2004 predictions

AFC
North - Cincinnati
South - Indianapolis
East - New England
West - Oakland
wildcards - Denver and Kansas City

its only really between Indianapolis and New England for the AFC

NFC
North - Minnesota
South - Carolina
East - Philadelphia
West - Seattle
wildcards - St. Louis and New Orleans

all the div champs stand a good chance of making it to SB.

i would've put baltimore as my north champs, except i think the madden curse will cause everyone bar Ray Lewis to have a crap season (u can just see it - Ray dodges the curse, but the rest of the team doesn't). San Diego will be whipping boys for the rest of the west and all 3 teams make the play offs. New Orleans, having been knocking on the play off door for the past few seasons, finally kick it down and make it. seattle and st louis was the hardest call of the lot, but both should be in the playoffs.

Apart from Cinci and Oakland, I think your choices are all too sensible and therefore never gonna happen.

well the AFC west is one of those calls where you have to decide what factor is gonna be decisive rather than pick a team

ignoring the whipping boys (san diego)

Oakland

Pros - have great depth on offense. Greatly improved their D, and have a variety of packages at their disposal.

Cons - no starting RB. also can the grandads on the team produce. Tim Brown's productivity dramatically fell last season.


Denver

Pros - Champ Bailey will improve Denver's D straight away. the rookie RB should do well, as coach shanahan has a knack of developing young RB's

Cons - they will miss shannon sharpe. while they have a promising RB for the future, u seriously can't expect him to rush for nearly 2000 yards like portis did last season. also a few questions linger about the o-line.


Kansas City

Pros - very difficult to stop Tony Gonzalez and Priest Holmes. you cover one, they go to the other. got a new DC, so they should improve on D.

Cons - no significant threat at wideout. all it'll take is an injury to either gonzalez or holmes and the chiefs offense will struggle. not too many additions to the defense so while a new DC is fine, can he iron out the mistakes? also daunte hall now becomes a 'con' of sorts, coz most teams will be angling punts out of bounds and kick offs away from him and towards the side where their coverage guys will be heading.

i think oakland have fewer questions than the other two. at the endof the season, there will only be a few wins separating these 3 sides

you cant get 50 yards on an out-of-bounds punt

I wasnt saying Oakland was that irrational a pick, just saying all your other choices made too much sense, but i like your lateral thinking on the chiefs offense.

Its kind of like Anquan Boldin, Domanick Davis and even Nick Barnett last year. Things are gonna happen, players are gonna emerge and whole teams are going to play way below or way above what (on paper) they should.

My predictions then..

Philly to the superbowl, especially if Brian Westbrook carries on from where he left off last season.

Browns emerge as the new Chargers -- great player (Winslow) on a crap team.

Bills get a winning record

Everyone's been tipping Jacksonville to improve drastically, so it wont be a surprise, but the AFC South should be loads and loads of fun. It should be the most competitive division this season.

Gotta ask, when is Tomlinson's contract up? Only a fool would re-sign with the Chargers, and that would be the biggest free agent windfall in history if he keeps up his form.

Talk about helter skelter predictions. I think New Orleans have too much talent now to be out of the playoffs. Vick being alive and well should be plenty of fun for all of, uh, two games. I predict he swallows his tongue in game 2 when Leonard Little hits him from the blindside.

Ooh yea, predictions for first pick in 05 draft! It's between Giants and Browns for me, and guess what.. its the direct result of them having complete ****heap drafts this year. The only way I would give away that many picks to get Manning would've been an ironclad guarantee that Manning will get me 20 TD passes/3000 yards a year for the next decade, it was absolutely ludicrous.

Now to pull some statistical leaders for next season out of my backside:
Most rushing yards: Jamal Lewis.
Most sacks: Jevon Kearse.
Most solo tackles: Takeo Spikes/Keith Bulluck (tied on 97).
Most cheesy half-sacks (i.e. falling on a downed QB): Warren Sapp.

And the superbowl goes to, hmm.. well.. anything I put here is gonna be wrong, so.. it's a tie between the Eagles and Steelers and they decide to share it by reuniting into the Steagles.

Alright, enough random predictions from me.

Originally Posted by vladislav

you cant get 50 yards on an out-of-bounds punt


And the superbowl goes to, hmm.. well.. anything I put here is gonna be wrong, so.. it's a tie between the Eagles and Steelers and they decide to share it by reuniting into the Steagles.

well a punt that doesn't go to far is better than a punt returned for a TD. special team scores often are the decisive factor that determines games

interesting logic on the super bowl though. i think philly could win it, but not pittsburgh. the afc rep in SB will be either the pats or the colts.

cleveland IMO is not that bad a team, especially with jeff garcia under center. i dunno about play offs for them though.

well LT was drafted in 2001, and presumably they signed him to a 7 year deal? so by 2008 he'll be a FA, and off to pastures new.

