Every team has at least one preseason game under their belt, Favre is coming back, Vick is back, so it's the time of the year for all of the experts to start making their preseason picks. Now I understand that these are just guesses and everything changes as soon as that ball gets kicked off on week one, but you still have to laugh. ESPN's Chris Mortensen's pick to win the AFC North this year drum roll please... The Baltimore Ravens. Well, at least it looks a little better than when everyone picked the Browns last year. And even Mortensen seems to think he's way off.
"The Ravens are going to win the AFC North. Then I put them in the pool of four or five teams that can win the Super Bowl. But every time I pick the Super Bowl, I get it wrong. I know this much – two months ago when anybody asked me, I said the Patriots and the Eagles, instinctively. I think the Ravens will be right there with the Patriots, I really do."
But still what was the thought process? Did Mort like the team that has a new defensive coordinator, and lost one of its stars in Bart Scott, and one of its rising stars in Brian Leonard over the team that won the Super Bowl last year and has almost everyone returning this year. All the Steelers lost were Nate Washington (Who everyone seems to be remembering that he was a lot better than he really was now that he's gone.) , and Bryant McFadden. The only big impact play I ever remember him making was swatting away a ball in the endzone late in that Colts playoff game during the Super Bowl run in '05. But I'm sure he did more than that.
Since the NFL moved the Steelers from the old AFC Central into the newly created AFC North in 2002 (Which blows my mind actually, was it only in 2002? Seems so much longer ago.) The Steelers have won the division four times. The Ravens did it twice and the Bengals once. You know the year when they turned the division from Black and White to Color according to Chad Johnson. And we all remember what happened in that first playoff game.
If you lump the AFC Central and AFC North titles together you get 25 for the Steelers, seven for the Bengals, and six when you combine the old Browns with the new Browns.
So I'll make my expert pick and go with the Steelers as the AFC North champ this year. Not because they're my favorite team, but because they are the favorites.
"The Ravens are going to win the AFC North. Then I put them in the pool of four or five teams that can win the Super Bowl. But every time I pick the Super Bowl, I get it wrong. I know this much – two months ago when anybody asked me, I said the Patriots and the Eagles, instinctively. I think the Ravens will be right there with the Patriots, I really do."
But still what was the thought process? Did Mort like the team that has a new defensive coordinator, and lost one of its stars in Bart Scott, and one of its rising stars in Brian Leonard over the team that won the Super Bowl last year and has almost everyone returning this year. All the Steelers lost were Nate Washington (Who everyone seems to be remembering that he was a lot better than he really was now that he's gone.) , and Bryant McFadden. The only big impact play I ever remember him making was swatting away a ball in the endzone late in that Colts playoff game during the Super Bowl run in '05. But I'm sure he did more than that.
Since the NFL moved the Steelers from the old AFC Central into the newly created AFC North in 2002 (Which blows my mind actually, was it only in 2002? Seems so much longer ago.) The Steelers have won the division four times. The Ravens did it twice and the Bengals once. You know the year when they turned the division from Black and White to Color according to Chad Johnson. And we all remember what happened in that first playoff game.
If you lump the AFC Central and AFC North titles together you get 25 for the Steelers, seven for the Bengals, and six when you combine the old Browns with the new Browns.
So I'll make my expert pick and go with the Steelers as the AFC North champ this year. Not because they're my favorite team, but because they are the favorites.
Every year, the 'experts' jump on the nuts of some other team to win the North because the Steelers are just too easy and safe a pick to make.
ReplyDeleteThey like to make the reach pick so they can say 'I told you so' if it actually comes true and then make themselves look better.