The long trek through the desert is over. The NFL preseason starts tonight with the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. It's the Raiders vs. Jaguars.

The 2022 season starts in about two hours. I'm getting my picks for the Super Bowl in before then.

AFC East champion:
Buffalo Bills. The Dolphins might get into the playoffs

AFC North champion:
Cincinnati. The Ravens should be better this year and get into the playoffs.

AFC South champion:
Indianapolis Colts

AFC West champion
Los Angeles Chargers. Kansas City could end up in third place in the division. My surprise team to possibly win the division would be the Raiders. Denver is a big question mark. Will they be a contender now that they have a proven quarterback like Russell Wilson?

NFC East champion
Philadelphia Eagles.

NFC North champion:
Green Bay Packers. It's going to be close. The Vikings are better and the Packers aren't as good.

NFC South champion:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West champion:
Los Angeles Rams

Like many people, I see the Rams and the Bills in the Super Bowl with the Bills winning it all. Who knows what happens with injuries across the season. Maybe the Broncos or the Raiders benefit and upsets somebody in the playoffs and one of them ends up in the Super Bowl. I don't think Lance is ready to take the 49ers into the playoffs. They tried to kick Garoppolo out of town but he might win some games for them (again). Maybe Brady and the Bucs will go all the way for the old man one more time.

Wow, the Bills beat up on the Rams pretty good and that's even with a couple of turnovers. I think the Rams were playing with a champagne glass still in their hands. It happens a lot with Super Bowl winners. They don't play with the same fire of a team that came up short.

I am a Rams fan who is very glad they don't have to play again for a long time.

Oof for us, but good for the Bills. They've really suffered by having to be in that same division New England dominated for two full decades.

I stopped buying football cards some time ago, so I'm not as in tune with which players cards are the best to have like I used to be (and like I still am with baseball), but boy, there sure are some exciting young NFL stars suiting up these days. I expect a lot of great games and performances this year.

Watched Rams/Bills in bits and pieces. The telecasts are beginning to really ruin games for me. Just can't listen to all that "human interest" that apparently I'm not interested in.

At least the Giants and the Jets should be good for laughs again. The quarterback sagas continue.

Bills look strong. I wasn't that impressed with the Rams last year, but it broke right for them.

Why book Ozzy for a halftime appearance when you don't even show it on the telecast? At least they cut away to the talking heads as soon as he started from what I saw.

Mute the announcers and call the game yourself. It's a lot of fun!

Here's some samples to use:

That'll move the chains!
That's giving 110%!
Boom goes the dynamite!

yay what about them Dolphins.

I admit the Patriots are a shadow of the team they used to be but i have spent so many years knowing we had no chance against them that it's great to be able to watch this.

It's the Ravens next and then the Bills, i guess after those two we will know if we are any good or not.

There is no way to predict this season. There was a slew of injuries from the first games played. Some players are already listed as out indefinitely, the most notable being Dak Prescott. The Cowboys didn't look very good anyway, but without their QB it's a lost year fast. Prescott has turned into his predecessor, Tony Romo. Full of promise every year and always getting hurt and sidelined.

Jets are not even a competitive team once again. Why do the fans keep throwing their money away to watch boring losses?

Giants went for the two points and won the game. Now everyone is happy, they are kidding themselves. If Barkley didn't get in the end zone everyone would be cursing. Even with that, the Titans would have still won if it were not for the missed field goal. Daniel Jones threw a late interception in the end zone that I could have caught. The Giants are no better than last year.

My Steelers are doing the same thing without Big Ben. They just eke out early wins instead of blowing teams away. I blame Tomlin's style of coaching.

Packers look shaky, Buccaneers looked good. If his offensive line holds up Brady might just go all the way. He looks like he is 30 years old in the face. Clean living, I guess.

You got that right, Raven. It's already a weird season. The game against the Bears was supposed to be an easy win for Trey Lance and the 49ers but they couldn't even get a field goal in the second half. They talked about the heavy rain but the Bears scored 19 points in the second half in the same conditions. The Seahawks game next week was supposed to be another tune-up game for him but they played well and won their game tonight.

