Reid Kerr

It’s day two of three for this year’s Wild Card round, and I’ve spent the last 12 hours watching football, breaking down game film, and running wind sprints in my basement. I’m ready to go for this triple-header, folks. Time to get caught up with the old mailbag and answer some of your questions.

Q: Can Dallas beat San Francisco?

A: Absolutely. The secret to a 49ers win and the secret to a 49ers loss are both the same thing, and it rhymes with “Timmy Schmaroppolo.” They’re dangerous, but I’ll take Dallas easy in this one.

Q: So who’s going to pull off the upset in the Wild Card round?

A: Oh, maybe anyone. Last year, four of the six games were upsets, according to the seeding. In the three years before that, lower seeds were actually 8-4 in the first round. That makes for some exciting matchups, and also some crushing defeats and disappointing games later on. Cinderella is a concept for the NCAA Basketball tournament, this is the NFL. I’m wanting to see the best of the best for a few more weeks.No offense to the fanbases of these teams, but I don’t really want to see Pittsburgh or Philly moving on, I want to see if the Chiefs and Bucs can make it back.

That said, if I had to pick one, I’d say Arizona.

Q: Which team is in the best position to hire a coach?

A: Pass.

Q: Oh, come on.

A: On a technicality, I’ll take the Raiders. I don’t think that job will come open, but if it does, that’s the top one. If not then Jacksonville, just because their quarterback is in place and whoever follows Urban Meyer will look like George S. Patton in comparison. I would have taken Miami in this spot, but the opposite is true after a questionable firing of Brian Flores.

Q: Who’s the best of the rookie quarterbacks?

A: For those guys, it’s become an annual dose of unrealistic expectations. We expect to see Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert every year, but those are rarities. Mac Jones was good for the Patriots, but he fell into the perfect situation. Trevor Lawrence struggled in an awful offense for his skills, the Bears were a mess around Justin Fields, and the 49ers treated Trey Lance like a Christmas present they didn’t want and couldn’t return.

Weirdly enough, the second best rookie taking the snaps this season might have been Davis Mills, for the Texans. He could throw deep, and depending on what happens in the offseason, he may return as the starter for a while. Or the Texans front office could trade him for a late round draft pick and two equipment lockers. It’s hard to say.

Now on to the picks.I finished the regular season 73-43 straight up, and 58-55-2 against Vegas. Over the course of my career here at the paper, I am now 309-185-2 picking regular season games, and 371-342-15 against Vegas. That sounds a lot better than it actually is because in Vegas, I’d still have lost money with those numbers. As always, these are for the purposes of comedic discussion only. No wagering.

Philadelphia (plus 8.5) at Tampa Bay: This is actually a better matchup than it seems. The Eagles made the playoffs by rushing the ball and withstanding the pass, and Tampa made it by stopping the run and withstanding Antonio Brown.

Pick: Bucs to win but not cover, winning by eight or fewer.

San Francisco (plus 3) at Dallas: The thing that hurts the most about this one is thinking about those other great Cowboys-49ers games, and realizing they were more than 25 years ago. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go put my acid-washed jeans and Sony Discman on, and enjoy this one.

Pick: Cowboys to win and cover, winning by four or more.

Pittsburgh (plus 12.5) at Kansas City: Generally speaking, when things are completely over and then somehow they get extended, the results are usually very disappointing. And yes, I am speaking of both Ben Roethlisberger’s career, and that horrible “Dexter: New Blood” finale.

Pick: Chiefs to win but not cover, winning by 12 or fewer.

Arizona (plus 4) at LA Rams: This is a Monday night matchup between two teams I trust about as much as a dollar store pregnancy test.

Pick: Cardinals to win it outright.

I’ll also take the Cowboys game to go under 50.5 points, the Chiefs to score first in their game, and that Monday night playoff game to continue for the rest of our lives. Good luck everybody.

Reid Kerr has always considered a nap a sort of short-range, one-way time machine. You can always tweet questions, comments, and angry messages to him at @reidaboutit.