Alternative Picks: 2018 Season, Week 1

With the real NFL kickoff just hours away (no one really cares about the Thursday night game, right?  Especially when it’s a bird brawl with a team with a bunch of redneck, hick fans facing off against the Atlanta Falcons?), it’s time to bring back our ever popular present series from last year, the alternative pick series, where Andy and I choose the week’s slate of games, with $1 on the line per game.

Last year it wasn’t pretty…I’m not sure we ever actually updated the final standings, but with an even split in week 17, I managed to finish the season with a 141-111 split…ignoring that somehow our math by season’s end apparently caused us to miss 4 games.

We actually picked these games on Thursday, but haven’t had a chance to post yet:

16: Andy: Ravens over Bills
15: Tony: Saints over Bucs – The Bucs didn’t look that great last year, and are missing Jameis Winston for three games, and starting Peyton Barber at RB…despite the fact that I need him to produce in several fantasy leagues, I’m not optimistic.
14: Tony: Rams over Raiders – My favorite tweet after the Khalil Mack trade: Everyone else is playing chess while Jon Gruden is playing Go Fish. Sums up what I expect of the Raiders this year. Good luck in Vegas.
13: Andy: Lions over Jets
12: Tony: Jaguars over Giants – The Giants picked up the darling of fantasy fanatics in Saquon Barkley. Wonder how many tackles he’ll have today?
11: Andy: Packers over Bears
10: Tony: Panthers over Cowboys – I’m not expecting the Norv Turner/Cam Newton experiment to yield huge riches, but with a banged up offensive line and an overrated quarterback of their own, I think the Cowboys struggle this year.
9: Andy: New England over Houston
8: Tony: Titans over Dolphins – The Dolphins return Ryan Tannehill as starting quarterback…and start preparing for 2019.
7: Andy: Pittsburgh over Cleveland
6: Tony: Chargers over Chiefs – I think this game will end up being decided by the Chargers high octane offense and the Chiefs putrid defense, rather than Andy Reid’s chronic mismanagement of his offensive weapons. That won’t cost them a game until at least week 2.
5: Andy: Denver over Seattle
4: Tony: Bengals over Colts – Andrew Luck sees his first game action since 2016, and somehow, the offensive talent around him is even worse? At least they finally seem to be focused on building an OL for him…but will he survive to 2019 to see it pay off?
3: Andy: Vikings over 49ers
2: Tony: Falcons over Eagles – I was so sure of this one…if only Matt Ryan could connect with Julio Jones where it matters.
1: Andy: Cardinals over Redskins

In our straight up picks, Andy and I both finished 10-6 in week 17 of 2017, giving me a 169-87 record to end the season (at least the math works there), and Andy finished 153-103.

We both pretty much agreed on the slate of picks above, although just to make things a little interesting, I decided to go with the Seahawks over the Broncos.