NFL Offseason/Draft 2009

[cdyhybrid]

Originally Posted by Rythonn

They were 29th in Passing, so Housh better turn into Jesus if Hasselbeck goes down.

Defense salty? They have zero pass coverage, it's like the practice squad out there. Their secondary was the worst in the league, giving up an average 271 ypg. Drafting a SS in the 7th isn't going to make your defense "salty".

I think Housh will be awesome. Plus, not having to throw to 6th-string receivers will be helpful. They signed Ken Lucas to help in the secondary. Our LBs are going to be nasty. I'm not quite ready to call a division championship (although it's possible with all the changes going on with the Cardinals), but I think a wildcard spot is perfectly reasonable.

[Fadaar]

All I know is I feel bad for my home divison (NFC South). My team is the Bucs and I'm fairly certain they're all 10 kinds of fucked this year, but then again so is the whole division. We play the NFC and AFC East. Ouch.

In addition to those two divisions, here's the two additional conference teams each plays (one North and one West per team):

Carolina: @Arizona, Minnesota -- Potentially bad combo, depends on how Arizona plays this year.
Atlanta: @San Francisco, Chicago -- Atlanta gets off easy and should win both of those.
New Orleans: Detroit, @St. Louis -- Grats New Orleans, you get two free wins.
Tampa Bay: Green Bay, @Seattle -- Middle of the road combo, two winnable games but as I've said I don't trust them.

Division by the end of the year:

Atlanta: 10-6
Carolina: 9-7
New Orleans: 8-8
Tampa Bay: 4-12

Really don't see more than 1 team hitting double digit wins this year, just too touch of a schedule all around. New Orleans could do better potentially and win the division, they might be the surprise of the NFC this year.

[Tea on tuesday]

Originally Posted by cdyhybrid

I think Housh will be awesome.

I can guarantee that. He's just one of the best possession guys around. I mean he had nearly 1000 yards with fucking Ryan Fitzpatrick for a QB.

The only thing you will grow to hate thought is that probably 4-5 times a season he will keep on fighting for extra yards with 3 guys hanging onto him and get stripped.

[Radahr Manasponge]

I'm honestly at a loss how to score the NFC north this year. I can see valid reasons for every team to take the division, or eek out 4 wins. OK, maybe not the lions, but you get my meaning.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Radahr Manasponge

I'm honestly at a loss how to score the NFC north this year. I can see valid reasons for every team to take the division, or eek out 4 wins. OK, maybe not the lions, but you get my meaning.

Not taking injuries into consideration, assuming everyone is healthy now, and no other additions to the teams.

Packers
Vikings
Bears
Lions

[AtwaKom]

Packers are the Merriam-Webster definition of underachievers. Vikings won't win without a quarterback ( I'm a bears fan, I know all about it ). Bears have no secondary to speak of outside of Tillman and the Lions are the Lions.

This division isn't going to be settled until the last week of the season. Wouldn't surprise me if any of the teams won it but speculation at this point is rediculous. We won't know anything until the season starts and even then we won't know much.

[Zhaun's_Shade]

Originally Posted by Araxen

The Associated Press: Report: Favre to meet with Vikings coach Childress

Just stay retired Brett for the love of god. He's worse than Jordan, imo.

My money though is he'll be a Viking at the start of the season.

*sigh* I'm kinda wishing Brett woudl go away. I thought he was pretty cool being the old man two years ago with the Packers, now... he is like a bad rash that won't go away.

[Antoine]

if i were a HoF voter i'd convince all my fellow voters to tell brett we're voting him in each year but then not do it

[Shutup]

Favre is going to stay retired it seems.

[Pharazon]

Whatever, he just couldn't sign that quickly or the media would forget about it in a week. He has to have ESPN analysts talking about his every fucking move all summer, and this has just kickstarted it all over again.

[Genjiro]

And I guess Madden will stay retired too then if Brett is.

