Blogs – Page 128 – Keefe To The City

Oct 15, 2018

Didi Gregorius Replacement Options

The Didi Gregorius injury changes how the Yankees planned to operate this offseason and it hurts his own personal value since he will become a free agent after missing part of the season due to elbow surgery.

Have you ever sat down for a test and had to bullshit your way through the essay questions, so you ramble on and on about nothing just to fill space, giving no actual answer? That’s how Aaron Boone handled his end-of-the-season press conference.

The Yankees manager said nothing insightful and somehow still believes he made the right decisions with his bullpen in the playoffs. The only good thing to come from Boone having absolutely no clue what he was doing in the ALDS is that a lot of Boone supporters, both fans and media, now wonder if he is actually the right person for the job. It only took them nearly the entire season from what Boone displayed that first weekend in Toronto to realize the manager of the Yankees should probably have some managerial or coaching experience prior at any level before being handed a win-now team.

After 15 minutes of nothing from Boone, he took the final question of his press conference, and then Yankees public relations man Jason Zillo said the following:

“We’re going to have Cash in here in a few minutes, but in fairness to you guys (at this point Boone turns to Zillo like he remembers something and points at Zillo), there’s not a great point to drop this in, but I want Aaron to be able to respond to it. Didi had an MRI yesterday. He will undergo Tommy John surgery at a yet to be determined time …”

Boone spoke about nothing for 15 minutes and forgot to mention that the team’s starting shortstop and only left-handed, non-switch-hitting bat in their lineup played in the ALDS with a torn throwing elbow and is going to miss a large portion of 2019 following surgery on that elbow. How is it even possible Boone nearly let this slide without talking about it during his part of the press conference? Was he just going to leave if not for Zillo bringing it up? Judging by Boone’s reaction Zillo bringing it up, it sure seemed like Boone was going to walk out without having mentioned this incredibly significant news.

Boone said Didi Gregorius hurt his arm on a throw when he played a ball off the Green Monster in Game 2 of the ALDS. How did a shortstop play a ball off the left-field wall? Well, in the seventh inning, Ian Kinsler hit a ball off the wall that Andrew McCutchen played as if he had no basic knowledge or understanding of geometry. The ball bounced past McCutchen and to Gregorius, who threw it back in. (The image at the top is Gregorius getting ready to make the throw that tore his elbow.)

Boone is an idiot, but we already knew that. The real news is that the Yankees are going to be without Gregorius for some amount of time in 2019 and possibly the majority of 2019. And here I was thinking the 2019 Yankees would be better than the 2018 Yankees. The 2019 Yankees can still be better than the 2018 Yankees, but it just got that much harder to make that possible.

The Yankees have a few options with how they can handle this.

Option 1
The Yankees could keep Gleyber Torres at second base, if that’s where they feel he will play moving forward in his career, and use someone like Adeiny Hechavarria or someone with his defense-first skillset to play shortstop and bat ninth (unless Boone goes into 2019 thinking Torres should continue to bat ninth no matter what). I certainly don’t want the Yankees to play any part of next season with a near-automatic out like Hechavarria in the lineup, let alone possibly the majority of next season, so this would be the worst-case scenario for me.

Option 2
The Yankees could sign Manny Machado. This would mean while Gregorius is out, Machado could play short, Torres second and Miguel Andujar third. Or Machado third, Torres short and Andujar first or outfield. The first step to this process would be to sign Machado and then determine where Andujar’s future is. Gregorius is going to be a free agent at the end of this season, so maybe Machado plays third for 2019 and then shortstop in the years to follow, or maybe the Yankees also sign Gregorius, and Machado plays third and Gregorius plays short for the foreseeable future. That would mean Andujar becomes an outfielder or a first baseman. I wouldn’t hate this scenario, but it’s not my favorite.

Option 3
If the Yankees are going to sign either Machado or Bryce Harper, I would rather they sign Harper. The Yankees desperately need a middle-of-the-order left-handed bat and I would rather have Harper for the next decade than Machado. Signing Harper would mean Option 1 above would be less of an issue since having either a defense-first player at either short or second (whichever Torres isn’t at) would be negated in the lineup by the addition of Harper’s bat. If Harper isn’t an option for the Yankees because of the regrettable decision to add Giancarlo Stanton for 10 years then Option 2 becomes my favorite option because I do want either Machado or Harper (or both!).

Option 4
The unknown. The Yankees could do something not listed here. (This will likely be what happens since no one is expecting it.)

