NFL draft is tonight, which is the official signal for the upcoming NFL season. Let's see how long this one lasts.

Hopefully the gmen don't screw it up by taking a QB early. 

The Lions are a mystery to what they will do in the draft to me.  Defense I guess.

If the Cards draft Murray, then Rosen, I think, would be a possible good fit on the Gmen.  Just don't give away the farm.  Otherwise, be patient and wait to see whats available.

My Steelers got rid of "most" of the drama queens in the off season and got much of nothing in return other than they are gone.  They will most likely go defense again and hopefully can get a good LB to make up a little bit for the Shazier absence or a good DB.

Raiders could be interesting with all their picks.

Will watch the draft with sound the first 5 or 6 picks, then mute it and put on music after that. 

Catcher10 wrote: Hopefully the league will draft new refs.........Geaux Saints!!

 

We can only hope.   

I wish they took this route. Sadly Jones at 6th was ridiculous. Dex at 17th seems like good value....but unless they unearth gods late this will be another season with no pass rush and no linebackers of good use.

The o line and defense, esp pass rush, need help there's no tomorrow. 

It matters less to me who's throwing the ball. 

It SEEMS they are making attempts to address these issues so that is hopeful. 

No need to rehash the beckham madness, I will say I dont have much hope this year but I dont think it's gunna be 2 wins and years of misery like many think. 
Still got Barkley, got Engram, Sterling Shepard isnt great but solid, we did get Golden Tate same thing nothing mind blowing but serviceable. If the o line is fixed that will help all, as well an improved defense. 

^ through five rounds and like 8 picks...no o-linemen yet for the gmen.

Hate seeing Luck retire, was looking forward to what he may have done...now that they have a better supporting cast.  Still think the Colts will win that division.

Predictions anyone?   I am still thinking about it....

No Patrick Peterson likely means Golladay can do whatever he wants.  If Detroit can stop goofing around with the run game and actually let Kerryon Johnson work against the Cardinals, they'd likely be in business.

I think the Lions win the season opener.

Pretend I posted this 6 hours ago...

AFC:

Predictions:

AFC:

Div winners

Pats

Steelers

Colts

Chiefs

WC

Chargers

Texans

NFC:

Div Winners

Eagles

Rams

Saints

Packers

WC

49ers

Seahawks

^ I suppose anything can happen...but I would be surprised. I do like the new D coordinator though, but Spags seems to work best when he has above average talented players on the defense to run his schemes. I just don't see many of those on KC this year. 

Bullish on the NFC west you are. :p 

Well Steelers are not looking too impressive and now with Ben possibly injured (MRI today) they starting to slowly circle the drain.  Thought the D had improved, but not so far.

Ouch!  Brees hand injury did not look good.  May be wrong on leaving Cowboys out of the mix.  Pats D looks for real, of course anybody might against the tanking Phins...

Brutal week with Big Ben out for the season (!) and Brees out at least 6 weeks. I have to imagine that will be longer with him undergoing surgery for a torn thumb ligament. 

And yeah...I'm not too high on the niners just yet...they beat up two bad teams (and presumably going to do the same this sunday against the crumbling Steelers). Your prediction certainly looks better than mine of having the Chargers take the second seed in the AFC. Terrible loss for them, and KC looks magnificent on offense once again. 

^ True. While not really on the Nick Foles fanwagon, I thought the Jags particularly had a chance to compete for a wildcard spot in the AFC. Not anymore. 

Shame about the Jets...thought it does feel very Jetsy to lose a QB to mono for at least a third of the year. 

Patriots offense looks dysfunctional...  Very impressed with the Ravens, kudos to Harbaugh for the commitment to the running QB style.  Lamar has been amazing, hope the injury bug doesn't cut him down before we can see what this turns into (hate saying that about the arch rival Ravens).

49ers look for real also.  Hawks still hanging tuff (good game tonight with the Vikings).  Rams may be in trouble.

Chiefs are still dangerous.

Anybody want to win the NFC east?

Shame the defense is trash and not sure I trust management to make it all work. So guess gunna be either a take off into the Daniel Jones era or we become the new/another Redskins....

For this year:
Go Niners and Ravens. 
Would like to see that rematch and like last time I will again be the only non CAer to want SF lol

I also think I am being proven right. Brady is great, no dispute, but he needed Gronk more than Gronk needed him and should thank Bill for alot of what he has. The team is ofc great, and is guaranteed another AFC game. 

Oh and Dallas still sucks, but they are prob the best actual team in the NFC East so guess the joke is on us all

Crazy end to the regular season. Was hoping for Seattle to pull it out so the saints could've had the bye week. I'm going all in on the saints this year, being my team has secured a top five draft pick yet again.

