~NFL Season 02-03 Predictions~

Originally posted by shockwaves
You have them beating both the Jets and the Pats?  Not gonna happen.  Not a chance.  I could see them beat a few other teams on that schedule though.  The Falcons, the Cards, perhaps the Vikes again.

And I think the Lions have made more significant changes than the Vikes.  I don\'t think they beat the cowboys either, who are developing into a really good defensive team.  Anyone who knows my view on football knows that I firmly believe that defense wins ballgames.

Meh.. don\'t look at it seriously I was really just breezing through it and I wasn\'t even being that serious. And come on, they have to upset some teams. Picks can\'t be too conservative .

And the Viks have made many more significant changes than the Lions, nearly all Football mags I have read gave low offseason scores to the Lions.

Here\'s what the Viks did this offseason that experts will believe take them from a losing team, to the playoffs:

The Vikings didn\'t take a back seat to anybody in terms of turning over their personnel this offseason. Observers will barely recognize their defense this fall, which could feature as many as seven or eight new starters—and that\'s not really a bad thing considering how awful they had become. There have been a number of key changes to the purple offense as well. The Vikes dismissed future Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter, whose whirlwind tour of potential teams to sign with failed to yield a contract worthy of his slowly declining skills. He\'ll be watching games from the HBO television studios this season. In place of Carter, the Vikings brought in Sean Dawkins, D\'Wayne Bates, and finally Derrick Alexander to give Randy Moss some company. The Alexander signing was clearly their most important offseason move. If he\'s able to put last year\'s problems behind him and recapture the game-breaking performances that enabled him to post 10 touchdowns and nearly 1,400 yards two years ago, there\'s no telling what kind of seasons Moss and Daunte Culpepper might produce. Running back Moe Williams came back to the Vikings after his stint in Baltimore; he\'ll duel with Doug Chapman to back up Michael Bennett. Fresh off his first Pro Bowl, tight end Byron Chamberlain tested the free agency waters but wound up re-signing with Minnesota. He\'ll be joined by tight end Hunter Goodwin, who was brought in as much as anything to help out the Vikings\' sometimes-suspect blocking. To that end, the Vikings also used their seventh overall selection in this year\'s draft on giant offensive lineman Bryant "Mount" McKinnie and declared him the starter at left tackle. Finally, in a move that didn\'t generate as much attention as it may have warranted, the Vikes waved goodbye to the leading scorer in NFL history, Gary Anderson, and brought in veteran Doug Brien to handle the kicking.

Compare that to only this:

Moves: After finishing 2-14 last season, the Lions needed to shake things up. Detroit added supersonic speed to the perimeter—signing wide receivers Az-zahir Hakim and Bill Schroeder—and potential at quarterback by drafting Oregon standout Joey Harrington. While all three of these players should add some spice to the Lions\' offense, we certainly don\'t expect them to have a major impact. Like three grains of salt in a 100-gallon stew, the Lions have too many other problems for this trio of talent to taste fantasy success. It also doesn\'t help that Detroit lost their most productive receivers—wideout Johnnie Morton and tight end David Sloan—to free agency.

The Vikings are ranked number 4 in best offseason by Fanball, and the Lions aren\'t even mentioned.

Fanball looks at things from a fantasy perspective.  Fantasy success and value is very different from team success and value.  Besides, the Lions changed at some of the more important positions completely, such as QB and WR.  Since they already have a good RB, that could be a very good thing.

And I just found it interesting, after our arguement earlier, that you had the two biggest upsets of the Lion\'s season coming against AFC East teams

Originally posted by shockwaves


They had the 8th ranked offense of the 16 NFC teams, ranking ahead of the Eagles, Bears, and Bucs, which are all very solid teams.  Their defense ranked 12th, only better than the Panthers, Vikings, Cards, and Falcons.

Well when you have nothing significant to play for you can take more chances to get the extra 10 yards, etc (Since total offense is ranked by average offensive yards per game). Other than teams that have alot on the line and are forced to play conservatively.

