Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

The Super Bowl countdown is officially on. Super Bowl LIX is just 12 days away, which means we're going to spend 12,000 words today breaking down the game. Actually, we're not going to do that because 12,000 words would almost be an entire book and I don't have time to write an entire book, so we're going to go with a slightly lower word count. 

As far as the Super Bowl goes, we've got some early bold predictions in today's newsletter, plus we'll take a look at who the referee is for the game and what that might mean for each team. 

As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. 

We're going to be talking A LOT about the Super Bowl for the next 12 days and that starts right now, because we're going to give you some early bold predictions for the big game. 

Jordan Dajani came up with five predictions and we're going to check out three of them below: 

1. Saquon Barkley rushes for 200 yards. "Barkley is expected to break the all-time single-season rushing yards record in the Super Bowl, as he's just 30 yards away from eclipsing Terrell Davis' 2,476-yard mark from 1998. But he has a chance to go for a Super Bowl record, too. ... Our prediction is that Barkley becomes the second player to ever rush for 200 yards in a Super Bowl, but does not pass Timmy Smith's 204 rushing yards from Super Bowl XXII."

2. Chiefs win game by stuffing the 'Tush Push.' "Expect another close game like we saw in their last Super Bowl meeting. In fact, three out of the last four meetings between the Chiefs and Eagles have been decided by one score. We predict that this game comes down to a play made by the Chiefs defense -- not Mahomes. ... With four seconds remaining in the game, down 30-24, the Eagles try their patented "Tush Push" -- which is stuffed by Chris Jones for a Chiefs victory. The three-peat comes to fruition."

3. Xavier Worthy wins Super Bowl MVP. "The speedy rookie out of Texas racked up 742 yards from scrimmage and nine total touchdowns in his first 17 NFL games played, then caught 11 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown in two postseason games. Our hot take is that Worthy becomes the first rookie in NFL history to win Super Bowl MVP after picking up 150 scrimmage yards and two total touchdowns in Super Bowl LIX."

You can check out all five of Jordan's bold predictions here. 

Ron Torbert was the referee on the field for the Eagles' first game of the season and he'll also be the ref for their final game of the season. 

The NFL has tabbed Torbert to serve as the referee in Super Bowl LIX, marking the second time that he's gotten to officiate a Super Bowl. Torbert's first refereeing gig in the big game came back in February 2022 when he was the ref during the Rams' 23-20 win over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.

The 61-year-old Torbert started in the NFL as a side judge in 2010 before being promoted to referee in 2014. This will mark the 14th postseason game of Torbert's career. Besides Super Bowl LVI, his biggest game came in the 2022 AFC Championship (Chiefs 23-20 over Bengals), which also marks the last time he officiated a Chiefs game.

If you're wondering how the Eagles and Chiefs have fared with Torbert, here's a look at their record with him over the past five years (stats via Pro Football Reference).

• Eagles: 5-3 (2-0 in 2024)
• Chiefs: 2-1 (0-0 in 2024)

This is the third time this season that Torbert has seen the Eagles. The veteran official was the referee back in Week 1 for the Eagles' 34-29 win over the Packers in Brazil. He was also the referee for their 20-13 win over the Giants in Week 18. 

On the other hand, it's been two years since Torbert last officiated a Chiefs game and that came in the aforementioned AFC Championship against the Bengals. During Patrick Mahomes' seven seasons as a starter, Torbert has only officiated four of his games with Kansas City going 3-1. 

According to the NFL, the rest of Torbert's crew for the game will be umpire Mike Morton, down judge Max Causey, line judge Mark Stewart, side judge Boris Cheek, field judge Mearl Robinson, back judge Jonah Monroe and replay official Kevin Brown. 

You can check out our full story on the officiating situation at the Super Bowl here. 

If you want to know who's going to win the Super Bowl, apparently, all you have to do is look at the jersey color that each team will be wearing. As the home team in Super Bowl LIX, the Eagles got to make the first pick on jersey color for the game and they decided to wear green, which means the Chiefs will be wearing white. 

So what does that mean? Glad you asked. 

