Chaos Monkey is just my general term for random unexpected shit happening.

I think that Seattle and Carolina will each be really good this year and win their division.

I think that both the Saints and Rams will have a hangover season. I put the Saints in as a WC, but that was as much of a homer pick as anything. Could have been the Rams just as easily. (I don't trust Wentz's health, or it could have been the Eagles, too).

And, yeah, the Rams could easily go 13-3 and win the Super Bowl for all the reasons you stated. But this is the NFL. There's always a team expected to finish at the bottom of its division who makes the playoffs and a team expected to win its division who misses the playoffs.

Bill Belichick wins the AFC East, and everything else is up for grabs.

Hard to argue with your logic hehe.

I think the Saints will be right back there too. A little regression but not much.

My pick for the drop is the Bears. They got by on great D, but that D took some hits this offseason. So I expect the D to drop back from phenomenal to just very good, forcing the team to turn to Trubisky more to win for them. And they will discover he is not that QB. More Kirk Cousins than Drew Brees.

The defense will be upgraded. Rapp and Weddle are upgrades over Joyner last year (Joyner the year before is another question).

The offense will be all about the offensive line. If they give Goff time, the offense will be fine. Reynolds got major playing time and contributed last year, this is a plus, because the Rams are now 4 deep at WR. A Kupp injury this year will not be as bad as last year (will still hurt since he is Goff's security blanket). Sullivan was replacement level last year. Unless Allen completely craps the bed, that should, at least, be a minor upgrade. Noteboom will not play at the same level as Saffold last year, but he is solid. Whitworth's play the last few years has been otherworldly, there will likely be some regression, but they should be fine.

That said, they will still struggle against teams that can pressure the QB without having to blitz. So teams like the Bears, Eagles, and Pats will give them trouble, but I have faith that McVay will have some new wrinkles in the offense to counter that.

I'm not even 100% sure what Antonio Brown is trying to convey here

Antonio Brown posts his displeasure with fines from #Raiders pic.twitter.com/0OMhdwFu7K

— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) September 4, 2019

I'm not clear....

Well we apparently all have to pay for something.

Does he accept MasterCard?

Seems likely that neither is Antonio.

The greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Plus Brees was given up on by his first team, had another refuse to clear him medically in FA, and plenty of outsiders(/Boston media) have wanted Brady out the door for a decade plus. Anyone in their right mind would've taken Andrew Luck long term over either 5 years ago. They have good support systems around them & the character/work ethic that leads to long term success, but it's luck that both are still good 20 years after being drafted.

AFC win-total projections: Patriots No. 1, Texans atop division - NFL.com

Raiders reportedly 'planning to suspend' Antonio Brown after incident between WR and GM Mike Mayock - CBSSports.com

Who would have predicted this?

Just LOL at the Raiders and AB

Raiders are looking good in pre-season

Where on earth did I leave that popcorn emoji?

Raiders (paraphrasing): "Hey, you're supposed to come to work and stuff, we're paying you."

Anotnio Brown (exact quote): "When your own team want to hate but there's no stopping now devil is a lie. Everyone go to pay this year so we clear"

Ah, OK. I can see both sides of this, they both make great points.

Check that new snacks bowl on the table.

You know, the one that looks a lot like an old football helmet.

They'll give in and Brown will win. Just like he did in Pittsburgh, just like he did with the contract, just like he knows he will here.

I dunno. For a guy like Mayock, this is his first real test about showing he can be a GM and run a football team rather than be a pundit, and Gruden probably isn't the right guy to fuck with. I think there's a very solid chance they will go after his bonus and just walk away at this point.

The difference is they will be lucky to win 5 games (whereas Pitt was always trying to win a Super Bowl), Gruden and Mayock have a ton of job security and the whole organization is in a holding pattern until Vegas. I could see them holding a strong line with AB this season.

The line has to be "Show up and practice and play or we will take away every dollar that we are allowed to take away (including recouping bonus) under the CBA."

At this point, I think that the fans would be behind the team just getting rid of AB and getting the cap relief.

