Are You Ready For Some Football 2016!

It's time! Camp is in full swing and the first pre-season game, the annual Hall of Fame game, is this coming Sunday between the Packers and Colts with the rest of the teams getting into it come Thursday night. I, myself, will be at the Eagles/Bucs game and I'll find a way to watch my Cards play the Raiders next Friday. Speaking of which, my Cards are #1 in several pre-season power rankings including SI and USA Today. ESPN has us 5th which is insulting. The Panthers are going to take a step back(the Super Bowl loser tends to sometimes not making the playoffs the following year) and the Seahawks are going to miss Beastmode. The Patriots being ranked #1 on ESPN surprises me not considering ESPN fellates anything NY/New England in all sports but I digress. Here is my assessment of my desert birds:

Offense

QB-Carson Palmer had a career year last year up until he dislocated his finger against Philly(I was there) which affected his passing. He's healthy again this season and he is certainly key. If he goes down at any point, the season is toast because Stanton, although a capable backup, is no Palmer and I have no faith in Matt Barkley and Jake Coker is a complete gamble even to be the 3rd QB.

RB-This season, this is the deepest I've ever seen the RB corp. David Johnson showed last year is is capable of being the top guy scoring every which way you can score. In his first month as a pro he scored on the ground, through the air, and returned a kickoff 108 yards. He had over 1,500 total yards and 13 scores in his rookie year and can only get better. Backing him up is wily veteran Chris Johnson who was having a very good season until injury cut it short. Andre Ellington, when healthy, is as good as they come. Even Stepfan Taylor can get you yards when needed. The only way this group falters is if the top 3 backs get hurt for any significant time...all at the same time.

WR-While not the yard gobbling group the 2008 squad was(three 1,000 yard receivers), they are a very good and deep group. Lead by one of the best that ever played the game in Larry Fitzgerald who has willingly taken the inside role(once owned by Anquan Boldin), Fitz is still a very dangerous receiver as he showed in the divisional playoff against Green Bay single handedly dashing the Packers hopes. The new deep threat, John "Smoke" Brown(who coach Bruce Arians joked thought his name was MFer during camp last year) has developed into a fine deep threat. The 3rd option, Jaron Brown, is a capable possession receiver. JJ Nelson and Britton Golden round out the receiving corp.

TE-This was a key part of last year's success. Jermaine Gresham had a good yeas as did Darren Fells. Troy Niklas had his best year as a pro and a healthy Ifeanyi Momah will shore up this corp.

OL-This is the question mark going into the season. The parts are solid anchored by pro-bowlers Jared Veldheer and Mike Iupati and the addition of Evan Mathis will shore up the line but last season's 1st round pick DJ Humphries needs to be game ready. And center is a big question mark and the offensive line has little depth.

Defense

DL-One of the best against the run last year but was lacking in pass rush. Well, this should be vastly different this year. Trading for DE Chandler Jones was a boon to this line as Chandler is one of the best pass rushers in the game. Drafting Robert Nkemdiche, who was a beast in college, is basically Darnell Dockett 2.0 hence them giving him Dockett's #90. 2nd year man Rodney Gunter, a draft pick I was totally against and I was made to eat crow, is turning into a good pro. Calias Campell will be the other bookend on this line and with the addition of Jones should see rush lanes open up as he'll not get double teamed as much. My hope is that we re-sign Dwight Freeney who led the team in sacks and even though he's aging, his leadership alone will help this line.

LB-Still some huge questions for this corp. This is one area Keim and Arians keep ignoring in the draft(Man would I loved to have had Shaq Thompson on this team). There is a lot of young talent like Marcus Golden, Alex Okefor(as long as he doesn't hurt himself in a hot tub again), Kareem Martin, and Kevin Minter and if Daryl Washington's limbo status can be figured out(he's been out for the past 2 seasons on an indefinite suspension), we can finally see them come together. Deone Bucannon, who was drafted as a safety, is coming together as a very good linebacker but I'd love to see him back at safety.

CB-Patrick Peterson. Enough said. One of the best in the game. Justin Bethel started to come into his own and will only get better.

S-The key hear is Tyrann Matheiu's health. He blew his knee out again last season and he's looking at coming back at the start of the season but I'd rather wait until he's 100% and not rush him back. DJ Swearinger, Tony Jefferson, and Chris Clemmons should hold down the fort until the Honey Badger comes back.

P-Drew Butler is awful and needs to go. Hopefully rookie Garrett Swanson can do well enough to replace him.

K-Chandler Catanzaro needs to find his rookie form. He can bang out a 55 yard FG but miss a bunch of extra points.

LS-Believe it or not, this is a very important position. A bad snap on a punt or a FG attempt can be the difference between winning and losing. We have 2 rookies vying for this spot as our long time long snapper, Mike Leach, retired after last season.

