Packers game is tomorrow night.
There´s a 8-10 very good teams. Iit´s gonna be exciting. Hoping for few injuries.
The Chiefs are exciting to see. Will follow them regularly.
Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Bears, Packers, Eagles, Cowboys, Rams, Saints, Seahawks.
The NFC is clearly the roughest path, in my view, to the SBowl.
I'm not sure about the Ravens. They've made some good moves in offseason but I'm still sceptical about Lamar Jackson. And Cleveland is still Cleveland until proven otherwise. They have a very good team on paper but now there will be actual expectations on them to do something. We'll see how they'll handle that. I wish them the best as they are my favourite team in the AFC alongside the Chiefs. But whoever can stop NE or PIT going to SB I'll root for them.
It will be also interesting to see what will happen with Indianapolis after Luck's retirement. They have the best team they've had in years but you can only do so much without a good QB. I was never Luck's fan but he was very good when healthy. AFC South is probably still wide open but I don't see any team from that division going deep into playoffs.
One team you didn't mention are the Chargers. They also have a talented roster but injuries and own mistakes somehow always stop them so I can actually agree with not counting them among SB favourites. But maybe this will be the year when everything finally goes their way. They have to deal with Melvin Gordon's contract situation first though.
Agreed about the NFC. There are 5-6 teams who can realistically hope to get to the SB.
The Rams are still favourites to defend NFC champions title but I think their job will be tougher this season even inside their division. I hope my Seahawks (more on them later) can overcome them but Arizona with Kyler Murray and new coaching staff and San Francisco with a healthy Garoppolo should also be better than last year.
New Orleans is probably the second best team in the NFC and I believe they should win NFC South relatively easy because Atlanta and Carolina didn't do much to close the gap. Then again, I'm usually wrong when predicting what will happen in NFC South so who knows.
In the East I think Philadelphia should run away with the division. I believe the Cowboys are a bit overrated (is there any Dallas fan here to jump on me?
) and they still have Jason Garrett.
NFC North should be a blood bath between the Bears (losing Vic Fangio could affect their defense though) and Vikings (I'm not convinced by Kirk Cousins as his record against good teams is bad but they just have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball and should rebound after a disappointing season). Green Bay is below them when it comes to the overall team talent but Aaron Rodgers is the best QB in the division and if he stays healthy you can't count the Packers out.
Now a few words about the Seahawks.
Offensively I was happy with the progress of our O-Line last season under Mike Solari. 4 of the 5 starters are returning with Mike Iupati replacing J.R.Sweezy at LG. There are some injury concerns about both Iupati and RG DJ Fluker so hopefully they can stay healthy for most of the season. We have some solid depth behind them too. I hope OL will make another step forward this season also in pass protection and not just run blocking though run game will be our focus on offense again.
Russell Wilson is obviously a starter but I think we've upgraded on his backup with Geno Smith over Brett Hundley. Still, if Geno will have to play any meaningful snaps this season we are probably f****.
Chris Carson will remain a #1 RB but hopefully Rashaad Penny will also progress in his second season. C.J. Prosise was actually healthy late in the preseason and played well enough to again stay on the roster but I won't get my hopes up for having him available a lot during the season. I'm interested in what a rookie Travis Homer can do as well.
After Doug Baldwin's retirement WR core is pretty young behind Tyler Lockett and Jaron Brown. DK Metcalf was hyped up a lot but I'm actually more interested in 7th round pick John Ursua who reminds a lot of people on a young Doug Baldwin and could get a lot of snaps in the slot. We're a bit thin at the TE position though Will Dissly is returning after injury.
Defensively I was worried about pass rush after we traded away Frank Clark before the draft and with Jarran Reed's suspended for the first 6 games. But after we traded for Jadeveon Clowney last week and also signed Ziggy Ansah earlier in the summer I'm more optimistic if they can both stay healthy. 1st round rookie DE L.J. Coolier was out for most of the preseason but is close to return so I'm looking forward to see him. And I absolutely love DT Poona Ford. Can't believe he was an UDFA last year.
LB core is our strongest group with veterans Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright (both signed extensions in offseason) and Mychal Kendricks backed up by rookies Cody Barton and Ben Burr-Kirven. Shaquem Griffin could also play there though there was talk he'll be more utilised as a pass rusher this season.
On the other hand there are still some question marks about the secondary. Legion of Boom is now officially a history after Kam Chancellor has retired though he didn't play since November 2017 while Earl Thomas has left for Baltimore but he was also out for most of 2018. So the most impactful player we've lost from last season was Justin Coleman who played very well as a nickel CB. He'll probably be replaced by a rookie Ugo Amadi. Other starters are returning. I hope for another step forward for CB Tre Flowers in his second season and Shaquill Griffin's rebound after he was a bit underwhelming last season. Another rookie Marquise Blair will probably start at SS (he's a big hitter like Kam Chancellor) alongside a versatile Bradley McDougald who is now the most experienced player in secondary. Overalll I have hope for this group but there will probably be some growing pains because of inexperience. But developing secondary players was always Carroll's strong suit so hopefully he'll get the best out of these players as well.
Special teams should also be improved. Jason Myers has lost a battle with Sebastian Janikowski last offseason but then went on to have a Pro Bowl season for the Jets. Now he's back. Michael Dickson was amongst the best punters in the league in his rookie season and should only get better. Hopefully we won't need him too much though.
I think Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider did a very good job this offseason. We came into a draft week with only 4 picks but ended up with 11 players. Trading Frank Clark for a 2019 1st and 2020 2nd round pick was also the right decision and looks even better now that we've got Clowney for just a 2020 3rd round pick (though he'll most likely be just a "rental" for this season but we can get a compensatory 3rd round pick if he leaves in free agency) and two players who would probably be cut while Houston will also pay around half of his salary this season. PC&JS have also extended Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner so I really can't have much complaints about what they did. Now it's time to play and see how all these moves will work out on the field.
