3181 replies to this topic

[seawolfnyy]

It'll be New England and Denver again vying for the AFC's top seed this year. Baltimore only made itself weaker and I think Houston is still missing something. Pittsburgh is too old and Cinci is too young. I don't see much more competition in the AFC, at least this year. However, the NFC is stacked. The Niners and Seahawks only got better. The Packers had one of their best drafts in years. The Saints will be back to full strength and the Falcons and Giants will be back. Whether or not it translates into a SB win for the NFC, we'll have to wait and see, but at least for now the NFC seems to be, by far, the better conference.

[bill007]

 

I love my Broncos.  It was great to acquire Manning, even though I was concerned about the neck recovery.  But, I still do not believe John Fox has the on-field, real-time tenacity to get it done.  Fox fizzled.

 

Nota bene: Pat Bowlen and John Elway ~ Please get a coach that will take these guys and make them gladiators, ala 1997.

 

Bill!! Long time, no see!! Given the choice between Coach John Fox and the former one..umm..what was his name again?? Josh McDumbass?? LOL I couldn't  be happier with Fox.. True, he did get mighty conservative and should have let Manning be more aggressive during that playoff loss to Baltimore, but still I'm not ready to declare the need for a coaching change...that might be different, should we not get it done this season.

 

Always good to hear from you as well, my friend.  Popping in occasionally, still lurking, lol.

 

Sorry, but I was deeply disappointed with Fox's decisions last year.  Maybe that guy who plays MACHETE?? Danny Trejo?  Now THAT guy would have my support, HA-Ha-ha!!!

 

Well anyway, moving on to the next year.....

 

Go Broncos!!

[hcmv007]

Big news is next years Draft will be in early May. I like this since I will have less time agonizing over lack of football. Normally I do draft grades but I dont have time to do that this year. But I will do and expanded review of all 32 teams later on. Now (Shameless Plug) is the time I spend on analyzing college football (Check out my new topic!).

 

 

 

But there are some teams I think will really take off for 2013. I dont think they will necessarily make the playoffs, but I expect big improvements from the Cardinals, Rams, Panthers, Broncos, Redskins and Chiefs. I think the Cowboys, Jets, Raiders and Saints will be stuck in mediocrity. Why the Saints? they are still suffering from the bounty issue, and IMO reached on a guy in Round 1 (Vaccaro). I liked the big DT from Georgia, but if they knew they were not going to keep Devery Henderson why not trade him to a team like the Jets or the Jaguars who need WR help and get a future pick? Dallas traded a pick to possibly get guys they projected as 1st rounders to take a guy in round 1 they projected at round 2. WTF is Jerry doing? Jets-I'll let tdalton go nuts on them. they left me scratching my head, and I am a casual observer.

 

For my reviews I hope to have them done by Mid August once I see everyone play at least 2 preseason games.

[The Dove]

Tim Tebow signs with the New England Patriots....as a quarterback (ooh, I'm sure Tom Brady is nervously looking over his shoulder!)   I hope Belichick and Co. are prepared to deal with the 3-ring circus that is Tebow-mania....

[Eric Stromberg]

Tebow will have that starting job by week 6...

 

Belichick is up to something and is a schemer royale, so what is his nefarious plan?

 

GO TEBOW (but not against Denver)

[Hockey Mask]

He is going to have Tebow secretly record the other teams' practices.

[Eric Stromberg]

HAH!  Good one, 00.  From the Tebow-position no doubt and on an Omega Seamaster with a hidden camera.  Sneaky.

[tdalton]

New England is the perfect place for Tim Tebow.  Belichick will get him to realize his full potential, be it at quarterback or as some kind of a "slash" player who can line up at a multitude of positions. 

[Hockey Mask]

New England is the perfect place for Tim Tebow.  Belichick will get him to realize his full potential, be it at quarterback or as some kind of a "slash" player who can line up at a multitude of positions. 

There is no way Tebow can realize his full potential with New England without Brady going down.  He will get no practice time and no playing time.  But I am not a big Tebow fan and I think his potential was realized long ago.  Pass/Fail:  Fail.

[hcmv007]

Tebow will be the 1st 2 way starter in the NFL in years. Start as an H-Back on offense and will play free safety on defense. Genius!

[hcmv007]

Aaron Hernandez-once a Thug always a Thug

[The Dove]

Just shocking, the whole Aaron Hernandez situation..Pats are REALLY gonna take a big hit by this but they had no choice to cut ties with Mr. Hernandez...Meanwhile, in other news, Dallas Cowboys' Josh Brent, who already is in deep trouble over the drunk driving which resulted in the death of his teammate Jerry Brown, was arrested after testing positive for marijuana....he is still technically, a member of the team...hmmm....Hello Jerry Jones??

