Don Banks says Green Bay will start 5-1

[Zool]

There is just no way I can believe that. Plaxico or not, I want nothing to do with the Giants and that DL when healthy. Philly is going to be a juggernaut too by season's end I would think (they're relying on too many young players to start the year) if McNabb stays healthy. 'Boys should be good.

To me, it looks like I'd rank them in this order without considering injuries:
1. Philly
2. NY
3. GB
4. D
5. Min
6. Chi

Cant we just bump the threads from last year and the year before where you crown the NFC East the best div in football and I make fun of you for it?

[Tony Oday]

Why is there all this Philly love? I bet they go 8-8 with McNabb and Westbrook out by week 8

[Merlin]

I don't think Chicago will be all that great this year. They finally have a QB and I think they will go as his attitude goes. Defensively, they don't scare me like they used to.

[pbmax]

I HATE winning the Super Bowl in August/Sept...

I like an under the radar team dang it!

Exactly. We need to start a whisper campaign to deflate expectations. If only we had a website to post this stuff on...

[boiga]

I HATE winning the Super Bowl in August/Sept...

I like an under the radar team dang it!

Me too, honestly. If it makes you feel better, ESPN's TMQ quy thinks we stink but will have a winning record anyway:

Green Bay: The Packers got off to a decent start in 2008, then lost seven of eight, ending the season 6-10 despite facing only four teams that made the playoffs. So should they be taken seriously in 2009? Check the depth chart: This team just isn't particularly talented. The Packers have spent five of their last seven first-round draft choices on two positions: linebacker and defensive tackle. Seven of their last 12 first-round choices were invested in linebackers and defensive linemen. That means other positions on the team are starved for talent -- and it's not even clear the front seven will be particularly good.

Now take a gander at Green Bay's 2009 schedule. Everyone's talking about the Oct. 5 "Monday Night Football" contest against the Vikings and Brett Favre, an obvious candidate for highest-rated "Monday Night Football" game ever. But what jumps out at me about the sked is what doesn't happen: Until December, Green Bay does not face a team that made the playoffs last year. By Thanksgiving, Green Bay will have played the Lions twice, plus played the Rams, Bengals and Browns -- all awful teams. This is a cupcake schedule that would make Auburn jealous. If the Packers can't arrive at December with a winning record, they'll have only themselves to blame.

How the mighty have fallen! At one point, Green Bay and Buffalo were a combined 22-0 at home in the playoffs; since then, they are a combined 2-4 at home in the playoffs. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...1&sportCat=nfl

Does that help with the deflation?

Also, Peter King must hate us. His projected standings here have us 10-6, but losing the NFC championship AGAIN to the fricken BEARS. Man would that suck.

[pbmax]

I HATE winning the Super Bowl in August/Sept...

I like an under the radar team dang it!

Me too, honestly. If it makes you feel better, ESPN's TMQ quy thinks...

...Check the depth chart: This team just isn't particularly talented. The Packers have spent five of their last seven first-round draft choices on two positions: linebacker and defensive tackle. Seven of their last 12 first-round choices were invested in linebackers and defensive linemen. That means other positions on the team are starved for talent --

Does that help with the deflation?

Yes, but it also reminds me of why I no longer read Gregg Easterbrook. 5 of seven draft picks sounds impressive, except that he doesn't note that in one years we did not have a 1st round pick. So his data goes back to Javon Walker's draft.

He also fails to note that the first Packer pick (regardless of round) in those draft years have yielded: Javon Walker (possibly insane, but good), Nick Barnett, Grabby McSmurf, Aaron Rodgers, AJ Hawk, Justin Harrell, Jordy Nelson, BJ Raji. That is four hits (I am counting Nelson) plus a wait and see on Raji. 5 potential starters from 8 years of drafting is not too shabby in any single round.

And then there is the fact that with FA and the average career span, going back through a draft 12 years ago is an exercise in futility. So much for his second number.

And the fact that he gives no evidence that by drafting different positons in the first round prevents you from being depleted in other areas. What it probably means is that Easterbrook will not know you unless you were drafted in the first round, or on a team that is better than 6-10.

And one of those areas he considers depleted is WR, which tells us all you need to know about the football acumen of Gregg Easterbrook.

EDIT: And the fact that Easterbrook's first number makes no sense. The last seven Packer first round picks were: Raji, Harrell, Hawk, Rodgers, Carroll, Barnett, Walker. That's 2 DTs, 2 LBs, 1 QB, 1 CB and 1 WR. Moron.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Ty stopped reading him after his Kill Bill anti semtic bs.

