Ahh, the NFL. A league where a team from St. Louis can play in the West while a team from Dallas can play in the East. According to the NFL, Indianapolis is in the “south.” I live in Indy and all I have to say is if the south has the blizzards and below zero days that I’ve seen here, I don’t want to know what the “north” is like. Maybe when they did the 2002 realignment they were just thrown off by Peyton’s accent or the fact that Indiana hasn’t voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1964. On to the picks….
1. Indianapolis Colts – Who else? I’m not about to go against a team that has won at least 12 games 5 years in a row just because their Hall of Fame QB hasn’t been seen this preaseason. I think the only thing that could stop them from taking the division would be is Manning’s knee injury becomes as suspicious as Marvin Harrison’s from last year and we just never see him on the field. Yes, the Jim Sorgi/Quinn Gray/Jared Lorenzen era has some of the locals frightened, but at least some have been distraction by the new Lucas Oil Field…..uh I mean Stadium.
2. Tennessee Titans – I don’t really like or trust Vince Young, they have terrible receivers, and their running game isn’t very good either (unless my fantasy sleeper, Chris Johnson, has a great year), but I absolutely love Tennessee’s schedule this season, and their dominating defense. I love it so much that I think they will edge out Jacksonville for 2nd even though Jacksonville is a better team. They don’t play any road games outside of their division against teams that had winning records last year, and they get to face the Steelers, Browns, Vikings, Packers, and the Brett Favre interception machine at home.
3. Jacksonville Jaguars – The Jaguars return with the same strong running game and defense of last year, and maybe their tight game with New England will make them even more battle ready this season. I think they will be in the playoffs for sure as a wild card, but I still think its an uphill battle to steal the division from Indy, which will probably lead to another close divisional playoff loss in January. Even as the 6th seed in playoffs, they are more than capable of knocking off a division winner on the road.
4. Houston Texans – The Texans played a lot of close games last year, most of them shootouts with one of the many bad teams that they had on their schedule. They did take care of business against most of them though, and finished with the first .500 season in their history. It’s too bad that they play in an absolutely loaded division though, because they probably could fight for 2nd place in a lot of other divisions.
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