[Eric Stromberg]

Yeah, this looks bad.  Better get Hernandez a direct line to Ray Lewis's attorney.

 

GO BRONCOS  

[tdalton]

It's good to see that Goodell's personal conduct policy and the threat of holding the actual teams accountable for the actions of their employees, which he widely touted back at the beginning of his reign over the NFL, has been such an incredible success.  In a league where it's all about image, it's kind of sad to see how much praise the Patriots are getting for their "handling" of this situation when they should be condemned for having drafted the guy in the first place (something 31 other teams weren't dumb enough to do) much in the same way that Goodell spoke ad nauseam back in the day about how the NFL teams were going to have to take some responsibility for the conduct of their players.

 

And before anyone tries to jump on me for criticizing the team because they're the Patriots, the Jets should receive plenty of ridicule for signing such an upstanding citizen as Mike Goodson this offseason.

[The Dove]

It's very odd that the Patriots were either unaware of or chose to ignore all the off the field issues Hernandez had at Florida (where oddly enough, he was a teammate of Tim Tebow). And yet they still drafted him...they only have themselves to blame for this mess. Sure Belichick and Co. have made costly pick-ups before, i.e. Albert Haynesworth and Chad Johnson, but this Hernandez debacle trumps those guys many times over..

[tdalton]

It's very odd that the Patriots were either unaware of or chose to ignore all the off the field issues Hernandez had at Florida (where oddly enough, he was a teammate of Tim Tebow). And yet they still drafted him...they only have themselves to blame for this mess. Sure Belichick and Co. have made costly pick-ups before, i.e. Albert Haynesworth and Chad Johnson, but this Hernandez debacle trumps those guys many times over..

 

I just find it odd that all the debate over the amount of responsibility that the various franchises hold with regards to drafting these players with questionable backgrounds has pretty much come to a halt.  Goodell seemingly wanted to nail the Cincinatti Bengals and Tennessee Titans to the proverbial wall when they were having their troubles with players like Pacman Jones back in the early days of the Personal Conduct Policy.  There was all of that talk about potentially even forcing teams that repeatedly drafted such players to forfeit early draft picks.  Now that the debate surrounds the vaunted New England Patriots, that debate has completely dissipated.  Which is a bit troubling, considering that the Patriots have employed for the past few seasons a player whose transgressions far exceed anything the NFL has ever seen by an active player.

[The Dove]

Less than a week to go til the pre-season kicks off!!

[Iceskater101]

The Vikings lost to the Texans... :'( Oh well it's only the pre-season.

 

Also I am kind of sad that we got rid of Percy Harvin, I personally enjoyed him and I think he was a good person on our team, but we traded him to the Seahawks. I want to watch the Seahawks now and see how well he performs.

[tdalton]

It'll be a long time before Harvin takes the field for the Seahawks.  He'll most definitely start the season on the PUP list with an injured hip.  According to ESPN, Pete Carrol is hopeful that Harvin will play at some point during the season, but he's going to miss a significant amount of time due to the injury.  Maybe he'll be able to return and help them in the playoffs.

[seawolfnyy]

It'll be a long time before Harvin takes the field for the Seahawks.  He'll most definitely start the season on the PUP list with an injured hip.  According to ESPN, Pete Carrol is hopeful that Harvin will play at some point during the season, but he's going to miss a significant amount of time due to the injury.  Maybe he'll be able to return and help them in the playoffs.

I don't think he'll be that much of an asset anyway. I do expect the Seahawks to have somewhat of a drop-off though. I doubt Russell Wilson will be able to repeat what he did in 2012.

[tdalton]

When healthy, Harvin will be a huge asset for the Seahawks.  He's a big improvement over Golden Tate and will help the Seahawks be able to stretch the field and open up underneath routes for the other receivers while the attention is drawn to him and Sidney Rice.

 

I don't see there being a drop-off for the Seahawks.  They're too good of a team for that and they're schedule isn't all that difficult.  Russell Wilson might not have the same success he did last year, as teams now have had an offseason to do their homework on him, but he won't have a sophomore slump either.  I've been following his career for a while and he's been a winner at every level he's played. 

[Iceskater101]

Yeah it just sucks we traded Harvin..

[seawolfnyy]

When healthy, Harvin will be a huge asset for the Seahawks.  He's a big improvement over Golden Tate and will help the Seahawks be able to stretch the field and open up underneath routes for the other receivers while the attention is drawn to him and Sidney Rice.

