The Sports Guru

Projected Record
4-12

Projected Schedule W/L
Seattle           (L)
@Chicago     (L)
Green Bay     (L)
@St. Louis    (L)
@Minnesota(L)
Buffalo           (L)
@NY Jets       (L)
Atlanta           (L)
San Francisco(W)
@Arizona       (L)
Miami            (W)
@New England(L)
 Minnesota     (W)
@Green Bay   (L)
Chicago           (W)
@Dallas          (L)

Another year, another new coach in Detroit.  This time I think they got it right in hiring Rob Marinelli, a defensive task master, to get the ship righted in Motown.  After years of having coaches that let the inmates run the asylum, Marinelli will come in a regain control, though it will take time and there will be some bumps along the way.  Anytime you are trying to change a culture of lose it is going to take time.  As my game-by-game illustrates I think it is going to be a tough early road for the Lions.  By the end of the campaign, however, I think you will start to see some flashes of the disciplined team Marinelli is going to expect.

 Team Strengths – The last three years the Lions used 1^st Round picks on Receivers and so far none of them have panned out.  This should be a strength for this team, and it still may be when all is said and done.  Mike Williams, Charles Rogers and Roy Williams don’t have the Joey Harrington excuse anymore as the Lions sent him packing to Miami.  On the other side of the ball, defense is beginning to become a strength for the Lions and they further focused on the D by drafting LB Ernie Sims in the 1^st round and S Daniel Bullocks in the 2^nd.  The team is high on both and bring speed and toughness to a defense that under Tampa Bay disciple Marinelli will need.

 Team Weaknesses – Quarterback.  The Joey Harrington experiment finally ended, and to replace him the Lions brought in Jon Kitna and Josh McCown.  Kitna has been serviceable throughout his career, but is still prone to make the big mistake at the worst time.  He had a real chance to shine after Carson Palmer was hurt in the playoffs and fell flat.  McCown has a lot of the tools, but makes too made too many mistakes in Arizona and couldn’t survive in a QB-friendly system with Denny Green.  The O-Line is suspect as well, and they need to get something from the running game, where Kevin Jones took a step backward last season.  3^rd Round Pick Brian Calhoun is a solid backup and should see plenty of action to keep Jones fresh.

 Best Case Scenario – Whoever wins the QB battle(my guess Kitna) has a great season and the wideout trifecta finally sees the light and plays to their potential.  The defense plays solid, and the Lions avoid the injuries that always seem to plague them.  There are games on their schedule that are winnable and if the Lions can get to 7 wins this year would be a huge success.

 Worst Case Scenario – The Lions find out the problem wasn’t Joey Harrington and due to O-Line concerns have trouble keeping a QB healthy.  Williams, Williams and Rogers continue to underachieve and the defense can stop people.  The Lions aren’t that much better than anyone to just show up and win and will need to play hard.  As close as a 7-win season is, a 2 win season is not far behind.

My Opinion – Only Russ Grimm would have been a better choice for the job and the Steelers’ Super Bowl run probably kept that from happening.  Matt Millen did well to get Marinelli, however, who comes in with the same intensity and no-nonsense attitude that Grimm has.  There are a lot of toss-up games on the schedule, and I think the NFC North is the worst division in football.  The Lions will struggle with a new coaching staff and OC Mike Martz’s intricate schemes, but by the end of the season things will be looking up in Detroit.

According to a source close to Brown’s center LeCharles Bentley the 2-time Pro Bowler will miss the entire season with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee.  He injured the knee in the first play of this morning’s practice.  Ironically, Head Coach Romeo Crennel had the Browns dressed only in shoulder pads and helmets to try and avoid the serious injuries the team has faced in the past.

Let’s face it, this is a huge blow to the team.  Maybe a good thing about all of this is that it happened early in training camp so the Browns can make a move to bring someone in.  With a 2nd year QB and alot of change along the front line Bentley was going to be the anchor.  He went to High School at nearby St. Ignatious and played at Ohio State in college.  He was the hometown guy that wanted to play for the hometown team.  We’ll now have to wait until next season for it to happen.

Projected Record
4-12

Projected Schedule W/L
@Tennessee(W)
New England(L)
@Buffalo       (L)
Indianapolis  (L)
@Jacksonville(L)
Miami             (L)
Detroit           (W)
@Cleveland (L)
@New England(L)
Chicago          (L)
Houston         (L)
@Green Bay (L)
Buffalo          (W)
@Minnesota(L)
@Miami       (L)
Oakland       (W)

It was only 18 short months ago that the Jets were a Field Goal away from going to the AFC Championship Game, TWICE!  It has been a steep drop ever since both those field goals went wide right.  Their quarterback has had two major shoulder surgeries.  Half of the offensive line has been jettisoned, and to top it all off they traded their Head Coach to Kansas City for a 4^th Round draft pick.  Needless to say Jet fans have no need to book playoff travel plans anytime soon.

