The Grandiose NFL Preview
Then of course, there's Da Jets. The Jets are essentially the offseason villains of the NFL. They made moves, they stole a month's worth of TV time on HBO via Hard Knocks and if it is at all possible...they upstaged the VH1 tandem of Ochocinco and T.O. in Cincy. So much ado about them, even I find myself worried they might not live up to the billing. Alright, I'm gonna keep this short and to the point. Or at least attempt to anyhow.
Wild Cards: Jets, Bengals, Giants & Falcons
Playoff Team From A Year Ago Most Likely To Slip (whether in wins or out of it entirely): Chargers & Vikings
Non-Playoff Team From Last Season Most Likely To Return This Year That I Didn't Name Above:
Steelers & 49ers
Team Which Should Have No Excuse For Winning Its Division:
San Francisco. Like, seriously. This division blows.
Team Which Might Have Every Excuse In The Book For Not Winning Its Division:
Buffalo. Seriously, who's running their draft room?
Player Most Likely To Be Moved That Nobody's Talking About Not Named Haynesworth:
Marshawn Lynch. You've got three RBs, two of which are first round picks. I think Spiller's going to be a burner...not so sure how Marshawn stays getting paid first round money to be a 'timeshare back'. You don't waste 1st rounders on that kind of player.
Coach In Dire Need Of A Title This Season:
Wade Phillips. Quick, somebody tell me where this year's Super Bowl is. Thanks. :)
Coach I Couldn't Be Paid To Switch Places With For This Season:
Pete Carroll. On the upside...only team with lower expectations than his are the Rams. Yeah, that's what I call an Ike Turner Backhanded Compliment.
Why Should Saints Fans Be Incredibly Worried About This Season?
First, there hasn't been a repeat champion since the Pats. Second, bad things seem to happen when Super Bowl winning players grace the cover of Madden. Just ask Polamalu. Third, it's the SAINTS lest we forget. When's the last time great things happened for this franchise in successive years? Exactly.
All that out of the way, let's get with some division winners.
East: Patriots & Giants
- Yeah, I know. I'm a homer for picking the Giants, but I'm highly optimistic that they're going to win the division. No way, no how do they get folded on D two years in a row. Just know if it does, Tom Coughlin will be wished well in his future endeavors. As for New England, well, I as a Jet fan give props to The Hoodie and Brady. They are who they are. They win. They're the football equivalent to the Spurs in that it's not pretty, but it's consistently all but guaranteed to happen. I think the Pats will figure a way around the Jets, but just barely to win the AFC East.
North: Ravens & Pack
- When Baltimore got Boldin, I really liked their odds. Then getting Houshyamama when Seattle inexplicably cut him...yeah, that put em' over the top for me. Make no mistake about it, the AFC North runs about 3 deep. Well, two and a question mark with Pittsburgh that we'll know for sure by the end of the month. Anything short of 2-2 and they're done. As for Green Bay, I guess the hype has gotten to me too. I think Rodgers is going to be good enough to get them by Minnesota, but I don't believe they have enough to win when it counts.
South: Colts & Saints
- As hard as I tried, I'm just not seeing either of these teams dropping off the throne YET. The Titans and Texans still have to prove they can SWEEP (splits don't work) the Colts and I don't see either doing that just yet. As for the Saints, the Falcons are the only real challenge they have within that division. Sadly, I don't see them as much of one even with all that looms on NO's horizon this year. Still if I had to pick two teams that could win it in their respective places, I'd go Titans and Falcons.
West: 49ers & Chargers
- These two division should be finished by the middle of November, if all breaks as we believe it will. Going under the assumption that Derek Anderson can't pick up where Kurt left off and San Diego won't go under without Vincent Jackson...San Fran even with Alex Smith is the best team in that division. San Diego should face minimal resistance in the AFC West, as I don't think Denver's going to be much without Brandon Marshall and the other two teams aren't quite there yet. I will say, Oakland with Jason Campbell can do something. I think Campbell wants to prove that the dysfunction in Washington was the only thing that kept him back. Props to Uncle Al for fleecing him from Washington.
