2015-16 NFL Week 1 Picks

Welp, I got the itch to start writing again and this seems like a great time.  I will probably have to play with the format a little to make sure that I am providing good content, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy.  Ok, now we’re done with that,…let’s get back to NFL football.  Welcome 2015-16 NFL Season, you have been sorely missed. 

Pittsburgh @ New England – We’ve had to endure, Deflategate, the Seahawks not running the ball, Spygate (revisited) and just in general all of the stuff that the Patriots have gotten away with over the last several years.  Can we move past all of this to get to some football?  That’s what the NFL wants us to do.  They have hijacked the entire summer over this silliness.  On to the game,……The Steelers come in to this game without LeVeon Bell (suspension) and Maurkice Pouncey (injury) and with a lot of new faces on their defense.  You used to be able to depend on the Steelers, no matter the year, to put a staunch defense on the field and this new group will have an opportunity to set that tone.  Ex-Florida State LB, Lawrence Timmons should become a stalwart for this defense, this is his time. 

On the offensive side of the ball, the Steelers have Big Ben and they hope that’s enough until Bell can return.  With Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant as his two leading targets, and let’s not forget the ageless Heath Miller, the Steelers will probably toss the ball around a lot more this year.  I imagine that Big Ben should be on par for a near 5000 yard season (has already had 4 4000+ yard seasons).  The question all season will be whether the defense will be able to slow down some of these offenses so that the Steelers can put up some wins. 

Now to the reigning Super Bowl Champion Patriots (can I tell you how much that hurt to type?).  Roger Goodell messed up the whole deflated ball issue and allowed Tom Brady to slip back into the starting lineup.  I had been practicing how to spell Garoppolo for a while.  But now we get a pissed off Tom Brady, at home and many feel he has something to prove.  All I have to say is that Brady will be Brady.  No LeGarrette Blount (suspension) but these are the Patriots and they basically will list (insert name) as their starting RB and run for 4 TDs on you.  They kept the same WRs in Edelman and Amendola, but more importantly they have Gronk(owski).  We’ll probably see a lot of double TE sets (nothing has changed in New England) with Scott Chandler able to do some of the same things that Gronk can do.  The bigger questions for the Patriots come on defense where they lost of boatload of people (Browner, Revis, Wilfork, etc.) and whether this somewhat inexperienced defense will be able to step up to the plate.  Jamie Collins, Jerod Mayo, and Chandler Jones will be the core of this defense, but everyone wants to see if this secondary will be able to stop anyone. 

Winner – Patriots.