Hey guys. It me. The NFL season churns closer as training camps are in full gear around the NFL. Pre-season kicks off for all teams this week with many games from Thursday to Saturday. Let’s take a look around the league.
Pre-Season
Pre-season started with the Bears losing the Hall of Fame Game 17-16 to the Ravens. A handful of starters played for each team. Not many play with an extra fifth pre-season game for these two teams.
Here is the schedule for this week of games:
http://www.espn.com/nfl/schedule/_/week/2
Chicago at Cincinnati Thursday at 7 PM (EST)
Tennessee at Green Bay Thursday at 8 PM (EST)
Detroit at Oakland 10:30 PM (EST) on NFL Network
Minnesota at Denver 9:00 PM (EST) Saturday on NFL Network
Contracts
Vikings Pay Err’Body (but the Rodgers killer)
Wide Receiver Stefon Diggs got a 5 year 72 million dollar deal.
Defensive End Danielle Hunter got a 5 year 72 million dollar deal too.
Middle Linebacker Erik Kendrick received a 5 year 50 million dollar deal.
Anthony Barr is on a fifth year option but was not re-signed quite yet.
The Vikings core is in-tact for the next few years. Good job by Rick Spielman.
Lions
Ziggy Ansah franchise tag became permament in mid- July and the Lions will wait and see how he does with injury this year. The good news is he came off the PUP list and can practice. Ziggy costs 17.1 million for 2018 and needs a big year for Detroit in Matt Patricia’s new defense.
Golden Tate is on the last year of his deal 5 year 30 million dollar deal from 2014 and the main Detroit player that could get an extension. Tate was a bargain based on his production but just turned 30 years old. It will be interesting to see what Detroit gives Golden.
Packers and Bears
Green Bay or Chicago hasn’t had any new signings. I lump them together because they are the two North teams battling for last place. The Bears though have a big holdout in ILB Roquan Smith. The first round pick is losing valuable days in Vic Fangio’s defense.
Uh Oh: Injury Round Up
The Packers lost Jake Ryan to a torn ACL. That is a big loss for the Packers run defense at ILB. Ryan was the 3rd best run stopping ILB in the league per PFF. Green Bay must get production from a 3rd round rookie in Oren Burks or Ahmad Thomas.
David Bakhtiari hurt his ankle but should be ready to go by regular season. He would be a huge loss for Green Bay.
The Vikings offensive line is banged up with Pat Efflein (center) on PUP and Nick Easton (LG) and Mike Remmers (RT or RG) both injured. The Vikings offensive line coach Tony Sparano unfortunately passed away recently. In his last words, he noted Kirk Cousins will be awful. That is a lot of injuries for new OC Joe DeFillipo to deal with so far. The good news is that it is only training camp (other than the death).
Bears ILB Danny Trevathan is injured but working his way back from a hamstring injury.
The Lions lost FB Nick Bawden (7th round pick) to a torn ACL. Ziggy Ansah was on PUP and Cornelius Washington and Devon Kennard were on NFI. All have been removed and are practicing.
HOF
Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, Terrell Ownes, Robert Brazile. Bobby Beathard (GM), Jerry Kramer and Brian Dawkisn all got into the HOF on Saturday. Owens did not attend like the bitch boi that he is. Owens is a better player than Randy Moss though.
The season is just around the corner. Enjoy the pre-season until you get bored three minutes into it.