[Radahr Manasponge]

oh, cthulu on a pogo stick

Dolphins' home will be renamed Landshark Stadium in deal with Buffett

[AtwaKom]

Peter King posted his preseason power rankings. Here's the top 10.

1. New England
Teams don't stay the same in the NFL. That's the old bromide. But tell me: What's the difference between the Patriots of 2007 and the Patriots who enter the season in 2009? I'll tell you the biggest thing -- concern about Tom Brady's knee. And if there were any real reason to be concerned, Bill Belichick wouldn't have traded Matt Cassel to Kansas City.

New England was seventh in the league in scoring with Brady playing one quarter in 2008; it'll be in the top three, easily, with him back. With new young talent in the defensive backfield -- Belichick can mix and match all the toys he's gathered over the past two offseasons, maybe playing Shawn Springs sparingly some weeks to keep him healthy for January -- New England should have enough ammo to be competitive with the best quarterbacks on the schedule. It was 5-1 down the stretch, including 4-0 on the road, as many of its young defenders grew up. I don't see much downside.

2. Pittsburgh
Other than losing Bryant McFadden (free agency, Arizona), nothing significant happened to a deep roster this offseason. You can be sure Mike Tomlin won't be much of a laurel-rester, but it's always quasi-impossible to repeat.

I had a friend of Ben Roethlisberger's tell me the best thing that could have happened to him was not being MVP of the Super Bowl. After he led one of the best playoff drives ever to give Pittsburgh its Super Bowl title, Santonio Holmes got the MVP. Big Ben said he was fine with it, but now he's got something else to shoot for and some perceived critics to shut up.

I worry a little about Hines Ward surviving another physical season, because there's not a good possession-receiver/playmaker behind him. I worry about Casey Hampton being in shape. When those are your biggest worries about a team, that team's in pretty good shape.

3. New York Giants
I've said I wished the Giants had acquired a veteran receiver like Anquan Boldin, because no team ever rides the backs of one or two rookie receivers to the Super Bowl. That's the biggest question on the deepest front-seven team in football (sorry, Ravens). Tom Coughlin and GM Jerry Reese know you need to be six or seven deep on the defensive front because you'll have an injury or two or three along the way. The Giants have a strange schedule -- three of the first four on the road, two of the last three on the road -- but a veteran team that has always played well on the road should survive it. New York has an excellent chance to go to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.

4. Chicago
I may not like how Jay Cutler babied his way out of Denver, but by Labor Day, the football world will have forgotten, and by Thanksgiving, the most popular baby name in Chicagoland will be Jay. (Unless it's Jerry, as in Angelo, the man who stuck his neck out and made this deal.) Cutler's a big-time player, and I suspect we'll find out over the next few years if he has nerves of steel and can win the big game.

Now, there's two things we don't know about Cutler and this offense. There's not a great receiver in the house and no promise of one on the way (Angelo should have guaranteed Torry Holt more money to get him to come to the Windy City). So Cutler's going to have to make do with the Devin Hesters and Rashied Davises, apparently. (Not that there's anything wrong with Hester. But he should be a third receiver, using his speed to game-break.)

Two: How good of a leader can Cutler be, coming in with the knock that he chafes on some teammates. It'll be interesting to see if he meshes well with Brian Urlacher; I don't take for granted that he will. Because of the Cutler factor and because I don't love the defense the way I did two or three years ago, I didn't want to leap the Bears over so many other teams. But then I went back and looked at their 2008 numbers. The bedrock stats for a good defense, I've always thought, are opponents yards per rush, turnovers forced and opponents' yards per pass. The yards per rush, 3.4, was excellent, third-best in the league. Turnovers forced, 32, was very good, second in the league. And yards per pass play by foes, 6.20, was eighth in the league. All good. If Cutler can lead an offense that puts up 400 points, only a point and a fraction more than a year ago, the Bears should win 12.

