2007 NFL Season

I know it will be a hard battle, but I know the Colts are going deep again this year

I'm pretty excited. It begins a new era for the Steelers, and I'm mostly optimistic. Like Porter last season, Faneca looks to be phoning in his performance this season as he'll probably go somewhere else. Roethlisberger is a baby who is just used to his lifelong royal treatment, and the first few games of the season will indicate if he needs to be turned into glue.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's Colts vs Bears 2.

But the Bears have upgraded their offense with speed, the shotgun, and a TE, and will have Tommie Harris and a huge upgrade at DT with Darwin Walker.

I can't wait to see how bad the Falcons will be. If the Saints were a 1 year wonder, and what QB will break out to join Manning, Brady, Bulger, Palmer, and Brees as elite fantasy qb's. Cutler, Grossman, Losman, Rivers, Manning, Smith, Young?

Gee, thanks. I hope the Bears all get herpes.

...Romo?

I so very much hope so.

Desmond Clark was MORE than adequate last year; Benson may or may not be an upgrade over Thomas Jones - he certainly doesn't appear durable enough in limited duty to take over the workload; and I don't see the big speed upgrades - Olsen, maybe; I think Benson is slower than Jones, and Hester is going to be a gimmick player.

Plus there's the big issue at QB - has Grossman maxed out his ability, or will he get more consistent?

That said, there's no reason the Bears shouldn't handily win their division and end up back in the NFC title game. Maybe they'll even lose to a far superior AFC team in the SB again.

Hester has been much more than gimmick in practice. And Garret Wolf is a burner. Clark was good but Olsen can be much better in the pass game.

While I liked Jones I hated is stutter step and sideways movement when running. Jones never had break away speed. Before Benson messed up his knee 2 years ago he was about to take over the job.

As for Grossman they figured his main problem was footwork. Putting him in shot gun should reduce that problem on third down.

I always loved to hate Michael Irvin during his coke-snorting Cowboys days, but I have to admit, that was a great Hall Of Fame speech he gave.

I'm looking forward to the six wins the Bucs get this year.

The problem isn't just Grossman's footwork (throwing off his back foot). He came from a one read spread offense in college. When he's in trouble or gets careless, he reverts back to that one read, which will lose games in the NFL. Too many defenders read his eyes last year, and disrupted the passes or intercepted them.

Those two are, at best, the parsley on the plate.

wait what exactly did the bears do to improve their offense?

The Sex Cannon is still behind center right? Just that in itself speaks volumes about what Chicago did (or didn't do) to improve the offense.

lol, Bears will own the NFC. Just watch.

Well, to his credit, by beating us (New Orleans) in the NFC Championship, he proved capable of throwing against a team that has no secondary to speak of.

I honestly hope to hear him say something along the lines of "If I didn't have to deal with those linebackers I'd be a fucking star!"

Maybe, but they'll still be assraped by whatever AFC team they have to play.

Enjoy collecting those NFC Championship trophies, Chicago.

That's like being a tall midget - only Chi, Phi, and NO would even be in the playoff discussion in the AFC.

To be fair, I think that you do have to give a young QB like Grossman more than one year as the starter to determine what he is or isn't capable of - if Green Bay had benched Brett Favre after his up-and-down '93 season (19 tds, 24 ints), they would have been making a HUGE mistake.

until McNabb goes down again.

It's most likely Chicago, NO, and a surprise team that comes together. Maybe SF with Gore and Smith. Can't count out Carolina either.

All Reid does is put up 10+ win seasons, division titles, and playoff berths, with or without McNabb. But he's arguably the best QB in the NFC when healthy, so it's fair to say that the Birds chances rest on him.

I can't buy into SF - last year their defense was 28th in yds and 32nd in scoring. I can buy a team jumping up from the low-teens, even, but not that far.

Carolina has the playmakers on both sides of the ball and some pedigree, I can get behind them as a "surprise" team.

I'm praying Miami gets six.

People in Jacksonville think it'll be Leftwich, but we've heard it all before. At least this is the last year we'll have to hear it.. either he'll put up and we'll all shut up, or he'll be gone and we won't have to worry about him, Del Rio, Shack Harris or even the team anymore. Hellooo LA.

Any reports on how the Jags skill players are taking to Koetter's offense?

I am not heartened by what I saw of the N.O. pass defense tonight. Yes, it was an utterly meaningless pre-season game, but I am in no way looking forward to an opening day game against Indy right now.

Also, on a somewhat related note, pre-season football sucks ass.