This Yankees offseason is so unpredictable and there are so many avenues they can take to set themselves up for the next decade that it actually hurts my head to think about. The Gregorius injury comes at a terrible time because it changes the course of how the Yankees planned to operate this offseason and it hurts his own personal value since he will become a free agent after missing part of the season due to elbow surgery.

The Yankees have an opportunity this winter to build on what began at the 2016 trade deadline and to put themselves in position to sustain success for a long period of time. The construction of their infield without Gregorius is now their first major decision of the offseason. They can’t get it wrong.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

Blogs • Giants

Oct 12, 2018

I’m Done Defending Odell Beckham

Prior to the Giants’ loss to the Panthers, I did the best thing I have done in a long time: I gave up on Odell Beckham.

Prior to the Giants’ crushing loss to the Panthers, I did the best thing I have done in a long time when it comes to the Giants: I gave up on Odell Beckham. After Beckham’s idiotic interview was released in which he questioned if he even likes being part of the organization that just made him the highest-paid receiver in the history of the league, I decided enough was enough. My decision to jump off the Beckham bandwagon couldn’t have come at a better time.

Beckham started the game against the Panthers with an unacceptable wide-open drop on fourth-and-3 to turn the ball over on downs. The Panthers possession as a result of his inexplicable drop ended with a punt, a punt in which Beckham was set to return. As the punt approached the ground, Beckham moved to his right to allow the punt to fall in, choosing to throw an unnecessary block instead. The ball hit his leg and rolled around near the Giants’ goal line, eventually getting jumped on in the end zone by the Panthers for a touchdown. In the span of two plays, Beckham had given the Panthers the ball near midfield and then he had given them a touchdown.

A couple Giants possessions later, Beckham threw a touchdown pass to Saquon Barkley on a trick play, and in the fourth quarter, Beckham would score his first touchdown of the season. He finished the game with eight catches for 131 yards, and there’s no doubt in my mind he thinks he did his job in the game. After having watched Beckham and his actions both on and off the field for the last four-plus years, there’s no way he realizes that he did as much harm as good, and really more harm than good in the game. The Beckham I have come to understand thinks his team let him down around him and not the other way around. It’s never his fault.

I have gone out of my way to defend Beckham being a Giant because of his on-field talent, and because when healthy, he’s the best wide receiver in the league. I have looked away when he has had his on-field meltdowns and sideline meltdowns and when he has done everything other than be a team player or a leader because of his talent. Talent is no longer enough for me to argue on his behalf.

There was this idea that Beckham would be different in 2018. He got to do whatever he wanted with Jerry Reese as general manager and with Tom Coughlin and Ben McAdoo as head coach, but for some reason, people thought he would change completely for David Gettleman and Pat Shurmur. Initially, Beckham did change, as he showed up to work in the summer and said all the right things. And then he changed back the minute he signed his name to a $95 million contract with $65 million guaranteed.

Shurmur became the first of the last three Giants head coaches to stand up to Beckham when he made him apologize for the interview and also fined him for it as well, but it apparently didn’t do any good as the same old Beckham was at MetLife Stadium for the Giants’ must-win game on Thursday night.

With two seconds left in the first half and the Giants trailing 24-6, Eli Manning and the offense took the field for the final play of an embarrassing half. Beckham didn’t take the field though. Instead, the $95 million wide receiver left the field and walked down the tunnel to the locker room.

Later in the game, after it became clear that the only bright spot in the game for the Giants was going to be Barkley, cameras found Beckham going wild on the sideline after a big Barkley play. This isn’t about to be Barkley’s team, at least not if Beckham has anything to say about it. So alone on the sideline, Beckham jumped up and down, yelling to no one and at no one in particular, just off in his own world acting crazy like he has done so many times before. Beckham hadn’t contributed much in the game before the outburst and didn’t end up contributing much in the game at all — six catches for 44 yards. Since his play wasn’t good enough to be a talking point for fans and viewers, he was going to make sure he drew attention to himself some other way.

The more the Giants lose, the more my dislike for Beckham grows and I think most Giants fans feel the same way. When you look at a team like the Eagles, they don’t have a Beckham. He has more talent than all of their wide receivers put together, and probably more than all of their offensive players put together. But the Eagles are a reminder that you don’t need a big-name wide receiver to win in this league. You need an offensive line and a pass rush, and when $95 million is tied up on a wide receiver, it’s hard to have either of those two things.

The Giants were coming off a losing season, in which they started 0-6, the year before Beckham arrived, and since he has arrived, they have had one winning season and played in one playoff game, in which his drops changed the game and ended the Giants’ season. The Giants were a losing team before Beckham and they have been one with him.

