NFL Predictions, Season Officially Underway

The NFL regular season is officially here, as the New Orleans Saints defeated the Minnesota Vikings 14-9 last night in a rematch of last year's epic NFC Championship Game. The game showed us that the Saints will be as formidable as they were last year en route to winning it all, and the Vikings may be on shaky ground. Adrian Peterson is a beast, but lets not forget Brett Favre's hamstring and ankle have seen better days, and the team is missing a few key weapons such as leading WR Sidney Rice.

With the rest of the season about to get underway, I thought I would take a look at the NFL as a whole and through out some division predictions, as well as postseason predictions. The teams in each division are listed in a predicted order of finish.

AFC East
NY Jets
New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins
Buffalo Bills

I wanted to pick the Pats to win, as I am not sold on the Jets offense under Mark Sanchez. However, how am I going to pick someone who looks like Justin Bieber? Miami may be a year away as QB Chad Henne grows and adjusts to getting the ball to Brandon Marshall.

AFC North
Cincinatti Bengals
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburg Steelers
Cleveland Browns

The Bengals offense lights it up once again, and a better defense wins the division. I don't see Pittsburg recovering from starting Dennis Dixon at QB for four games.

AFC South
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars

A very tough division. Colts win it every year, and Houston and Tennessee should battle it out for second place and a wild card spot.

AFC West
San Diego Chargers
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders
Denver Broncos

Broncos loose too much, Chargers have too much talent. Watch out for the Chiefs and Raiders though, both will be better and could surprise this comming season.

NFC East
NY Giants
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins

Everyone loves the Cowboys, so I'm taking a bounce back year for the Giants. Watch out for Washington, they may not be playoff ready but adding Donovan McNabb and Mike Shanahan at coach could be a huge upgrade.

NFC North
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions

The Lions should be better this year, while the Vikings should be worse. Green Bay has a potent offense and a solid defense, and should be able to win the North.

NFC South
New Orleans Saints
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Saints will become the first NFL South team to win the division in back to back years in the league's history (no I'm not making that up). Atlanta looks like a playoff caliber team, while Carolina and Tampa Bay will be forced to make due with shaky QB play.

NFC West
San Francisco 49ers
Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks
St. Louis Rams

The 49ers have a good defense, running attack and are finally getting consistent play from QB Alex Smith. The rest of the division is so terrible that San Francisco should be able to run away with this one.

For a superbowl prediction, how about Indianapolis over New Orleans in a bitter rematch from last year's game? How juicy would that be?

Comments?

Brett Favre Returns...Again

Brett Favre finally announced that he will be returning to the Minnesota Vikings this season, after flip-flopping back and forth numerous times as to whether or not he would rejoin the team. Favre's announcement may be surprising to some, considering just two weeks ago he announced he would not return, after saying he was unsure the majority of the summer.

While Favre is one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game, the drama over his announcements is getting old. Favre's reputation has gone from one of the toughest and grittiest quarterbacks in the league to a spoiled, me-first prima donna.

Then again, can we really blame Favre for taking time to make an important decision. Perhaps his ankle really did need to get cleared, and it is possible he really does struggle with deciding to come back or not. Mostly, ESPN and other sports media outlets are to blame for the circus that surrounds Favre every year. ESPN even had camera crews stalking the quarterback to and from the airport. Favre's penchant for drama doesn't help, but the reason we get sick of Favre reports every year are mostly due to ESPN and other sports outlets shoving the coverage down our throats.

Comments?