All in all this team is very solid and while anything can happen and how we play in one of the toughest divisions in football coupled with a pretty tough schedule(NFC South & AFC East) and 4 prime time games in the first half of the season, as long as we stay healthy we should contend for the NFC championship again. If we can vastly improve the pass rush, and I'm not just talking about sacks but QB pressures, we should be OK. I see us going no worse than 12-4 if healthy. If we lose Palmer for any significant time, we might struggle to make the playoffs. So, off to the season.

Feel free to add assessments of your favorite teams.

The Bad guy says your team will do nothing. The Super Bowl champions this year will be The New York football Giants.

Dallas might be playoff team. We'll see.

My 49ers are still gonna suck.

Doubt it but you know what might happen?

More suspensions!

Houston is gonna win the AFC.

I CANT WAIT!!! The **** am I kidding. I won't watch it at all but go to a party using the Superbowl as an excuse.

The NFC Least is the worst division in football this season. When the Deadskins won that division, that's all you needed to know about it. It's anybody's division. Even the Eagles can win the thing.

The Giants don't even belong on the same field as the Cardinals. Hell, 2 seasons ago we beat them with Drew Stanton at QB.

Oh, and some good news and some bad news about my boys. The good news is the Honey Badger is being locked up long term with a new contract. The bad news is Dwight Freeney is signing with Atlanta. So much with his talk of wanting to sign with a contender.

Dolphins and Lions fan here (gotta have a second team to cheer for if you're a Lions fan LOL), and one of the big things both teams are facing are questions about whether or not their QBs can step up and prove themselves.

Detroit took a huge hit in the off-season with Megatron's retirement, but to their credit they've added some good receivers in the wake of that to help make up for that loss (even though no one person can ever fill the gap Johnson left). Getting Anquan Boldin was a nice addition, for example. But now that he doesn't have Megatron to go to, Matthew Stafford is going to have to step up and show he's worth some of the praise that's come his way over the years. He does have ability and showed a lot of improvement under Jim Bob Cooter (dang it, that's just a fun name to say LOL) at the end of the season last year, so if that continues AND their moves at improving the offensive line work out, they could surprise some people. But with the ever-present threat of Green Bay and the rise of Minnesota last year, they've got their work cut out for them in their division.

Miami needs Tannehill to step up, period. The coaching chaos last year didn't do him any favors, but he's shown just enough ability that he really needs to make that next step, especially considering the division they're in. The Patriots constantly throw a LARGE shadow over everyone else, and both the Bills and Jets are making noise and proving themselves to be at least competitive (although I think you have to take some of the noise from the Bills with a grain of salt considering their coach LOL). Plus with Brady being out for four games this year, any divisional games in those first four weeks are going to be hyper-competitive.

Yeah, this looks like it might be Tom Brady and Tony Romo's final seasons. Both are ready for retirement.
Today, Brady just turned 39 and Romo is threatening to early retirement with those back injuries. Plus, he's almost
Peyton's age. He'll be 37, this April.

Ready? No, not really.
I usually take a while to get into the mood once the season has started.
But this is gonna be a very, very interesting season.
The AFC South will be the most interesting, I think.
The way I see it, every single of these 4 teams has chances at ending last or first in this conference. Yeah, the colts have one of the best QBs currently playing the game, but other than him, the colts roster is meh. I find the other 3 teams more balanced.
I also wonder how the Vikings & Packers will fare...Rodgers deserves a 2nd ring, but I doubt this is possible coming season. Would be a shame if such an awesome QB didn't get a second ring at some time. I wonder how many more seasons he has in him.

Brady's been lucky in not having the number of injuries that other QBs have had to face, so it's not surprising that he's still going strong and could very well have a couple years left.

On the other hand, Romo's been beat up. A lot. One more serious injury and I wouldn't be surprised if he hangs up his helmet, especially if it ends up being a third collarbone injury.

You should be more concerned with The Golden Boy, Tom Brady. Is really done next season? I believe so.

Hey, I'm a Dolphins fan. Brady retiring would be music to my ears.

But it's tough for me to see that happening. He's been healthy and pretty well protected by his offensive line pretty much all through his career, and he's a hyper-competitive player on top of that. Plus his production at his position hasn't diminished much over the years. Unless there's a complete and total collapse in his performance that's worse than Peyton Manning's decline last year, I don't see him calling it quits.

Actually, Tennessee has too many holes and young players who need to develop but other than that, I agree that the AFC South is wide open. 3 good, young teams in Houston, Indy, and Jacksonville. The AFC South is the exact opposite of the NFC Least.

Looks like Nick Foles is coming to Dallas, after all. They just lost #2 QB, Kellen Moore to
a serious ankle injury. Looks like Foles will be signed by Friday, I am guessing.

Da bears!!! Not gonna say superbowl(not gonna not say superbowl either ) But I am happy with our current roster with the exception of a few positions.

The Bad guy says how many rings do the Cardinals have? None. The Cowgirls are a joke. Tony Slowmo is done.

Too bad we suck