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NFC North Champion: Minnesota Vikings—If Brett Favre comes back, which I believe he will, the Vikings will once again be the best team in the North. Adrian Peterson, who is perhaps the best running back in the NFC, will join Favre in the backfield as the focal point of one of the most balanced attacks in football. And wild and crazy Jared Allen leads one of the premier defenses in the NFC. Green Bay will contend as well, but the Packers haven’t shown they can stop elite quarterbacks from picking them apart. Favre torched them twice last season. Big Ben Roethlisberger had his turn, and so did Kurt Warner in the playoffs.
NFC East Champion: Dallas Cowboys—Winning their first playoff game in 13 seasons does a lot for the confidence of the Cowboys as they enter the 2010 season. Led by Tony Romo on offense and DeMarcus Ware on defense, Dallas appears ready to contend for a trip to the Super Bowl. They wouldn’t have to go far this season with the biggest game of the year scheduled to be played right at home in “Jerry World.”
NFC West Champion: San Francisco 49ers—Kurt Warner’s retirement likely opens the door for another team to emerge as the NFC West champs. With star running back Frank Gore and star linebacker Patrick Willis leading the charge, the 49ers look like a promising pick. The key will be the play of quarterback Alex Smith. If he can do a good job of taking care of the football and managing the game, I like San Francisco’s chances.
NFC South Champion: New Orleans Saints—Since realignment took place back in 2002, no team has won consecutive division titles in the NFC South. I expect that to change with the defending Super Bowl champion Saints this season. Led by quarterback Drew Brees, the Saints have an excellent opportunity to be the most explosive offensive team in the NFL again. A big-play defense brings back the majority of its key performers, including Darren Sharper, who came up with nine interceptions last season.
AFC North Champion: Baltimore Ravens—I believe Cincinnati slightly overachieved last season, and Pittsburgh will have to deal with Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension. Led by Joe Flacco and Ray Rice, the Ravens appear ready to bring their offense to elite status. The defensive side of the football has been Baltimore’s staple, and 2009 was no exception when the Ravens allowed only 16.3 points per game.
AFC East Champion: New York Jets—Teams that can run the football and play defense are going to win a lot of football games. The Jets led the NFL in rushing offense and they were the No. 1 ranked defensive team in the league last season, and it took them to the AFC title game. With some key additions, the defense could be even better in 2010. The offense figures to improve as well now that Mark Sanchez has a year of experience under his belt.
AFC West Champion: San Diego Chargers—The Chargers have rattled off four straight division titles, and it would be a big upset if they didn’t make it five in a row. Led by Pro Bowl quarterback Philip Rivers, the offense will be tough to tame. The defense will have the potential to be better if outside linebacker Shawne Merriman can return to his pre-knee injury form. If that is the case, the Chargers may finally be ready to make a Super Bowl trip.
AFC South Champion: Indianapolis Colts—Since Peyton Manning arrived in Indianapolis, all the Colts have done is win. Nothing will change in 2010 as Manning and company show up hungry after falling short in the Super Bowl. If Bobby Sanders can stay healthy this season, the Colts will have an even better shot at getting back to the big game.
Crush the NFL odds this season with the help of Jimmy Boyd’s expert NFL picks!
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Tongue planted firmly in cheek, New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams told reporters that Brett Favre is the only NFL player that can afford not to practice.
In response to a reporter’s question regarding All-Pro safety Darren Sharper, who is recovering from post-season knee surgery, Williams said, “In the next couple of weeks, I do need to see him [Sharper] do some things but it’s also foolish to think that you can walk in and play full speed without practicing. The only guy who can do that is Brett Favre.”
The remark comes just two weeks after Williams told a local radio show that Favre surely still remembers some of the brutal hits the Saints administered to him in the NFC Championship Game – a 31-28 win overtime win against the Minnesota Vikings.
On July 19th, Williams told WWL Radio’s Bobby Hebert, “I’ve been a Brett Favre fan for a long time and I’m sure as he looks back on the game [NFC Championship] that we had a chance to play last year- I made the comment after the ball game, “Remember Me .” Well, I’m sure he remembers me and I’m sure he remembers all of us [the Saints defense.]“
Are these remarks coincidental? Are they just part of Williams’ brash style?
Or is he playing mind games with the QB of the Saints first regular season opponent, the Vikings, who the Saints play in a nationally televised game on Thursday night, Sept. 9.
