No, that’s not a snapcount. It’s a countdown to some key dates in the forthcoming NFL season.

In thirteen days the Bengals face the Cowboys in the Hall of Fame game. It’ll be the first chance to get a look at Dez Bryant, Jermaine Gresham and the other rookies. Antonio Bryant in a Bengals uniform and the always entertaining Chad Ochocinco.

In forty-five days, the mouth-watering matchup of the Minnesota Vikings at the New Orleans Saints. That’s a heck of a way to open the regular season and a game I suspect we’ll be staying up for it.

And in ninety-seven days we’ll be at Wembley (for the forth year running!) as the NFL comes again to the UK. This year the Broncos visit the 49ers. We get to see Alex Smith, Frank Gore and the rest of Mike Singletary’s 49ers as well as the Broncos. We’ll be keeping an eye on both of these teams in the build-up to October 31st.

Coming up in the next few weeks we’ll gear up for our in-season mode, which features predictions on every match as well as in-depth looks at three matches a week. Before then we’ll make our predictions on the post-season and keep our eyes on the big stories and how they’ll affect our predictions.

Keep visiting!

The run that the Saints went on took us by surprise. Indeed, from the pre- and off-season Graham and I both fancied the Panthers to be the err, big dogs of the division. As it happened, they were pussycats and the Saints went marching on and it’s now history. But enough of me murdering metaphors…

This NFC South has been particularly well balanced in recent years, with all four teams making the post season and each team has made the championship game and all but the Falcons made the Super Bowl since 2002. That could make things hard, but could make them fun too!

So let’s take a look…

… More

A great night of football last night! It was a shame about the Gampass problems (for those that use it), lets hope they get it right for next week and give everybody some kind of compensation.

Philadelphia Eagles
Donovan McNabb suffered a broken rib during the game against Carolina. It is not yet known how long he will be out for, but Michael Vick must be getting on edge now.
… More

As we mentioned before, we’re keeping an eye on what’s happening in the pre-season. In case there’s anything that will affect our predictions for the 12 post-season teams (coming soon!)

Well, there have been a whole load of injuries… here are just some that could have wider impact.

Note that this update does not cover the four games that took place on the 13th August.
… More

Our second look at the NFC South Predictions, now just a few weeks before training camps open.

… More

Continuing our series to look at our favourite players in each position, we take a look at our second favourite of the defensive line.

We can’t vouch that these will be the best players in absolute terms, have the biggest fantasy foootball upside or even be any good (though they might be)… but they’re players that we like to watch.

Number 2 in our list is Will Smith.

… More

Renaldo Wynn – Defensive Lineman

In the first of an ongoing series to look at our favourite players in each position, we take a look at good old D-line.

We can’t vouch that these will be the best players in absolute terms, have the biggest Fantasy Football upside or even be any good (though they might be)… but they’re players that we like to watch.

We start this series with… Renaldo Wynn.
… More

www.nfl.com ran an article this week and unfortunately the writer was not credited, but I loved the article all the same. They stated “Certainly, McAllister remains popular with Saints fans”, but I think it is fair to say that McAllister remains popular with fans the world over.

… More

To me the Saints were one of the most exciting teams to watch last season. Going forward they were fantastic, but they always struggled in defence.

This year they have taken steps to tighten things up by taking on former Jaguars defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Williams’ input on turnover strategy could turn things around for the Saints…

… More

On paper the NFC South has the toughest schedule of any division. They’re matched against the ever-tough NFC East and the AFC East who all (well, nearly all) had really good 2008 seasons. Whilst the schedule strength is measured against last year’s performance, it’s still an indicator worth paying attention to.

… More