NFL 2011 Week 1

Rat Boy wrote:

Can the New Meadowlands Metlife Stadium hope to contain the auras of hype that constantly surround these two teams?

FTFY

This sounds like fun. I'll play too!

Saints at Packers
Falcons at Bears
Steelers at Ravens
Cowboys at Jets

Wildcard: Vikings at Chargers

Rat Boy, can I make a suggestion? Perhaps instead of just giving everyone a wildcard game, maybe you should have everyone pick an "upset special of the week"? You can still choose any of the games to pick, but the winner you pick must not be favored to win that week. I'm sure we can find a website with betting odds, if needed.

I'm in.

Packers over Saints
Falcons over Bears
Steelers over Ravens
Jets over Cowboys

Wildcard: Broncos over Raiders

I've created a monster.

Rat Boy wrote:

:shock:

I've created a monster.

That's what happens when you chicken out of actually making your own picks just because you don't want to be wrong week 1

Packers, Falcons, Steelers, Jets. That was pretty easy (and popular).

tiebreak: Tenn over Jacksonville. I wanna see this Garrard thing blow up in their faces.

Jolly Bill wrote:

tiebreak: Tenn over Jacksonville. I wanna see this Garrard thing blow up in their faces.

Poor Jags. They give Garrard as much time as possible to show any reason he should keep his job, and they're the bad guys for not just giving up on him early and cutting him.

boogle wrote:

See all of this would be relevant but hold on while I quote my un-edited post

boogle wrote:

Chiefs

It doesn't matter. That's all I can think of when someone mentions them. They should change their name.

bighoppa wrote:
boogle wrote:

See all of this would be relevant but hold on while I quote my un-edited post

boogle wrote:

Chiefs

It doesn't matter. That's all I can think of when someone mentions them. They should change their name.

We just call them the Cheats, but out of fairness, the Broncos/Chiefs rivalry isn't nearly as bad now as the Broncos/Raiders, or more recently the Broncos/Chargers.

*Legion* wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

tiebreak: Tenn over Jacksonville. I wanna see this Garrard thing blow up in their faces.

Poor Jags. They give Garrard as much time as possible to show any reason he should keep his job, and they're the bad guys for not just giving up on him early and cutting him. :(

I think this is what I meant when I accused teams of 'tanking'. Not blatant but teams position themselves in advance to where they want to finish. With Garrard a wildcard spot would of been a great season. It seems he regressed to the point where hes marginally better then McCown. So cut Garrard and save 8m and make the team slightly less competitive (most likely) that the Jags are safely in the top 10 of the draft while they rebuild. Pretty much palatable for everyone but.... Garrard. I also took the Jags under 6.5 as a result ;P

But Del Rio has to make the playoffs to keep his job. How is he supposed to keep his job without a legitimate starting QB? There's too much rumbling about him being on the hot-seat. It seems like management has just decided to blow the team up completely and start over with a new coach next year.

Pats

Nothing else matters

Yep, teams aren't going to tank, because there's no way a coach is going to risk his job, or players are going to risk theirs; even if the owner wants to tank, it's not like it's going to be a Major League situation where fans and/or the NFL are going to allow it. Can you imagine Goodell's reaction?

The only way tanking would ever conceivably happen is if you had a combination of an incredibly arrogant coach and incredibly arrogant owner who would be willing to utterly blow a season and still be completely convinced their genius justifies it. I mean, there's no way an NFL team would make a series of questionable QB decisions so inexplicable that it leads you to completely question the direction of the team.

IMAGE(http://www.nflgridirongab.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/snyder.jpg)

Packers over Saints
Falcons over Bears
Steelers over Ravens
Jets over Cowboys

Wild Card: Houston over the Manningless Colts

Waffled a bit on the Jets pick, this one is a tossup. Also I think the Packers are not as good as people predict, I don't expect them to repeat and I wouldn't be surprised if the Saints win this game.