Given the national controversy Williams created before last year’s Super Bowl when he said of Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning, “We’re going to have to make sure he gets a couple ‘remember me’ shots when we get there,” it’s hard to believe that the Saints popular defensive coordinator’s comments in the last two weeks have been unintended slips of the tongue.
We’re playing those mind games together,
Pushing barriers, planting seeds,
Williams is a master of mind games who likes to shoot from the lip. After last year’s magic, never doubt his ability to plant some seeds of doubt in the head of an opposing quarterback.
As he is apt to do, Williams never uses 20 words when he can use 200 and he had a mouthful to say to Saints training camp reporters on Saturday.
On the need for a coach to be flexible: “Every single year, you have to adapt. I’ve done this for 30 years where I’ve adapted and had to be flexible each year to the trends of the league, to the new roles of the league, to whatever players that I’m coaching in whatever spot [city] it is.
“There’s a chameleon part of the defense every year and basically when it comes down to it, it is this simple.
“It’s what fits the players, not what I like to do. It’s what the players can do best. It would be selfish of me to say ‘we have a way that we’re going to coach defense, or play defense, and this is it or my way or the highway.’
“We’re going to fit the scheme to you [the player] but, now, culture, philosophy, attitude, effort. It’s going to me my way or the highway-our way or the highway.”
On new players adapting to the Saints defensive scheme: “Terminology doesn’t change and I laugh about that too when you guys [the media], when everybody talks about defensive systems. This is the same game it was in junior high.
In fact, we’re going to have a new PR system today and the PR system is you guys [the media] have to ask me questions in Russian. O.K? Because football is football and you can only ask me a certain number of questions about football.
“How many ways can you line 11 guys up?
There’s only a certain amount of ways you can do that. We’ve just got to get better at the fundamental part of it every single year.”
Louisiana has not had a quote machine this good since former LSU Basketball coach Dale Brown.
Hang on for the ride Who Dat Nation.
Gregg Williams is just getting warmed up.
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When do NFL teams become rivals?
If they play in the same division, then they are natural rivals since they play each other twice a season (three times if they meet in the playoffs).
But what about non-divisional teams?
I pose the question because I must have read at least a dozen articles during the offseason that proclaimed the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings as either A) the NFL’s newest rivalry, or B) a budding NFL rivalry.
Since the NFL announced the Saints and Vikings would kickoff the 2010 season on September 9 —a rematch of January’s NFC Championship Game— the debate has raged between me and my friends in Louisiana and Minnesota.
They say the rivalry is real; I say it is imaginary.
The Saints are 8-20 (.285) all-time against the Vikings, its fourth worst record versus any NFL team.
Before their 31-28 overtime victory in the NFC title game, the Saints had lost twice to the Vikings in the postseason—44-10 in the 1987 Wildcard Round and 34-16 in the 2000 Divisional Round.
Rivalries, especially among non-divisional teams, are built over time. They seem to always play meaningful games with championship implications.
One classic conference championship game isn’t enough to qualify for rivalry status.
New Orleans and Minnesota are not the Patriots-Colts of the 2000s, the Cowboys-49ers of the 1990s, the Broncos-Browns of the 1980s or the Steelers-Raiders of the 1970s.
I can understand why the NFL and football fans would want New Orleans and Minnesota to be rivals. Both teams have high-profile personalities: Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Jeremy Shockey, Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen.
The title game was a great back-and-forth battle that garnered 57.9 million viewers.
Some players seemed to have already embraced the chippiness of a rivalry. The Saints safety Darren Sharper and Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe got into a brief Twitter beef, implying surgically-repaired body parts (Favre’s ankle, Sharper’s knee) would be targeted.
Despite all of this, New Orleans and Minnesota still have to prove the title game was not a fluke. They need to build on that success and develop it over years before a rivalry becomes a reality.
Saints GM Mickey Loomis, head coach Sean Payton, and Drew Brees have brought a Super Bowl title to New Orleans, but the team has still missed the playoffs twice in their four-year era. Plus, the Saints have only made the postseason in consecutive seasons once in their history (1990-92).
New Orleans must also break a bad trend for defending champs. The last four either missed the playoffs or got eliminated by the divisional round.
Minnesota has won the NFC North Division title the past two seasons. However, they are considered a Super Bowl contender only if Favre, who turns 41 in October, returns this season to play quarterback.
Favre might be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but that’s not a foundation for sustaining long-term success. Let’s see what Minnesota does when (or if) Favre finally retires.