Don't bother sending an email, i'm sure he will waffle like he did with global warming...virulently against it, now sure it is happening. Not to mention mischaracterizing the data and just some piss poor logic.

What is really most funny about him, is that he likes to give off the intellectual vibe but then always had the the cheerleader shots. It always reminded me of an in the closet gay talking about how hot the chicks were...but, never talking or making a move on one.

[boiga]

It's hard to take him seriously considering the obsession with Christmas decorations and taste in faux women.

But I do enjoy when he attacks the echo chamber consensus of the standard talking head sports media. Sure, he's full of crap most of the time, but at least it's amusing.

I mean, how can you hate a guy who will refer to Cutler as "gruntled" for the rest of his stay in chicago?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

PB,

thought it would be an interesting excercise looking at another team's draft picks and distribution.

Steelers: Chad Scott, Alan Faneca, Troy Edwards, Plaxico, Casey Hampton, Kendall Simmons, Troy Polamalu, Big Ben, Heath Miller, Santonio Holmes, Lawrence Timmons, Rashard Mendenhall, and Evander Hood.

Hmm, 5 out 12 were WRs and LBs/DL.

Pats: Chris Canty, Robert Edwards, Damien Woody, Adrian Klemm, Richard Seymour, Dan Graham, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, Logan Mankins, laurence Maroney, Brandon Merriweather, Jerod Mayo.

Hmm...6 picks out 12 are either OL or DL.

Sigh.

[MichiganPackerFan]

Ty stopped reading him after his Kill Bill anti semtic bs.

Never saw it and as a fan of the films, I am curious. Do you have a link?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Ty stopped reading him after his Kill Bill anti semtic bs.

Never saw it and as a fan of the films, I am curious. Do you have a link?

It was like 5 or six years ago. From what i recall, espn pulled the column. You could try searching for it on the internet wayback machine.

Here is a portion, from wiki on easterbrook:

Easterbrook also had a blog[18] at The New Republic Online, until mid-2004. In October 2003, in a column critical of what he considered to be the senseless violence in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill, Easterbrook wrote the following:

Set aside what it says about Hollywood that today even Disney thinks what the public needs is ever-more-graphic depictions of killing the innocent as cool amusement. Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice.

This caused an uproar and accusations that Easterbrook and The New Republic were anti-semitic. Easterbrook wrote that he "mangled" his own ideas by his choice of words and wrote the following to explain his thought process and to apologize:[19]

Twenty minutes after I pressed "send," the entire world had read it. When I reread my own words and beheld how I'd written things that could be misunderstood, I felt awful. To anyone who was offended I offer my apology, because offense was not my intent. But it was 20 minutes later, and already the whole world had seen it... My attempt to connect my perfectly justified horror at an ugly and corrupting movie to the religious faith and ethnic identity of certain executives was hopelessly clumsy...accusing a Christian of adoring money above all else does not engage any history of ugly stereotypes. Accuse a Jewish person of this and you invoke a thousand years of stereotypes about that which Jews have specific historical reasons to fear. What I wrote here was simply wrong, and for being wrong, I apologize.

[MichiganPackerFan]

I do recall a lot of that now. Thanks. I stopped reading him when he bored the shit out of me with nonsense.

[Scott Campbell]

..........

[Spaulding]

The Packer wagon appears to be gaining momentum. Peter King was on the Herd and stated he felt the Packers would make the playoffs and that the Eagles would be the odd team out not to make it. He further gushed about Rodgers (expected) and what he believes will be a far better defense.

As Don Banks is thinking the same, might be an SI conspiracy to jinx the Pack.

Also, whoever was filling in for Scott Van Pelt on ESPN radio (Ryan?) picked the Packers to win the NFC. Needless to say he got called out on it but was fun to hear.

[denverYooper]

The Packer wagon appears to be gaining momentum. Peter King was on the Herd and stated he felt the Packers would make the playoffs and that the Eagles would be the odd team out not to make it. He further gushed about Rodgers (expected) and what he believes will be a far better defense.

As Don Banks is thinking the same, might be an SI conspiracy to jinx the Pack.

Also, whoever was filling in for Scott Van Pelt on ESPN radio (Ryan?) picked the Packers to win the NFC. Needless to say he got called out on it but was fun to hear.

Peter King feels spurned by Favre and he's trying to make Brett jealous by making out with the new boy in town.

I've always felt that King was more of a gossip columnist. He gets more into the characters and what they're up to than the game itself. I actually like his column for that reason, but I don't see him as much of an authority.