by Pete and Patrick
Green Bay Packers
Pete Says: It breaks my heart, literally, to write
this, but the Green Bay Packers are the best team in the NFL. They won a Super Bowl last year
basically without a running game, shed some dead weight (read: Nick Barnett),
realized Ryan Grant is a huge liability and are likely going to give the
majority of the workload to James Starks, and get a semi-elite tight end
back. Fuck the Eagles, the Packers
are phenomenally improved and they hardly had to spend any money! The only questionable move they had was
resigning James Jones (who could have easily gotten overpaid elsewhere). As a Bears fan I’m praying that I can
get James Jones in every fantasy league just so he can be that guy who sucks
big time but you hold onto forever for no conceivable reason. If you’re shopping early I’ll take
booze for Christmas.
Patrick Says: The Super Bowl champs are in good
position to make another deep playoff run. The schedule is not
particularly difficult, but it has become cliche to say “everyone gives a Super
Bowl champ their best shot every week.” The NFL is always a struggle, and
Super Bowl champions usually lose some talent, and that has been the case this
year with Nick Barnett, Cullen Jenkins & Brandon Jackson being some of the
bigger name losses. It has gotten to the point though where Packer fans
trust Ted Thompsons’s rebuild through the draft approach, and the Packers have
weapons galore around Aaron Rodgers, who is in my opinion the best quarterback
in the NFL. The keys to this team will be the offensive and defensive
lines. Left guard is a little iffy, and Clifton is not getting any
younger. BJ Raji is a bona fide stud, and Pickett is a solid vet, but
behind them it is a lot of young guys trying to make an impact. Despite
stalwarts Nick Collins, Charles Woodson, & Tramon Williams there is some
concern with the secondary. Can Sam Shields & Jarrett Bush continue
to develop? Will Peprah or Burnett play safety opposite Collins? These
are questions most teams would like to have, and the Packers will win the
division this year.
Detroit Lions
Pete Says: This is the
uber-upside team. Every piece of
official Lions anything and every player except Ndomakung Suh should come with
a Surgeon-General like warning that states outcomes are entirely contingent
upon each player’s health but all bets are still action. I shit you not that I can make a
statistical case that Matthew Stafford’s best potential year would lead all QBs
in the NFL.[1] The problem is, this Motor City wet
dream everyone’s having depends on more contingency factors that the path to
humanoid multi-cellular life. But
can you image a healthy and rested Nick Fairley joining the Lions halfway through the season?! The Lions biggest hole is
consistency in running back production, but as the Packers showed last year
teams can and do survive on passing alone. At least for a while.
Patrick Says: It has become chic to say that the Lions
will be the surprise playoff team in the NFC this year. I’m not quite
sure about that, but they’ll give it a run. If Matt Stafford is healthy
they have the weapons on offense to put up some points, especially considering
they will have 11 dome games this year. Calvin Johnson is probably the
most talented receiver in the NFL. Ndamakong Suh is a talent that I have
never seen on the defensive interior (that includes you Julius Peppers). Adding
Fairely can’t hurt. I’m not so sure about the rest of their defense, but
they’ll win some games and get their fans excited again. Playoffs might
have to wait another year though.
Minnesota Vikings
Pete Says: The Vikings are
going to be good because Donovan McNabb has a chip on his shoulder and Adrian
Peterson is the toughest running back in the NFL. Their dearth of elite wideout possibilities is about equal
to last year[2]
and it’s been proven that wide receivers don’t impact the game as much as
believed because they are entirely dependent upon their QB to get them the ball
and most can’t block for shit.[3] The most insightful analysis I’ve heard
on the departure of Ray Edwards was that leaving Minnesota might expose him as
not very good. And if Jared Allen
and company don’t have to pick up his slack Minnesota’s defensive line could
improve. Their secondary still has
more holes than Stringer Bell at the end of Season 3 of The Wire, though, so
shoot for .500 Vikings fans.
Patrick Says: This is a transitional year in
Minnesota. Most Viking fans I know are glad that Leslie Frasier is
running the show now. The Brett Favre experiment is over, and Tarvaris
Jackson is gone. Here come Christian Ponder and Donovan McNabb. Minnesota
surprised everybody by grabbing Ponder in the 1st round. Obviously they
expect him to be their QB of the future. Donovan McNabb is going to try
to win now while the team waits for Ponder to develop. Adrian Peterson is
an outstanding football player, and the premier running back in the NFL. Ironically,
with their former Defensive Coordinator as the head coach now, it seems that
the defense will be the weak spot of the team. They’ve lost some key
people, and that secondary gets torn apart against elite opponents.
Chicago Bears
Pete Says: My Bears are
equal parts cheap uncle to a pro football team and Island of Misfits. The Bears enjoy continuity, not
success, so here we go for another round of Lovie Smith helping his friend Mike
Martz try to sabotage Lovie’s career.
For this year’s incarnation of The Greatest Feaux on Earth Martz has
tried to basically recreate the ’99-’01 Rams with the 2008 Dallas Cowboys plus
a tough yet headstrong scrambler who holds the ball too long and still believes
arm strength trumps accuracy. Oh
and this is occurring in Chicago, where if the wind at Soldier Field isn’t at
least 25mph the fans are pretty sure the earth stopped rotating and the field
was last resodded when Eisenhower was president. Being notorious cheapskates will be a double edged sword for
the Bears this year. Quibbling
over a paltry $500,000 with Olin Kreutz and then releasing him actually adds a
modicum of stability to the offensive line, but refusing to give a raise to
6-time Pro Bowler Lance Briggs – who also just happens to be the best defensive
player (sorry Julius Peppers) – will wreak havoc on a defense that looked to be
both stable and improved going into the preseason. 7-9 here we come.
Patrick Says: The Bears will be another casualty of playoff team turnover on a year to
year basis in the NFL. The NFC North & South play each other this
year and will beat each other up. The Bears have signed ex-Cowboys Roy
Williams and Marion Barber. While those players were often viewed as
underachievers in Dallas, I think they fit well with the Bears. The
defensive line is very good, so good in fact that they signed ex-Jets bust
Vernon Gholston because they can afford to. I will never discount the
Bears’ LB corps, but I am still not sure about the secondary. The breaks
will go against Chicago this year though, and the fans will be after Cutler
again.
[1] This case
also argues for Ryan Fitzpatrick and Colt McCoy in the top 5 and Peyton Manning
15th. Is it
flawed? Probably. Or genius and revolutionary.
[2] Sidney Rice
missed so much time he was almost a footnote on the 2010 season (ha ha).
[3] Larry
Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and Roddy White are the top three wide receivers in
some order. Combined they have 8
postseason appearances and 6 are Fitzgerald’s. White got bounced in ’08 and again in 2010 and Johnson has
never made the playoffs because he’s never played with a good quarterback.
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