I read a post by jaguarjoe72 that gave me the idea to throw out my picks for the 2008 NFL season. We are all bored, and most of us have to put up with our teams losing all summer in baseball (unless you're a D-Backs or Rays fan. Lucky dogs!), so here they are as of right now!

AFC East
New England---------13-3
Buffalo------------------6-10
New York Jets--------5-11
Miami-------------------4-12

AFC North
Pittsburgh--------------11-5
Cleveland---------------7-9
Baltimore---------------5-11
Cincinnati--------------4-12

AFC South
Jacksonville-----------12-4
Indianapolis-----------11-5
Tennessee------------10-6
Houston----------------6-10

AFC West
San Diego-------------13-3
Oakland----------------10-6
Denver------------------7-9
Kansas City-----------3-13

NFC East
Dallas------------------12-4
New York Giants----11-5
Philadelphia----------10-6
Washington-----------7-9

NFC North
Minnesota------------11-5
Green Bay------------9-7
Chicago---------------7-9
Detroit-----------------6-10

NFC South
New Orleans--------10-6
Atlanta-----------------9-7
Tampa Bay-----------9-7
Carolina---------------8-8

NFC West
Seattle-----------------12-4
San Francisco--------10-6
Arizona------------------9-7
St. Louis---------------2-14

So here are the standings after the regular season in playoff contention:

AFC
1. San Diego
2. New England
3. Jacksonville
4. Pittsburgh
5. Indianapolis
6. Oakland

NFC
1. Dallas
2. Seattle
3. Minnesota
4. New Orleans
5. New York Giants
6. San Francisco

Super Bowl XLIII
Dallas Cowboys vs. San Diego Chargers

Final Score = San Diego-23 Dallas-21

Let me know what you think!

-Mike Greenspire

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

Chad Pennington, that is.

Hmm…

Am I the only one surprised by this? Why keep him? His best days are obviously behind him.

As I have called for since last October, I say start Kellen Clemens! You don’t know how well he can do yet, because you haven’t given him a fair chance. Filling in for an injury does not count.

The Jets did draft him in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft to replace Pennington if the season did not go the way they hoped. Well, Pennington miraculously saved his job by leading the Jets to a 9-7 year, and making it to the playoffs, where they lost in the Wild Card Round to New England.

This past season, Clemens saw some time, but not enough to get a solid idea of how well he can do in the pros.

I have a couple suggestions to throw out at the Mangenius, Eric Mangini, the Snitch of Snitches.

First, you could trade him to Chicago for their second-round draft pick and Cedric Benson. Benson needs to start over somewhere new, and Chad ain’t doing the Jets any good by sinking up the joint.

Or…

You could reasonably ask for the Vikings second-round pick and TE, Visanthe Shiancoe or Jim Kleinsasser; each could easily be a filler-in for OL on occasion if needed.

Just a thought.

-Mike Greenspire

So, Brett Favre's retirement was released to the press yesterday morning, and I was devastated when I got on my computer at work and saw that, right here on the FOX Sports homepage.

Well, anyways, this blog is about discussing how the rest of the NFC North will do now that Favre has officially retired.

Here's what I think.

After losing Favre, the Packers now apparently turn to Aaron Rodgers as the new QB. I think he is very capable of leading the Packers, but I'm pretty sure that it will take him a few years in order to get fully prepared to lead this team into the post-season.

RB Ryan Grant is one of the most surprising emerging stars in the game since this past season. The running game had a HUGE question mark around it all year until about the Dallas game, which is when Grant and Morency established the ground attack, which was pretty formidable, in my opinion, and it will remain so next year.

But, it comes down to the fact that Rodgers might not have the gunslinger mentality like Favre had, and that may cause the Pack to revamp their entire offensive scheme come next year. The running game will probably need to be great from the get-go to take some of the pressure of replacing the 2nd or 3rd greatest QB of all-time off of Aaron Rodgers.

He has some pretty big-time guys catching the passes for him, though, in Donald’s Lee and Driver, along with breakout star, Greg Jennings. It will all come down to how Rodgers handles the offense. This, mark my words, will be the HARDEST division to predict by far for this coming season, barring Favre stays retired, which I believe he will.

Mike Greenspire’s Projected Record for 2008: 10-6

The Lions were off to a surprising 6-2 start, scratching their name into mid-season playoff contention. What only the Lions could allow to happen, happened in the second half of the season, and completed their 2007 campaign 1-7, finalizing a 7-9 record into the books.

WTF?

How could anyone feed their players such #### that they come out and just suck eggs the rest of the year? Unbelievable. Well, perhaps not for the Lions.