Team Strengths – On paper there really doesn’t seem to be much of a strength anywhere on the field.  They really can’t go into the season and hang their hat on anything so this year could be a struggle.
Team Weaknesses – Plenty here.  They retooled the O-Line, drafting two lineman in the first round.  Both the 4^th pick, D’Brickashaw Ferguson 29^th pick Nick Mangold figure to be thrown into the fire.  That immediately make the Offensive Line a weakness along with the running game.  Curtis Martin returns but questions about just how much he has left are swirling.  At QB, Chad Pennington will try to come back from his 2^nd major shoulder surgery, and is in competition with former Redskin Patrick Ramsey and 2^nd Round pick Kellen Clemons, who everyone seems to be high on.  Defensively there are some playmakers in the likes of Jonathon Vilma but extended time on the field due to a weak offense will wear this unit down.  Eric Mangini, at 34 years old, becomes the youngest Head Coach in the league and it is surely going to take time for him to get his feet wet.  Overall, a lot of potential weaknesses.

 Best Case Scenario – Somehow Pennington can make like the 6 Million Dollar Man and use his robotic arm to get the ball down field.   Curtis Martin finds the fountain of youth and a young O-Line comes together faster than expected to protect Pennington and lead the way for C-Mart.  Eric Mangini brings some Belichick magic with him and the Jets win 7 games.

 Worst Case Scenario – Pennington’s arm actually falls off and the Jets have to go with Ramsey.  Martin gets hurt and the O-Line doesn’t come together.  Defense is on the field 45 minutes a game and Mangini begs Belichick to allow him to come back as the ball-boy in New England.  Jets go 1-15 and the curse of Rich Kotite lingers on in the Meadowlands.

My Opinion – It was a toss up for me between the Jets and 49’ers for #32.  TO me, The AFC East, while solid, is not overly tough and with Buffalo also going through a transition year there are games to be won.  The Jets also match up against the AFC South, some potential victories over the likes of Houston and Tennessee.  After the loss of Herm Edwards the Jets really stripped down the talent and are looking to start from scratch.  The Ferguson and Mangold picks, while not sexy, were smart and Mangini by all accounts looks too be a solid young coach.  By grabbing Clemons in the 2^nd Round the Jets gave themselves a security blanket in case Pennington and Ramsey don’t work out.  It is going to be another tough year in New York but the Jets do have some foundation laid for the future.

**According to This, the Browns could be in big trouble already, just 2 days into training camp.  If the injury to LeCharles Bentley is serious, which it appears to be, what could have been a promising season(8-8) just got a whole lot bleaker.  Whenever an NFL Lineman, who let’s face it are porbably some of the toughest people on this planet, scream, “NO!” they know it is something serious.

The Browns must be wondering what they have to do to stay healthy.  Kellen Winslow has missed the past 2 seasons, Braylon Edwards went down and noone knows when he will actually return.  If there was a Curse of the Bambino, and if the Cubs are cursed, then there must really be a curse on this franchise, with some of the most passionate fans in sports.

I am not a Browns fan but I can respect their fans and hate to see an injury like this in a practice.  Here’s hoping the injury isn’t as serious as it looks, but I am not holding my breath.

**Sometimes when a miracle happens you wonder if it is too good to be true.  We like to hope it isn’t, but our common sense tells us it is.  That appears it may be the case with Tour De France winner Floyd Landis, where it has been reported by his team that he tested positive for unusually large amounts of testosterone.  Landis, of course, was shocked by the result and has requested his ‘B’ sample get tested.  If that comes back positive as well, his cycling team Phonak has already said he will be fired.

Pending the results of that ‘B’ test, I can’t really say I am that surprised.  Cycling is the dirtiest sport on the planet and before the Tour even began most of teh favorites were booted as part of a doping scandel.  Even quotes from Landis’ mother didn’t seem all that encouraging –

She said Thursday that she wouldn’t blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but “if it’s something worse than that, then he doesn’t deserve to win.”

“I didn’t talk to him since that hit the fan, but I’m keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are,” she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pennsylvania. “I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I’m not going to jump to conclusions … It disappoints me.”

Let’s face it, believing that a man that is in need of a Hip Replacement can win the hardest cycling event in the world is more amazing than believing a man that survived cancer can do it.  Both are miracles and we would love to believe that miracles do happen.  More often than not, however, we find out that the miracle is actually someone playing fair, and not cheating the rules, the sport, and the fans.

Thanks to my man Brian Windhorst at the Akron-Beacon Journal and most recently ESPN.com(Hope he stays right where he is at the ABJ), LeBron James’ official birth-certificate has been seen, finally putting to rest all of the Danny Almonte stories.  You can check it out Here.

Great investigative work, Brian.  Now if we could only find out who killed Kennedy!