Pete needs to pay attn to the game more and stop worrying about how fast he chews bubblegum.

I'm going Saints vs Chiefs for SB

The NFC is certainly more complicated, but I too like the Chiefs for the superbowl. I'm certainly rooting for the Saints, but can be convinced for either SF, GB, or even Seattle (despite last night's bizarreness). 

Hawks and 49er game was a screwy ending.  You can't get delay of game at that moment...

Pats are in trouble.

Sort of hoping to see Saints or 49ers vs Ravens in the  bowl.  (can't root for KC since my sister lives there and will gloat...).

Well my dream SB this year was to see Brees vs Brady, could still happen. Brees wins it 38-28, then both Brees and Brady announce their retirement from the game at midfield.

Epic...

Saints vs Chiefs is my pick as well.  That should be a crazy shootout if it happens. 

Predictions for this weekend:

Texans

Patriots

Saints

Seahawks 

Unreal, that one running back could steam roll New England like that ... wow ... a total wow ... and if he runs like that for 2 to 3 more games, I think many more teams will have problems with it ... at that moment I want to see Baltimore against Tennessee! I don't think it will happen, but sometimes you can't shut down a line and running back that are in an amazing zone of concentration and ability!

Only half your picks came home ... if you put money on it, you probably lost ... but this weekend's games were heck ... I think that the "parity" thing in the NFL is really taking its toll, and it is one way to mess up with the bets and the whole points thing ... it was a lost weekend for Las Vegas, I'm sure.

My feeling is that the Wildcard round throws up lots of away team winners compared to the divisional & conference games. Since 2010 Home teams are 19-17 in the Wild Card and 27-9 in the Divisional round.

*Sad for Philly that Wentz was knocked out of the game that at minimum should have been a 15yd penalty. ANY player going down should not be hit like that.

*The Deandre Carter foobar on Bills kick off. Sure he put his arms out but he still caught the ball and did not take a knee to down himself. NFL ruling allowing refs to interpret a players intentions is massively subjective IMO. You can literally say that about every targeting call, "I did not intend to hit the player in the head!"

*Viks winning TD, that one could have gone either way, it was super close but still based on the rule in the book you can make an argument it was OPI and should have been flagged.

Revised SB

49ers 20 vs Ravens 23

Wentz wasn't down when he was hit and was hit by a shoulder, at that point he was effectively a running back so had given up QB protection. It's a bang bang play called correctly. You're alternative is to tackle like the Bills did (n't) with Deshaun Watson and give up 2 TD's.

Yea, this was surprising to say the least. Beilchick is know for taking away what ever a team does best. For the Titans that would be stop derrick Henry from running the ball and make them beat you through the air, obviously  that didn't happen. 

I just read on ESPN about some of these calls......and this about Wentz, again it seems there are different views on the rules by different officiating crews.

"Third, was the hit legal? There are two possible calls Smith's crew could have made. It could have deemed it unnecessary roughness against a player who had given himself up, which is usually what quarterbacks who dive to the ground are judged to be doing. Smith's crew also could have considered whether Clowney had violated the "helmet rule," which prohibits players from lowering their helmet to initiate forcible contact against an opponent. Either one would have cost the Seahawks 15 yards.

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Ok so now we are going to say any hit that causes a concussion is a penalty? Good luck officiating that. If Wentz was giving himself up he should have slid, instead he was falling forward after being tackled, this is not "giving yourself up". He didn't lower his head to hit him with the helmet, he hit him with his shoulder, helmet contact was incidental due to the head being near the shoulder.

 

Gotta agree here. 

The push off in the superdome should have been called.

Clearly you don't generally follow these threads, as 2 out of 4 is pretty good for me. 

I'm kinda glad the Seahawks lost to the 49ers wk 17 now as they'd have hosted the Vikings if they'd beaten the 9ers. Though we'd now be away at 49ers this week versus going to Green Bay, & I prefer our chances in San Fran versus GB.

Got my lucky shirt ans socks lined up for next week along with my lucky seat & lucky beers.

Idk...I think both the NFC games were easy picks. Obviously the saints one didn't work out, but I didn't have much faith in the eagles, mostly due to injuries and Wilson magic. The AFC was more wide open, as in my view the Texans/Bills game was a coin flip, and I'm certainly not surprised the titans won, but I certainly wasn't going to pick them. 

And yeah...I think if the seahawks make it to the championship game against the niners, we are in for a good game. I don't really see the Packers making it too much of a game. (Although, as we have seen I'm not good at predictions, so....)