• The team wearing white has dominated. Over the past 20 years, the team wearing white has gone 16-4 in the Super Bowl, which would seem to be good news for the Chiefs. The Eagles wore white two years ago during their 38-35 loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. On the other hand, one of those four wins that came from a team NOT wearing white came in 2017 when the Eagles wore green during their Super Bowl win over the Patriots. The other teams to win without wearing white: The Chiefs did it twice (Super Bowl LIV and LVIII) and the Packers did it once (Super Bowl XLV). 
• Patrick Mahomes has never lost a postseason game wearing white. The Chiefs have only worn white during three postseason games in Mahomes' career and he's gone 3-0, including the Super Bowl LVII win over the Eagles. As for the Super Bowl, this is the Chiefs' seventh trip to the Big Game in franchise history, but they've only worn white twice before. They wore the color during a loss to the Packers in Super Bowl I and then they didn't wear it again until their aforementioned Super Bowl win over the Eagles. 
• Eagles are winless when picking their jersey color. This is Philly's fifth trip to the Super Bowl and it will mark the fifth time they've worn green. That's right, they've worn the same jersey color in every Super Bowl trip. In their previous four games wearing green, they went 1-3. The NFC is the home team in odd-numbered Super Bowls, so the Eagles have gotten to pick their jersey color in four of their five trips to the big game. They're 0-3 when they get to pick the jersey color. Their only win came in Super Bowl LII when the Patriots chose to wear white, which forced the Eagles to wear green. 

You can read more about the uniform selections here. 

The NFL playoffs started with 14 teams, and now that we're down to two, that means there are 12 teams from this year's postseason that didn't make it to the Super Bowl. The only reason I'm pointing that out is because Cody Benjamin decided to rank those teams based on which has the best chance of getting to NEXT YEAR'S Super Bowl. 

Here's how that list breaks down: 

1. Commanders
2. Lions
3. Packers
4. Ravens
5. Bills
6. Chargers
7. Texans
8. Rams
9. Vikings
10. Buccaneers
11. Broncos
12. Steelers

The one thing I'll say about the Commanders is that they have a loaded schedule next year. Three of their 17 games will be coming against the two teams in Super Bowl LIX with two games against the Eagles and one game against the Chiefs. If I had to bet money on one of the above teams getting to the Super Bowl, I'd probably bet Bills or Ravens, but I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable with that bet because that means I'm betting against the Chiefs. 

If you want to know see how Cody put his rankings together, you can see his full story here. 

The offseason has already started for 30 of the NFL's 32 teams and many of those teams will have several big decisions to make over the next few weeks. With that in mind, former NFL agent Joel Corry decided to take a look at 15 players around the league who could be cut or traded before the start of free agency. 

Let's check out the quarterbacks on Corry's list: 

• Aaron Rodgers. "The 41-year-old recognizes that the new regime may want to go in another direction at quarterback should he choose to continue playing football. Releasing Rodgers with a post-June 1 designation will mean $35 million of the $49 million in dead money would be a 2026 cap charge."
• Kirk Cousins. "The Falcons will be on the hook for the $27.5 million Cousins is making in 2025 if he is released because this money is already fully guaranteed and they'll have paid him $90 million for just one season if they release him in March."
• Derek Carr. "Releasing Carr before his injury guaranteed $30 million 2025 base salary is fully guaranteed March 14 on the third day of the 2025 league year becomes a more viable alternative if the head coach that's hired has serious reservations about him as his quarterback. The Saints would be taking Carr's $50.132 million of dead money over two years (2025 and 2026) by using a post-June 1 designation on him."

If you want to see the full list of 15 players who could be cut or traded, be sure to head here.  

It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Aaron Rodgers' future still up in the air. During his introductory press conference on Monday, new Jets coach Aaron Glenn said that he's talked with Rodgers, but no decision has been made about the quarterback's future. "We've already texted that communication with Aaron Rodgers. As we continue to look at the roster, we'll make decisions accordingly," Glenn said. The Jets will likely need to make a decision soon, because if they get rid of Rodgers, they'll have to make plans to add a new quarterback this offseason. You can read more about Glenn's comments here. 
• Saints interview Kellen Moore. There's only one open head coaching job and that's the one in New Orleans. The Saints completed their second interview with Moore and that came on Monday night during an in-person meeting in Philadelphia. If the Saints want to hire the Eagles offensive coordinator, they'll have to be patient because the earliest they'd be able to hire him is the day after the Super Bowl on Feb. 10. 
• Steelers looking to sign Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. With both quarterbacks set to hit free agency, the Steelers aren't planning on bringing both of them back to Pittsburgh, but they would like at least one of them to return. That nugget comes from team owner Art Rooney. You can read more about the Steelers' QB situation here.  
• Lions hire a new offensive coordinator. With Ben Johnson now in Chicago, the Lions need to replace their offensive coordinator and they did that on Tuesday morning. According to multiple reports, the Lions will hire former Broncos passing-game coordinator John Morton to the role. The Lions are familiar with the 55-year-old Morton because he spent the 2022 season in Detroit as a senior offensive assistant. You can read more about Morton's hiring here.