NFL '13 SEASON THREAD

[Cujo]

With camps now in session and some on-field player news is going down, I suppose it's time to fire up the annual thread. (Football is back!!)

Two HUGE injuries from today's "action", as Eagles' wide-out Jeremy Maclin (shredded ACL) and Ravens' tight end Dennis Pitta (Bo Jackson'd) both done for the 2013 season.

[chuckymack]

Yikes. Hope they recover. In other news, A.J. Green's knee injury isn't serious. Just a bruise.

[sportstar1212]

As a Pats fan, I don't have much hope this year. With Gronk's injury woes and Hernandez in the bin, the best we have at receiver is Edelman. And our defense has never been spectacular, either. I still expect to win the division, but that's only because the rest of the division is pretty lousy. I doubt we'll make it past the first round of the playoffs.

[ninersdd]

May I remind you that when you had Reche Caldwell as your #1 receiver you guys were a touchdown away from the Super Bowl. I can't ever underestimate the Pats as long as they have Brady.

[Kramerica Industries]

Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney fronting that WR corps, actually.

I hate the fact that the Belichick Patriots have had so many former Florida players on that roster in recent years. Makes it harder to hate them.

As a related obligatory - you, Aaron Hernandez.

Another obligatory for any Reche Caldwell reference is this:

[CS85]

Not sure how to feel about this years Bears team. The organization is trying this weird We're-Rebuilding/Win-Now-type-thing and I don't foresee it turning into wins.

I have this horrible feeling that despite improving the offense via a new coach, new offensive linemen, and new tight end, there's still going to be wasted timeouts due to playcalling miscues and various other similar plodding inefficiencies that have plagued the team for years.

While I'm terribly excited they finally fired Lovie and Angelo, it's incredibly hard to gauge Emery and Trestman. Obviously we've seen nothing of Trestman, but the "Trust Me, I Was a Scout" methodology of Emery's bizarre drafts is too murky to properly assess.

I dunno. To hell with it, I'm just going to enjoy the show.

[dfwabel]

With camps now in session and some on-field player news is going down, I suppose it's time to fire up the annual thread. (Football is back!!)

Two HUGE injuries from today's "action", as Eagles' wide-out Jeremy Maclin (shredded ACL) and Ravens' tight end Dennis Pita (Bo Jackson'd) both done for the 2013 season.

Pitta and Maclin were non-contact injuries, along with issues with Cowboys' Jay Ratliff, Tyrone Crawford (Achilles) out for the year, Anthony Spencer (knee bone bruise) are why a prediction thread is useless.

Pitta and his hip...ugghh!!! Outside of a femur, I would never want an young hip injury.

As a Pats fan, I don't have much hope this year. With Gronk's injury woes and Hernandez in the bin, the best we have at receiver is Edelman. And our defense has never been spectacular, either. I still expect to win the division, but that's only because the rest of the division is pretty lousy. I doubt we'll make it past the first round of the playoffs.

Unless you and your family owns tickets (or a minority share of the team), stop using "we" and other possessives.

[Kramerica Industries]

Well, at least a prediction thread before training camp even begins. There's always a nice slew of these season ending injuries to impact players within, like, the first three days of non-rookies reporting to camp. Here (general, not CCSLC), many Eagles fans were probably getting optimistic about a Maclin/Jackson/Shady offense in Chip Kelly's athletic-fueled offense, and now one of the vital cogs has been erased within two days of camp.

I mean, there's a reason I don't post my predictions until around September 1. Can't account for regular season injuries, of course, but at least training camp injuries can be accounted for by this point.

[NEW.ERA]

With camps now in session and some on-field player news is going down, I suppose it's time to fire up the annual thread. (Football is back!!)

Two HUGE injuries from today's "action", as Eagles' wide-out Jeremy Maclin (shredded ACL) and Ravens' tight end Dennis Pita (Bo Jackson'd) both done for the 2013 season.

