When you are checking your your fantasy team daily, looking for updates on players from every NFL team there is, it is NFL TIME! Yes! The season is finally here….and what is a season at The Sideline Report without my predictions? Damn, I have done this yearly since 2012, and as you may know by now, I have Nostradamus like talent. Sit back, enjoy, and screw you if you don’t agree, I’m still right!
Not to make this look like another famous column here, Overreactions, but let us start with the bottom of the barrel, the basement, the sewer, the place we as fans dread to be. Our lives are often destroyed by this, and we have lost many bloggers because of the inability to be strong when their team sucks!
Miami Dolphins
Oh I know, I hate the Dolphins, right Raat?
This is a team that has a definite blue print yearly, it is like a broken record (for those that remember what an LP is). No matter who is in charge we are always here, same place. As it goes, the new HC gets lucky on year one and the fans (ours are extremely devoted for sure) begin to hope again, then its BOOM! It all falls apart, and the process begins again…
We have made fun of the Suh signing, and the inability of Ryan Tannehill to grow as his contract says he should have. Suh, even if many here have argued the opposite from day one, has destroyed this team’s CAP for a long time, and now he is gone, but that failed signing will still hurt next March. RT17 was given an extension by Mr. ILoveSpendingOwner’s Money Tannenbaum too early, yes he is cheap by today’s standards (hello Desparecido bPardo), but RT is basically a bottom 5 QB, and he is overpaid!!!!!!!!!
The outlook this is year is not good! This team has not improved form a year ago. Say what you want about dirty Suh and dirty Landry, but they were the best on both sides of the ball. Suh has been replaced by multiple dead bodies and a dude that has huge talent, however his team shipped him out for a bag of peanuts. This D has good DBs, decent pass rush, but they are still not stopping anyone from running the football. This has been a Miami Achille’s Heel forever, as they continue to add pass rush to address it. Problem is the D is actually better than the O, and that is no bueno in South Bitch.
RT will be rusty, Gase’s label as some sort of Cutler Fixer is going to come to an end, he gets fired before season is over!!! Fans will be upset, Ross will do his usual dance and ask management to fix it now! We have seen this script with last two HCs. Gase will be fired, and come end of the season, so will everyone in that front office! Michigan Harbaugh is coming to town, first loves are never forgotten and Ross will hand him the entire ship!
Dolphins will struggle to win 4 games, they can get lucky and win 6…..I say 5-11
Buffalo Bills
The Bills made the playoffs for the first time in this new computer age, and how do they handle that success? Simple, fire GM, hire HC butt boy, and dismantle the team. Why? I have a simple answer, McD figured let me take advantage of this first year success, and while I’m very popular, I want my boy in charge, so I can dictate without letting everyone know that I am dictating! This will buy me a few years of employment!
Bills fans are among the most devoted I know, but at some point the bull crap from the top has to stop! No, this team is not moving CK! But man, build from scratch, stop building false hope for some of the most devoted fans in the NFL!!!
Tyrod Taylor was shipped out of town for a good pick. Other trades were made that made it look like this team is on it! All those efforts, to me anyway (even if Dud and Archer disagreed at the time) were obvious moves to move up to get Josh Allen. So let us sign the last available QB in free agency, the one no team even tried to sign, because we got this! We have Josh on the radar!!! The Jets actually bought into the fact they were moving up to get a good QB, so they too followed with a trade to make it impossible for the Bills to move ahead of them. Beane was in Heaven when he needed top move up to grab Josh, not sure anyone else not named Browns really wanted him that high!….Yea after I wrote this the Bills traded AJ! Wow!!!
Bills have dismantled a real good OL, and are now playing with below mediocre people, this will be very hard on both D and O. The D is still a very good unit, but not one with personnel that would allow McD to imitate his Carolina days. However this D will have to bend a lot, because they will be on the field most of each game. This offense is so bad, not that they were good last year, but this one is worst. Teams will dare the collection of crap at QB to pass, and with no OL, McCoy will become frustrated and totally pedestrian!….This may go down as the worst O in modern NFL history..
