The next stage of the master plan

[Ex-hippie]

SUN, JAN 3
Indianapolis at Buffalo
Jacksonville at Cleveland
San Francisco at St. Louis
Pittsburgh at Miami
NY Giants at Minnesota
Atlanta at Tampa Bay
New Orleans at Carolina
New England at Houston
Green Bay at Arizona
Washington at San Diego
Tennessee at Seattle
Baltimore at Oakland
Philadelphia at Dallas
Kansas City at Denver
Cincinnati at NY Jets

The logic, of course, is to pick the teams with 5, 7 or 8 wins as much as possible. As for the rest:

Pittsburgh at Miami: it might wind up a little better to root for the team that currently has the same record as Denver (i.e., Pittsburgh), but it's a close call as Miami is in that 7-8 herd.

Green Bay at Arizona: two 10-5 teams who have already smoked the Seahawks and made the playoffs, who cares.

Tennessee at Seattle: conflicting emotions, needless to say. I also like Haden and Berry. Not to mention the idea of not having Mora, Knapp and Bradley as coaches, or Hasselbeck as QB. All of this is facilitated by a Seattle loss. But they're the Seahawks and it goes against the fiber of my being to root against them. Choose for yourself.

Baltimore at Oakland: too complicated to figure out which team I want, as described above. I think Baltimore. Don't forget, if the Raiders draft ahead of the Seahawks, there's at least a 75% chance Al Davis will do something laughable with his draft pick, the Seahawks will still get the guy they want at a cheaper price, and we'll be able to rate the comedy factor on draft day. (Note: Jacksonville at Cleveland is a similar game, except that Jacksonville, at 7-8, isn't involved in the playoff calculus, so they're not bumping Denver back by more than 1 pick.)

Philadelphia at Dallas: root for the Eagles because all right-thinking Americans hate the Cowboys, but this has nothing to do with the Seahawks.

Okay, then. By my count, 8 of the 10 games in which I had a definite rooting interest went the way I wanted. With the Denver loss, it now appears that it would have definitely been in Seattle's interest to root for Miami over Pittsburgh, but still, an 8-3 record for the day isn't bad (9-3 if you were rooting against the Seahawks for draft position purposes). I'm reading all over the place that it's going to be #6 and #14, which ain't bad; plus, the Denver pick is ahead of the Carolina pick that went to San Francisco.

[HeavyP]

Yeah, I did a big post about draft order on the other post. Here are my top 14 picks for Seattle:


Ndamukong Suh, DT Nebraska
Eric Berry, S Tennessee
Gerald McCoy, DT, Oklahoma... See More
Jimmy Clausen, QB Notre Dame
Joe Haden, CB Florida
Russell Okung, T Oklahoma State
Dez Bryant, WR Oklahoma State
Derrick Morgan, DE Georgia Tech
Mike Iupati, G/T Idaho
Sam Bradford, QB Oklahoma
Arrelious Benn, WR Illinois
Brandon Graham, DE Michigan
Trent Williams, T Oklahoma
CJ Spiller, RB Clemson

I also have a big group of people I would like at #38, however that list is long. I must say I like the DT and OT that should be available near #38

[Sweezo]

I think I'm hoping, right now, that things break in such a manner that we get Okung [T] and Iupati [G]. That conceivably gives you a line of Okung, Iupati, Unger, Sims, and Locklear. That could be a pretty good, young line. Since Spencer's a FA, I don't see him returning...he has no reason to want to come back here.

I think you have to get the line in place before you get your new young QB out there. I was thinking about this when I watched the Jets game tonight...having a good line and a good run game is what allowed the Jets offense to get them into the playoffs despite having a rookie QB. If we stick a rookie QB out there to scramble for his life...it's going to be a failure, regardless of who the QB is.

[HeavyP]

I agree about wanting an OL in place, however I believe Hasselbeck will be back next year. So, if you draft a QB, they will sit a year (or two) before coming in, I have faith we can figure out the OL by then, especially if we take one in the top 14.

[Danny Darko]

Okung & Iupati would be awesome.

I'm really conflicted on QB's. Because it's an uncapped year, spending the money on a 1st round QB is more attractive than it normally would be to me. I also am fascinated with more than one of the top 3 guys, but then I think we could see a few guys available in the 2nd like Colt.

Pretty stoked about Denver's epic decline. I saw a pretty funny post by a Bronco Fan on another site about the time they were 6-0 gloating that got dredged up at the end of the season to the Bronc Fan's great dismay.