Beckham might be the best receiver in the league, but aside from a one-handed catch four years ago in Dallas and thousands of yards in losing seasons, he’s never done anything to earn the right to speak out against his quarterback, his teammates and the organization that made him the highest-paid player at his position. He’s never done anything to earn the right to act immaturely the way he has so many times. He’s never done anything as a Giant except come up small in every big moment. I’m over Odell Beckham.

Blogs • Giants

Oct 12, 2018

Giants-Eagles Week 6 Thoughts: The Season Is Over

There really wasn’t much to the game. The Giants were outplayed and dominated by a much better team and a team that should have never been only a 1-point favorite against such an inferior opponent.

The Giants’ season is over. Really, I knew it was over after the Week 2 loss in Dallas, but then the Giants sucked me back in with their Week 3 win in Houston, and the NFC East sucked me back in by letting the Giants hang around until Thursday night. Now I can finally give up on the 2018 New York Giants because there’s no coming back from the 34-13 loss to the Eagles. At 1-5, the Giants’ season is officially over.

I thought this year might be different. A new general manager and a new head coach gave me promise that last year’s 3-13 debacle wasn’t indicative of who the Giants really were. Coming off an 11-5 season and a postseason appearance, it was easy to blame injuries and the head coach for 2017. However, the 11-5 record in 2016 wasn’t indicative of who the Giants are. That season was the anomaly, not last. The Giants are still losing the team that got Tom Coughlin fired and the losing team that led to Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese being so lost that they decided to bench Eli Manning for Geno Smith. The Giants flat-out suck, and I’m a fool for thinking this season would be different, and I’m an even bigger fool for thinking they would show up and save their season on Thursday night after the way they played through the first five games.

When the opening kickoff was fumbled by the Giants, I laughed. When it was reversed thanks to the ground causing the fumble, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Two plays later, when Manning tried to force a pass into a non-existent window to the third-string tight end and it was intercepted, I knew where the game was headed. But like a fool, I stuck around and wasted the next three hours of my life even though I knew the Giants were going to lose.

There really wasn’t much to the game. The Giants were outplayed and dominated by a much better team and a team that should have never been only a 1-point favorite against such an inferior opponent. The Eagles were are in another class when it comes to comparing them to the Giants, and traveling to MetLife off a disappointing home loss on a short week proved how much better they are than the Giants.

The game was over the second Manning forced that pass to the worst possible pass-catching option on the field. The rest of the game was just a formality to improve the Eagles to 3-3 and get them back on track, but I stuck around and watched.

I watched Manning dump off passes to Saquon Barkley as he feared for his life with the worst offensive line in the league protecting him. I watched Barkley be the only positive player yet again in yet another Giants loss. I watched Odell Beckham leave the field for the locker room despite the Giants being on offense with two seconds left in the first half as if the team had once again let him down. I watched Beckham freak out on the sideline after a big Barkley play as he tried to draw the cameras to him since he wasn’t doing anything in the actual game worthy of attention. I watched Aldrick Rosas miss a field goal near the end of the first half when the Giants couldn’t afford his first missed field goal of the season. I watched the defense once again hide behind the inconsistent play of the offense even though the Giants defense is every bit as bad as the Giants offense. And I watch Pat Shurmur look clueless once again on the sideline as his record as a head coach fell to 11-28.

It’s hard to believe that Shurmur is the right man to lead the Giants in the near future. When his team isn’t blowing winnable games or losing in the final seconds, they aren’t showing up. With the season on the line, you would think you would get the best possible effort, and if they were to lose to the defending Super Bowl champions, so be it. Instead, the Giants put together their worst effort of the season in the biggest game of the season. The home team on Thursday Night Football is supposed to have an unfair advantage with the short week, unless it’s the Giants. There is no advantage when it comes to the Giants.

I’m tired of hearing about the Giants and their history, but right now, that’s all the organization has: history. The Giants have been a bad team for a long time now, and there are no signs that’s going to change anytime soon. It’s certainly not going to change this season.

Whether it’s the actual play in the games or the antics on the sideline or the $95 million wide receiver giving outrageous interviews, in which he isn’t sure if he likes playing for the Giants, there’s nothing to like about the Giants. Nothing. They are a losing team full of losers who have never accomplished or won anything in their careers outside of the starting quarterback, whose fault these last few seasons seems to be.