5. Indianapolis
As long as Peyton Manning walks, talks and leads the way he does, the biggest question about the Colts is what they do in January, not October. I'll be interested, as we all will be, to see what kind of tweaking takes place on the defense, with a more aggressive style now that Tony Dungy and defensive coordinator Ron Meeks are gone and the more aggressive Larry Coyer has been hired to run that unit. I don't expect an overhaul of the Tampa 2, but I do expect the secondary to be more aggressive, particularly in some blitz situations, and I expect emerging star safety Melvin Bullitt to be used more, even with Bob Sanders in the game.

6. Philadelphia
To me, this is the start of a two-year window for the Eagles. You don't know how much longer Donovan McNabb has at some form of his peak, and if he doesn't get the job done this year or next, the Eagles are sure to look for someone who can lift a talented team over the top. The offense will be younger and more explosive with DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin sure to be used in many three-receiver sets, and maybe even some two-receiver sets. Andy Reid will find a valuable role for LeSean McCoy early, maybe even as the third-down back to give Brian Westbrook a consistent blow. McNabb has the best weaponry, in tandem, that he's ever had on offense. He's got to lift his game to a higher level in big games. I think this team gives him a better chance than the first Terrell Owens team in Philly.

7. San Diego
Philip Rivers' great 2008 season was lost in the fog of a weird, controversial 8-8 year. I bet there haven't been 20 seasons -- ever -- as statistically impressive as the one Rivers had last year: 65 percent passing, 4,009 yards, plus-23 touchdown-to-interception differential. Now Shawne Merriman returns with his wacked-out, Seau-like desperation to succeed, and first-rounder Larry English comes from the Mid-American Conference determined to prove A.J. Smith didn't reach for him. This team's good enough to win 13, but it has to survive the toughest road schedule in the league: at Pittsburgh, at the Giants, at Dallas, at Tennessee, all in the last three months.

8. Baltimore
Quick. Who is Greg Mattison? You're a big fan, and you didn't even recognize the name of the new Baltimore defensive coordinator. The big challenge for Mattison will be to get this group to respond to him the way it responded to Rex Ryan. But Ray Lewis and his men like smart guys, which everyone tells me Mattison and his defensive aides are. The one looming problem they have entering camp, now that Bart Scott has flown the coop, is making sure there's no job action by Terrell Suggs, who has been franchised and is skipping mini-camp activities for now. Suggs has to be on board, and I suspect he will be, when the Chiefs come in for an opening friendly on Week 1 of the season.

9. Dallas
Maybe this is the year the Cowboys start putting the round peg in round hole. They have 25-, 24- and 22-year-old running backs -- Marion Barber, Tashard Choice and Felix Jones, respectively -- who last year rushed the ball 360 times for 1,623 yards (4.5-yard average) and 12 touchdowns. Meanwhile, their quarterbacks dropped back to pass 578 times. When your backs are that good, they shouldn't be handed the ball on 37 percent of the offense snaps. I'm counting on Jason Garrett to make the run game much more of a presence this year. If he does, it's not a very distant limb to walk out on and say the Cowboys should win their first playoff game since 1996. But I've got to see it to believe it.

10. Tennessee
Second team in the top 10 that should have tried harder and offered more to get Holt. Still, Tennessee is good enough to win the South without anyone better than Justin Gage outside. And by the way, he played well enough last year (19.1 yards per catch) to merit a shot at being Kerry Collins' go-to-guy downfield and will benefit from the Titans' acquisition of ex-Steeler Nate Washington. I don't worry much about Collins, except about him surviving 16 games; he turns 37 this year and the team is up the creek without a paddle if he's not playing well.

[Antoine]

washington somehow got worse in the offseason according to him

[Moontayle]

Originally Posted by Antoine

washington somehow got worse in the offseason according to him

The headlines were impressive but the overall effect is mediocre. You still have Campbell at QB, along with the mental baggage that the team was thinking about getting someone else for their franchise QB. Plus, no one knows how Big Al is going to perform now that he has $40m coming to him. That's a huge question mark. Dallas' two most recent releases were Owens and Williams, and both played huge up until their guaranteed paycheck, then they went all iffy and now they're gone.