Also...if you drink your lucky beers, will the luck run out? 

It get's mysteriously replenished by the magic beer fridge.

Lucky beers yesterday - Lagunistas - Brown Shugga & Lawson's - Sip Of Sunshine

I need one of those bad boys immediately. 

Well if you look at all the calls against a QB, this one would fit also. I think it should have been at minimum an Unnecessary Roughness call 15yd penalty. The concussion has nothing to do with it, those along with broken bones happen because of football contact.....The calls are meant to deter that kind of tackle. Any player going down is a defenseless player.

We know the rules are designed to protect a QB, not one (that I know of) hands to the face/head to a QB has caused a concussion by a D man. These hands are almost always a slight slap or push but nowhere near the force to cause a concussion yet those are always flagged.....Roughing call would have been appropriate.

I agree, nothing about this is because he is a QB, nor that he got a concussion. It's about the hit......Clearly it weighs on it was an ok non-targeting call, but I think it should have been at minimum roughing 15yd penalty. Since he was already being tackled around the ankles and going down, so another hit is meaningless by the D, since he would be down by contact, play over.....if the rules committee wants a safer game.

We have seen lesser roughing calls by someone being pushed too hard when out of bounds....

Neither do I ...... but watch it carefully as Clowney does not extend his arms as if to tackle him. Clowney's head hits the back of Wentz's head, his initial move was head first not arms first, why not just target Wentz's back? Clowney did not tackle Wentz.

If Wentz was standing up running there is no issue in continuing to hit/tackle him to bring him down......If it takes all 11 to bring him down so be it, as long as nobody hits the head. All that tells me is the NFL does not know how to tackle properly. And understand the concussion happened because of how Clowney landed on him.

It's only 6:03 where I am.......... 

 

Titans

Chiefs

Seahawks

49ers

Chiefs

Vikings

Seahawks

Ravens

Chiefs

Packers

I think that Belichick thought that his team would be able to score once or twice so that the Tennessee team sticking to the ground game and burning the clock would not be a good idea ... but it backfired in that the Patriots did not score, and the game got out of their hands by then!

BTW, I'm not picking this weekend at all ... it just smells like another crap shoot!

Half full or Half empty?

I gave up betting a nickel on any of these games ... it's the same thing in basketball these days ... in the old days, you could rely on MJ, Magic, or Bird to bring you thru and you could play the balance of the points depending on them ... like you could choose LA in LA, but in all reality you want to take Boston and the points, because the Magic/Bird show never ends and it always ends just one basket short!

The NFL is getting to the point where their design is now showing that there is not as huge a difference between top and bottom as we thought ... and that makes it really difficult to choose a team, and bet on it ... and this year, as was clear yesterday, that team is the Titans ... but you gotta credit their defense ... they bottled up Jackson left and right, and by the time he decided to run it himself, it was too late! Coach was too slow in switching things around ... and in the NFL, that slow is at least 7 points now!

I would like to see 2 new teams in the SB ... it's more exciting when that happens because no one knows who the favorite should be, and the game is more interesting ... I don't want to see another shoot them up show with the same old guard ... know what I mean?

So of these that presumably means 49ers vs Chiefs, Titans or Texans? Clearly I want the Seahawks, I'd like the Chiefs or Titans to get there.

3/4 aint bad for me. 

Would love if the Pack could somehow beat the 49ers, but at this rate, I'm just not seeing it as a possibility. 

Sentiment seems to tell me that the Packers can pull it out ... I think that Aaron has a bit more experience than Jimmy at making the big throw and play that counts ... unless SF has the ability to just run the ball and keep Aaron off the field ... which would make this game more interesting I imagine.

On the AFC side, I'm glad to see that coach FINALLY left his foot in the gas, instead of pulling it off which was his bad rap ... Andy Reid always seemed to slow down his team instead of just letting it play ... and this time, it let them play, and play they did until the whistle finally died for the night! I'm not sure that the titans can keep up with KC in the scoring machine business, although I think that Derrick Henry's turn at 180 years is probably going to slow down ... I have a feeling that if KC is up 21-0, or even 14-0 ... that Henry's day will be about over ... sadly enough!

I'm abstaining for a choice ... however, I keep thinking that Andy Reid deserves big one.

I'll watch this game, I'm sure!

Ideal superbowl: GB V KC

My game picks:

49ers

Chiefs 

Aaron Rogers, what is up with him......He was so off yesterday. There was that 3rd and 3 where he had Graham wide open not covered easy 1st down and more and he slings it left to the RB for 1-2yd gain, bring on the punt team. Terrible!!

