I know it's still only the beginning of May, but I am too anxious, and the torture of having to wait so long for football season to start up again is killin' me. But, I thought of something to do while we wait!

Pick pre-season bandwagons!

There's always the surprise team that comes outta nowhere:

In 2004 it was the Steelers
In 2005 it was the Panthers
In 2006 it was the Saints
In 2007 it was the Packers

So, who's gonna be the pre-season surprise team? Here are a couple of bandwagons to pick from!

Minnesota Vikings
With the additions of Jared Allen, arguably the best DLineman in the game at this time, and John David Booty, one of the best QBs in the Draft, I see this team going 10-6, no worse than 9-7 and being a real contender come playoff time, perhaps even stealing the division from the Packers, which is what I see happening.

Baltimore Ravens
In my opinion, moving back up after moving down to get Joe Flacco was the right move for the Ravens and new head coach, John Harbaugh. This guy will be sure to lead a team for years. Also, the addition of Ray Rice from Rutgers is bound to help them. McGahee and Rice will make it an interesting dual-RB situation in 2008 for the Ravens. All those pieces minus McNair are still there from that 2006 13-win team, so I see the Ravens going 10-6, and making it intot he playoffs via wild card.

Kansas City Chiefs
A really good draft, probably the best will higher the pressure on Herm Edwards to get this team back to the post-season. If he does not, with all this talent, I think he should be fired. Perhaps surprisingly I only see this team going 5-11. It techniacally is an improvment... Way to go, Herm.

Carolina Panthers
A good draft, picking up Jonathan Stewart, Jeff Otah, and Dan Connor will take some pressure off Delhomme, and hopefully he won't get hurt this year. If he stays healthy with the seoncd-best blocker and running-back in this year's draft, watch out for the Panthers. I forsee a 9-7 year with a possible wild card berth.

But, the bandwagon I'm jumping on is...

New Orleans Saints
Some great off-season moves, and by far the best off-season so far. With so many good players, there is no way the Saints will be bale to screw this up. I see an 11-5 season with a division title. The Bucs will have to settle for at best a wild card berth now.

Thanks for reading! Who do you guys think will be 2008's surprise team?

-Mike Greenspire

This whole week, I will be reviewing the biggest player or players drafted by every team by division. Let's get started with the North divisions! AFC North now, NFC North should be up later.

AFC North

Cleveland Browns
Beau Bell, LB, UNLV
I like the pick, and in my opinion, I don't know how this guy got skipped over to the 4th round, because I had him going in the late first-early second about two weeks ago, but definitely a steal by Cleveland, and he should immediately help out that defense that had some glaring holes last year.
Grade: C+

Cincinnati Bengals
Keith Rivers, LB, USC
By far the best linebacker in the draft, and this guy will be a force that no RB will wanna go up against in 2008. Best move Cincy could have made at their position.
Jerome Simpson, WR, Coastal Carolina
Coming from a small school, it's hard to know what to expect out of thi guy, but I se big progression in his rookie year. Chad Johnson and TJ (SOMETHIN-ZADABER) look like they will be the starting wideouts, but Chad may make room for Simpson by whining and moaning.
Grade: B-

Pittsburgh Steelers
Rashard Mendenhall, RB, Illinois
Wow, I wasn't expecting this, but I couldn't be happier. This was probably the smartest late-first round pick, and this guy is a beast. Second only to Darren McFadden, and not by much. Definitely a ROTY pre-season candidate.
Limas Sweed, WR, Texas
This may be the taller wideout Ben had asked for. 6-foot-5, and quite a physical player. His speed and agility, despite being that tall, are terrific, and I expect a good season outta this guy. Watch out for the Steelers.
Grade: A-

Baltimore Ravens
Joe Flacco, QB, Delaware
My favorite QB in this class, Joe Flacco, ended up a 1st-rounder to the Ravens. I'm feeling that he's a Week 1 starter over Boller and Smith. This guy has great leadership ability, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he started the first game.
Ray Rice, RB, Rutgers
This guy is small and quick, and I would compare him to Maurice Jones-Drew out of Jacksonville, and I think he could have a similar rookie season impact. With McGahee and Rice, the Ravens have been building all off-season, and could make a real run at the AFC North division title.
Grade: A

Thanks for reading! Check back in later or tomorrow for the NFC North report!

-Mike Greenspire

What if Matt Ryan were to slip past Atlanta at #3, and Kansas City ay #5? It seems that the majority of opinions say that Baltimore would #### him at #8.

What would this mean for the rest of the AFC North? The Bengals have Carson Palmer, the Browns Derek Anderson, and the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger. If all 4 teams were to have terrific QBs and great talent surrounding them, who could possibly win the division?

