Monday, August 31, 2015

NFL 2015 Bring it On

The air is getting a little cooler. The fan bases are all excited. Tailgaters are getting all of their materials together. It must be football season. After last year's exciting finish, one would venture to think, what could the NFL do for an encore.  Let's see there are rules changes. Such as the one forcing the extra point to be kicked from the 15 yd line. How about the NFL showing diversity and inclusion by hiring the first female ref in NFL history. Will Seattle make it to a 3rd straight Super Bowl? Oh and there's some story about a quarterback who allegedly doctored footballs to give him a competitive advantage. The point is, there are a multitude of reasons to to watch this season.
        That being said here are my thoughts on the 2015 NFL season.  

AFC East 
1) New England  - Don't they always win, besides you know who's  back
2) Buffalo - Tyrod will surprise some people  
3) Miami - You play in Miami, that's enough 
4) NY Jets- Geno Smith was scheduled to start at QB, enough said.

AFC North 
1) Baltimore - Suggs, is a scary individual, no really he is.  Flacco and Smith lead a solid offense that should have beat the Patriots in the playoffs.
2)Pittsburgh - Hide your dogs, hide your wife. OK thats old stuff, the Steelers are not your father's Steelers. Big Ben to Brown is probably the best duo in the league along with Leveon Bell on the ground  makes this offense formidable, but the defense is only a shell of its former self which will hurt
3)Cincinnati - Dalton is too limited to get this team into serious contention but everywhere else they are solid 
4)Cleveland - When will Kyrie be ready?  LeBron needs all the help he can get.

AFC South 
1)Indianapolis- Luck with more tools to work with and a weak division, equals division championship 
2)Houston  - Defense could be off the charts good, led by the incomparable JJ Watt and the potential of Jadeveon Clowney. But they have no proven quarterback.
3) Tennessee - Mariota, get your running shoes ready
4) Jacksonville- When are they moving to LA?


AFC West
1)Denver- Peyton's last stand
2)Kansas City - Complete team with an underwhelming QB, Maclin should be the 1st WR to score in nearly 2 seasons 
3)San Diego - Beautiful area, awesome weather, but kind of pricey, 
4)Oakland - Mack is a player. Derek Carr has potential but team is a few years away 


NFC East
1)Dallas - Jerry is going for it. The signing of Hardy hurt me being a Panthers fan
2)Eagles - Chip Kelly is either a genius or a plum fool. He keeps Riley Cooper but let's proven commodities like DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, and Jeremy Maclin leave
3)NY Giants - O'Dell Beckham Jr is a highlight waiting to happen. Will Eli find his magic again? 
4) Washington - RG III and Jay Gruden haven't song the Toy Story theme song "You got a friend in me" together. Just a guess.

NFC North 
1)Green Bay- With Rodgers everything's possible 
2) Minnesota - Teddy with Peterson on the ground, and Wallace as a deep threat could be lethal 
3)Chicago -If John Fox can save Cutler from himself,  the Bears could suprise 
4)Detroit - The loss of Suh and Fairley was big literally and figuratively 

NFC South
1) Carolina - The eventual Superbowl champs, ok maybe not. Best defense in the division led by Uncle Luke. Cam gets criticized a lot but the overall offensive personnel is pretty weak.
2)Atlanta - Can put up points,  defense should be improved still limited though 
3) New Orleans - Losing Jimmy Graham will hurt, Brees has lost a step
4) Tampa - Famous Jameis can't save this trainwreck 

NFC West 
1)Seattle- Only thing that can break them is the love of $$
2)St Louis - Foles should stabilize what's been a tenuous QB situation and their defense will raise havoc
3) Arizona- The loss of  defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will hurt and the team won't get off to as good of a start as the 2014 season
4)San Francisco - Let's see they replaced their head coach with a position coach, along with significant retirements, and team dismissals, otherwise they're ok


AFC Playoffs : Baltimore,  Kansas City ,  New England,  Indy, Denver,  Houston 

NFC Playoffs: Carolina,  Dallas, Green Bay, Seattle, Minnesota,  St Louis 

In Superbowl 50 
I have Green Bay beating Indianapolis