SF did to GB what good coaching usually does to throwing teams ... you run at them and chew the clock down and the chances and amount of time the throwing team has to make an impact gets lowered ... and they have to score ... which didn't happen for GB and that meant .,.. ciao baby before the half was over.

The KC game, was a bit different, and you knew that KC would put the foot on the gas and when it came it wasn't going to let go ... and if they do this in the SB, I think they will be favorites for sure.

Catcher10 wrote: ... Aaron Rogers, what is up with him......He was so off yesterday. There was that 3rd and 3 where he had Graham wide open not covered easy 1st down and more and he slings it left to the RB for 1-2yd gain, bring on the punt team. Terrible!!

I have a feeling that the game for GB had been designed to have more running, and by the time things got too far, it was all about AR trying to bring the team back, which did not happen this time ... it was too much, and not enough time. I would almost suggest that this was a coaching error ... to try and do this and this and then this ... and will see where we are ... well, at least 2 scores down I would think that you are not paying attention to the game ... you are thinking that the other team is not smart enough to have you figured out ... and SF DID HAVE GB FIGURED OUT!

The latest MOGWAI album (KIN) has a song for ELI! Pretty one, too!

KC 38

SF 32

I'm going 28-17 with SF getting a parade.

I think that SF got stuck in its running game a bit too much, and they were not as well prepared to throw the ball, and while it worked for 3+ quarters, it would fail if the other team would score twice in a row, which happened ... I think SF wanted to chew up yardage and field time ... but KC played that little game, until they finally saw that the out corners were open, and they waited until the 4th hoping they were not too far out, before  they exploited it, to ensure that the SF defense could not adjust in time to save their game ... and I think this is what happened. SF did not make adjustments on the defense and when KC started throwing the ball further, the SF defense, was still trying to close the door at the line ... as they had through the whole game.

The whole thing, nowadays, with TV and their little tablets and stuff, about adjustments ... you have to know how to adjust and FAST ... and I'm not sure that SF was as fluid in that area in both offense and defense to make a difference. The stats show that Jimmy did not do enough on the 4th quarter, and I would say that the play calls he had did not help him a whole lot, either! Too conservative, specially for a team they knew could explode real quick and score ... which KC did!

It's a credit to KC ... I think they played the SF game, until KC knew they could not adjust and then started pulling the trigger ... and KC just steam rolled after that ... I think that Andy Reid, if anything, knows more about "adjustments" and when to use them, than probably any coach in the NFL.

Well deserved win, in my book ... but the media saying Shanahan is at fault ... he was not playing defense and he did not make the defensive calls and it is not fair to blame him for the loss ... KC was better prepared for more things than SF, who all of a sudden was very conservative and tentative about moving the ball ... just small chunks at a time!

I really did not see Mahomes as the MVP but someone has to get it I suppose. And still, NFL officials struggle with some calls.

For my version of things, I kinda think that a defense is only as good as the adjustments that folks make to get past it ... today, the Steelers curtain of old would get swallowed up so fast by speed, it is not funny. 

Defenses, today, are only as good as they are capable of making adjustments to the quarterback and the calls being made ... but I'm not sure that SF lining up halfway through the 4th quarter, EXACTLY the same way as they did in the 1st quarter is a smart move ... an experienced, and smart coach, will eventually break that up, and Andy Reid did! At the beginning of the 4th quarter one of the things I said is that KC had to throw at the far corners left and right, which were open ... Sherman was playing close to the line, his strength, but that left a massive gap behind him ... and that meant 4 linemen, 3 others behind them, and Sherman close to the line, and you only got 2 folks behind it all ... and it becomes a matter of finding the right angles and combinations ... and it doesn't take too many tablet views to know what they have to do ... but I think that SF thought they could bother Mahommes enough to make a difference, and it didn't ... once he started finding one player 25 yards down, he knew that he could go after some more, and did ... and that is when SF did not adjust ... the far ends were still open.

KC's defense simply started to show that they had done their homework and that the plays were duplicating again and again ... and that means a good defense will have the ability to make the adjustments necessary to improve on that end ... and KC did just that ... and SF probably should have opened up a couple more long throws, but almost the whole game every thing was dinkadink ... to try and keep the ball away from KC.

I don't live in CA.......I live in Washington state. But the Seahawks are below the Saints as far as teams we follow. So I had no skin in this game, other than to see 49ers win to cause major issues to the rabid Hawks fans here LOL.

Chris Jones should have been the MVP not Mahomes.....but QBs are primadonnas so they always get the nod.