Beast , your post sent me to take a closer look at Philadelphia and their Head Coach Doug Pederson . The same Pederson that played in GB behind Favre . As impressed as I am that the Eagles were smart enough to hire him, their Offensive Coordinator is Frank Reich who backed up another HOF QB in Jim Kelly . In addition , the Eagles have won preseason games against Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh.
Yes , I realize that preseason games don't count , but their not headed in the wrong direction.
I held Doug Pederson in high respect when he was a Packer. He always stood ready at a moments notice , which says he was always prepared . Now he must prepare his team each week and I would believe that they will be as prepared as Pederson always was . He must work with the players he inherits, but if his choice of OC is any indication of where he will take this team, then GB should not underestimate it's former (backup) QB .
Originally Posted by: Smokey
New York Giants ~ they choked away a number of games that they should of won. If they stop choking they could get a lot more wins.
Dallas Cowboys ~ last year they lost two of their most important players, starting RB (FA) and starting QB (injury). Getting a new star RB in the draft and if they can keep Romo healthy, they could potentially control the clock behind that very good OL and keep their defense off the field.
Washington Redskins ~ If I remember correctly, they had a lot of injuries at OLB, CB and S. They had Lots of injuries for the Redskins last year with Will Blackmon, Dashon Goldson and a 6th round rookie starting at DB in the playoff game. So if they stay healthy, they could be a lot better... though their starting RB might of just gotten injured. And they might have the best OL coach in the entire NFL with Bill Callahan (who was the Cowboys OL coach not long ago).
Philadelphia Eagles ~ They seemed to have a fairly talented group of players, but Chip Kelly's boom or bust super fast pace offense seemed to keep leading to the defense being on the field way too long and wearing down and losing their star offensive players one way or another... now with Doug Peterson as head coach.
Originally Posted by: beast
I agree with you on the Giants. Next to that, they made some big additions in free agency. I don't think those moves were very smart looking at it from a long-term perspective, but it does make for a greatly improved defense on paper. That still doesn't fix their o-line and you never know how FAs will perform for their new teams, but I do feel like they're better than that 6-10 team we saw last year.
So much for Romo staying healthy. They can still be a scary team, but this doesn't help. Prescott has been good in the pre-season, but there are very few rookies who are more than average in their first season. Let alone late round rookies. Having a good o-line will certainly help, though, and the Cowboys might just have the best in the league.
The Redskins finally have a competitive team in place with a decent QB. Like you said, if they stay healthy, they might just be the team to beat in the NFC East.
Of course both of you made this post before the Eagles traded away Sam Bradford, but even then, they were in full rebuild mode in my eyes. They're dumping contracts left and right, gathering picks and have a lot of positions that sport names that wouldn't start on any other team in the league. They don't have a WR who's ever gone over 1000 yards. They have Allen Barbre starting at guard. They're being led by either a rookie QB who looked rather raw or Chase Daniel; a man who's thrown 1 TD and 1 int in 7 years. There's no way this team gets more than 5 wins this year and I don't see one of those coming against us.
It wouldn't surprise me if all of the teams, except for the Eagles, went 7-9, but it wouldn't surprise me if all of them went 9-7, either. They all seem mediocre. I bet one of those three teams is bound to surprise us, though.