I know you’re as excited as we are

The final week of pre-season saw the second teams (and below) get their chance to shine.

Denver Broncos

Although it was hoped that Elvis Dumervil would play some part this season, it’s not to be the case as he’s been placed on Injured Reserve ahead of the final roster. LenDale White is also out for the season after an ankle injury incurred against the Vikings. Brandon Stokley joins them on IR.

Corell Buckhalter did see some playtime but Knowshon Moreno is still not back. It’s likely we’ll see some movement here before the 53 is set.

All teams suffer with injuries, but the Broncos – as we’ve said before – seem to have been affected more than most.

Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn got roughly similar playtime, but Tebow suffered early on – giving up turnovers and 10 points. But he rushed and apart from those two series, he played well. Quinn also did well, but doesn’t have the redzone options that Tebow brings so he’ll see less playing time. Kyle Orton continues as a dependable starting QB.

Candlestick Park

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers finished the pre-season unbeaten after a good win against the Chargers at Candlestick Park earlier this week. Anthony Dixon gave a good performance on the ground, capped with a 46 yard touchdown. With Brian Westbrook injured at the moment, the Niners are thin at running back but won’t worry about Dixon stepping in for Frank Gore when needed.

Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis practised together for the first time this week… and promptly got into a fight. Apparently it wasn’t football related and Mike Singletary will soon shut that down. Both players are a big targets of Alex Smith’s and I’m hoping they do him well.

Prediction-O-Meter

No change again. Week 4 is the most worthless of the pre-season in terms of evaluating the starting line-ups, and both sets of backups had positives and negatives.

The Broncos travel to Jacksonville and the 49ers go to Seattle for the opening games on the 12th. Both teams will fancy their chances but win or lose there will be lessons to be learned and as the Wembley game draws nearer it’s going to be very interesting.

Image Credit: Marc Choquette

Well I don’t know. I’ve been away on holiday and largely out of touch for the last two weeks and this is probably the biggest piece of news that I’ve seen so far when trying to catch up with what’s been a-happening.

Leinart has struggled to impress when he’s been given the chance, and there have been well reported maturity issues but there’s also a case to be made that he’s never been given a good enough chance to impress. In either case, losing the projected started in such a key position this close to the start of the season has got to hurt.

We’ll be factoring this in when we take our Final Look and make our predictions for which teams are post-season bound.

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers edged a preseason win against the Raiders this weekend.  While the Raiders seem much improved, this was the kind of game that the 49ers needed as it proved a good test and exciting stuff (including a 57 yeard field goal from the Raiders).
Back up Quarterback David Carr looked cool and calm during his time in the game and put his marker on the position. Adams also made an impressive put return to claim a touchdown.

Aubrayo Franklin has been signed as a franchise player and returned to camp after holding out for a deal.  Travis LaBoy is also making great progress and could be a player worth watching this season.

Denver Broncos

The Broncos pulled out an impressive pre season win over the Steelers.  Kyle Orton was in great form and not affraid to put his health on the line for the sake of the game.  He made a tackle which saw him leave the field for a time.  Tebow also looked great and so it seems the Droncos have some great depth here.

Left tackle Ryan Clady is back in training after his knee operation which is good news for the Broncos this week.

Prediction-O-Meter

No change in the prediction-o-meter this week, we hope that it gets a bit more even as the NFL at Wembley draws closer.

Denver Broncos

Brandon Stokley has been showing his worth as a vet. I’ve liked him since I signed him a few years ago in a Madden franchise and he was then, and remains today, a solid 3rd down receiver. But he’s not Demaryius Thomas.

Jarvis Moss should be back soon, once his hand can have its cast removed. He might be back for the Steelers this weekend.
In Saturday’s season debut at Invesco Field, the Broncos went down to the Lions. The previously mentioned Tebow didn’t make an appearance – it’s likely he’s suffering the effects of the TD he scored in the first week of pre-season. In the meantime Kyle Orton is looking like a real quarterback. He’s doing good work in an injury-plagued offence and could, when it matters, make the difference. We’ll see.

San Francisco 49ers

After the surprise (some would say shock) announcement of Glen Coffee to retire, the 49ers have been thin in the backfield. They’ve addressed that by signing up Brian Westbrook on a one year deal. He knows he’s not the number 1 guy, but he adds depth and versatility to a team who are now looking very promising indeed.

Bruce Davis has come in as a linebacker to bolster the defense, who have been suffering injuries. Curiously, he’d been with the Broncos earlier this year after spending time with the practice squads of the Steelers and Patriots. He’s a real journeyman, and will be hoping he can stay still for a bit and ply his trade.

Last night Alex Smith had a good half, though the o-line looked to be struggling to protect him. Still, most teams would struggle against the Vikings defence.

Prediction-O-Meter

The Broncos lost to the Lions and the 49ers beat the Vikings. Pre-season, yes, but like-for-like comparisons. I’m moving the ball in San Francisco’s Favour.

It’s been a while now since we at MacTalksNFL.co.uk took our First Looks at the AFC divisions. With pre-season getting going, let’s take a look and see if there’s anything to make us re-consider our positions.

Does the road to the Superbowl go through here?

Graham is on holiday, so this is down to Andrew and Craig. Let’s start with the AFC East…

AFC East

Craig says: This is a difficult division to call. I don’t know how Graham did it last time! I have to say though, that I disagree with his original predictions.

