The 2006 NFL Season Thread

Got your Saints season tickets yet?

Too bad we have to suffer and watch Charlie Batch play. Will be interested to see how well Dante looks. Even before the injury he was bad. He has better offense now than the last couple of years so he should be able to post big numbers.

The better game is Eli vs Peyton Sunday night. P. Manning is known for losing the big games and if he loses to his little brother he'll hear it all season.

Being a Steelers fan, I'm very worried about this game with Big Ben being out, and Hines coming off a hamstring. I just want Batch to manage the game and not try to win it, like Maddox tried to do against Jacksonville (and ended up single-handedly losing the game for the Steelers).

And I agree, I'm much more looking forward to the Manning Bowl this weekend.

Manning Bowl should be great football.

I'm more intrigued about seeing the Dolphins with Culpepper leading them. Last year aside, Culpepper actually did pretty well with the Vikings, so it should be interesting to see how well Culpepper and Miami fit.

Personally, my picks for the best teams include Colts, Broncos, Bengals (they're going to have a breakout year for sure), Giants and Eagles (without the drama of TO, but with Daunte Stallworth, they should be better off now).

Can't wait.

At least the Cards and Saints will have better years. I still don't know how Arizona managed to collect Edgerin. But yeah, it'll be great to see the Saints use Reggie to his full potential. And the Cards when they finally do use backup Leinart.

Being that Reggie's first game is against my Browns, I sure hope he is a late bloomer. ......... ( crosses fingers )

Even with Batch in I'm nervous, but... Go Fins!

My thoughts exactly.

The Bucs' schedule worries the living hell out of me. 8-8 is highly possible.

Just as long as the Falcons go 7-9 at best.

If you like you're linebackers slow while making no big impact plays then Clark is your guy!

For some reason, the Bucs' schedule always worries me. You never know if you're going to get last year's team, or the year before that....

Stuber Picks 'Em Week 1

I know I've changed my username, but it just doesn't feel right making these picks without that dopey sounding moniker.

Miami at Pittsburgh... No Ben, no bus, a nicked Ward, why pick the Steelers? Because their best assets are still Willie Parker and that defense.
Atlanta at Carolina... Atlanta had a very short reign of this division. Carolina looks built for the long haul.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay... I'm not saying the Ravens are a lot better, but I don't think Chris Simms is as good as you think he is.
Buffalo at New England... Poor, poor Buffalo. After all that QB competition, you still end up with Losman under center.
Cincinnati at Kansas City... I think LJ will have a good year, but there isn't much else to like about the Chiefs.
Denver at St. Louis... Denver seemed like a house of cards last season, but Linehan is too unknown to me.
New Orleans at Cleveland... I had too many away teams winning initially. So this was an edit. Crennel over Payton sounds about right.
N.Y. Jets at Tennessee... Karma will move into Tennesee for much of this season.
Philadelphia at Houston... Can Philly rebound and once again be a powerhouse? The division says no but Gary Kubiak says yes.
Seattle at Detroit... What was Peter King smoking when he wrote that the Lions will win the NFC North? Probably the same thing I smoked before making this next pick.
Chicago at Green Bay... Two scenarios here: Rex throws like a Manning against a defense that looked awful during the preseason, or said defense stays mediocre to not-that-bad to help Green Bay upset at home.
Dallas at Jacksonville... T.O. delivers and Julius Jones wins me some awesome fantasy points.
San Francisco at Arizona... I think the 49ers will surprise some folks and flirt with .500 this year, but not Week 1.
Indianapolis at N.Y. Giants... This game should be extremely entertaining. But I'm not ready to elevate Eli just yet.
Minnesota at Washington... I trust the Gibbster to have this ship righted by Monday evening.
San Diego at Oakland... Somebody get Jeff George back on the roster! Merriman puts Brooks on the ground at least twice.

