The Gridiron Gentlemen Super Fun Prediction League: Week 1

It’s that time again…

It’s the annual Gridiron Gentlemen super fun prediction league. This year there’s a few differences. We’ll be asking for score predictions as a tie-breaker, also we’ll be running an eliminator pool (they’ll be in capitals). Finally the winner of the league this year wins a £20 primark gift voucher and a coveted Gents paper plate. If you want to hear an in depth opinion on each of these picks, check out the podcast here. Also we’d love to know what you think, so hit us up on Twitter here.

So let’s get into it. Starting with Thursday night’s game…

 

Pittsburgh Steelers @ New England Patriots

Obviously this has already happened, but luckily we’d already put together all the predictions. So let’s see how we did. Simon can be particularly proud

 

Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears

The full Sunday lineup starts with the oldest rivalry in the league. The Packers are amongst the favourites to make it to the Superbowl, even despite the loss of Jordy Nelson for the season. The Bears have a new GM, head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, along with a new defensive scheme. The Bears also are potentially without 3 of their top receivers for this game. This might not go well.

 

Tennessee Titans @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Battle of the no. 1 & no. 2 pick in this year’s draft. The Titans are a team that has apparently always been in the league, but have only just entered the Gents radar and actually look pretty good. The Bucs offensive line last year resembled automatic doors with QB’s seemingly hitting the ground with alarming regularity. Both the Bucs and the Titans have new QBs. Winston for the Bucs has a cannon for an arm, but has a tendency to throw it to the other team. Mariota however is seemingly more reliable, but in my opinion has a much lower ceiling. This should be a fun game.

 

Indianapolis Colts @ Buffalo Bills

2 of the most over-hyped teams of this off-season. The Colts added some big names to their lineup, but ignored the offensive line, which Andrew Luck can’t be too happy about. If the Colts can’t pull it together this season (and I mean I think they probably need to make it to the Superbowl), both Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano could be out. For the Bills it’s a new start after Doug Marrone drastically overrated his hype and left the team, leaving the team with the chance to pick up the enigmatic Rex Ryan, who has since told everyone who’ll listen that they’ll win the Super bowl. So who will win the hype bowl?

 

Kansas City Chiefs @ Houston Texans

There has been no team during the off-season, that has had me saying “ooh I’ve got a good feeling about them”, than the Chiefs. The Chiefs added Jeremy Maclin through free agency and in my opinion, makes a poor offence look like a fully tooled out unit. The big story in this game however is that of the 2 defences. Both Justin Houston and JJ Watt, nearly broke the sack record and will be looking to get a head start on their attempts this year. This should be an epic battle of defences.

 

Carolina Panthers @ Jacksonville Jaguars

Both teams in this one suffered some big blows in the off season. For the Jags the loss of Dante Fowler, fairly quickly after he’d packed up his gold shoes, was a huge blow to the Jags pass rush. The Panthers receiving corps was thin before Kelvin Benjamin went down for the season. Now they’re left with rookie Devin Funchess, Corey (not Philly) Brown, Jericho Cotchery and return man Ted Ginn… That’s not a great group. So both teams have flaws, but both have talent in other areas.

 

Cleveland Browns @ New York Jets

Both teams have insanely talented defences. However neither team has a starting calibre QB. The Jets are in a transition period. They have a new Head Coach and a million new pieces on defence to give them a completely different look. The Browns added some strength in the trenches in the draft, but has as weak a group of weapons as any in the league. This could be an incredibly low scoring game.

 

Seattle Seahawks @ St Louis Rams

This could be interesting. The Seahawks are undoubtedly one of the most talented teams in the league. However… through some exceptional special teams trickery, the Rams beat them last year. The biggest issue the Seahawks have here, though is a lack of Kam Chancellor, who refuses to get involved with any activities awaiting a bump on his contract. The Rams have their own problems. For starters they’ll be missing both starting running backs, who were to be integral in their offence. For the Rams to win, they’ll need to rely on defence and Nick Foles, which behind a poor offensive line, is questionable.

