It's that time of year. As football camps open across the nation, many teams start voicing their crazy aspirations. Don't get me wrong, if you don't feel that you can win it all, no one will but I'll start with the craziness as it moves across the country:
Lehigh University. Donovan McNabb gets in front of cameras and recorders and tells everyone that the Eagles are the team to beat in the NFC East. I'm thinking maybe they reincarnated Harold Carmichael, Reggie White, Jerome Brown, and a flock of others. Unless I'm the crazy one, the Eagles are starting 2008 with Kevin Curtis, Reggie Brown, Hank Bassett (not Angela Basset's son), Jason Avant (isn't he part of a singing group), and Greg Lewis as their top 5 receivers. All of these guys leave LOTS to ask for from a receiver crew. On defense they are a little better and they always keep a good if not great defensive backfield. But the team to beat in the NFC? Maybe they should drug test Donovan just to make sure.
Bourbanois, IL. The Bears have decided to pay Brian Urlacher $18M more plus add a year to his existing contract. Am I the only person that thinks this is a very bad decision. Don't get me wrong, Urlacher has been the face of the Bears for a while, he's a good linebacker and is the heart of the D. HOWEVER, this is a guy who has had problems getting off of blocks, has a bad back, AND just had neck surgery. Reports said the surgery was minor, but anytime someone operates on your neck that involves some cutting, you let me know if it's minor. They should have traded this guy and got what they could for him. He makes his living flying around hitting people, with his bad back and neck. Does that sound like an investment you make? Yes the Bears would have been vilified for it, but hey, I think in the long term, they would have made out. To go along with all of this, the Bears still haven't signed their main offensive weapon, Devin Hester. The Bears averaged around 16 points a game last season and Hester probably was worth 6 points or more. When he didn't return the kicks for TDs last year he gave the Bears' anemic offense great field position. How can you not pay this guy? It was that important to get Urlacher his money? Add to all of this, you want to add Hester to the offense and let him get more touches (a big mistake for several other reasons). Probably the most delusional thing about the Bears is the fact that they 'flipped a coin to decide who would be the starting QB in training camp between Grossman and Orton'. (Do I need to say anymore?)
Napa, California. The Raiders will have all of their players in camp this year (except the ones they don't want). They have signed all of their draft picks and they franchised one of their corners, Nnamdi Asomugha. He will team up with DeAngelo Hall to give the Raiders a very dynamic defensive backfield. This is great since it took the Raiders 3 days into the season to sign their QB of the Future, JaMarcus Russell, last year. I think that this team is going to surprise some people this year. They should be decent on both sides of the ball and they will depend on a rookie, Darren McFadden, to give them their running game. Is the pirate ship righting itself in Oakland?
Sad Note:
Broncos All-Time leading receiver Rod Smith is finally calling it quits after a 14 year career. He will retire as the Broncos career receptions leader (849), yards receiving (11,389), TD catches (68), TDs (71), and 200 yard games (31). He adds two Super Bowl rings with all of this.
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