2012 early bird predictions for your team

[RendeR]

SO I'm chatting with macroguru earlier and it occurs to me that I haven't really looked hard at the Bengals schedule for this season.

We pull the
NFC East
AFC West
Dolphins
Jaguars


Now honestly, I want to see this team repeat its dominance of the division and sweep. Do I expect that? no, but i want it =)

So if I were to create 2 levels of prediction here I would say:

Absolute Best case we split with Baltimore and Pitt and run teh gauntlet on teh rest winning close on the road and holding our own at home.

14-2 Absolute best season IMO.

What I expect to happen is we split with Bal, Pitt, we drop games to New York and Philly and have 2 swing games with Dallas and with Denver.

SO my expectation is at least 10-6 up to 12-4


Where do you see your team finishing out? Knowing full well that before camp begins confidence is always fairly high and optimism tends to reign.

[EagleFan]

With an over-rated douchebag for a QB that probably won't stay healthy all season I can't say that I have high hopes to be honest.

[RainMaker]

I think the Bears could go 11-5 or 10-6. They were easily headed that way and I thought had one of the better teams in the NFC up until the Cutler injury.

Martz getting the boot is a huge upgrade offensively, the line should be better, and Marshall will help a lot. The defense will probably decline a bit, but they still have enough to hold their own.

My prediction is a wild card birth and a potential playoff win in the 1st round depending on the matchup.

[Matthean]

Considering the off season, I don't think the Lions are really all that better. I can see another wildcard spot, or just missing the playoffs. I don't think there is that much difference between them and Chicago.

[BillJasper]

Dolphins are probably in the running for the #1 pick for most of the year... again.

[mckerney]

2-14 to 4-12 seems very likely for the Vikings. :(

[Honolulu_Blue]

Considering the off season, I don't think the Lions are really all that better. I can see another wildcard spot, or just missing the playoffs. I don't think there is that much difference between them and Chicago.

I agree with your conclusion. If Cutler doesn't get injured, I think the Lions miss out on the playoffs last year. Their saving grace was Cutler and Forte going down and the Bears going into the tank.

I am not sure about your first sentence. Are you just referring to the off the field incidents with LeShore, Fairley and Young? Those things aside, there is every reason to think the Lions will better than last year. Eric Wright is the only starter they lost. They managed to keep everyone else. Plus they should have a healthy Fairley - his foot injury during pre-season really affected his over all season. They get an additional second round pick with LeShore healthy. Then you add in all the draft picks this year. You have a relatively young team whose core players should (hopefully) be getting better with age at this point.

I am still not sure if that puts the Lions over the top, but I think this off-season was very successful for the team. They have improved, but haven't improved enough to catch the Packers and I think the Bears have improved as well.

[JPhillips]

SO I'm chatting with macroguru earlier and it occurs to me that I haven't really looked hard at the Bengals schedule for this season.

We pull the
NFC East
AFC West
Dolphins
Jaguars


Now honestly, I want to see this team repeat its dominance of the division and sweep. Do I expect that? no, but i want it =)

So if I were to create 2 levels of prediction here I would say:

Absolute Best case we split with Baltimore and Pitt and run teh gauntlet on teh rest winning close on the road and holding our own at home.

14-2 Absolute best season IMO.

What I expect to happen is we split with Bal, Pitt, we drop games to New York and Philly and have 2 swing games with Dallas and with Denver.

SO my expectation is at least 10-6 up to 12-4


Where do you see your team finishing out? Knowing full well that before camp begins confidence is always fairly high and optimism tends to reign.

10-6 is what I'm predicting. They'll be better than last year, but the schedule will make it look like the improvement is marginal.