Jon Kitna is probably one of the loudest guys on that team, basically guaranteeing 10 wins in 2007. Then, after win #6, he had this to say:

"Let's get one thing straight: I never actually guaranteed 10 wins! I just said that it would be a huge disappointment if we didn't get that many"

Well, at least we know one thing: Kitna knows that he's playing for the Lions, the only team in the NFL that could collapse faster than a bridge made out of toothpicks with Rosie sitting on it.

Kevin Jones is a fairly decent running back, in a fairly horrible situation, which is why he doesn't get talked about as much. I think if he could stay healthy for the entire 16 weeks this season, the Lions might have better than a snowball's chance in an oven.

The Lions cut starting DT, Shaun Rogers to the Browns for some crappy pick. Whoops, there goes another one. Despite all of his failed drug tests, I think they should have kept him. After all, Barry Sanders failed several drug tests in his career, but see, they needed him more, so it's not as bad, get it? NO! Hypocrites.

BOTTOM LINE: The Lions need a hug signing period and draft to be considered by me as contenders next year, but for now, they look like chumps to me, and will finish at the bottom of the division next year.

There's always next year, as Matt Millen, the clown/#### running things over there.

Mike Greenspire’s Projected Record for 2008: 6-10

The Bears were in the Super Bowl a little over 13 months ago, but finished this season with an extremely disappointing drop to 7-9. How did it happen? As fellow sports writer, Jay Marriotti for the Chicago Tribune might say, Turn-oversaurus Rex, which was hilarious when I heard it. New nickname!

Anyways, Rex Grossman finished his season with only 4 TDs and 7 INTs, a completion % of only 54 % with a passer rating of 66.4. To say that he was the only reason the Bears collapsed this season would be overlooking the rest of the team’s misfortunes.

RBs Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson (the one you don’t hear about) had some really poor seasons on the ground stacked into just one. The running game isn’t the primary concern for Chicago though, if they wish to return to the playoffs.

In my opinion, the fact that they don’t have a good QB to start for them is the big concern right now in Chi Town. The Bears own the 14th pick in the draft in April, and it would be insane to trade it, and it doesn’t appear that they are gonna make a move for Brian Brohm in the 1st Round, having signed Rex to a 1-year deal.

They could be planning to do what I would do with the draft. Here’s my philosophy for a team with a struggling QB:

Get the highest recruited OLineman coming out of college left when you’re on the clock. Build an OLine around your current QB, and if he can’t make plays with good protection, get the highest ranked QB coming out of college and into the draft in the next year’s draft.

However, even I doubt that the Bears are that clever, and will probably go with a RB; someone powerful like Rashard Mendenhaal from Illinois, right out of their own state, or perhaps an elusive back like Jonathan Stewart from Oregon. Calculating these things is extremely hard, and I have no clue who Chicago wants. They haven’t quite made it clear where they want to rebuild first. Their defense doesn’t need any help, it was able to shut down Favre twice, and I doubt that a WR is what they are considering. Despite releasing Pro Bowler, Muhsin Muhammad, the Bears have already signed free agent Marty Booker from the Dolphins. They traded away Griese, he was obviously getting them nowhere. They signed Rex, and extended Orton. So, all I see for them to build on is their weak OLine, and the RB position could be allowed to be addressed later in the draft. There are so many talented players at RB this season in the draft, they wouldn’t need to worry about waiting until the third or fourth round to pick one up.

Mike Greenspire’s Projected Record for 2008: 9-7

After starting 3-6, the Vikings won 5 straight, to put themselves in a good position to get into the playoffs. However, they lost their last two games, knocking them out of contention completely.

The Vikings, of course, have rookie sensation, Adrian Peterson as their RB, with Chester Taylor providing relief. QB, Tavaris Jackson's job seems to be on the line now that there are some good QBs in the upcoming draft, and two of them that the Vikes might be interested in are Delaware's Joe Flacco, and Michigan's Chad Henne, with their second round pick. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to establish a better passing game with one of these two, rather than the less dynamic, and somewhat boring Jackson.

The Vikings have the divisions of the AFC South and the NFC South on their schedule for next year, along with an NFC West team and NFC East team. They also play their own division twice, of course.

I see the Vikings being the team to beat now in the NFC North. I think Rodgers is a very good QB, but he'll need more time to get an actual feel for the game before getting the Packers team to the post-season. For now, my pick to win the North in '08 is the Vikes.

Mike Greenspire’s Projected Record for 2008: 11-5

Thanks for reading!

-Mike Greenspire