The more the Giants lose, the more my dislike for Beckham grows. Up until last week, I had defended Beckham against the critics because of his talent and his abilities, but I jumped off the bandwagon at the perfect time heading into the Carolina game. When you look at a team like the Eagles, they don’t have a Beckham. He has more talent than all of their wide receivers put together, and probably more than all of their wide receivers, tight ends and running backs put together. The Eagles are a reminder that you don’t need a big-name wide receiver to win in this league. You need an offensive line and a pass rush, and when $95 million is tied up on a wide receiver, it’s hard to have either of those two things. The Giants were coming off a losing season, in which they started the year 0-6, before Beckham arrived, and since he has arrived, they have had one winning season and played in one playoff game, a game in which it was his drops that ended the Giants’ season. The Giants are a losing team with or without Beckham.

That’s not to say that the Giants’ problems are solely on Beckham, he’s just one of the problems, and he’s a big problem, from both a financial standpoint and a locker-room standpoint. This Giants team was built on the idea that they were more like the 11-5 team in 2016 and not like the 3-13 team in 2017, though it’s obvious they the front office was fooled like many Giants fans and that this team more closely resembles last season’s debacle. Ownership gave the green light to build for 2018 with a win-now mentality and it has backfired remarkably in that the Giants are nowhere near contending and they’re also not rebuilding. They are stuck in the middle, and that’s the worst place to be. For an ownership group that let Coughlin go for McAdoo and agreed with McAdoo to bench Manning for Smith, only turning on McAdoo once the backlash from the fan base and media grew to be too much, it’s no surprise they were wrong about how to handle this season.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Cowboys and Redskins both lost this week and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Giants went to Atlanta on Monday night in Week 7 and beat the Falcons and then beat the Redskins at home in Week 8 headingin into their bye week with people believing they could go on some sort of second-half run. But I won’t be one of those people. I have seen enough and I won’t be sucked back in again. I’m done with the 2018 New York Football Giants.

Oct 11, 2018

The Yankees Weren’t Good Enough Once Again

The Yankees’ World Series drought is now at nine years after the team’s disappointing performance in the postseason.

There have been a lot of times in the Brian Cashman era where I thought the Yankees were the best team in the league and they still didn’t win the World Series. In some of those seasons, they didn’t even make it out of the ALDS. This season, though, the Yankees weren’t the best team. They had the most talent. They just weren’t the best team.

The best team doesn’t have a manager who single-handedly swings a series for the worst or starting pitching that gets outpitched or a lineup that gets shut down by mediocre pitching. The Yankees had all these things and it’s why their real postseason lasted four games and why they had to play a game before the real postseason.

Top to bottom, one through 25 on the roster, I still believe the Yankees had the most talent, and on paper, should have won the division and should have represented the American League in the World Series. Underachievement, injuries and poor decisions forced them into the wild-card game, and those three negative traits eliminated them in four games against the Red Sox.

Just like that, the season is over. The grind that began in Tampa back in February and became official in Toronto is March is over, and for the ninth straight season, the Yankees’ season will end without a championship. The last nine seasons haven’t even provided a World Series appearance. The eight-year championship drought from 2001-08 has now been surpassed.

The final week or so of the regular season coupled with their impressive win over the A’s in the wild-card game and their effort in Boston in Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS served as a facade for the team’s real problems. The lineup was too right-handed heavy and was then shut down by two right-handed pitchers in Nathan Eovaldi and Rick Porcello. Their starting pitching was untrustworthy as seen by the disastrous starts of J.A. Happ, Luis Severino and CC Sabathia. And their manager’s lack of any managerial or coaching experience at any level was exposed on the postseason stage. When the Yankees failed to hit home runs, they failed to score, which put pressure on their rotation and forced their clueless manager to make meaningful decisions. When the Yankees failed to hit home runs, they failed to win. That’s not to say relying on home runs is wrong. It’s just that having home runs as your only source of offense is. And outside of Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez’s power display in Boston, the Yankees couldn’t score.

The Yankees supposedly arrived ahead of schedule in 2017. They were picked to finish close to or last in the AL East and they wound up winning the first wild card, winning the wild-card game, coming back down 2-0 against the Indians in the ALDS and coming within a win of the World Series. Their unexpected postseason run made them the AL favorite for 2019 and they fell short of those expectations. Well short. They blew their division chances in August, barely hung on to the first wild-card spot, and then after winning home-field advantage from the Red Sox in ALDS, they suffered the most embarrassing postseason loss in the team’s history as they would lose both home games in the series.

This season was a step back for a team whose natural progression should have been at least a second straight ALCS appearance, if not a World Series appearance. Yes, the MLB postseason is a crapshoot, and just reaching the ALDS should be enough, but not when you’re built like the Yankees. Not when you reach the ALCS, come within a game of the World Series and then add the NL MVP and swap out Starlin Castro and Chase Headley for Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar. That should have been enough to close the one-win gap the Yankees weren’t able to close when they went to Houston for Games 6 and 7 up 3-2 in the series. Instead, the gap is now even bigger than a year ago.