Pitta and Maclin were non-contact injuries, along with issues with Cowboys' Jay Ratliff, Tyrone Crawford (Achilles) out for the year, Anthony Spencer (knee bone bruise) are why a prediction thread is useless.

Pitta and his hip...ugghh!!! Outside of a femur, I would never want an young hip injury.

As a Pats fan, I don't have much hope this year. With Gronk's injury woes and Hernandez in the bin, the best we have at receiver is Edelman. And our defense has never been spectacular, either. I still expect to win the division, but that's only because the rest of the division is pretty lousy. I doubt we'll make it past the first round of the playoffs.

Unless you and your family owns tickets (or a minority share of the team), stop using "we" and other possessives.

What's the big deal? He's a supporter, owns merch and lives for his team. He's allowed to use whatever term he wants.

[chuckymack]

Not in the GDCCSLC.

[BlueSky]

Not sure how to feel about this years Bears team. The organization is trying this weird We're-Rebuilding/Win-Now-type-thing and I don't foresee it turning into wins.

I have this horrible feeling that despite improving the offense via a new coach, new offensive linemen, and new tight end, there's still going to be wasted timeouts due to playcalling miscues and various other similar plodding inefficiencies that have plagued the team for years.

While I'm terribly excited they finally fired Lovie and Angelo, it's incredibly hard to gauge Emery and Trestman. Obviously we've seen nothing of Trestman, but the "Trust Me, I Was a Scout" methodology of Emery's bizarre drafts is too murky to properly assess.

I dunno. To hell with it, I'm just going to enjoy the show.

Will be interested to see how Bushrod does. I say that because he's not a bad player but Brees is one of the best at avoiding sacks through a quick release, feeling the rush, and bouncing around/climbing the pocket. That can make an O-lineman look better than he really is.

As for the Saints, if Ryan can get the D even to the middlle of the pack we'll be in good shape but there are a lot of question marks.

Some here may know I live near Atlanta. Wanted to see Saints camp this year but it's not in the cards. Despite hating the Falcons, if I want to see an NFL camp this year it will have to be theirs. Should be cool though because the day I'm going is scheduled to be a joint practice with the Bengals. I'll post pics.

[Seadragon76]

As a Seahawk fan, I am afraid. The hype that has building has reached an all time high now.. never have I seen any publication pick Seattle to win the Super Bowl.

I'm afraid that the hype will be just that: hype. That always seems to happen for any Seattle team. Get all the hype and just fall flat on their face.

[Evil G]

Flacco has lost both Boldin & Pitta. Ouch. At least this means the Steelers can win some more games.

[Kramerica Industries]

As a Seahawk fan, I am afraid. The hype that has building has reached an all time high now.. never have I seen any publication pick Seattle to win the Super Bowl.

I'm afraid that the hype will be just that: hype. That always seems to happen for any Seattle team. Get all the hype and just fall flat on their face.

Difference being, unlike many of those Mariners teams or whatever, the Seahawks continued to improve as the season went on last year. You think that they were just a product of the loudest home field in the NFL, and then December/January roll around and they were winning game after game away. Browner was suspended, and I think they went 3-1 in is absence. Russell Wilson was absolutely superb over the last six or so games of the season. And their defense, already elite and one of the better defenses in the NFL for the past couple years, added Antoine Winfield coming off an excellent season for Minnesota, and Michael Bennett, coming off an excellent season for Tampa Bay.

I said the Seahawks were 49ers-lite last year. Kinda the 2011 49ers to the 2012 49ers, umm, 49ers. This year, I think they are on a direct level with their divisional foes, and I expect that to be an outstanding division battle. The Rams are also a young and very much improving team that went 4-1-1 within the NFC West last year, but I still don't have them quite up to the Seahawks or 49ers levels yet.

If nothing else, the halcyon days of the 2010 NFC West are, thankfully, far into the rear-view mirror by now.