You got that right. Some incentive to watch is sorely needed. Topless cheerleaders?

All the focus has been on Koetter and Leftwich's relationship, the backs and receivers haven't been asked much about it. Leftwich thinks it's more like the offense he ran at Marshall, which lets him make throws down the field and if he doesn't complete one, he gets to try again that same series. That never happened under Carl "Run-Run-Throw" Smith.

They also talked about spacing, getting receivers in the right spot to catch passes. I always though that was just called good route-running, but it's something Koetter is emphasizing, and in the mock-scrimmage on Friday, Leftwich looked really sharp. Of course, it was a mock-scrimmage where the defense couldn't tackle. I think any offense would look good in that environment.

Now I know Chavez wasn't trying to say that Sexy Rexy is going to be Brett Favre, but that is a very strong comparison to make.

I don't like the bears this year because their offense is the same...if not worse. The team does not believe in Cedric Benson. That is a big problem. I dont know if he has mended the fences with the rest of the team, but Chicago used to be a power run team but then all of a sudden they decided to let Rex start chucking it and all the trouble started. I think Cedric Benson's performance will probably be the biggest dictator of Chicago's success this year.

As for my niners, at best they win the NFC West and play spoiler in the playoffs. I dont think they have the talent on defense yet to contend for the NFC championship, but they are getting there. The most important issue there though is how the offense handles Norv Turner's exit.

When HASN'T carolina been a sleeper pick in the NFC? They cant keep being sleepers can they? I stopped believing in them about two years ago.

Anyway, I am happy preseason has started...even though the games are painful to watch...it is football.

Fazer, I don't know where you get your info, but you're way off. The team does believe in Benson, mostly because he's the better RB. The team misses Jones because they were all buddies with him, but they know that Benson has a lot more ability. Thomas Jones is a great back if you don't need someone who can break ANY tackles, so you have an offensive line that opens holes wide open, which means you can basically fit anyone in there, anyways.

As for the Favre comment, why is that comparison wrong to make? QBs generally don't blow up their first year starting in the league, and that's just a perfect example of why you don't give up on someone. It'd be like saying the Niners are worse off than they were last year because Alex Smith is still their starting QB.

This looks like the last chance for my Seahawks to do something before everyone gets too old or someone breaks Alexander or Hasselbeck in half. Not a lot of depth there.

well, I thought it was pretty common belief that many of the Bears still hold ill feelings towards benson after his holdout and generally selfish behavior last year. I have been listening to a lot of fantasy football podcasts and Matt Berry has repeatedly said that word out of chicago is that benson is still not well liked, hasn't made any strides to mend broken bridges, and the players aren't excited with him being the starter. While I dont doubt benson's ability, he can only do so much by himself.

I am rough on the bears I know, but I have a hard time believing Rex is going to be able to turn things around and become a solid qb this year. QBs make mistakes and I am fine with that, but it seems like Rex never learned from them...he kept making the same ones again and again. A qb like Smith though, showed signs of improvement as the season went along...but hey I am still worried about him too!

is any one RB's fantasy draft status more up in the air than Shaun Alexander?

I for one know I would not want to be in a position to have to take him.

Of course the Niner's guy would rip Rex and defend Alex Smith. I also don't think you watched many games, but more just read about Rex.

Anyways, Matt Berry doesn't really know what he's talking about. Players don't hold grudges about hold-outs. Hell, look at the Bears this off-season with Lance Briggs. You think the team hates him now because he wouldn't practice with the team in the spring? Benson isn't the most well-liked guy on the team, but it's because he's just not outgoing and doesn't hang with people after practice. Again, this has ONLY to do with the fact that Jones hung out with a lot of guys on the team and Benson didn't.

And the idea of not doing it alone...are you really suggesting that his teammates aren't going to block for him, or are going to put any less effort into their job because they think he's an asshole?

I should clarify I never thought of Carolina as a surprise team. Smith Delholm, and the Defense make them scary. Just forgot about them initially because of the off year.
If guys blocked for Ricky Williams I think they will block for Benson. Guys continue to stick up for TO.

And while Kruetz and Co. may not like Benson they know they want another shot at the Super Bowl. He'll keep everyone in line.

Of course everyone is going to do their job just as well as they would with Jones. And the thing is, if Benson turns out to be as good as Bears brass think he can be, all those Benson haters are going to disappear fast.

Im sure they will try, but I think it would/will cause a lot of team chemistry issues. And yes I do think the line wouldn't try as hard for a guy they genuinely didn't like.