Take a look at each teams’ starting offense if the Ravens were to take Ryan.

Baltimore:
QB: Matt Ryan
RB: Willis McGahee
WR: Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton
TE: Todd Heap

Cincinnati:
QB: Carson Palmer
RB: Rudi Johnson
WR: Chad Johnson, TJ Houshmandzadeh
TE: Ben Utecht

Cleveland:
QB: Derek Anderson
RB: Jamal Lewis
WR: Braylon Edwards, Donte’ Stallworth
TE: Kellen Winslow

Pittsburgh:
QB: Ben Roethlisberger
RB: Willie Parker
WR: Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes
TE: Heath Miller

There is not distinct winner with these 4 lineups, so just to make things more fun and entertaining in the AFC North in 2008, I hope to hear these words coming from Goodell’s mouth by the end of the day:

“With the 8th pick of the 2008 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens select, Boston College QB, Matt Ryan.”

-Mike Greenspire

First off, sorry blue@orange. Leave the NHA out of it this time.

The Baltimore Ravens hired Philadelphia Eagles Special Teams Assistant Coach, John Harbaugh as head coach Friday Evening. Congratulations on a great find to Baltimore!

I have heard this guy's name pop up throughout the season, and I had su####ions that he might be promoted to Head Coach after Andy Reid. I thought that Reid would be out after this season, so the guy from that squad you want is Harbaugh. I did not think that he was that widely recognized around the NFL to be given a Head Coachign job that quickly. When you have your name up there next to Jason Garrett of the Cowboys, you know you are doing something right.

Personally, I was leaning towards Garrett. After he said no, I immediately thought of Ravens Defensive Coordinator, Rex Ryan, or perhaps Rob Ryan from the Oakland Raiders, after they fired him earlier this week.

I doubt that anyone besides the Ravens front office could honestly say that they saw this guy becoming their head coach.

There are now two open head coaching jobs: Washington and Atlanta. Here are my picks for the front-runners:

Atlanta

Rob Ryan, formerly Oakland Coordinator

Steve Spagnola, Giants Coordinator

Washington

Gregg Williams, Washington Coordinator

Steve Spurrier, Collegiate Coach of South Carolina

Give me your front-runners! Congrats to John Harbaugh!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!

-Mike Greenspire

Accoriding to reports, this afternoon, the Baltimore Ravens offered offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, Jason Garrett, the Head Caoching job, which happens to be vacant at this point.

This is definitely a terrific move by Baltimore, and the fact that they sprug on him two days after the Cowboys' loss to the Giants shows me 2 things:

1. They want him more than anyone in the league. Even that nut, Jerry Jones.

2. The two losses in the playoffs in the past two years mean nothing, this guy knoww his stuff.

This really is a great move. The Ravens defensive coordinator, R. Ryan is rumored to be in the mix of the coaching vacancy for the Atlanta Falcons. If Ryan does intend on taking that job, assuming the Falcons offer it to him, then the Ravens need a great defensive mind to make up for the loss of their skilled coordinator. Jason Garrett will more than make up for the loss of Offensive Coordinator, Rick Neuheisel.

We will have to wait and see what other head coaching opportunities pop up for Garrett before the Ravens faithful get too excited, but I believe that if he's gonna take the reigns of an organization, he'll want to start in Dallas. If the Cowboys don't offer it to him, then I wouldn't bet against him going to either Miami or Baltimore.

Rumor has it that Bill Parcells in Miami is looking to land Tony Sparano from the Cowboys, which would seriously deplete the Cowboys staff. Plus, Jones says that he will keep Wade Philips as head coach. I'm not betting against him being fired.

I mean, his logic is totally out of wack! (Philips)

He claims that after looking at the game, he believes that the better team lost the game. He said that the Cowboys outplayed the Giants, yet lost. Uhh, coach, those two genius points right there cancel each other out.

If you outplay your opponent, you win. If the better team lost, which was you, you did not outplay the winners. Get it? Besides, if you did by chnce outplay the Giants, and still lost the game, then that's your fault, Wade. Genius.

I say that Wade will get fired, and they will replace him with Jason Garrett, who will be in Atlanta or Baltimore by then. Then, they will have to find another new coach.

New Breaking News: Jerry Jones of the Cowboys says he will match any offer that the Ravens throw at Garrett. Clever move, but I don't think that it will work. If he thinks he has the potential to be a head coach, even if it is for Baltimore, I think he should take it.

BOTTOM LINE: If Garrett high-tails it out of there, Philips stays. If Jason stays, Wade goes. Not keeping both, not letting go of both.

Thanks for reading!

-Mike Greenspire