Mike, On the East Divisions (NFL)

After spending the past four years at a college in Ohio, I’ve become used to hearing many gripes about how the media has an East Coast bias, and how Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington run the country when it comes to big time sports. Look, I can’t help that we have bigger (and better) cities with older, more traditional sports teams and loads of disposable income. When you have a city of over 10 million people that has nine major professional sports teams in the four major sports (yes, hockey counts) with four – count ‘em, FOUR full-time sports television stations, then you can have a legitimate complaint. Anyway, my gift to all of you is holding off the East divisions until third. Sure, people on the left coast won’t be happy, but they’re not even awake to watch half these games, so who cares?

Now that that’s off my chest, the previews:

AFC East
It pains me to say that I don’t think my team will make the playoffs this year. If you want one date that could very well determine the final AFC wild card team, circle October 21. The New York Jets will head to Ohio and battle the Cincinnati Bengals. I think these will be the last two teams standing, and the winner here will most likely keep playing past Week 17. The Jets are better with the addition of Thomas Jones, but a second-place schedule could be their undoing (although Tennessee and Kansas City are easier games than Buffalo’s trade off of Jacksonville and Denver). Regardless, this has all the makings of a 9-7 team that will finish seventh overall in the conference.

The Bills, meanwhile, continue to dislike the idea of having good running backs on their teams. With McGahee gone to Baltimore, you might not find a happier Jets fan than me. Losman, however, appears to have turned a bit of a corner, and Lee Evans will always give opposing secondaries fits. If Buffalo wants to win, they’ll have to do it with defense and special teams, winning the turnover battles and consistently giving their offense, who won’t run the ball well, good field position. They will play on Monday Night Football for the first time since 2001, though, so at least there’s one positive to this season.

I sincerely hope Ted Ginn, Jr. has a good ROI, because Miami passed up a future franchise QB for a guy who runs really fast… and that’s about it. He’s never been a great route runner, and I think Ginn is closer to Dante Hall than Michael Irvin as far as playmaking abilities are concerned. You just don’t take a special teamer with the number 9 overall pick. This will severely hurt the Dolphins, Trent Green at QB or not, and they’ll finish the season looking up at three teams once again this year.

Oh, and I almost forgot – the Patriots are good. Really good. Really really good. Really really really… ok, you get the point. Actually, the Pats are vulnerable as the season begins because of Rodney Harrison’s admission to using HGH, which will sideline him 4 games. This comes on the heels of placing Richard Seymour on the PUP list, costing him at least the first 6 games. If you’re going to beat NE, you better do it before Columbus Day. After that, it’s the postseason express, taking all ticketed passengers (and bandwagoners) straight to January.

Pick: New England, New York, Buffalo, Miami

NFC East
I like to call this division “half-and-half.” There are two teams that could win the entire NFC, and there are two teams with an outside shot at the top overall pick come April. The losers first, and what better place to begin than the home of football’s most famous “retiree” (read: quitter) – New York. Yes, the Giants will be awful. The only reason the G-men were successful last year is that Tiki Barber ran through defenses like water through a sieve. When he stopped caring and announced his retirement midway through the season, the team went south, not because of the distraction but because Tiki wasn’t caring and producing like normal, so the pressure shifted to Eli Manning. This year? No Tiki at all. If you’d like to see the stereotypical “deer-in-headlights” look, check out Eli around Week 10.

Competing with the Giants for the “ultimate sucky NFC East football team” title this season – your 2007 Washington Redskins! Recently, one esteemed football publication commented that the Redskins have possibly the best two safeties in the league. That’s fantastic news, and it’ll be even better news when they find 20 other players to play along side them. Seriously though, this is an old football team offensively outside of Jason Campbell, they have very little O-line depth, and the front seven gets no pass rush, making the secondary vulnerable. Tough to win with that recipe.

Philadelphia’s won four of the last five division titles, and everyone seems to think they can do it again. The problem is the health (and also relative incompetence at times) of Donovan McNabb. Word is that it takes at least a full year, maybe more like 18 months, to recover the injury Donovan sustained last November. With no Jeff Garcia, the Eagles are pinning their hopes to what is quite frankly an overrated QB. Westbrook is a legitimate stud, but if they’re going to insist on throwing him the ball instead of handing it to him, they could wind up on the road come playoff time.

Dallas will suffer not having Bill Parcells on the sidelines. Every other team that’s watched Bill walk away has, so why should Dallas be different? The only key here is Tony Romo. If he recovers mentally from the dropped snap in Seattle last winter, this will be the team to beat in the East. If he’s shaky, new coach Wade Phillips might have some interesting decisions to make under a very large microscope named Jerry Jones. Texas takes their football seriously, and with large expectations, the Cowboys – Romo and Phillips in particular – will be expected to produce winning results.

Pick: Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, New York