Saints and Jets under

Pats have won (at least) 12 games in 7 seven straight season. South Point obv. opens with Pats at 11, gets hammered.

on paper this is the most loaded Pats team since 2007, but the Brady regression factor looms as a big question mark I guess.

Ravens 9.5 UNDER
Raiders 9.5 OVER
Titans 9.5 UNDER
Colts 9 OVER
Vikings 8.5 UNDER
Cardinals 7.5 OVER

What is Cowboys o/u?

Bucs OVER
Vikings OVER
Bengals UNDER

were first impressions

I liked falcons under last year so don't follow me.

Some years atleast one AFC East team has hype but all 3 of those teams have none going into this year as well.

NFL players need to hire the lawyers that got the hedge fund guy a settlement from Cosmo in Las Vegas. Jury came back with a $160M compensatory award which was wiped out by the settlement. They were also asking for $450M+ in punitive damages and one juror said she didn't think anything less than $400M would have hurt the casino. Settlement wasn't disclosed but seems likely to be north of $200M which is pretty good work for a client who got a concussion, a bruised eye, and some bumps/bruises on his legs and arms.

the players could get the best lawyers in the world if they market the negotiations as a venture law play. assuming, of course, that they can find a firm willing to forgo the business of 32 billionaires forever.

Well we all know MIKE is an unhireable name for coaching, so clearly RYAN is an unhireable name for GMs.

Seeing 9.5 on oddschecker

film on prescott, he will have quite a regression....still wouldn't even consider betting the under there

Thanks - that's the right market imo - their schedule is tough

NFL Top 100 has started up and from 81-100 we've already got Alex Smith>Clay Matthews>Hightower>Damon Harrison>Peterson>Butler>Bosa.

oooooooooooooooooh weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Well Matthews doesn't deserve to be near the list any more. I think there's a decent chance he might be asked to take a pay cut this year to stay with the Pack

Hightower lol. Isn't he going to be a third string back this season?

There's more than one in the league--pretty sure it's Dont'a not Tim.

Oh yeah. Forgot.

ferreals?

I'm looking forward to the Peterson highlight package. 72 yards, 1.9 ypc, no touchdowns and a fumble

Inorite, he's got to be ahead of Dujuan Harris on the depth chart.

We'll see how long the Mike Davis era lasts...

He had such a hot rookie season statistically that some regression is likely, but how much makes sense? They were the lowest pass percentage team in the NFL last year and I don't expect they'll be trying too hard to change that if they can help it. They were already moving in this direction with Romo in back in 2014, which worked once they had a line and a real running threat to take some weight off, both of which are even better now.

I'm sure the tape already shows vulnerabilities but being able to exploit them is something else, his protection (incl from Zeke) is solid and has solid short targets that get open quickly, and he's mobile. I just don't know there's a magic bullet for Dak scheme-wise, but instead his biggest regression threat is their own defense, which is (as usual) a liability.

They quietly landed 2 serviceable defensive starters from last years' draft with a couple more (including Jaylon Smith) yet to play from that class, if they recover from their injuries. And they loaded up on defensive picks this year too...

But for 2017 they're deep in a rebuilding process and don't really have any studs outside of Sean Lee (when healthy), and Byron Jones is pretty good. The rest are a mix of super-young guys they hope to develop and some JAG free agents. They lost a ton of experience in the secondary between Carr, Claiborne, Church and Wilcox going even if a sensible move for the long-term.

If I had to guess at their defensive starting lineup today, it would look like this:

RDE: Taco Charlton*
DT: Maliek Collins
DT: Tyrone Crawford or
LDE: Tapper*? Lawrence? an actual taco?

WLB: Sean Lee
MLB: Jaylon Smith*, Anthony Hitchens
SLB: Damien Wilson

CB: Orlando Scandrick
CB: Nolan Carroll, Anthony Brown or Chidobe Awuzie*
SCB: Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis*, or
FS: Byron Jones
SS: Awuzie*, Jeff Heath*, Robert Blanton, Kavon Frazier*

*0-1 NFL starts

So I think the biggest regression threat (obv after injury, or injuries to Zeke or the line) is Dak finding himself more often in situations where the team is behind on the scoreboard. He was good in 4th quarters but Dallas was never blown out with Dak starting - his 3 losses incl playoffs were all by 1-3 points and he was good in one of those, with another being his 1st NFL game. That's pretty unlikely to happen again.

I definitely wouldn't touch the under either though. Not after winning 13 of 15 meaningful reg season games and with the same offense coming back, even if they were pretty healthy last year.

Actually, it has been brought to my attention that apparently Kyle Shanahan is in love with 4th round pick RB Joe Williams, to the point that he convinced Lynch to draft him even though he wasn't on their draft board. The only minor flaws with Williams are he was kicked out of UConn for theft, retired from football for a month at Utah until other RBs got injured, fumbles at an alarming rate, runs too high, and can't catch or block.

& they drafted C.J. Beathard in the 3rd round because he was the QB in the draft who reminded Shanahan most of Cousins...even though he'll turn 24 during next season, was projected to be a 6th or 7th rounder, & appears to have issues with things such as making quick decisions, reading defenses, & feeling the pass rush.

Perhaps this is a Shanahan issue...

Bills refuse 5th year option on Sammy Watkins.

The Bills are finally making cold hearted business decisions. The Whaley Era is officially over. No more crazy $100M contracts for a DT who can't stay sober or a star WR who unfortunately can't stay healthy.

Watkins is now in a contract year. If he stays healthy and balls out, he either gets an extension, franchised, or a big contract with someone else. I like it.

Interesting. $13.26m is pretty steep (only 5 WR have contracts with a higher average value - Antonio, AJ, Julio, Dez & Demaryius). The franchise tag would probably cost only about $2m more next year, but if they used it on him they couldn't use it on someone else.

The scariest part about the 5th year option is the injury guarantee, so probably the correct decision, although I think it's close.

Not sure why him getting a big contract with someone else would be a good result, though?

Bills are just clearing the way for the next big Pats FA pickup