[thepjguy]

As a Pats fan, I don't have much hope this year. With Gronk's injury woes and Hernandez in the bin, the best we have at receiver is Edelman. And our defense has never been spectacular, either. I still expect to win the division, but that's only because the rest of the division is pretty lousy. I doubt we'll make it past the first round of the playoffs.

Don't forget Amendola. Also Brady's much better with much worse.

[thepjguy]

Flacco has lost both Boldin & Pitta. Ouch. At least this means the Steelers can win some more games.

I'm telling you the Ravens are a .500 team at best. Flacco is overrated and overpaid. The Bengals win the division and the Steelers and Ravens are both 500-y. The Browns are well, the Browns.

[Seadragon76]

As a Seahawk fan, I am afraid. The hype that has building has reached an all time high now.. never have I seen any publication pick Seattle to win the Super Bowl.

I'm afraid that the hype will be just that: hype. That always seems to happen for any Seattle team. Get all the hype and just fall flat on their face.

Difference being, unlike many of those Mariners teams or whatever, the Seahawks continued to improve as the season went on last year. You think that they were just a product of the loudest home field in the NFL, and then December/January roll around and they were winning game after game away. Browner was suspended, and I think they went 3-1 in is absence. Russell Wilson was absolutely superb over the last six or so games of the season. And their defense, already elite and one of the better defenses in the NFL for the past couple years, added Antoine Winfield coming off an excellent season for Minnesota, and Michael Bennett, coming off an excellent season for Tampa Bay.

I said the Seahawks were 49ers-lite last year. Kinda the 2011 49ers to the 2012 49ers, umm, 49ers. This year, I think they are on a direct level with their divisional foes, and I expect that to be an outstanding division battle. The Rams are also a young and very much improving team that went 4-1-1 within the NFC West last year, but I still don't have them quite up to the Seahawks or 49ers levels yet.

If nothing else, the halcyon days of the 2010 NFC West are, thankfully, far into the rear-view mirror by now.

While it is true that they did improve towards the end of the season, the road wins aren't exactly grand wins by any means. Carolina wasn't that good, Chicago was falling apart and Buffalo just plain out loud stunk. Those were the only road wins last season despite being close (worst road loss was at the 49ers and that was only a 7 point loss) in every road game. Being a great team means you win some road games as well and 3 out of 8 isn't going to cut it.

[CS85]

Is it weird how pretty much every response to their individual teams has been mostly expressing hesitation or fear? Is that atypical or have I just not been paying attention to anything forever?

I'm leaning toward the latter.

[theSLVRBCK]

Is it weird how pretty much every response to their individual teams has been mostly expressing hesitation or fear? Is that atypical or have I just not been paying attention to anything forever?

I'm leaning toward the latter.

I'm a Jags fan, and I can't wait for this season to start. Either Gabbert takes huge strides and becomes a real QB and we surprise A LOT of people(HAHAHAHAHA) or we sit through another 2 win year and have a super high pick to spend on a QB next year. Either way ... Khan, Caldwell and Bradley are really high energy people and their attitude is pretty damn infectious to be around daily.

[tBBP]

Is it weird how pretty much every response to their individual teams has been mostly expressing hesitation or fear? Is that atypical or have I just not been paying attention to anything forever?

I'm leaning toward the latter.

If it helps you feel any better, I'm completely indifferent to how Tampa fares this year...probably because I don't expect them to take anyone by surprise. At best, they'll probaby battle the Saints for 2nd place in the division...I just can't see them outclassing Atlanta this season.

That said, since I live all of four miles straight south of Lucas Oil, I'll probably pay more attention to the Colts, anyway. Like Tampa, Indy made big strides on D, bringing in LaRon Landry (I'd reckon to play the part of Bob Sanders—minus the injuries) and drafting my boy Bjoern Werner from Florida State (naturally I'm jazzed about that). Also, I wanna see how Indy transitions from the 43 to the 34, not to mention how this Daniel Adongo project works out (he's a world-class rugby player from Kenya who's never played a down of American football in his life). Then there's 20 October, when Peyton Manning comes back to town. That oughtta be an interesting game.