back marshalling them? So there you go Panther fans, you get your leader back on defence.

Main image credit: “Green Bay Packers Fans” by Mike Morbeck is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/