FROM THE PRESS BOX – Preseason is one thing, but the NFL regular season is a completely different animal. And it’s finally here.
You know what that means. It’s time for my first set off hawt taeks as we enter a brand new season. It should be a fun one!
Let’s not delay the anticipation any further. Here’s a fresh set of Ebs’ Hot Takes, NFL edition.
Enjoy.
The Seattle Seahawks will draft in the top 10 in April. If it wasn’t for Russell Wilson, the Seattle Seahawks might be one of the worst teams in football.
There offensive line has been a problem for years, and while they have some new blood in the backfield, the wide receiving corps is less than intriguing. Doug Baldwin is solid, but he’s injured. Then you have Tyler Lockett – meh – and an aging Brandon Marshall.
Not to mention, the Legion of Boom is gone and the defense as a whole his lacking talent.
With a stacked NFC West, the Seahawks are going to struggle. They might finish last in their division.
Jon Gruden is in over his head. Sure, Jon Gruden seemed like a cool hire at first. But then after a terrible draft and the recent trade of Khalil Mack, which I don’t totally blame Gruden, I think this game might have passed him by.
“They’re trying to divide us,” Gruden told ESPN. “People are trying to divide us: ‘I wanted him gone, he wanted him here.’ We made a decision as an organization. [Owner] Mark Davis, [executive] Tom Delaney, we all got the information and we made a decision, together. And I’ll just say what [Reggie] said — I read what he said yesterday — it’s a decision that we all came to.
“I know there’s maybe some feeling that maybe I was involved in a day-to-day negotiation. I had nothing to do with it. We were at a standoff and something had to happen, and here we are.”
Can you believe the Raiders actually had to give up a second rounder to get this deal done?
Sure, getting back a pair of first rounders is rather appealing, but while draft capital is great and all, you still have to hit on those picks. Just look at their 2018 draft, the Raiders reached on both of their first two picks and traded one of their third rounders for Martavis Bryant, who was on the last year of his contract. Oh, and the Raiders just cut him.
So let me make this clear, the Raiders traded a top 100 pick for a guy who never played a down for them.
The Raiders may luck into some wins because the AFC West has some holes, but they’re definitely not making the playoffs this season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are your Super Bowl LIII winners. I feel like I say this every year, but one of these seasons the Killer B’s are finally going to get it done.
While it does worry me that Le’Veon Bell hasn’t signed his franchise tender and re-joined the Pittsburgh Steelers yet, this team has just too much talent. Not to mention, the AFC North might be the weakest division in the AFC. I’m not a big believer in the Cleveland Browns. Just watch Hue Jackson in Hard Knocks and you’ll see what I mean. The Baltimore Ravens have Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals always find a way to screw things up.
The New England Patriots will be around again, but I think they lost a little too much in the offseason to get back to the Super Bowl. Oh, and come one, do you really trust the Jacksonville Jaguars again? Because I don’t.
The Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-24.
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