1. The Giants have by far the toughest schedule of all the 32 teams;

2. Face it the Eagles are a very very scary team. Yes last year with all of their Star Free Agent acquisitions they were called the dream team and predicted to take the NFC East with ease but what many analysts failed to recognize was a group full of new players needed time to play together so they know the weakness and strengths of their new teammates and the Eagles system. After mid season the Eagles started to come together as a team and they were the most feared opponet in the NFL. At one point there was a chance that the Eagles could have won out in the NFC East;

3. Jerry Jones is sick of losing and has made that clear more than ever this season. He made good acquisitions in the draft and free agency to upgrade the weakest part of the team, their secondary. Now it is time for Tony Romo to close and he knows that all to well.

4. Finally the Washington Redskins. Hey they beat the Giants twice last year. Now they have a QB that everyone has a opinion on: RG3. Is he better than Andrew Luck? Can he be the franchise QB for the Redskins? These are all questions yet to be answered until the games are played. Also unlike Luck, RG3 is coming to a team with a solid Defense, a good O-Line and satisfactory Wide Receivers and Running game.

So the World Champions will have a rough time of it again this year and let us all hope that a playoff berth is in the cards.

Nov 8, 2009; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (left) and San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers talk prior to game at Giants Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Take a look at this brief off-season quarterback carousel just so that you can understand where I’m coming from:

• The Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning so they can draft Andrew Luck.
• Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos after putting the NFL on a three year waiting list. Wait, what? It wasn’t three years? Sure seemed like it.
• The St. Louis Rams got a fortune in return from the Washington Redskins so they can take RG3 right after the Colts select Luck.
• Matt Flynn signs with the Seattle Seahawks after being Aaron Rodgers’ backup.
• Jason Campbell leaves Oakland after having his starting job taken away and signs with the Chicago Bears to become Jay Cutler’s backup.
• Kyle Orton does the same thing and goes to backup Tony Romo in Dallas after starting for two teams last year: the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
• Denver Broncos’ third string QB Brady Quinn moves to Kansas City to become that team’s newest backup QB.
• Chad Henne left the Dolphins to challenge for the starting QB job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The New York Jets brought in Drew Stanton to be Mark Sanchez’s new body double.
• David Garrard comes back to the league after a one year absence to join the Miami Dolphins.

We have backups becoming starters, starters becoming backups, rookies being drafted presumably to start from day, guys out of the league for a year and one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL cut for a player to have never played a down of professional football before. Confused yet? That’s because it is confusing to keep track of which quarterback is on which team now in the new quarterback driven NFL.

With the signing of Manning to the Broncos there is now another starting quarterback that could be had for the right price: Tim Tebow for a 5th round pick, presumably. The two teams with a most glaring need at a QB, if the 49ers don’t bring back Alex Smith, that is, are the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. You have to include Miami because a Matt Moore/David Garrard combo doesn’t scare anyone.

The Browns were never in the hunt for Manning but aren’t enamored with incumbent QB Colt McCoy and lost out on the RG3 sweepstakes. The Dolphins went all in on Manning but came back empty handed; then their second choice Flynn spurned them for the Seahawks. That leaves the potential of either one of those two teams signing Alex Smith, he of the 49ers, who has no idea of his job status thanks to the Peyton Derby, and the aforementioned Tebow.

Plus there are other potential first round quarterbacks besides Luck and RG3 that could be taken by the Browns or Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden, both of whom, if you ask me aren’t worthy of being selected in the top ten of the draft but might be taken that early because the Dolphins (picking 8^th overall) and the Browns (picking 4^th overall) won’t have any choice other than dangling a future first round draft pick in order to trade back into the latter part of the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

By my calculations we might have a total of 11 teams with a new starting QB/quarterback question marks entering next season:

-Redskins – RG3, Vikings – Ponder/Webb?, Jaguars – Gabbert/Henne? Or maybe even Tebow?, San Fran – Smith/Kaepernick/Josh Johnson?, Arizona – Kolb/Skelton? Cleveland – McCoy?, Seattle – Flynn/T-Jax? Titans – Locker/Hasselbeck?, Indy – Luck, Miami – Moore/Garrard? and Denver – Peyton Manning.

11! That is a ridiculous amount of turnover at the most important position in football.

Now you can see why I’m pretty happy that the Giants have Eli Manning and we didn’t have to put up with the Peyton circus and the revolving game of quarterback musical chairs that teams like the Redskins and Dolphins plus players like Tebow and Smith have had to put up with this offseason. Heck, the Giants are even keeping their back-up QB David Carr.

Are you ready for the second half of the 2011 NFL season? Do you think you can handle the adrenaline rush from the multitude of clutch comebacks? Or, for that matter, the overwhelming depression of staggering defeats?

If you answered, “Yes!” to these questions, then you are a true BLUE football fan! Let’s get it started! Week 10, or weak 10 for some teams around the league, finds us on our continuing mission to deliver you the winners of every NFL game, alongside the pigskin picking’ panel at ESPN. Who have we picked this week? Who won the battle of the predictions last week? You might be surprised at the results. read on…if you dare!
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It’s hard to believe that we are at Week 8 of the 2011 NFL season. It seems like only yesterday that we were fretting over a football season that would not be. Now, we find ourselves at the midway point with a view of the regular season’s end on the horizon. Only the strong will survive the remaining eight games and make it into the post season. Who will be the chosen few?

Well, the high priests of predictions at ESPN, and yours truly, are here to help you make sense of it all. Each week I take a shot at fortune telling, alongside the eight esteemed members of the ESPN brain trust and their two trusted robots. How did they do last week? How did I do? Who are we collectively picking this week? Read on to find the answers to the questions that bother you so.
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Of the six categories of weekly leaders in the NFL for Week 5, three of them were New York Giants (Eli Manning, Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz). That was then. This is now! Welcome to Week 6 of the 2011 NFL season. We are just over one-third of the way through and, as we have discovered already, ANYTHING can happen!

This week, we take another gander into the looking glass of the ESPN braintrust. Week 5 proved some of the ESPN pundits to be kings among men. It also proved that some of them are…well…not so much. How did I do? Who am I picking this week? Continue on for my break/down-beat down and analysis of all this week’s upcoming matchups.
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Today’s installment of the most popular 2012 NFL mock draft feature based on the zero negative feedback I’ve received up to now is taking the ridiculousness of covering 2012 NFL mock drafts to a new high as I cover a 2012 NFL mock draft that was mocked up before the 2011 NFL Draft even took place.

Crazy, right? Crazy, indeed! The name of the site I’ll be featuring says it all: Football Mockery. If you’re going to be mocking the 2012 NFL Draft you might as well start early and there’s nothing earlier than getting ahead of the game and mocking which players will be taken in 2012 before the ones in 2011 were taken.

Okay, so, if you’re still with me and understood everything typed up in those previous paragraphs let’s get a move on to the this week’s installment of ‘This Week In Mock Drafts.’

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