Yeah, the Cowboys weren't doing great before Dak got hurt. I'm not sure it makes much of a difference because they have an owner who decided he's the best guy he can get to be the general manager. A team owner is usually smart enough to find someone who knows more about running day-to-day operations than he does. Jerry Jones might know more about football and business than I do but then I wouldn't hire him to run my team either. His record stinks and it's partly because he hires yes-men for management positions. You need people who will tell you when your idea stinks. The Cowboys haven't won a Super Bowl since the year after Jimmy Johnson left and that was over 25 years ago. Jimmy is probably the last guy on the team who told him when his ideas stunk.

Whoooooooo, what about them Dolphins.

Signing Hill is the best thing we have done in years, maybe we are onto something, bring on the Bills.

Both the Jets and Giants managed to beat somebody this week. They are already in the Super Bowl if you listen to the sports reports. Wait.

Yeah, that was incredible. CBS switched over to the Dolphins game after the NE-Pit game. It was awesome to watch. I think the Ravens just relaxed a bit after it seemed they had it in the bag. I didn't see the Jets game but it appears they are better. They beat a decent team.

I was shocked that the Jaguars shut out the Colts and that the Cowboys beat the Bengals. The AFC North is up for grabs.

Philadelphia looks as good as I thought they could be.

Buffalo is a powerhouse. We'll see what the Dolphins really are this weekend.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Whoooooooo, what about them Dolphins.

Signing Hill is the best thing we have done in years, maybe we are onto something, bring on the Bills.

....and i give you the only unbeaten team in the AFC.

I'm still trying to work out how we nearly lost a game we had already won but apart from that.

What a start, can't get over it.

Oh yeah, it was one of Miami's great wins of all time, beating the Bills for the first time in years. We used to beat the Bills on a regular basis. The heat was getting to them and they still couldn't put together a winning drive after that weird messed-up punt that became a safety. I watched the clock run out from right next to the TV. Alright!

The Jaguars seem to be getting better every week.

Atlanta was supposed to be bad but they won.

The Rams and the Packers are working out the wrinkles.

The 49ers lost ugly. They would've won ugly if Jimmy G hadn't have stepped out of the back of the end zone and given the Broncos two points. Even rookie quarterbacks don't do that.

My picks were way off this week. I was doing okay but then lost the last 6 games with the home teams 1-5 in that stretch.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
....and i give you the only unbeaten team in the AFC.

I'm still trying to work out how we nearly lost a game we had already won but apart from that.

What a start, can't get over it.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by catskilleagle:

My picks were way off this week. I was doing okay but then lost the last 6 games with the home teams 1-5 in that stretch.:

Are you going by the points or just who wins? Only 3 favorites beat the points last week.

The real Giants showed up last night and it was against a Cowboys team that they should have beaten. If they lose to the Bears next week, with the Packers and Ravens coming, they are as done as the Jets. Again.

I do both. I was 10-5-1 for Week 1 and 11-5 last week but just 7-9 this week. I'm 2-5 with my line picks so far this year. I'm about 50-50 with those lifetime so I might have a better record flipping a coin. I do it just for fun - no money down. I did win a few weekly pools every season at work in the 90's when I was working in an office.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by catskilleagle:

My picks were way off this week. I was doing okay but then lost the last 6 games with the home teams 1-5 in that stretch.:

Are you going by the points or just who wins? Only 3 favorites beat the points last week.

The real Giants showed up last night and it was against a Cowboys team that they should have beaten. If they lose to the Bears next week, with the Packers and Ravens coming, they are as done as the Jets. Again.

COLT POWER!

I was wondering when that was going to appear.

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
COLT POWER!

Sorry wolfie, the Dolphins' season is in trouble, and so is the coaching staff. I can't imagine them bringing back Tagovailoa any time soon after two consecutive head injuries. There's going to be an investigation as to whether or not he should have even been playing Thursday night.

These short weeks with Monday games and Thursday games are known to cause more injuries, but they take the risks anyway. Until something bad happens and they suddenly care for a while. The defenses are too big and too fast. If a QB doesn't have a good offensive line he will have a short career. It's amazing that guys like Brady and Rodgers have lasted all this time, but the younger bunch won't be that lucky.

Cheating i call it, they will do anything to stop us.

You maybe right though, if he is out now the season is over