He's not unknown to me. He was previously offensive coordinator in Miami and he stunk. He constantly called futile trick plays and kept the ball in the hands of shitty quarterbacks while Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown gathered dust.

Detroit's D-Line coach is arrested for drunk driving...and in the nude? Jeez. Maybe he lost a bet with the O-Line coach. Great start for the 2006 season for the Lions.

Great, both Bucs starting interior linemen are questionable for Sunday. I feel warm all over....

Don't worry our (Ravens) line blows as well.

Clark became the Raiders defensive leader so all the fans think he's this amazing football player. He's a good guy and a very solid tackler but there's a reason why the Raiders demoted him to second string, he's extremely slow. He'll make the tackles when the ball carrier is right on his doorstep but he won't venture out and make any game changing plays and he sucks in coverage. Decent player, not a bad pick up for the Saints by adding depth but he won't really add much to the table.

I love how Bettis came running out of the bus and ran around the field like some drunken fan would have done. That whole end of the pregame was a bit of a mess.

I took Miami and Minessota. Otherwise it's OK:-)

Man, what a game. I actually strained my neck last night when Miller took that pass for a hotly debated TD. My son was asleep, and I was in our bedroom, which is next to his, and when Miller "scored", I jumped in the air and about yelled, then stopped myself midway, and in the process strained my neck. But it was worth it.

And on a whole other front, I have Heath Miller in my Dynasty League, and Pittsburgh's D in my FoxSports.com league. Sweet.

A lot of people are jumping on Culpepper, but I think I'd look shaky in my first real game after knee surgery if my running game was a complete sham.

Hines Ward looked really hurt last night. I hate when they lie about injuries(Owens) just to get out of preseason. Plays havoc with fantasy football.

Many QB's would look bad against the Pitt defense.

Anyone hear about Lions defensive line coach Joe Cullen's two arrests in the past 2 weeks? He was arrested on Aug. 24 and Sept. 1 for traffic violations. Supposedly during one of them he was drunk and in the other he was found naked in his car. What a nut bar. The Lions suspended him for one game.

The Lions really won't fire anyone will they? Matt Millen can screw up the team for another decade.

Culpepper didn't look comfortable in the preseason either. What worries me as a Dolphins fan, other than skipping balls to receivers, is that Dante wasn't looking to scramble.

Also the Dolphins secondary is awful, just awful.

Culpepper may be talented, but he's dumb as a brick. When the game is on the line, he's going to choke more often than not because he's just so amazingly stupid.

MORE FANTASY FOOTBALL !!!!!!!!!!!

Yahoo Survival Football - You pick ONE winner each week. If that team wins, you move on to the next week. If that team loses, you are out. The catch: You can only pick a team once in the season. Last survivor wins. The game starts in Week 2

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/survival

Group ID: 23190
Password: chewer

I flip on Fox late and the wrong JB is on the screen. What happened?

*He's on CBS? Stupid Fox. They always know how to kill their great shows.

Green Bay begins an inglorious 6-10 campaign with a home loss to the Bears today.

Hopefully Favre gets protection and plays up to his ability so we at least get the satisfaction of seeing him eclipse 2 of Marino's records this year (career completions, which is a lock and career tds, which is a do-able number of 24)

Trent Green just got absolutely leveled. No doubt he has a concussion, maybe more. Good luck on coming back today there KC.

Drafting Kickers high is the greatest idea ever.

Farve was nuts to comeback. This Packer team is horrible and he's not much better. 24 td passes may be a reach.

This is gonna be a long season....

The game was lost on the OL - and the special teams didn't help either. They were terrible in pass pro. Favre was fine until he started trying to win the game on every throw when they were down by 26.

The D and the running game were OK.

Feeling the same way. Pass defense is still atrocious, and Driver is the only receiver Favre has timing with. Ahman almost looks like 2004 again, which is nice, but the draws on 3rd down weren't fooling anyone. I think this team will rack up 4 losses quickly, but I think there's a chance for things to click right around Week 5.