Not sure what they are building in Buffalo, because what looked good in March, looked awful and head scratching in May! The Bills will be lucky to win 5, but, because of that D, they do 5-11
NY (City, screw NJ) Jets
Jets have had the second most success in this division since a dude named Tom Brady arrived to town, but there has been up and downs galore. Tannenbaum was elevated to GM and replace a more stable Bradway, but Tannebaum, who has no clue on how to judge talent, by his own admission, he became a Rex butt boy, and the team that Broadway built got worst and worst. Finally the idiot is now destroying things and CAP Down/Under and after a one year rental, the Jets hired a stable GM. Mike has made mistakes, but in this game, all make mistakes, just look north to where the “genius” resides. Mistakes are ok if you have a stud QB……and Jets are in the best position to actually have one since Ken O’Brien who was way way way better than Noodle-Arm Pennington).
It all began a year ago when long standing good but over the hill and done citizens like Mangold, Decker, Marshall, Sheldon and Revis were let go, and many attacked the GM for it. End result was obvious, none of those folks are worth a dime on a football field, and the Jets CAP situation just improved tremendously. They resigned good soldier and mentor McCown and took a gamble on Teddy B. But they also drafted Sam Darnod. Sam was costly, but if he does continue to show his talents shown in the pre-season, nobody will care what they paid for his rights. The OL its still a project that should improve as season moves along, some are coming back from season ending surgeries and/or are brand new. Overall the O will be ok this year, not fantastic, but ok. If the youngest QB to ever start a game develops, this season would all be worth it!
The D should be much improved everywhere. Gone is lazy ass Mo, and in are hungry younger players on DL. LBs are better with the addition of Avery, but there is till a lack of a pass rusher. DBs may develop into one of the best unit there is, as second year safeties are joined by prized free agent Johnson.
The Jets will not be great, their future looks a lot brighter than it does in Western NY (state) and Down/Under. This team will be tough to beat, all thunked to Todd Bowles (yea take that IYCE!) and finish 8-8.
New England Patriots
Every year we think that is it for Mr. Brady, every year he proves the world wrong, so is this it? It is looking more and more like it, I mean he keeps his body very “avocadoed”, and in shape, but the circumstances surrounding this team, may be the deciding factor.
The Patriots went from the least talked about team off the field (except for the normal gang killer) to one that gives the impression that there is a ton of internal turmoil. Belichick has already staked a claim as to be considered the best HC ever, but the lack of a GM maybe a problem. Some of the players, including Tom, are basically opposed to BB’s methods and have stopped being afraid to let the media know about it. This is not a good recipe on any team.
GM Bill has always made very puzzling moves, but most have worked out. I mean its hard to bleed to death when you have the best instant patch NFL has ever seen, Tom. This off season moves: The OL is an ugly image of what it once was. The LT position is now a pot luck spot. The DL was not improved. At WR, between suspensions and dumb moves, there is a Hogan and crap other teams discarded. RB has remained status quo, even with the loss of do it all Lewis, BB had a brain fart and drafted a RB very high. The D overall is basically the same one that has been able to patch decent performances during the year, but one that falters when opposed to excellent O’s (see Chiefs week one last year and again in the SB).
The Patriots will remain the divisional champs, because the rest of the division is either in early stages of brighter future, or in a confusing stage that could take years to get out of………The Patriots finish at 11-5
Wrapping up
The division overall is going to take a step backwards. I fear the Pats cannot be that expected 14-2 team we have come to know, the Bills are a mess in the making without a QB. Not sure if anyone in WNY has a clue as to what the direction is. Down/Under, the Dolphins are in the last year of the regime that took over with so much promise, but has delivered rather little. So many changes and decisions will have to be made when this seasons ends, as the team will be in CAP hell again. The Jets may or may not have found a QB, and that answer will dictate if they are ready to inherit the reigns from the Pats, or get back to the drawing board, and start the process all over again.
Updates since article was written
How good a signing was AJ? He will cost 2.1M this year and 2M next year, 4.1M for a guy that never took a snap in a regular game…….great signing!
Traded a 7th for Coleman? Yea, he ends up costing $3,548,860, while some other team can evaluate him!
Bills fans, before you make fun of other GMs, look in your own closet!!!!
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