Opening Night

by Dukeboy999

It is finally here, opening night of the NFL season. As if we all haven’t seen enough of Reggie Bush and Peyton Manning on that stupid NFL commercial for the last month. Although I will admit it will be nice to watch an NFL game that matters for the first time since the AFC and NFC championship games. And if the last few Thursday night season openers have been any indication, I am safe in the fact that I already have plans for around halftime. But in all seriousness this should really be a good game. For those of you NFL fans that like to see good defense, I believe there are some games being played this Sunday.

This season should be a good one as always, but the potential surprises seem to be few and far between. For those of us who were plagued with the verbal diarrhea of Dana Jacobson (ESPN’s First Take) probably know the Lions won’t win 10 to 12 games as she predicted. Although Calvin Johnson is the best rookie wide receiver in the last ten years, a receiver can only do so much for such a bad team. The Lions however, should have fun trying to figure out if they have a worse defense than the Bengals. The next analyst who tells me the Bengals will win a minimum of ten games should be fired, right along with Dana. The offense may just be the best in the league, but the defense will kill Cincinnati’s shot at the playoffs.

Although last year’s rookie class amazing, this one shouldn’t be too bad either. While it may be a given that Patrick Willis is going to win defensive rookie of the year, Adam Carriker will give him a run for his money. On the offensive side of the ball, I do believe that AP will win rookie of the year. The other two guys who could make it a race will be CJ and Jacoby Jones. A dark horse in the race could be Anthony Gonzalez. Who will be the biggest disappointment in this year’s rookie class? I would have said Brady Quinn, but at this point how can it not be Jamarcus Russell?

It seems to be a very popular opinion that Santonio Holmes will have a huge breakout year. I do agree that he will improve on last year, he won’t make too big of a leap. Matt Leinhart will continue to develop into a very solid quarterback, and although the Cardinals are stuck in mediocrity, Leinhart can only help that team improve. We can’t go to long without mentioning Vince Young. If I was forced to pick one dark horse team it would be the Titans, and only because of Young. I do think the Titans will struggle this year, as they didn’t make any huge improvements, but Young is a good “young” player. And please don’t compare him to Mike Vick because of his play style or because they both made the Madden cover too early. Young can actually play quarterback and run, Vick could only run.

So who is headed to Glendale for the Super Bowl? Don’t look at the Chargers because it is to hard to be that good with a first year head coach. And the popular pick, i.e. the Patriots, never seem to make it. But it is New England so don’t be to surprised when they play the Saints in the Super Bowl. The Ravens and 49ers should make it pretty deep in their respective conferences, but seem to be missing key pieces. So what will be the biggest surprise of the NFL season? Jesse Palmer making one good point about football all year.