But I am almost sold on Rex Grossman. Tremendous accuracy he has.

I see a hefty fine and suspension in the future of Robert Geathers. That was some dirty shit right there.

Lost control of the TV while I was cooking dinner so had to make do with listening to the Cowboys game on my Zen! What can I say but "Oh dear." I'm really not a big football fan but I do want to hear our local team do well. Same with all the sports in the area.

Being a Bucs fans since the beginning I can say that today's game was so bad they should have been wearing orange uniforms.

worst game since the sam wyche days....Simms looked clueless and the O-line is without question the biggest joke in the league.....And while i've been a strong Gruden supporter......I'm still waiting for him to make the offense work.

Umm...does anyone else fucking HATE what NBC is doing with their "football night in America" shit.

I really don't like the combination of the sunday night pre-game with the highlights package. It is being handled very awkwardly. Also, there is far too much time spent on cursory shit. I am really not intersted in hearing these players thoughts about their performances through interview. I want the highlights god damnit.

And why the fraternity setup for viewing the highlights? These 4 guys are sitting in lazy boys with paper strewn all around the place like they are studying for a midterm. That just looks sloppy. Bob Costas is just too full of himself. Sterling Sharpe likes the sound of his own voice. Everyone including Bettis himself is just referring to what Jerome would have done in every highlight. Colinsworth is solid. Overall, there is far too much Fox pre-game wannabe banter and not enough legit analysis.

I am probably way too use to NFL primetime, but ESPN just gave us what we wanted and didn't screw around.

I hope the "NFL blitz" on sportscenter is not peppered throughout the show and is just a segment on its own.

Thank god NFL matchup still exists. Now that is a fucking football show.

I think a long look needs to be taken at Bill Muir, their offensive line coach. He came here as some kind of OL genius, but it's been four years and our line is still below average. Granted the players aren't blockbusters, but you'd think Muir would have the basics drilled into them now, stuff like knocking down a defensive linemen when he jumps to block a pass.

Of course, Simms constantly getting passes batted down doesn't help, and he made one atrocious throw on third and 3 that was not only to a double-covered receiver, but one who wasn't even past the first down marker.

And the thing was, after the first drive, the defense tightened up a lot, and Cadillac actually had some decent runs, but the pretty much abandoned the ground game when they got down by 20.

I'm glad to have a comprehensive highlights show, which is a first for the networks as far as I can remember. But I agree that this announcing team needs work. I'll give the clueless Bettis a break since he's a rookie, but that whiny Collinsworth gets on my nerves. I'd rather just have Costas and Sharpe.

And Pink doing a Joan Jett cover as the theme song? Where's Hank Williams Jr?

I've been calling for Bill Muir's head since last year....The O-line is embarassment....They made no room for the running game and were a complete joke when it came to the passing game.

But even when the O-line game Simms time to throw he totally looked lost.....by the second quarter he had the deer in the headlights look....the whole balls being batted down is now beyond frustrating.

The thing that bothered me the most was the decision to go for it on 4th and goal.....sure your down by 20 and a field goal won't help it.....but why on earth would Gruden call for a pass play in the back of the end zone when the passing game had been a disaster all day.

Most Bucs fans here in tampa have already written the season off....I think it's looking like a long season but will hold hope until after the 4th game.....if we're 0-4 then i'll write the season off.

Hank is still on monday night's.....The whole Pink thing was a weak ripoff.....kind of reminded me of when ABC had different artists doing a monday night theme song.

At least the Williams song wasn't too much of a stretch from the original. How someone listened to "I Hate Myself For Loving You" and though "THAT says NFL!" is beyond me.

The Bucs message boards are about evenly split between "It's just one game, and not even in the conference" and "That's it, we're doomed." But yeah, we lose to Atlanta and Carolina, it's over.

You must have not heard some of those god awful songs they used on MNF years back.

Jesus the Packers are shit this year. They'll get the first pick in next year's draft.