As far as games watched, even though I was on the west coast last year, I probably saw 6-7 mid/late season bears games vs 3 niners games. I saw enough of the bears to form an opinion.

Gutty covered my point - Rex is a young QB in terms of actual starts. It's too early to give up on him; Alex Smith is a good comparison, or JP Losman, for that matter - all had issues in their first year as "the man", and it remains to be seen whether they are what they are or they can overcome their inconsistencies.

Chris Wood, Miami will win at least 7-9 games dependant on 3 things.
1) Trent Green leads Miami to a 3-5 record and John Beck adapts to the pro game faster than Brady Quinn and wins 6 games for a 9-7 record.

2) Ronnie Brown and Lorenzo Booker run for 1700 yards and 15+tds.

3) Coach Cam Cameron is much better than the forgotton decade of Jimmy Johnson, Dave Wandstadt, and "The Nicktator" Nick Saban.

Thanks for the encouraging words. Now pass that bottle over here.

I'm just hoping Green's first visit to the end zone isn't on a stretcher.

As long as Green can run the Dolphins highest scoring play over the past three seasons (Naked Bootleg Toss to the LB for 6), he'll fit in perfect.

God how I pine for the Good/Evil Jay Fiedler Era.

Please say you're joking. He was much more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Jekyll.

Matt Leinart. The Cardinals are a good offensive line away from being an offensive machine. True, that's not a trivial step, but if that line can actually block for Leinart, he's got the receivers that could burn a defense bad.

All due respect, Fazer, but that's just stupid and shows a complete lack of understanding of how the game is played at the pro level.

I've heard he likes the lifestyle of a pro QB rather than being one. Too Hollywood and that's one of the reasons why he dropped. They also need a RB to help Leinart.

Every year I hear the same thing: The Cardinals are going to be good this year! They're the sleeper pick for the Superbowl!

I just don't see it happening. Not now, probably not ever. I loved watching Leinart at USC and I think he has a lot of talent for the NFL, but I think Arizona's management will never get it together long enough to be competitive in the NFC West.

I lived in AZ for 22 years and yeah, I've heard it all the time too. This year seems a little different though. The management is changing with Michael Bidwell taking over for his old man and a new head coach from the Steelers. I don't think they're going to be winning the NFC this year, but I definitely think they'll be improvements. It all comes down to the line. If the O-Line performs and gives Leinart time, or if it can open a good hole for James, this team has a good chance. Of course, the secondary has question marks all over the place, but I'd love to see some high scoring games anyway.

i hear ya, but I just dont give pro atheletes the credit that you are giving them

What credit? This isn't a credit based-system, rather an understanding of how professional football players go about their business. Most NFL careers aren't long, and linemen especially can't afford to take a season off because they're not buddies with the guy running the ball behind them. This isn't college where certain players are so talented they don't have to worry about the second-stringer. Everyone in the NFL is 'that guy', so if you're not doing your job, there's another talented guy waiting there to do it for you, who's going to take that opportunity to secure a job whether or not the RB is his friend.

Not to mention...NFL players like to win. They're not going to fuck-off their own season just because they think someone is spoiled. That's just fucking stupid. You should really stop going to fantasy football columnists for anything, but especially for anything beyond which shitty receiver you should play this week.

This is their job, Fazer. They're not high school kids just playing ball for the fun of it. This isn't Remember the Titans. The first lineman that dogs it because he doesn't like Benson will find his ass getting pummeled by Olin Kruetz within moments.

The Bucs are holding a press conference at 2:00pm, and the word is that it's to announce Mike Alstott's retirement. Now I never drank to Kool-Aid on him the way some Bucs fans have -- listening to some of them, you'd swear the man led the league in rushing and touchdowns for the last ten years -- but I did always feel he never got used to his full potential, especially under Gruden. He'd sit on the bench for two and a half quarters, come in the game, get one touch and run for 16 yards, then hit the bench again. Then again, he did have the fumbling issues, he wasn't a terribly reliable pass catcher, and wasn't that great a blocker. He was a big halfback lined up a fullback (which drove people nuts when it came to Pro Bowl voting and Alstott would get in over purer fullbacks).

Regardless, between his run in '98 against the Vikings and the fact that he scored the first touchdown in the Bucs' first Super Bowl, as a Bucs fan you have to have some love for the guy.

He is one of the most overrated players of the last 20 years, but he seemed like a good guy and always busted his ass. Not one of the greats of the league, but also not one of the douche bags.