To Panthers And Blazers: The Lions are higher because their offensive coordinator is Mike Martz now and they have always had the talent, just not the leadership to guide it. Martz was a terrible head coach but he is a terrific offensive coordinator.
The Saints have Drew Brees at quarterback and the two headed monster of a healthy Deuce McCalister and Reggie Bush at runningback. The Saints are going to put up some numbers this year.
If Kurt Warner can stay healthy and be the old Kurt Warner now that he is healthy, then the Cardinals offense will have some firepower. They have an excellent core of receivers and the addition of Edgerrin James finally gives them a running game.
Cleveland has a real good offensive line and an equally good group of receivers with Braylon Edwards, Dennis Northcut, Joe Jurevicious, and Travis Wilson.
The Eagles have very little at receiver but they still have Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook, in fact, the Eagles had a better offense than Carolina last year.
To Pennington2Coles05: The Jets dont even have Curtis Martin anymore. Their offense is destined to be worst in the league this year.
You probably have to move the Chiefs down a bit in the wake of Willie Roaf's retirement.
And I wouldn't put Detroit at No. 9 yet. I know they have Mike Martz, but the Lions' offensive line and receiving corps aren't good. Plus, Jon Kitna is a mediocre QB.
Saints (Drew Brees' shoulder is still questionable) and Eagles seem too high. Falcons, Buccaneers and Bears are way too low.
Ive already explained my reasoning on the Saints and Eagles. I didnt factor in injuries to any quarterback on this list. That is like predicting a player to get injured before the season even started.
But Brees is already injured before the season. Remember that shoulder injury in Week 17? He may not have recovered from that. It was a similar injury that Chad Pennington incurred, so there is a chance that Brees will never be the same quarterback.
If Brees never recovers, that will be a swift kick in the Saints' ass for all the money they payed him.
As far as Ive heard, Brees is supposed to be ready for the season opener. In my predictions last year I anticipated that Pennington would be healthy. It confuses your predictions for the upcoming season too much when you also predict what players wont be able to play because of injuries.
Pennington played, but his shoulder was never fully-recovered. He lost a lot of strength. I expect the same thing to happen to Brees. Neither quarterback may ever be the same again.
You could be right, Im just saying that I dont factor that into my predictions. Going into my predictions I assume that every player on every team is healthy.
But you dont know that they are still hurt. In Palmer's and McNabb's case, I think they have healed. But in Culpepper's, and Brees's cases I dont know if they are or not so I assume that they are. Its not like Kurt Warner where he got injured and it has been proven already that he hasn't fully recovered. Who knows how these guys will react to the injury.
Well, Palmer is definitely not healed yet. He said this last week:
"I'm confident running with it and planting and cutting," Palmer said. "But as far as getting hit, having to run full-speed and stop in a small area, I'm not mentally ready for that. And I don't think my knee's ready for that. There's no point in me testing it and seeing exactly what I can and can't do."
Doesn't sound too good.
And Brees had the same injury Pennington had. The latter never recovered, and I think Brees may have problems as well.
That kind of disappoints me. I heard about how hard Palmer has been trying to get back before the season started and I was rooting for him. But I agree, from those comments it doesnt sound like he will be ready anytime soon.
You forget that fifth game at Tampa Bay. Thats a possible 0-5 start. I think 2-3 at best through the five games, 0-5 at worst. That Cleveland game in Week 2 they should be able to win but they will get a dogfight from the Browns. Romeo Crenell wants to set a precedent there. The other 4 games are going to be really tough. Im not sure that they will win any of the other 4.
Yeah, you're right about that Tampa Bay game. I think 1-4 is a fair record; I don't see Charlie Frye winning on the road this early in his career, although he managed to beat a dying Raiders team at Oakland late last year. I can't really count that; Cleveland only scored 9 points.
