Redskins/Giants Opening Day Predictions

[Bandwagon]

OK, the perennial Reskins hater, our WVA budy, has made s urprise statement. Is he rinking Danny's Kool-Aid of driking thatstuf he finds on the stump?

see: Rams release Chris Draft
Posted by Josh Alper on September 10, 2009 5:18 PM ET
Less than 72 hours before kicking off the 2009 season, the St. Louis Rams have dropped the guy expected to be their starting strongside linebacker.

The team released Chris Draft on Thursday after he declined to take a $380,000 pay cut, according to Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Draft was set to make $1.225 million this season, so the cut would have dropped him down to the veteran minimum.

Draft, 33, was the third-oldest player on the Rams roster, so the move isn't surprising after an offseason that saw many veterans sent packing in the wake of Steve Spagnuolo's hiring. The timing of it is a bit surprising, given Draft's role on the first-team defense.

They said because of the their current salary cap situation, that down the line with the incentives they needed to pay to other players they'd end up being over the cap," Draft told the Post-Dispatch. "It seems like there's other people that that could have been directed to, that (a pay cut) wouldn't have impacted that much. It's a business decision; they feel like they have to do it.

As a result of the move, 2008's Mr. Irrelevant has suddenly become very relevant. David Vorbora, the 252nd and final pick after wrapping up a college career at Idaho, will move into the starting lineup. Vorbora played in eight games, and started one, as a rookie. The team also re-signed Quinton Culbertson, who was one of the players cut last weekend when rosters dropped to 53 players.

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Westbrook shows up on injury report
Posted by Tom Curran on September 10, 2009 5:01 PM ET
Eagles running back Brian Westbrook was listed on the Philly injury report with a knee injury today, according to the twitter account of Brian Seltzer of The Stray Cats, ESPN 950 radio in Philly.

Seltzer notes that Westbrook participated fully in the Eagles practice but, like Shawn Andrews, Westbrook was not listed anywhere on the Eagles report Wednesday before showing up today.

In a pre-practice press conference, Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Morhinweg said that, "Brian is pretty healthy right now."

He added that, at this point, Westbrook might be spelled by rookie LeSean McCoy more because of wind than any nagging injury. "I have great confidence in Brian to play the whole game," said Mornhinweg. "If you get into a situation there and he's gassed just a little bit, then LeSean will play a little bit more."

The Eagles are at Carolina on Sunday

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Titans-Steelers tonight, Redskins-Steelers in February
Posted by Mike Florio on September 10, 2009 4:39 PM ET
Now that we're part of the semi-legitimate media, we need to behave like the semi-legitimate media and pretend that we know what we're talking about when it comes to predicting the teams that will make it to the postseason.

The reality is that no one knows what will happen, primarily because the only certainty is that injuries will screw up everything.

We often criticize so-called experts who base their predictions too heavily on the outcome of the prior season, so we've picked our Super Bowl teams in part by playing it safe and in part by thinking beyond the box.

Our best guess as of right now is that the Redskins and the Steelers will face off in February, and that the Steelers will win their third title in five years.

A lot of careful thought went into that. Specifically, the guys at WSSP in Milwaukee put me on the spot Wednesday morning, and so I blurted out the picks my cousin Josh had e-mailed to me the day before.

But I'll go with that. I've been saying for months that the Redskins could be the surprise team of the NFC, and the Steelers are bringing back too much talent and have too good of a coach to not be considered the favorites to return to the championship game.