Finally, after a preseason that seemed to last even longer than your average crappy set of four meaningless games, we’re once again set for some real football.

I went back over the last couple years of picks this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to remind myself that we’ve actually done pretty well in this segment over the years. In 2013, Tony and Andy tied for the top slot. In 2014, Dr. Phil filed his picks in the comments section and beat us all pretty handily, but Tony improved by five games over 2013 in finishing third behind last year’s new contributor John Vomhof Jr.weekly-picks

Standings for the last two seasons:

2013
Tony 166-89-1
Andy 166-89-1
Maggio 157-98-1
Rich 154-101-1

 

2014
Dr. Phil 177-78-1
Vomhof 174-81-1
Tony 171-84-1
Andy 165-90-1
Maggio 156-99-1

After a year off, Rich returns. Dr. Phil will, I’m sure, make his intentions known soon. I hope we get a shot at avenging our defeat. In the meantime, let’s finally start talking some real football again. Here we go with our inaugural picks for the 2015 campaign:

Andy Tony Rich John Maggio
Thursday, Sept. 10
Pittsburgh at New England New England New England Pittsburgh New England Pittsburgh
Sunday, Sept. 13
Indianapolis at Buffalo Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Buffalo
Green Bay at Chicago Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay
Kansas City at Houston Kansas City Kansas City Kansas City Kansas City Houston
Carolina at Jacksonville Carolina Jacksonville Jacksonville Jaguars Jacksonville
Cleveland at NY Jets NY Jets Cleveland NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets
Seattle at St. Louis Seattle Seattle Seattle Seattle St. Louis
Miami at Washington Miami Miami Miami Miami Miami
New Orleans at Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona
Detroit at San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego
Baltimore at Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver
Cincinnati at Oakland Oakland Cincinnati Oakland Cincinnati Cincinnati
Tennessee at Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay
NY Giants at Dallas Dallas Dallas Dallas NY Giants Dallas
Monday, Sept. 14
Philadelphia at Atlanta Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia Atlanta
Minnesota at San Francisco Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota San Francisco

Game of the Week: Pittsburgh at New England – While I couldn’t be more thrilled that football is back, I was surprised to see the lack of true marquee games on the schedule in week one. Frankly there are some real dogs. This one won’t be, however. Two division winners from 2014 collide in the Thursday night game celebrating New England’s championship run. Not to mention, this is the first game since the ridiculous Deflate-Gate controversy. Both of these teams are likely playoff contenders again and this could be a high scoring affair in what we could look back at later as an important game for determining playoff seedings. Probably the closest contenders to this game were the Colts/Bills and Cowboys/Giants games, but the Bills are unproven and starting – snicker – Tyrod Taylor at QB, in a move that I predict could derail the entire season for an otherwise very talented team, and I think the Giants aren’t that good and Dallas is overrated.

Game of the Weak: Cleveland at New York Jets – Let’s see, you’ve got perhaps the two biggest soap opera franchises in the league right now squaring off in New York. There is some talent on these two teams, but not enough to keep it from being largely a snoozer, as both of these teams begin their annual trek toward finding out when they will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Editor’s note: Andy and Tony founded Zoneblitz. Maggio is fantasy editor. Vomhof is senior contributor. Rich is a contributor and also publisher and editor of SouthernMinn SCENE magazine, which you can find at www.southernminnscene.com.