 

Miami Dolphins @ Washington

It feels like these are 2 teams that went in separate directions this off-season. Miami spent the last few months adding talent. Ndamukong Suh signed a giant contract to make the defensive line one to fear. Suh wasn’t alone in taking his talent to South Beach. Jordan Cameron, Greg Jennings and Kenny Stills all were added to give Tannehill some decent weapons to support Jarvis Landry and allowing them to get rid of Mike Wallace. Washington’s fortunes entirely rest on horrific QB issues, behind an awful offensive line. I think it will probably be a long season for Washington, resulting in a very early draft pick.

 

New Orlean Saints @ Arizona Cardinals

An interesting game here. The Cardinals had a great season last year, but injuries held them back from making a dent in the playoffs. Now they have Carson Palmer back after his 2nd ACL injury. However Todd Bowles has moved on to the Jets and potentially taken a fairly unique looking defensive scheme with him. The Saints couldn’t get any consistency going last year and overall were a pretty poor team. This year they’ve lost Jimmy Graham, but gained some pieces on the offensive line that should help them run the ball, or more accurately help Drew Brees throw the ball to a group of pass catching backs. SO this could be a lot closer than people think, however…

 

Detroit Lions @ San Diego Chargers

The Lions seem to have weathered the loss of one of the most dominant defensive tackles incredibly well, by adding Haloti Ngata. The season however rests on Matt Stafford’s ability to hit his vast array of weapons. The Chargers have stayed fairly quiet in the off season, but the addition of Melvin Gordon, in the long run should add an extra dimension to this team. Rivers performed to an MVP level in the 1st 7 games of the season last year. The Chargers will be hoping that with a new contract, Rivers can lead this team out of a competitive division.

 

Baltimore Ravens @ Denver Broncos

Peyton Manning’s arm has been the focus of a lot of off-season attention, thanks to what seemed like a complete QB collapse towards the end of last year. Now he has a chance to prove the Manning disbelievers wrong…if he can. The Ravens are a team I like a lot this year, with talent seemingly in every area, in fact I’ve got them as an outside bet for the Superbowl. So I guess, this week we’ll find out what Manning has in the tank, but really the big battle here comes from a pair of epic defences.

 

Cincinnati Bengals @ Oakland Raiders

When we were writing up our top 10 list, the general consensus was that the Bengals were insanely talented except in one area… Can you guess where? The Raiders have been the laughing stock of the league for a long time now, but seem to be getting their act together. Can they take advantage of an obvious area of need on the Bengals? Or are the Bengals too strong that still has a way to go in a long-term rebuilding project?

 

New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys

The more I look at this score the more I think the score will be higher in this game. Both teams have glaring issues on defence, yet both issues have dynamic offences. The Giants have a great set of weapons, including a trio of backs that compliment each other perfectly, oh and that Beckham fella. The Cowboys have one of the best offensive lines in the league, but have their work cut out for them with a poor group of backs behind them. Romo however seemed to get better and better with every game last year. The Cowboys will be hoping he continues this run straight off the bat.

 

Philadelphia Eagles @ Atlanta Falcons

Was there ever a day where the Eagles weren’t mentioned in the off-season? The Eagles seemed to be stacked on both sides of the ball, but are relying on magic smoothies to make sure their injury prone QB stays healthy. They are up against a Falcons defensive line that has finally gained some toughness, thanks to Dan Quinn coming in at head coach. The Eagles defenses are no slouch and should have a field day against a poor Falcons line.

IT’S A TRAP…game. Huge trap game. Right so everyone is onboard with the Vikings being this big “underdog” team to come in and shake everything up. The Niners had about as rough an off-season as you can imagine, with defensive players retiring all over the place. But… who knows! They still could be good! Maybe… We don’t think so though.

There we have it! Enjoy Week 1.