Lions are ranked 16th in the NFL, and proving my theory even more is that the Bills, Falcons and Ravens are in the top 15. And we all know that the Eagles and Patriots had better offenses than they did theoretically.

That\'s because the Eagles and Pats got offense from their defense.  Same with the Bears.  The Lions didn\'t.  

The Lions also did have games where they scored 26, 24, 27, 38, and 27...all before December.

Then again, why are we arguing about the Lions?  Let\'s argue about a better team.  Like the Giants

Originally posted by shockwaves
Fanball looks at things from a fantasy perspective.  Fantasy success and value is very different from team success and value.  Besides, the Lions changed at some of the more important positions completely, such as QB and WR.  Since they already have a good RB, that could be a very good thing.

And I just found it interesting, after our arguement earlier, that you had the two biggest upsets of the Lion\'s season coming against AFC East teams

The fantasy perspective empathizes big names and big players that put up big stats though right? And wouldn\'t those big players be significant for a team\'s success and value?

Lions changes:

QB- Lose Charlie Batch (+) . Depend on inexperience with McMahon (Who barely threw 50% completions) or Harrington (-).

WR - Lose Johnnie Morton and David Sloan (TE), for secondary recievers and third recievers in Hakim and Shroeder (-).

RB - James Stewart is an average RB (/).

They made no enhancement really at QB, downgraded at WR/TE, and remain neutral with the RB.

Harrington is a great pickup for the future, he won\'t be doing much this year. Lions will play it safe by most likely starting McMahon the first few games and things will unfold from there.

And shockwaves that AFC East thing is purely coincidental cuz\' that wasn\'t even in mind. That game by game analysis was just a joke really.

Yeah, I thought the AFC East thing was just coincidental.  Just pointing it out though.

I really think Hakim and Shroeder are an upgrade.  Plus Crowell wasn\'t healthy last year, and he\'ll be back this year.  That means they\'ll be better at WR, if you ask me.  Harrington was the #1 QB in the draft in my opinion, even above Carr.  Sure he\'ll struggle as a rookie, but he can definitely be a dangerous player.  He also has shown time and time again that when under pressure, he can step up, and deliver for his team.

As for fantasy values, I don\'t think they are the same as the value for the team.  For example, fanball rates Michael Bennett above Antowain Smith, Jerome Bettis, and others at RB.  Would you say that he is more valuable to his team than Bettis or Smith though?

Fanballs cheet sheet is horrible even in the Fantasy world. I disagree with it in 100 places.

All cheat sheets are horrible.  Everyone I looked at ranked James above Faulk last year.  I had the #1 pick in a league, I took Faulk.  And I\'m damn glad I did.  They overrate players left and right, and are all about picking players high who have a good "upside".  That\'s why rookies always seem to be above proven vets.  It\'s horrible.

Fanballs\' cheat sheets in particular are horrible. I would post the cheat sheet I\'m gonna use for our draft, but, I\'m not that stupid.

I made my own cheat sheet last year, and I already have again this year.  Fun stuff

Funny, I was making one up over at Geocities but I\'m just too lazy. I may later. They are indeed fun to make.

Originally posted by Vapor Snake


The fantasy perspective empathizes big names and big players that put up big stats though right? And wouldn\'t those big players be significant for a team\'s success and value?

Lions changes:



WR - Lose Johnnie Morton and David Sloan (TE), for secondary recievers and third recievers in Hakim and Shroeder (-).

RB - James Stewart is an average RB (/).

They made no enhancement really at QB, downgraded at WR/TE, and remain neutral with the RB.

 

you dont follow football or the players who play it do you

No dude, your just being a bit biased. Come on, one of my best friends is a Lions fan and he says that he\'d be happy to see them win 6 games.

ahoy-hoy

[In an axious voice]  How bout them Patriots????

(Red Sox will fight back to first base no doubt in the 2k2)

Go Yankees

And go Jets too