Saints at Packers
Falcons at Bears
Steelers at Ravens
Cowboys at Jets

Wildcard: Buffalo at Kansas City

jowner wrote:

I think this is what I meant when I accused teams of 'tanking'. Not blatant but teams position themselves in advance to where they want to finish. (...) It seems he regressed to the point where hes marginally better then McCown.

You're forgetting the part where both of those players are just very short-term seat warmers for the team's "franchise QB" draft pick, Blaine Gabbert.

Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matt Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman, Sam Bradford. Somehow I doubt you were accusing the teams of these QBs as "tanking" when they handed the team over to these guys when they were rookies. With the exception of a guy who had no business being drafted in round 1 (Tebow), every single 1st round QB of the last 3 years was starting as a rookie. Some of them as early as week 1, others partway into the season, but all took over quite early.

The Jaguars are doing the same thing with Gabbert. Only thing is, Gabbert didn't get a full offseason the way those guys did, because of the lockout. So the timetable is pushed back a bit. Someone else starts early but the QB of the team is, flat out, the 1st round rookie.

*Legion* wrote:
jowner wrote:

I think this is what I meant when I accused teams of 'tanking'. Not blatant but teams position themselves in advance to where they want to finish. (...) It seems he regressed to the point where hes marginally better then McCown.

You're forgetting the part where both of those players are just seat warmers for the team's "franchise QB" draft pick, Blaine Gabbert.

Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matt Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman, Sam Bradford. Somehow I doubt you were accusing the teams of these QBs as "tanking" when they handed the team over to these guys when they were rookies. With the exception of a guy who had no business being drafted in round 1 (Tebow), every single 1st round QB of the last 3 years was starting as a rookie. Some of them as early as week 1, others partway into the season, but all took over quite early.

The Jaguars are doing the same thing with Gabbert. Only thing is, Gabbert didn't get a full offseason the way those guys did, because of the lockout. So the timetable is pushed back a bit. Someone else starts early but the QB of the team is, flat out, the 1st round rookie.

Do they really want to rush him in though? Sure hes the future but depending how you want to develop a QB I'm not entirely sold on the play him out of the gates model unless you have the guys around him to help him succeed.... Do the Jags have the team on both sides of the ball to help Gabbert hit the ground running? you would know better then I would.

Just saying if management knows the team isn't competing this year seriously then saving 8m and ending up a couple draft spots higher is the obvious smart move.

edit: as for those guys you named we will see who pans out. Not to parrot to much of the FOA numbers but Sanchez hasn't been much better then a guy like Henne. Theres a difference in a very good defensive team installing a rookie QB to be a caretaker as he hands the ball off and well Carolina last year.

bighoppa wrote:

But Del Rio has to make the playoffs to keep his job. How is he supposed to keep his job without a legitimate starting QB? There's too much rumbling about him being on the hot-seat. It seems like management has just decided to blow the team up completely and start over with a new coach next year.

I wouldn't go that far. Management obviously approached Del Rio over Garrard and asked is he really that much better then McCown... especially 8m in money. I think Del Rio will be judged this season on other factors and QB won't be one of them and I doubt making the playoffs in a very deep AFC is either. The Jags pretty much have to win their division considering the potential seasons NE/Jets PIT/BAL are going to put up to hog the 2 wildcard spots. Sure the South is up for grabs but make the playoffs or your fired seems like an almost impossible ultimatum.

jowner wrote:

Do they really want to rush him in though? Sure hes the future but depending how you want to develop a QB I'm not entirely sold on the play him out of the gates model unless you have the guys around him to help him succeed....

The league has never been more QB friendly. Hence the immediate success (to varying levels, sure, but success nonetheless) of every single name in that list.

Do the Jags have the team on both sides of the ball to help Gabbert hit the ground running?

More so than the Rams, which was enough for Sam Bradford.

edit: as for those guys you named we will see who pans out.

Yes, but that's a different topic. The point is that every one stepped onto the field and immediately became legitimate starting QBs. Whether they have the skills to become and remain top-end QBs is up for debate, but completely separate from the question of being rookie starters. They stepped right onto the field and started playing to their levels of ability. There is nothing to indicate that any of them were harmed or disserved in any way by starting as rookies.

