Sports

[gardenman]

The Colts will be an interesting team to watch this year. Not the easiest schedule in the world. Miami week one. The Dolphins seem to have some internal issues with some of their star players wanting out. Coaching might be an issue. The Dolphins will likely be favored, but could be vulnerable. A home win would do wonders for the Colts. 

The Broncos roll in for week two. Sean Payton should have them ready to play. The Broncos should be favored. I doubt the Colts would win or lose both of those games, so 1-1 after week two.

Then the Titans on the road. A very winnable game. Probably 2-1 after three weeks.

At the Rams could be a problem. Matt Stafford's elbow could be an issue, or not. I'd guess a probable loss there, so 2-2 after four games.

The Raiders in Indy. Iffy. It could go either way. I'll give it to the Colts, so 3-2 after five.

Then the Cards roll into Indy. Kyler Murray is the league's biggest wildcard these days. Catch him when he's hot and wants to win, and he's nearly unstoppable. The rest of the time he's very stoppable. Whichever of the two teams is on a roll will likely win this one.  Let's say the Colts, so 4-2 after six.

At the Chargers. The Chargers are probably the better team of the two. Road games in LA often turn into home games as the locals aren't the most rabid fans in the world. Probably a loss, so 4-3 after seven.

The Titans in Indy is a probable win. Back to 5-3 after eight.

At the Steelers, probably a loss. Mike Tomlin always has the Steelers competitive, and they're giving him some players this year. So, 5-4 after nine.

The Falcons in Indy, probably a win. The Falcons probably have some internal issues as half the roster had "For Sale" signs on them this offseason. Kyle Pitts and Kirk Cousins were among those being actively shopped. So 6-4 after ten weeks.

At KC. I have no clue what to expect from the Chiefs this year. They weren't special last year and rolled over and played dead in the Super Bowl. Travis Kelce might not be there at all. I have a suspicion he'll wander off during camp and decide to retire. In KC benefits the Chiefs, so I'll give them this one. So 6-5 after eleven weeks.

Houston in Indy. Could go either way. The Texans slipped last year. Can they rebound? A split with the Texans with each winning at home? So 7-5 after twelve weeks.

At the Jags. Some day the Colts will win in Jacksonville. Let's say this is the week, so 8-5 after thirteen weeks.

At Seattle. Never an easy place to play. Who or what will the Seahawks be this year? They traded away their starting QB (Geno Smith) and best receiver (DK Metcalf). They added Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp. Is either one an upgrade? Probably not. Still, it's hard to win there. I'll say 8-6 after fourteen weeks.

The Niners in Indy. I see the Niners bouncing back a bit this year. Probably a pretty good game. In Indy might be the edge the Colts need. 9-6 after fifteen weeks.

The Jags in Indy. Probably a win so 10-6.

The Texans in Houston. Split time so 10--7 overall.

There are a bunch of games that could go either way. I would say a six-win floor and a twelve-win ceiling. Ten and seven feels about right. Catch a few good breaks and you can get to twelve wins. Catch a few bad breaks, and it goes more to seven or eight wins.

They'll be on the cusp of being a playoff team. Probably won't go far in the playoffs with the Bills and Ravens out there waiting to pick them off. They're not as good as the Bills or Ravens, but they should be better than they were last year. If the Bengals get off to a reasonable start, they could be right up there with the Bills and Ravens. I think KC has crested.

The AFC South will be a fight between the Texans and Colts. I don't see the Titans being ready yet. The Jags have the talent to compete, but something's just off there. We'll start getting answers pretty soon.

[teganslaw]

Patrick Mahomes has beaten every team in the regular season EXCEPT the Colts. He is 0-2 against them; will this be the year that changes?  Also, will the Colts finally win a game in Jacksonville?

The HOF game is July 31 between the Chargers and Lions. 8:00 EST on NBC and streaming on Peacock. Not long before preseason starts. 

[gardenman]

The Chiefs confuse me. They won 15 games last year. Great! With a 59-point differential over 15 games? So, less than four points per game? For comparison, the Eagles were plus 160, the Lions were plus 222, the Chargers were a plus 101, and the Broncos a plus 114. 

It's hard to win that many games by that few points. The Broncos game in week 17, where the Chiefs rested their starters and lost 38-0 tweaks that number a bit, but even giving them the 38 points there doesn't help a lot. If that game had ended in a 0-0 tie they'd have been a plus 97, still behind the Chargers. (The Broncos would lose 38 points in that scenario dropping them to a plus 78.) 

I saw the Eagles go into a slide with Andy Reid, where the players just stopped playing for him. We could be seeing that start to happen in KC. Andy and Spags have been there quite a while now. The players might be over them.

Travis Kelce pretty much took the Super Bowl off. If you can't get up and excited to play in the Super Bowl, you might be done. Will he want to go through the full training camp and preseason? Will he show up for lesser games during the regular season? Did they improve the offensive line enough?

KC will be an interesting team to watch this year. I suspect they're a team that's crested, and is in decline. How much of a decline and how fast of a decline? I don't see them cratering in 2025, but a ten-win season isn't out of the question. They start with the Chargers, Eagles, Giants, and Ravens. It's not hard to see them start at 1-3. They should beat the Giants, but the other games are iffier. Once you get past the Giants and Jags, there aren't a lot of games where you assume they'll win. (And the Jags could be a handful.) It'll be an interesting year in KC.

[Spurt]

@PARedbird @gardenman 

On the TV show Breakfast Ball they talked about the Hurts/Brown relationship....Dallas Goedert said the media likes to stir things up, they have a good relationship and Dallas said he likes Brown being a bit of a diva since He is a WR

[Spurt]

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@teganslaw wrote:

Patrick Mahomes has beaten every team in the regular season EXCEPT the Colts. He is 0-2 against them; will this be the year that changes?  Also, will the Colts finally win a game in Jacksonville?