I might keep him under contract and suspended myself. Screw him. He can wise up his act and come prepared to play, or he can sit on his ass on suspension with no money and no legal way to play for another team until the end of his contract.

I would guess they would not be allowed to suspend him more than a game or two. He will win a grievance for a suspension over that.

BTW, he actually hasn't gotten paid a dime yet. Antonio Brown may end up getting no payment at all from the Raiders – ProFootballTalk

Woah. The signing bonus was only $1,000,000? And he actually had to do things to earn it?

I blame the agent for that. He had to know how crazy AB was. You've got to get that money up front.

So how long until Antonio Brown is a Patriot?

NFL Fans Already Worried Antonio Brown Is Going To Land With Patriots | New England Patriots | NESN.com

It seems obvious

Unless he's just too far gone mentally.

Sorry, but that anthem singer looked and sounded extremely pretentious and pompous.

Greatest team in NFL history?

Bears defense looks scary already, although the Packers seem to have a bit of a questionable blocking scheme as well right now

Did you see the HULU commercial? Pretty risque in todays environment

Snooooooore.

Trubisky still doing what I saw a lot of him doing last year - lock in on one receiver, and ignore everyone else.

Is Trubisky officially a bust yet?

Super Bowl favorites eh?

wow what a prelude to an exciting NFL season :)

Some serious rule emphases coming to help offenses after that snooze fest. They might just start calling defensive holding on every pass.

It's been sloppy football early in every season recently.

I understand why Cohen will still split touches with him, but I like the parts of the Bears offense that involved David Montgomery more than the parts that focused on Mike Davis & Cordarrelle Patterson.

Montgomery looked pretty strong in limited action. Trubisky just couldn't find an open receiver to save his soul.

The Bears were just hopeless on offense. I think Nagy can take a lot of credit for that with his predictable play calling and not knowing how to attack the Packers.

Trubisky looked far better and more consistent than last season. He had 2 bad throws, but his receivers were doing him no favors. Overall I felt he did his job.

I already hate seeing Patterson on the field. Montgomery and Davis both looked solid. Cohen not so much.

The Oline should be better and needs to play better.

I'm hoping this can be chalked up to the starters not really playing at all during the preseason.

Gabriel is basically the same player with a lot better hands on offense. As a kick returner you will love Patterson however. You also have Cohen taking them little flat screen passes. Not sure how he plans to keep 3 players involved that basically get their yardage the same way. Did Burton even play tonight?

Same Bears team. Defense is real good and offense is bad. Trubisky is brutally incompetent. I know Chicago fans were hoping for a Super Bowl run, but you just can't do it with a QB that bad. Should have made a run at someone like Foles.

Also how the fuck do you throw 45 times in a 10-3 game? Nagy showing yet again that Fangio was the reason that team was good.

He was inactive. Injury.

Given how little people play in the preseason, having these huge division games in week one doesn’t make a lot of sense. You could tell neither QB had played in 9+ months. The first two weeks should be non-conference like most college games. But, I will take the win for GB. If this D is half decent and Rodgers can get a handle on LaFleur’s system, this team might be decent.

Or, ya know, the teams could play them at least a little bit in preseason to avoid that.

But I don't really think it was much of that. More the Bears D is really good, and the Bears QB is not really good.

Robinson had a couple nice catches up the sideline, Gabriel at least one good one on a comebacker, Montgomery the nice one on his only target. Trubisky was completely locking on one guy, and while he did a good job evading pressure he seemed like he was always missing open guys after the play broke down.

If I'm looking at the pbp correctly the last called Bears run was with 9:47 left in the 3rd & they called 33 straight pass plays after that despite never being down more than a score. (And the Bears DL actually getting even better pressure than the Packers imo.)

Some people have the worst luck in life:

O.J. Simpson is Upset He Chose Andrew Luck & Antonio Brown For His Fantasy Football Team (VIDEO) | Total Pro Sports

I saw many many plays, even with the limited angles we had, where there were very open receivers. Watch his eyes - he fixates on a single receiver.