It's not the same game as before. Quarterbacks are barely allowed to be tackled, and the receivers they throw to get to run free and clear instead of being manhandled. I used to be in the "let them sit and learn" camp, but that ship is long gone. The transition gap from college quarterbacking to pros has never been smaller.

It's not the same game as before. Quarterbacks are barely allowed to be tackled, and the receivers they throw to get to run free and clear instead of being manhandled. I used to be in the "let them sit and learn" camp, but that ship is long gone. The transition gap from college quarterbacking to pros has never been smaller.

We will see... lets just hope McCown doesn't go down early and is serviceable so he isn't benched quickly as I'm not in the play them now camp. I don't see any positives of Gabbert starting from say week 6 on when the Jags schedule starts to get very stiff. Just don't see any positives to what a guy like Jimmy Clausen went through last year.

More so than the Rams, which was enough for Sam Bradford.

As for Bradford and St.Louis I think he enjoyed a huge + of being in the NFC West and a soft schedule. Changing the O cord with no preseason + how their schedule starts will really put him to the test this year. Luckily for the Jags the AFC South isn't exactly the toughest division in football right now. Even with a healthy Manning the Colts are on the down slope.

The rams results last year
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/schedule...
its really all over the map like you would expect from a young team.

Not on their bandwagon at all. Long term I think he will be fine but it wouldn't be shocking for them to be 0-7. Or they will beat Philly this weekend and start their run to the Super Bowl

Manning out 2-3 months after cervical fusion.

The sound you hear is Indiana screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as one.

jowner wrote:

Just don't see any positives to what a guy like Jimmy Clausen went through last year.

Well, that was an exceptionally bad offensive line. Not altogether unlike what David Carr had.

Jacksonville invests heavily in their lines, especially offensive line. It's one of the reasons they were an 8-8 team last year (even with one of the league's worst secondaries!), and why they've never, ever come close to being Carolina bad. And a big reason why David Garrard has, at times in his career, looked like a really good QB.

Skill position stars may be hard to come by in Jacksonville, but the lines are rarely allowed to atrophy. I've never once seen in Jacksonville what I saw Carolina fans had to live through from their offensive line when I game charted Clausen's performance in those two late season games.

My copy of the original Pro Football Prospectus arrived today. In damn near mint condition too.

Brian Urlacher on the cover. A deep look at the Houston Texans expansion draft. Ahh, memories.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Manning out 2-3 months after cervical fusion.

The sound you hear is Indiana screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as one.

How many jokes do you think have been made about Manning having a cervix?

Man, the Saints get no love here!

Saints
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Take those to the bank!!

My bank just laughed at me

Coolbeans wrote:

Man, the Saints get no love here!

Saints
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Take those to the bank!!

You need a tie breaker.

Oh, and FOOOOOOOOOOOOTBALL!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Manning out 2-3 months after cervical fusion.

The sound you hear is Indiana screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as one.

I hate the Polians. H-A-T-E hate. I don't believe for a second that Manning's recovery status was in question (as in, not going well), and they spewed nothing but Kool-Aid all off-season. I don't believe this is something that the Colts management wasn't aware of at least as a possibility, an yet until very recently, our #2 QB was Curtis Painter. I really hope they take a look at Garrard to back up Collins, because with that o-line, someone his age isn't going to last long under center.

Bill Polian's skills as a GM have been in decline for a long time now, but he (and by proxy, his son) need to go, and there's never been a better time than this season. Time for us to get a real head coach and a GM who doesn't publicly call out his own O-line for losses and then do nothing to address it in the offseason.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Manning out 2-3 months after cervical fusion.

The sound you hear is Indiana screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as one.

Glad I'm a Bears fan who's also a Hoosier.

Good lord ... what's the NFL record for TD passes in a game?

My internet died just before kickoff. I wonder if everyone in town was updating their fantasy rosters at the same time.

Edit: Cue the complaining about Costas' halftime sermon.

Double edit: So much for kick returns being dead.