AFC Championship: Jets over Ravens
NFC Championship: 49ers over Saints
- Blame Greenburg for me going with San Fran here, but very little else makes sense in the NFC. It's more of a "which team's flaws can be outweighed by a potential X factor nobody sees coming" deal than anything else. Dallas's flaw is heart, which honestly, can't be trumped by anything else. Either you got it or you don't. The added pressure of having the last game of the year in their backyard, will crush them this year. Minnesota...eh. Not sure lightning strikes twice and Brett gets them back again. New Orleans looks like the safest bet in the NFC, but then you factor in the "as the year goes on, how will they handle the heat?" thing and then we'll have something. Anybody can win it, a true champ can repeat.
Which brings me to San Fran. Their D is headlined by Patrick 'Who You Sackin' On?' Willis and quite honestly, I think their D can carry them to two wins in the playoffs. The X factor that I'm thinking gets them over the top is Alex Smith. The weapons are around him in Gore, Davis, Crabtree and company. All he has to do is put it all together and if he does that, San Fran is your NFC Champion. (Note, these two meet next week in San Fran.)
As for the AFC...really, I could've gone a number of different ways with this. I didn't go Indy, because last year just gave me way too many red flags with Caldwell and Peyton as a whole. That Super Bowl was nothing short of gift wrapped for them and they not only looked the gift horse in the mouth, they gave it a root canal. They gave that Saints D too much credit by going so conservative and in doing so, gave away that game off an onsides kickoff to open the 2nd half and an ill advised pass that made Tracy Porter look like a poor man's Deion Sanders. They're out. Cincy? While I'm not predicting T.O. causes an implosion, I just don't like what I see outside of Palmer and the VH1ers at WR. Plus, I think they're gonna take a pounding within their own division, so they're out too. I think New England's given up more than they'll ever care to admit. I don't look at this team and say the same things I said four to five years ago when they were running shit in the NFL.
So that leaves the Jets and Ravens. The Ravens want to prove their D has one last run in it and that their offense is no longer a liability in their quest to do this. Better not be with all the guys they've got on that side of the football. The Jets want to prove that last year was no fluke and it was the start of something much greater. I think the running game took a hit with the loss of Jones, but they gained Santonio Holmes on the cheap and added Cromartie to put opposite of Revis Island. Everything's in place, all they have to do is justify it all as being legit ink instead of all time hype that rivals the Miami Heat. (Yeah, I've got a nice juicy one saved for them in about a month or so.)
Super Bowl: 49ers versus Jets
- The Niners haven't been to the Super Bowl since Steve Young ran them by a woefully overmatch San Diego team in 1994. The Jets haven't seen one since Joe Namath gave that guarantee in Super Bowl III. Niners haven't won a playoff game since 2002. Jets were a half away from the Super Bowl in last year's AFC Championship game. In each of the last three years we've had a team make it that defied logical explanation and two of them (The Giants and Saints) won it. The Jets are your logical team here, for reasons I'm sure you've seen on Hard Knocks and heard or will hear ad nauseum until February. The 49ers (who I've loathed and despised for as long as I've been watching football) are going to continue that trend this year.
Funny story on how I came to this conclusion. Thursday morning, I was in Buffalo watching Mike & Mike In The Morning as they made their Super Bowl picks. I was thinking a few things, such as "gee, I really need to get back on the SB horse" and "is it wrong of me to wish a month to go by so I can start hammering the Heat and every slack jawed yokel slurping their shit?" when Mike Greenburg makes his SF pick as NFC Champions. At first, I kinda laughed hard. But then I thought about it and when I did so, along with thinking outside the box...it made sense. They can air it out or pound it out as the weather and situation necessitate.
Oh and by the by, consider this my "Tuesday Thought For The Day". If you're trying to draw conclusions on the events of the last 4 days or so...DO NOT DO IT. It's Week 1 which means...
A) Every team that will pretty much be an afterthought by this time next month, will get a win or two.
B) Every team expected to make a serious run, will stumble out of the gate. NFL's not a track meet, it's a marathon.
C) Every talking head will get you to read more into what I consider "the only preseason game that actually counts, well four if you count Weeks 2, 3 & 4", than you really need to. Do so at your own risk.
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