[larrymcg421]

Dolphins: -1 Wins, 17 Losses

[Vince, Pt. II]

The 49ers lose no one and gain quite a bit on offense with Manningham, Moss and the draftees. The schedule is markedly more difficult this year, however. Although they are light years ahead of anyone else in the NFC West, it's still a tough bet to run the table in your division, so let's give them 5-1, 4-2 on the outside. That leaves 7 difficult games and three "should win" games in the Vikings, Bills and Dolphins. I think the 49ers are better than the Jets, Lions and Bears, and about even with or slightly worse than everyone else on their schedule. I can see anything from 3-4 to 6-1 out of those remaining 7 games.

Long story short, anything from 10-6 to 14-2, and representing the NFC West in the playoffs.

[BYU 14]

2-14 to 4-12 seems very likely for the Vikings. :(

Unfortunately I agree, 6 win season could probably be considered overachieving.

[MacroGuru]

9-7 for the Bills and a potential wild card spot.

[Marmel]

The defending Superbowl Champion New York Giants have a very tough schedule and let's face it, they didn't light the world on fire during the regular season last year. It is also impossible to predict injuries, and there will be injuries. They lost a couple of secondary pieces and added a couple. Osi is resigned and should finally be happy, let's hope healthy as well.

I could see 7-9 and missing the playoffs with some bad breaks, and I could see 12-4, division champs. So let's say 10-6 and in the playoffs, where they will likely see at least one of Green Bay and San Francisco, and possibly both (although I see San Fran taking a major step back). The pay back factor will be sky high and those magical Superbowl runs can't occur every year. Out in the Divisional Round. And that's OK. Superbowls take a few years to wear off on me.

[Grover]

I'm in the 10-6, 11-5 camp for the Bengals.

[JediKooter]

The Chargers will be lucky if they go 8-8 this year. Not because of lack of player talent though.

[Radii]

9-7 for Carolina, improvement in Newton's second year with hopefully a better defense, not to the point that they run away with the division or anything, but enough to take advantage of issues in New Orleans and compete for a wild card spot.

[gstelmack]

Patriots go 12-4, into the playoffs, causing lots of angst amongst the haters out there. They then bow out in the Divisional Round on a boneheaded play by one of their importees (shades of the Reche Caldwell bug-eye drop late against Indy in the 2006 Conference Championship game), causing much angst among the fans and glee among the haters.

[panerd]

SO I'm chatting with macroguru earlier and it occurs to me that I haven't really looked hard at the Bengals schedule for this season.

We pull the
NFC East
AFC West
Dolphins
Jaguars


Now honestly, I want to see this team repeat its dominance of the division and sweep. Do I expect that? no, but i want it =)

So if I were to create 2 levels of prediction here I would say:

Absolute Best case we split with Baltimore and Pitt and run teh gauntlet on teh rest winning close on the road and holding our own at home.

14-2 Absolute best season IMO.

What I expect to happen is we split with Bal, Pitt, we drop games to New York and Philly and have 2 swing games with Dallas and with Denver.

SO my expectation is at least 10-6 up to 12-4


Where do you see your team finishing out? Knowing full well that before camp begins confidence is always fairly high and optimism tends to reign.

I think your 12-4/10-6 seems like a best case (12-4 being a little far fetched even then). 14-2? First of all Cleveland almost always gives us a game both at home and on the road so counting them as a gimmie doesn't seem right. Also you aren't even mentioning @SD or @KC as possible losses? I think 10-6 is best case with 8-8/7-9/9-7 most likely.

Likely wins: cleve, @jax, @wash, oak, dal, miami
Likely losses: @pit, @balt, @sd, @phil, den, ny
Toss up: pit, balt, @kc, @cleve

[panerd]

Patriots go 12-4, into the playoffs, causing lots of angst amongst the haters out there. They then bow out in the Divisional Round on a boneheaded play by one of their importees (shades of the Reche Caldwell bug-eye drop late against Indy in the 2006 Conference Championship game), causing much angst among the fans and glee among the haters.

Who is this causing angst for? Aren't them and the Packers the odds on favorites to go to the Super Bowl?