 

I don't see there being a drop-off for the Seahawks.  They're too good of a team for that and they're schedule isn't all that difficult.  Russell Wilson might not have the same success he did last year, as teams now have had an offseason to do their homework on him, but he won't have a sophomore slump either.  I've been following his career for a while and he's been a winner at every level he's played. 

I expect all of the big 4 young quarterbacks from last season will have some sort of regress this year. The Colts will not go 11-5 again. Luck was credited with the most dropped interceptions in the league, so I figure his interceptions this year will either stay about the same or go up slightly. No one knows how RG3 will be coming off his knee injury. I expect he'll be forced to throw more than run this year and let's not forget, he plays in the NFC East. Kaepernick is a great runner, but not a great passer. If defenses adjust to the read-option, he will have a much harder time this year than last. Same goes for Russell Wilson. Wilson is a great player, but he is very small for a quarterback. He's got the same issue as Kaepernick and Griffin, that is the read-option is not sustainable in the NFL and he doesn't have the replacement refs to bail him out this year. All 3 need to learn to become better pocket passers. We've seen run-first QB offenses in the NFL before and while they work for a time, it eventually fizzles out. The Wildcat lasted for one season. Denver's Wild Horse offense never even got off the ground. McNabb had to become a pocket passer. Vick is a better passer than he is given credit for, however, he is incredibly injury prone due to his run-first mentality. If Wilson, Kaepernick and Griffin remain read-option QBs, we'll see them hurt far more often and their offenses will stagnate as a result.

[tdalton]

Russell Wilson is pretty much the same size as Drew Brees (Wilson is 5' 11" while Brees is an even 6'; Wilson weighs only 3 pounds less than Brees) so I don't see his size being an issue at all.  Wilson also doesn't need the read-option to be a successful QB.  He's a skilled runner, but is just as effective standing inside the pocket and reading the field from there.  His work ethic, which has been discussed in a few interviews, is excellent.

 

Of the three (Wilson, RG3, and Luck), I'd say that it's going to be Luck who has the biggest step backward.  He has far less talent around him than either RG3 or Wilson (the Colts' run to the playoffs was a fluke, fueled primarily by a weak schedule and the "win it for coach" approach they had last season), and there's been a change at coordinator for the Indy offense (although Luck played for the new coordinator in college).  He threw 13 more INTs than RG3 did last season and 8 more than Wilson and if they continue to run a similar scheme to what Arians ran last year (focus on downfield passing rather than safer throws) then that trend will continue and perhaps get worse than in 2012.  

[Hockey Mask]

Andrew Luck's career will far outshine RG3's before it is all over.

[seawolfnyy]

It remains to be seen, how Wilson will play. I don't doubt he is a great player, I just think he'll suffer the sophomore slump as most QBs do. Seattle could benefit from an easy schedule having to play the AFC South. The Colts benefitted from the weakest schedule last season. This year the AFC South gets the aforementioned Seahawks and the NFC West, which is bad news for Luck as both Seattle and San Fran have some pretty staunch defenses. They'll have to play Denver, which will be hard even at home. Overall, I think Indy's schedule isn't any harder than last season, but a new system and a slew of new players will keep them from repeating last season. I predict the Colts will finish 7-9 and I can even see Luck getting hurt as their o-line isn't any better than last year and anyone who takes as many hits as Luck did is bound to get hurt. I mean how many concussions has Aaron Rodgers had now?

[Janus Assassin]

 

It remains to be seen, how Wilson will play. I don't doubt he is a great player, I just think he'll suffer the sophomore slump as most QBs do. Seattle could benefit from an easy schedule having to play the AFC South. The Colts benefitted from the weakest schedule last season. This year the AFC South gets the aforementioned Seahawks and the NFC West, which is bad news for Luck as both Seattle and San Fran have some pretty staunch defenses. They'll have to play Denver, which will be hard even at home. Overall, I think Indy's schedule isn't any harder than last season, but a new system and a slew of new players will keep them from repeating last season. I predict the Colts will finish 7-9 and I can even see Luck getting hurt as their o-line isn't any better than last year and anyone who takes as many hits as Luck did is bound to get hurt. I mean how many concussions has Aaron Rodgers had now?

He had two in the same season and still won the Super Bowl.

[seawolfnyy]

I'm a cheesehead. I know that! and he's had more than just those 2.

[hcmv007]

Saints looking good tonight

[The Dove]

Nice win for your Saints last night, hcmv!