The HOF game is July 31 between the Chargers and Lions. 8:00 EST on NBC and streaming on Peacock. Not long before preseason starts. 

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@teganslaw 

I can't wait for the NFL to start.....even preseason!!! That's if the entire United States isn't destroyed by all the flooding.... Sending prayers to all impacted including pets..

[Spurt]

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@gardenman wrote:

The Chiefs confuse me. They won 15 games last year. Great! With a 59-point differential over 15 games? So, less than four points per game? For comparison, the Eagles were plus 160, the Lions were plus 222, the Chargers were a plus 101, and the Broncos a plus 114. 

It's hard to win that many games by that few points. The Broncos game in week 17, where the Chiefs rested their starters and lost 38-0 tweaks that number a bit, but even giving them the 38 points there doesn't help a lot. If that game had ended in a 0-0 tie they'd have been a plus 97, still behind the Chargers. (The Broncos would lose 38 points in that scenario dropping them to a plus 78.) 

I saw the Eagles go into a slide with Andy Reid, where the players just stopped playing for him. We could be seeing that start to happen in KC. Andy and Spags have been there quite a while now. The players might be over them.

Travis Kelce pretty much took the Super Bowl off. If you can't get up and excited to play in the Super Bowl, you might be done. Will he want to go through the full training camp and preseason? Will he show up for lesser games during the regular season? Did they improve the offensive line enough?

KC will be an interesting team to watch this year. I suspect they're a team that's crested, and is in decline. How much of a decline and how fast of a decline? I don't see them cratering in 2025, but a ten-win season isn't out of the question. They start with the Chargers, Eagles, Giants, and Ravens. It's not hard to see them start at 1-3. They should beat the Giants, but the other games are iffier. Once you get past the Giants and Jags, there aren't a lot of games where you assume they'll win. (And the Jags could be a handful.) It'll be an interesting year in KC.

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@gardenman 

Yep, I think Andy's "MAGIC" is about to run out in KC...

[Spurt]

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@PARedbird wrote:

@Spurt - how sad is that with the change thing!  That guy could've ripped off the kid big time and he would've never known it!  Geez!

OMG, that's so funny!  I never heard the name Kermit for Patrick!  LOL!  I guess I missed out on that one!  

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@PARedbird 

Some Raider players came up with the Kermit thing for Mahomes.....Patrick got his revenge by beating the Raiders twice, but the scores were close....19 to 17 and 27 to 20....and now Pete Carroll is the Raiders coach and a new QB Geno Smith....and they have Maxx Crosby on D...watch out Chiefs..The Raiders will be an interesting team to watch

[PARedbird]

@Spurt - LOL!  That's hilarious about Kermit!  And now I see Mahomes doing Invisalign commercials!  Seriously??   It's our Wawa stores Hoagiefest right now and I'm surprised they don't have Jason and his wife doing commercials for them!  They had the two hoagies named after the both of them.  Like they need any more money!  They no longer have those with their names so not sure if they didn't sell or else it was for a certain amount of time.  I don't buy anything that any celebrity or sports figure hawks!

@gardenman - what really happened with Andy Reid getting the boot from the Eagles?  Makes me wonder how he's been in KC so many years and very successful.  If it was just luck that he was able to get such an outstanding bunch of players and coaches?  I'm wondering if he's one of the coaches with the most years with one NFL team.  I know that Tomlin has been there a long time, though.  Oh, and I guess Belichick too.

[gardenman]

A fun week one matchup to watch will be Cowboys rookie offensive guard Tyler Booker against Eagles DT Jalen Carter. Booker said at the draft that the player he was most looking forward to playing against was Carter. Yeah, about that. He might want to be careful about what he wishes for.

Jalen Carter isn't "normal." Carter's a high-speed wrecking ball that veteran offensive linemen need help to control. Booker won't see anyone like Carter in training camp or the preseason, as there's no one else like Carter. The kid is going to get a baptism of fire.

Assuming the Cowboys' offensive coaches are sane (perhaps a bold assumption since they're working for JJ), they'll give the kid help. Lots of help. He'll need it. If they don't, Dak will find himself being run over by Carter.

Booker's talking about how he's going to be a team leader. He'll be the alpha male of the o-line. He's likely to come out of that game a whipped puppy. Booker's still a kid, and in two or three years, he might be able to hold his own against guys like Carter. In game one, on the road, in a somewhat hostile stadium, yeah. He's going to get cooked. 

How he responds will be telling. Some guys get their confidence shaken badly and never bounce back. Some guys use it as motivation to improve. He's cocky and arrogant now, but he's likely going to get humbled fairly quickly and fairly often in the NFL. How will he respond? We'll have to see.

If I'm the Cowboys, I might start a vet ahead of the kid in that game. Maybe put the kid in a for a play or two to let him get a feel for what the NFL has to offer, but if he starts and they leave him in the whole game, he's going to get schooled. He's not ready to take on a Jalen Carter. Not many people are.

As a kid, he's going to be thinking too much and reacting too little. Nothing is natural to him yet. He'll be thinking about hand placement, foot placement, angles, his role in the play that's called, the snap count, etc., and Carter will just be attacking him. It could get very ugly, very quickly. Fun to watch as an Eagle. 

[PARedbird]

@Spurt - I'll just mention this for a hot minute and that's it.  Not sure if you follow Chris Suchan on FB but go and read his post from yesterday.  Very heart-wrenching!  Even though he has almost 4,000 comments, I also posted a comment to him.  He said he started reading thru them and plans to read them all to acknowledge everyone.  What a most wonderful person he is!!     If you happen to read thru any of them, mine begins with "Amen" in capital letters.   I posted around 10 last night.