And it’s finally here. Week 1 of the new NFL season kicks off on Thursday, when the defending champion Chiefs host the Ravens, the team they barely beat for the AFC championship. On a rare early season Friday game, the Eagles host the Packers in an interesting early-season NFC matchup. Other games have the Jags visiting Miami in a battle for Florida, while the Browns are favored at home against the Cowboys. Rookie Bo Nix will be the starting quarterback for the Broncos when they visit Seattle.
What games are you looking forward to watching? Got any insider upset picks for those of us who like to place a bit of money on the NFL? Let’s hear from you!
This week’s games. All spreads taken from DraftKings on Sunday, September 1.
Reports are that he is in serious, but stable, condition. The shooting actually occurred yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, in downtown San Francisco. Pearsall had been signing autographs at an event, and afterwards, he headed to the Union Square area, where someone attempted to rob him at gunpoint. An altercation ensued, and Pearsall was apparently shot once.
The San Francisco chief of police indicates that there is no sign that Pearsall was targeted due to his status as a football player. A 17-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after the incident.
That was apparently as of being admitted to the hospital yesterday. Thankfully, he was upgraded to fair condition earlier today, and released from the hospital this afternoon. Here’s hoping for a full and rapid recovery for him.
Is there any credence to the thought that these long lasting holdouts/holdins are not just about money, but also about veterans not wanting to do training camp? As a Packer fan, I was convinced Favre’s retire/not retire/retire/not retire bullshit was not just about his need to be the center of attention, but more about just avoiding training camp.
With Trent Williams, absolutely. Not that his desire for guaranteed salary is inconsequential, but fans assume him missing training camp is more than just a bonus to him.
The Buccaneers are going to be quite good this year. The offensive line, last year’s Achilles heel, will be much better (although Sua Opeta was expected to compete for a guard spot and is now on IR). Calijah Kancey is fully healthy to start the season, and he absolutely took over a couple of games after he got healthy last year a la Warren Sapp or John Randle. Mayfield has had a whole year to get used to his receivers, though we have a new OC.
My only concern is that we have to play a first-place schedule again, although we also did that last season.
Living here in Chicago, I see a lot of Bears fans with a lot of exuberance (maybe irrational exuberance) about how good the Bears are going to be.
They see Caleb Williams, a bunch of good receivers, and a defense that was pretty good last year, and when you layer on the frustration of a decade or more of mediocre-to-bad Bears play (and being “owned” by the Packers), there is a lot of hope going on.
As a Packer fan, who lived through the lousy Green Bay teams of the '70s and '80s, I certainly understand the frustration, and the eagerness to see the team turn around, though I suspect that they won’t be quite as good, as quickly, as Bears fans seen to hope. Time will tell, I suppose.
That’s a weird article. It’s not like anything he said was terribly surprising, I’m just more shocked that a reporter set up a dating app profile to secretly record team executives.
I absolutely despise linking to Elon Musk’s nazi playground, so you can find it yourself. But Sam Hoppen of the Athletic posted a graph comparing the implied odds of winning the Super Bowl with the fan base’s optimism for the coming season. My two huge takeaways:
The Cowboys are a top 10 implied odds team to win the Super Bowl yet their fan base has the 3rd lowest optimism in the league.
Bear’s fans have a top 3 optimism for a Super Bowl, but the team’s actual implied odds are middle of the pack at best.