As a lifelong Saints fan, I hope the kickoff game is another instant classic and that New Orleans-Minnesota continue to meet in the conference championship game. But until then, let’s put the rivalry talk on hold.
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Thirteen NFL seasons and he’s still among the best. That alone should tell you something about Darren Sharper’s Canton credentials, but if that’s not enough, there’s more.
A lot more.
Interceptions are probably the most important statistic for defensive backs, and Sharper ranks high on the list. He leads all active players and is tied for sixth all-time with Ronnie Lott in career thefts.
Lott, plus four of the five players ahead of him, are in the Hall of Fame.
Sharper is the only player in NFL history with three years of nine or more interceptions, and last year became the oldest player (34) to make nine picks.
Not only does he take the ball away from the other team, but he does something with it. No one, not even Deion Sanders, Ed Reed, or Darrell Green, has more than his 13 defensive touchdowns and only the great Rod Woodson has as many.
Sharper has been on two teams that were in the Super Bowl, the 1997 Green Bay Packers and the 2009 New Orleans Saints, and he had three touchdowns in each of those seasons.
Sharper has led the league in interception return yardage three times and those are three of the top 30 seasons in NFL history, including an NFL record 376 yards in 2009.
One of the hallmarks of players in the Hall of Fame is that they were considered among the best at their position for several seasons, and Sharper certainly fits the bill there. He has been recognized five times by the Associated Press as a first or second-team All-Pro.
His longevity has also been impressive.
He has been a full-time starter every year since his second season, and has never missed more than three games in any season. Sharper has played in 15 or 16 games in nine of his thirteen seasons.
Barring a major injury or a huge setback in his recovery from offseason knee surgery, Sharper will play in his 200th career game this year.
Regardless if this is Darren Sharper’s last NFL season or not, he has two or three left, an he has already proven to be among the all-time elite.
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Atari Bigby has been a serviceable starter at safety for the Green Bay Packers when healthy since he won the job heading into the 2007 season. However, his days in Green Bay could be coming to an end.
Bigby, a restricted free agent, has so far refused to sign his tender with the Packers, staying away from all of the offseason activities in Green Bay thus far.
Bigby’s absence has allowed rookie third round draft pick Morgan Burnett to benefit from receiving all the reps with the first team defense during OTAs and mini camp. And, Burnett’s coaches and teammates have liked what they’ve seen from the 21-year-old out of Georgia Tech.
Burnett has drawn high praise from high places, including both head coach Mike McCarthy and reigning Defensive Player of the Year and the leader of the Packers secondary Charles Woodson.
If Burnett continues to impress when the pads go on through training camp, I believe Bigby will become the odd man out, mainly because of his unhappiness with his contract and his lack of value on special teams compared to the other players at safety.
If Burnett takes the starting job from Bigby heading into the start of the season, Bigby is unlikely to be around when the games begin.
Pro Bowler Nick Collins, special teams ace Derrick Martin, and Burnett are locks to make the team which means Bigby would be battling former cornerback Will Blackmon and undrafted rookie free agent Anthony Levine for the fourth spot at safety on the 53-man roster.
Its unlikely but not unfathomable that GM Ted Thompson could keep five players at safety, especially if one of them were Blackmon due to his back round at corner.
However, if Thompson keeps only four, Levine will end up on the practice squad and Bigby will be traded.
Blackmon will be the backup free safety, and Martin will be the backup strong safety because he has a good shot to lead the Packers in special teams tackles in 2010.
Blackmon will win out over Bigby because of his age (25), big play potential at safety, and his ability to return kicks specifically punts. He has a career average of 11 yards per return and has three career punt returns for touchdowns.
I hope this doesn’t play out, but I can’t ignore a scenario in which Bigby loses the starting job and is then traded prior to the season.
The best case for the Green Bay Packers 2010 season is Bigby returns to the team for training camp with a chip on his shoulder and plays lights out, reminiscent of his performance back to the end of the 2007 regular season and then through out the playoffs that year.
If Bigby can hold onto the starting job, at least for this season, the Packers defense will be that much better.
Burnett could provide excellent depth behind both Bigby and Collins while playing in the nickel and dime defenses a la future Hall of Famer Darren Sharper in his rookie season, which incidentally ended in a trip to the Super Bowl.
Burnett now wears number 42 and could make a similar impact in the role Sharper played so well as a rookie in 1997 scoring the first two of many defensive touchdowns in his career.
We’ll have to wait until training camp begins to find out.
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