It’s that time again! In just a few hours, the new NFL season will begin, and it can’t come soon enough. I could probably write pages upon pages about the NFL or football in general, and I hopefully will throughout the fall/winter, but for the sake of brevity. I will give a quick preview of each division, predict a winner, give my wild card teams, pick the champions, and leave with some weekly picks against the spread (direct from one of my football pools). Special thanks to Jacob, thanks to his comments on the last post, I realized I could afford to get a DVR and HD signal to watch all these games in the glory they deserve. Why can't the rest of you be more helpful!?!
AFC East: New England Patriots
Too good, too talented, and too well-coached. Not to mention, who in this division can beat them. Miami is likely to regress after overachieving last year (ask the Browns how that works out), and Buffalo and the Jets have too many question marks.
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers
The Super Bowl champs (damn that hurts to say) bring back pretty much everyone from last year. The Ravens will be tough on defense and make the playoffs, but won’t have enough to knock off the new Steel Curtain. The Browns avoid the cellar by one game over the hapless Bengals.
Bonus Browns Section: How do I think the Browns will do this year? I am going with an optimistic 7-9. I think Brady Quinn is going to be a very good quarterback in this league. I think there are some playmakers: hopefully Braylon, two young, fast RBs that Mangini will find a way to get on the field (James Davis, Jerome Harrison), and one of the rookie WRs (likely Mohamed Massaquoi, much love to my Bulldog fans out there!). The defense will be slightly improved. They will struggle early on against a brutal early schedule, but they find their stride late and win 4 of their last 6.
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts
I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the teams in this division win it (even the Jags or the Texans). They all have playmakers, but they all have flaws. Colts are replacing a coach and a Hall of Fame receiver. Titans are counting on a 36-year-old QB to repeat a career year. Jaguars are a Maurice Jones-Drew injury from disaster, and the Texans are still quarterbacked by Matt Schaub last time I checked.
AFC West: San Diego Chargers
Another case of the best versus the rest. Denver is in shambles, Kansas City is in rebuilding mode and Cassell is already hurt, and the Raiders…well, they're the Raiders. Chargers get a bounce back year from LT, good production from backup Darren Sproles, and Philip Rivers becomes even more ungodly. Oh, and did I mention the physical freaks of nature they have defense? Some of them (Merriman, I’m looking at you) get so bored with football violence that they need to smack around bi-sexual MTV reality “stars.” Just kidding though, I’m siding with the Chargers LB over Tila on this one.
NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
Michael Vick isn’t going to make the difference, but he will be an added playmaker. More importantly, McNabb finally has fast receivers and a backup RB for when Westbrook inevitably breaks down. Giants make the playoffs off their solid D and strong running game. Dallas and Washington overpay for 7-9/8-8 seasons as usual.
NFC North: Minnesota Vikings
I hate to even type that after the Favre situation. But I think their defense and the demi-god that is Adrian Peterson carry them to enough wins in what might be the toughest division in football. I would not surprised if the Vickings, Packers, or Bears won this division, or the even the NFC.
NFC South: New Orleans Saints
No team from the NFC South has ever repeated as NFC South champ, so that knocks out the Panthers. The Falcons are good team, but I see them making a slight regression like the Dolphins. The Saints offense is otherwordly. If their defense is even decent, they should be able to win this division. Sorry Bucs fans, that defense was finally deconstructed, and its time to start over.
NFC West: Seattle Seahawks
This division sucks. I’m sorry. It just does. I know the Cardinals made the Super Bowl last year, but only because they got hot at the right time. This year, I predict the Seahawks to stumble in based on good defense and relatively mistake-free offense…with a ripe record of 8-8.
AFC Wild Cards: Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens
NFC Wild Cards: Green Bay Packers, New York Giants
AFC Championship: Chargers over Steelers
Come on, I couldn’t pick the Steelers to get back to the Super Bowl. I hate them too much.
NFC Championship: Eagles over Packers
No clear favorite in the NFC, so I go with the Iggles, who are due.
Super Bowl: Eagles over Chargers
Both these teams are due for a Super Bowl win. If this game actually happens, I will feel really bad for whoever loses. Here’s to assuming that these predictions will be completely off base. We’ll check back later in the season to be sure.
Picks of the Week: Assuming I post every week, I will try to include these at the bottom to see how poorly I can do. I give you a guarantee* that if you pick these games, you will win money 100% of the time.
*This is not a real guarantee and will not be honored in any way.
Notre Dame (-3.5) over Michigan (in the Battle of the We-Used-To-Be-Relevant)
East Carolina (+6.5) over West Virginia (upset special!)
Atl (-4) over Mia (Matt Ryan & Michael Turner pick up where they left off)
NE (-10.5) over Buf (see above gushing paragraph about Patriots, oh I hate them)
StL (+8.5) over Sea (upset special!)
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