Looking at the current line-ups and depth,  for me the Jets are the team to beat this year. They look solid all round. They have the depth, experience and youth all ready to come on to that field and make plays. The Patriots are missing Wes Welker, although he has just come back into the fold I still think it will take him a good 4 or 5 games to get back on the saddle (so to speak). The Jets are better defensively so I’ll put the Pats just behind them.

Miami have improved this off-season with a massive deal for Brandon Marshall who instantly improves this passing offence. They’ve got rid of Ted Ginn Jr (Finally!), which hopefully means we’ll be seeing more of Brian Hartline (a Mac favourite). Ronnie Brown is looking good meaning a massive boost in the running game. Give them all a season to click and next year I could see them making a push for a divisional win.

Buffalo, same as last year to be honest. They have the addition of CJ Spiller who will have a huge year in my opinion, their defence is still pretty good and they haven’t suffered any hard losses, but I just don’t see them making the push this year. Jets, Patriots, Dolphins, Bills for me.

Predictions (made 10th June 2010, revised 20th August 2010)

AFC North

Craig says: When I first took a look at the AFC North division it was quite a while ago. Over 2 months in fact. I’m still confident that the predictions I made will be how the table will finish. The Bengals took Terrell Owens to their stadium which is obviously a big help to their offence, no doubt. I’m just think that the Ravens defence is slightly better and will win them games if the offence fails to click.

The Steelers are still without Big Ben for the first 4 games – at least – and I don’t think their back-ups are good enough to lead them to victory, especially without the experience of Santonio Holmes in the team (Holmes is showing skill and maturity in HBO’s Hard Knocks, looks like a great pickup for the Jets — Andrew). The Browns are improved, but not enough to move up the table. If they keep building the squad i’m sure that could change next year though! So yeah, no changes from my point of view!

Predictions (made 14th June 2010, no change 20th August 2010)

AFC South

Andrew says: I think I called the Colts winning the AFC South as the ‘easiest call we get to make’. It still is.

Things are harder behind them though, and whilst I see the Jaguars still last I swap the Titans and Texans around in my mind every other day. I’m going to pay special attention to them through the rest of pre-season before making a final prediction, so will leave things as they are for now.

Predictions (made 12th July 2010, no changes 20th August 2010)

AFC West

Andrew says: Another division where it should be straight-forward to call the winner.

I think the Raiders are due to surprise us this year and although I’m keeping a close eye on the Broncos (as part of the Wembley Watch series) it’s too early to do something as brave as having the Raiders coming second here. I liked their play – most of it – against the Cowboys last week; thought they showed great intensity and concentration on some solid defensive stands, but offensively the first team looked toothless. There is of course, still time to sort that.

Much like the South then, as I have no trouble putting the Chiefs last and will mull over second and third as the season progresses.

Predictions (made 18th July 2010, no change 20th August 2010)

Image Credit: Carl van Rooy

More seriously, after making it back to training after condolence leave Percy Harvin left the field yesterday in an ambulance after suffering a heavy migraine. Harvin has struggled with migraines for a long time now, and it’s speculated that they have been brought on by stress but the fact is that there can be many causes that start them.

Percy Harvin is an exciting young player to watch and the Vikings and the NFL as a whole are better when he’s playing so we with wish him all the best and hope to see him back soon.

It’s been a few weeks now since I made my initial predictions for the forthcoming NFL season. The pre-season is essentially underway and the teams and players have been hard at camp.

I’ll be taking a Final Look just before the regular season starts, and we’ll all be making our predictions at that time too. So with not much having happened (really) in the last two months, this is just a checkpoint to see if I want to move any teams about and to remind everyone how we see things at the moment.

NFC East

Well, this remains a hard division to call and not just as my team are here. The Cowboys were unspectacular against the Bengals in the Hall of Fame game. But it’s hard to read much into any of the early pre-season games. Things have been very quiet from the Giants, which leaves me a little nervous and the Eagles are full of themselves at the moment.

In all honesty, I get the feeling I could place these four teams in any order and it would make sense. So no movement for now.

Predictions (originally made 20th May 2010, no change on 11th August 2010)

NFC West

The 49ers are still looking good, and are full of confidence. We’re taking a closer look at them each week in our Wembley Watch series, as we look  forward to welcoming the 49ers to the UK. If there’s any change here, it would be to move the Seahawks above the Cardinals but I think that would be brave at this point. So again, no move in this division.

Predictions (made 27th May 2010, no change on August 2010)

NFC North

I moved the Packers above the Vikings here based on Brett Favre’s retirement announcement… sort of. If that’s not the case, then there’s a strong argument to move them back into first place. Either way, I think it will be close.

The Bears and Lions are still 3rd and 4th… I can’t see that changing this year.

Predictions (made 2nd June, revised 3rd August 2010)

NFC South

Tricky again here. The Falcons have Michael Jenkins and Jerious Norwood out at the moment, with Jenkins looking like he’ll miss the start of the season. I’d like to see more from the Panthers before I move them up above the Falcons. And I don’t envisage changing 1st and 4th place at all – the Saints have a quiet confidence about them that will take some real beating to knock out of them and the Bucs are still in rebuilding mode.

Predictions (made 7th June 2010, no change 11th August 2010)

Image Credit: MPR529

Here at Mac, we certainly are. If he’s there on the 9th in New Orleans then great. If he’s not, then great.