NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 8

by | Oct 24, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

The Houston Texans took advantage of an injury-depleted Baltimore Ravens defense on Sunday but also stymied what had been one of the league’s more interesting offenses at times during the 2012 season en route to putting an impressive beating on the once-vaunted purple-and-black.

It was the latest and most convincing win in a season full of them so far for the Texans. It also erased the sour taste of a blowout defeat at the hands of the surging Packers from a week earlier.

It leaves the Texans with a 6-1 record heading into the bye. And don’t expect them to let up once they return from a week off. “This team is one of the more focused in the league,” says Barrett Walton, managing editor of Texans Bull Blog. “The rest of the schedule is fairly weak with only the Patriots and Bears looking like reasonable challenges.”

Walton sent a lengthy collection of thoughts that we’ll soon turn into another post. In the meantime, suffice it to say that he thinks this is a team that football fans should get comfortable watching for the next few years. “This franchise is built to last,” he says. “And you can expect to see this team on top for several years to come.”

Walton also joined us as this week’s guest blogger for the pick segment for week eight.

By all appearances, week seven was the easiest one for picking so far. In our confidence pools, several people got every game right or missed just one. On Zoneblitz, an easy week means Andy and I only got three wrong, while our guest blogger Kevin McCauley from the Acme Packing Company missed just two.

That moves our guest celebrity bloggers to a three game lead over me and a four game lead over Andy for the season: (more…)

NFL Picks, 2012 Season, Week 7

by | Oct 16, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

It’s been an up and down season for Green Bay so far, but the Packers came out of hiding on Sunday night. A six touchdown performance by Aaron Rodgers showed that the green and gold still has at least the opportunity and talent to put a beat down on any team in the league.

But they still need to gain some consistency.

“I think we’ll know whether or not the Packers are back on track if they can put together a consistent string of victories,” says Kevin McCauley, managing editor of the Acme Packing Company blog. “While the win over the Texans was great and could end up as the catalyst that jump-started the Packers’ season, we didn’t learn anything on Sunday night. We know the Packers have the talent to drop six touchdowns on anyone. What we don’t know is whether or not they have the mindset, depth and coaching to perform consistently.”

McCauley is our celebrity guest blogger for week seven. Week six was another close week, despite there being numerous differences in picks amongst the three of us—our guest blogger eked out a one game margin, going 8-6 for the week vs. 7-7 for Andy and Tony.

Week Six Season
Celebrity Blogger 8-6 55-36
Tony 7-7 53-38
Andy 7-7 52-39

This week, not nearly as much differentiation, as Andy & Tony matched all picks, while McCauley places his faith in the Vikings, Buccaneers and Steelers.

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Nine free agents likely in demand this evening

by | Mar 13, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Free Agency

Happy New League Year, everyone.

We’re just a few hours away from kicking off the brand new NFL calendar, which starts with the beginning of free agency (click here for some free agency rules, regulations and facts and figures).

We’ve been winding our way through a series of posts based on interviews with team bloggers over the last couple months and within a few days we will have posted one from each of the 32 teams.

While hundreds of players will change hands over the next few weeks, a couple handfuls came up as guys who will be in high demand, either from their current teams or from rivals who will be trying to steal those players away.

This is far from an exhaustive list, but here are nine names that have come up regularly in our research. Any thoughts on other players who will be hot targets or on where these guys will end up? (more…)

In depth: Houston Texans

by | Mar 7, 2012 | 2011 season, 2012 season, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

It took a few years for the Houston Texans to build a playoff roster. But now that they’ve made that first appearance in the postseason, it looks like this is a team that could stay there for awhile.

This team has talent up and down the roster, enough so that team officials and observers are prepared to lose star defensive end Mario Williams with nary a blink of concern.

Williams, quarterback Matt Schaub, running back Arian Foster and wide receiver Andre Johnson are just a few of the stars who felt the injury bug throughout the 2011 season and Houston still advanced to the second round of the playoffs. With better luck on the injury front and a couple of complementary players at a couple positions in the offseason, the Texans will be a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl in 2012, according to Barrett Walton, managing editor of the Texans Bull Blog.

Zoneblitz: The Texans are coming off a franchise-best 2011. How well is this team set up to compete in 2012 and beyond?

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Five teams on the upswing in 2012

by | Mar 7, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

As the NFL closes in on free agency and then the draft, we’re closing in on the end of the “In Depth” series of reports we started publishing in mid-January on each of the league’s teams.

In getting a look at most of the franchises through the eyes of people who observe them more closely individually throughout the season than I do, I’ve learned a lot about what went right and wrong for them in 2011. A handful of them stand out as teams that could really make a jump, if they catch a few breaks, in 2012.

There’s a lot of player movement that will happen between now and late-July when training camps open, but here are my early picks for who could become the surprise teams of 2012.

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