Krupka's and Byrne's early NFL Preview by Connor Byrne and Eric Krupka of RealFootball365.com As each new day passes, the NFL season continues to loom larger. It seems like it was just Super Bowl XL and everyone was watching the Steelers and Seahawks, but the league has been through all the offseason action since. Free agency, coaching changes, a new collective bargaining agreement and the draft dominated the last few months. Now that summer is here, players and coaches are readying themselves for next month's training camp, as well as the preseason, which begins in August. Thus, now's a good time to take a look at who are the favorites, middle-of-the-road teams, and what franchises are expected to be flat-out awful in the upcoming season. Of course, there's always a surprise team or two that rises to contention during the season. You never know, the Jets could end up winning it all next season. That's a strange thought, indeed, but in the NFL, nothing's impossible. ~ ~ ~ 30.) New York Jets - QB Chad Pennington appears to be back and finally healthy again. If he can stay healthy and RB Curtis Martin proves that he can still be productive, the Jets could surprise some teams. They had a very solid draft class, and rookie head coach Eric Mangini looks to be the real deal. However, they should take some lumps this year. > http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/2006/06/nfl-preview-june150606.html
Hopefully he is, but what are they basing this on? His press conference? The first day of mini-camp? They should let the guy coach a game first before proclaiming him the "real deal" or not.
Anybody who thinks we'll be realistically ranked somewhere other than the basement after gutting the team, coaching staff and personnel staff is living in fairie land. I personally think we'll finish better than 30, but if I were a betting man, the odds are on a low finish in 2006. Signing players and drafting well is nice, but if the players have no cohesion, the team is going to suck for a while.
I'd also like to know where they got the information that Pennington is "back and finally healthy again." News to me.
Starting at #30 will only show how much better we are than that. Don't worry. I love starting at a low number.
Well according to these terrible rankers, all we can go is up. There's no way that we're worse then the 49ers, Titans, Packers, and Bills, but the other teams can be argued back in forth. But, I'm not really complaining... it will just make them more upset when we're a 7-9, 8-8 team this year.