[MizzouRah]

4-12 for the Rams, which is an improvement.

[kingfc22]

The 49ers lose no one and gain quite a bit on offense with Manningham, Moss and the draftees. The schedule is markedly more difficult this year, however. Although they are light years ahead of anyone else in the NFC West, it's still a tough bet to run the table in your division, so let's give them 5-1, 4-2 on the outside. That leaves 7 difficult games and three "should win" games in the Vikings, Bills and Dolphins. I think the 49ers are better than the Jets, Lions and Bears, and about even with or slightly worse than everyone else on their schedule. I can see anything from 3-4 to 6-1 out of those remaining 7 games.

Long story short, anything from 10-6 to 14-2, and representing the NFC West in the playoffs.

Yea, I'm leaning towards 10-6 to 12-4, but certainly winning the NFC West.

[gstelmack]

Who is this causing angst for? Aren't them and the Packers the odds on favorites to go to the Super Bowl?

Well, the Pats doing well always pisses off a contingent (some here on this board), while a boneheaded play in a key playoff game always pisses off the fanbase (again, see Reche Caldwell).

[StLee]

I think the Saints will struggle early in the season, trying to find their identity. However, I think they'll recover enough to edge out the Falcons for the division championship.

2012 record: 11-5, #3 seed

[Dodgerchick]

Chargers are going 10-6

Who am I kidding, 8-8 at best *sigh*

[jbergey22]

2-14 to 4-12 seems very likely for the Vikings. :(

Unfortunately I agree, 6 win season could probably be considered overachieving.


They have an easy schedule so I think 4 seems a bit low. Id guess 6-7 wins as well.

[INDalltheway]

4-12 for my Colts. Probably worse.

[RendeR]

I think your 12-4/10-6 seems like a best case (12-4 being a little far fetched even then). 14-2? First of all Cleveland almost always gives us a game both at home and on the road so counting them as a gimmie doesn't seem right. Also you aren't even mentioning @SD or @KC as possible losses? I think 10-6 is best case with 8-8/7-9/9-7 most likely.

Likely wins: cleve, @jax, @wash, oak, dal, miami
Likely losses: @pit, @balt, @sd, @phil, den, ny
Toss up: pit, balt, @kc, @cleve



Thank you Captain buzzkill.

kicked any puppies today?

sheesh ;)

[k0ruptr]

Optimistically predicting 10-6 for Carolina but 8-8 might be more realistic.

[ColtCrazy]

I'm actually optimistic that the Colts will be more competitive than people think. The defensive secondary is in shambles, but the front 7 shows promise and should pressure the QB. On offense, Luck has some good receivers in Wayne and Collie and the Colts have given him some security blankets at TE, especially his buddy Fleenor. It'll be running back by committee, but Carter is a bruiser and Donald Brown showed flashes near the end of the year.

Prediction: 6-10, though 7-9 is a possibility with an easy schedule.

[Qwikshot]

Eagles will disappoint again; Andy Reid will still not be fired.

[Butter]

I think your 12-4/10-6 seems like a best case (12-4 being a little far fetched even then). 14-2? First of all Cleveland almost always gives us a game both at home and on the road so counting them as a gimmie doesn't seem right. Also you aren't even mentioning @SD or @KC as possible losses? I think 10-6 is best case with 8-8/7-9/9-7 most likely.

Likely wins: cleve, @jax, @wash, oak, dal, miami
Likely losses: @pit, @balt, @sd, @phil, den, ny
Toss up: pit, balt, @kc, @cleve

Every time I go into the season thinking the Bengals will do something, I am disappointed. So, I am with you. Fully expecting like 6-10.

Last year, I actually told people I thought the team would be lucky to win 2 games with a rookie QB and WR, and getting worse on defense. Boy, was I wrong.

[MizzouRah]

Eagles will disappoint again; Andy Reid will still not be fired.

The connected careers Madden 2013 blog I've been following has him fired right off the bat. :D