new orleans have gotta make the play offs, and could win the south. the thing with predictions is that they never take injuries into account, not unless its concerning the madden curse!, and u can't predict injuries either. but soime teams, such as oakland, unless they get a huge spate of them, then injuries shouldn't really be a factor for oakland.

kansas city (gonzalez or holmes), indianapolis (manning), philadelphia (mcnabb), arizona (mcnown), san francisco (rattay), atlanta (vick) to name a few teams, if the player mentioned gets injured, are gonna struggle.

i think its all accurate apart from st louis should beat the seahawks to nfc west champs.

well i think seattle and st. louis will be tied like 10-6 or 11-5 or even 12-4 so its down to gut feeling as to whom will win the tie-break - and my gut feeling is that it'll be seattle

Have you people been watching the NFL lately? Things can go from awful to great in a few season (see Panthers) and from great to awful in a few (see Giants). No prediction is safe. But heres my shot:

Teams with NO SHOT: 49ers, Chargers, Browns, Bears
Teams with a really good shot: Philly, Kansas City, Indy, New England
Teams with an OK shot: Everybody else

Seriously, here's my guess:
NFC East
Philly
NY Giants
Washington
Dallas

(this could turn completely upside down. The Cowboys are a decent team and could win the division and Philly could fall into Terrell O-blivion...)

NFC Central
Minnesota
Packers
Lions
Bears

(although the Lions could surprise some people...)

NFC South
Atlanta
Carolina
Tampa Bay
New Orleans

(Vick should propel the Falcons to first place, knocking Cinderella back to Earth)

NFC West
St. Louis
Seattle
Arizona
University of Southern Cal
UCLA
Stanford
San Diego Central High School
Greater California Special Olympics Team
San Fransisco 49ers

(needless to say, the 49ers suck this year...)

AFC East
Kansas City
Denver
Oakland
San Diego

(first and second place could flip... Oakland may have two offense, but they both suck. Thankfully, they get to play the Chargers twice.)

AFC North
Pittsburgh
Cincinatti
Baltimore
Cleveland

(Or not... I pick the Steelers cuz I like 'em. Could be the Bengals or Ravens. God forbid something happens to Jamal Lewis though or the Ravens are sunk)

AFC South
Colts
Titans
Jags
Texans

(The Titans are getting a tad bit old... Manning should lead the Colts to the promised land this year)

AFC East
New England
Miami
Buffalo
NY Jets

(Brady & Co. are a great TEAM and have a legitimate shot at repeating... If Ricky runs well, and Wannstadt can un**** himself, the 'Fins have a good shot)

NFC Champs- St. Louis Rams
AFC Champs- Indianapolis Colts

Super Bowl Champs- Colts

Sleepers - Atlanta, Jacksonville, Detroit

But then again read the first paragragh. There's a good chance I have no idea what I'm talking about...

This post subject to change.

[titansrule]

i refuse to call for some time as practice camp is yet to begin...and btw i will not rule out the titans by any means, the colts are a great team but we can have them, as we should have done last season! damn them!

[rams fan]

Originally Posted by faulkisgod

i think its all accurate apart from st louis should beat the seahawks to nfc west champs.

yes and the St. Louis Rams will

[titansrule]

hah...with bulger throwing that many ints....you gotta think twice!

Originally Posted by Harty

AFC North
Pittsburgh
Cincinatti
Baltimore
Cleveland

i like this! steelers winning the division. Actually i think they have a legit shot at it. but id put the ravens over the bengals

[cashpath]

Philly
NY Giants
Washington
Dallas

Does Bill Parcells get shot by some crazy steelers fan between now and the start of the season or something??

Hahaha

[titansrule]

lol. that group aint gonna be easy though, ny will most likely come last, for the top three its gonna be close, but it too early to call.

the Giants in 2nd? no chance. they got a rookie QB and a QB who's not the same as he was when he led the rams to the SB battling it out for the starting spot. they also got o-line questions. so i dont think the giants will be posting a winning season, they've got some work to do.

[titansrule]

totally agree...read the above post.

Yeah, I figured I'd get the most flack for my NFC East predictions. True, the Giants have a rookie QB, but he won't start. Warner will. He's healthy and has something to prove. He may not be at top form like he was a few years back, but he;s a good QB and has decent options at WR (Toomer and Hilliard) and TE (Shockey, barring his foot injury). O-line is a question, but if they can overcome it they should be a good team. Dallas could easily win the division, but God only knows. Bill Parcells has a good track record with so-so RB. But Julius Jones may not even be so-so. He may stink. Washington has a really good group of players, but does that always translate to a good 'team'. Philly may go 16-0. But if Terrell Owens becomes more malignent than benign, there could be problems. This division is 100% pick-em.

Of course, I reassert, I have no idea what I am talking about and could be as wrong as humanly possible.

[titansrule]

yep thats what we love about sports, even the most experienced players and commentators could be totally wrong about everything.