In the nine years since their last championship, the Yankees have three ALCS losses, two ALDS losses, a wild-card loss and three postseason-less seasons. Where do they go from here? I really don’t know. The team has many paths it can take this offseason, so that a year from now they are still playing games and not holding exit interviews and end-of-the-season press conferences. They have decisions to make on CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner. They have rotation spots to fill from within or outside the organization. They have to figure out who will be their first baseman and how they can add left-handed balance to the lineup. And on top of all that, they have to make the right choices when it comes to the best free-agent class in history. If you believe that the Yankees did arrive early in 2017 and that these last two seasons were just experience-building years then 2019 is truly the first year of this current team’s window of opportunity, and it can’t be wasted.

Success can be fleeting in baseball and nothing is guaranteed. On paper, the Yankees should be as good, if not better in 2019 than they were in 2018. But on paper, the 2018 Yankees should have been the best team in baseball, and their season ended short of their goal once again.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Greg Bird and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

Blogs • Giants

Oct 11, 2018

NFL Week 6 Picks

The best part about your team playing on Thursday Night Football is that you only have to wait four days between games. The worst part is that you then have to wait at least 10 days until the next game.

The Giants are hosting the Eagles on Thursday Night Football this week in what is a must-win game for the Giants, and a need-to-win game for the Eagles. A Giants win would improve them to 2-4, tying them with the Eagles record-wise and putting them ahead of the Eagles head-to-head tiebreaker-wise. A loss would make the gap two games between the two teams and prevent an all-out quarterback controversy for the Eagles.

The NFC East might be won this year by an 8-8 team, and if things keep going the way they are in the division, it might be won by a 7-9 team. And there’s nothing better than a 7-9 playoff team hosting an 11-win team in the first week of the playoffs. The Redskins are 2-2, the Eagles are 2-3, the Cowboys are 2-3 and the Giants are 1-4. A Giants win on Thursday to go along with a Redskins loss to the Panthers (likely) and a Cowboys loss to the Jaguars (very likely) would give the 2-3 Redskins a half-game edge over the other three teams at 2-4.

It was five years ago that the Giants opened the season 0-6 before winning four straight games, and at 4-6, playing for first place in the NFC East against the Cowboys. They lost that game and would go on to miss the playoffs, but at 0-6 a team should never again have a chance to think about the playoffs. At 1-4, the same should be able to be said, but the NFC East always has a weird way of working things out and very rarely is a team able to run away and hide with the division. Here’s to the 7-9 Giants winning the division and hosting a playoff game.

(Home team in caps)

NEW YORK GIANTS +1.5 over Philadelphia
My bold prediction before the season was that the Eagles would miss the playoffs. Maybe it wasn’t so bold since a lot of Super Bowl champions fall apart the following season after playing a month’s worth of extra games, especially for a franchise like the Eagles that had never won a Super Bowl. Sure, they are the middle of a solid window of opportunity to add on to their championship, but I can’t help but think that they are more than content with their 2017 season, at least for now.

On top of that, I wished for the ultimate quarterback controversy between Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles and franchise quarterback Carson Wentz. The team is now 1-2 with Wentz after benching Foles for going 1-1.

A Giants win on Thursday Night Football would save the Giants’ season, improve them to 2-4, give them the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cowboys and give every NFC East team two wins for now. It would also drop the Eagles to 2-4, which would mean they would be 1-3 with Wentz as their starter and the calls for Foles to be the starter would be out of control. The Giants have to win this game for so many reasons. I need the Giants to win this game.

HOUSTON -10 over Buffalo
It’s one thing to get behind the Bills at home. It’s another thing to get behind them on the road in a dome against the offensive threats and pass rush of the Texans. I’m in no way a believer in the Texans, but now at 2-3, it’s possibly they are turning into the team everyone thought they would be. It’s hard for me to see them winning a game by two possessions, but I’m not about to back Josh Allen to find out.

Seattle -3 over OAKLAND
There’s so much to love about Jon Gruden’s 1-4 Raiders. From Gruden’s cockiness as a broadcaster to his ridiculous contract to completely run an organization to his decision to run Khalil Mack out of town to his team being an absolute disaster, it has been a pleasure watching him destroy the Raiders both on and off the field. And while I’m certainly not a Seahawks fan after what happened on the goal line in the Super Bowl a few years ago, it makes it a little easier to stomach picking them when the Raiders are their opponent.

MIAMI +3.5 over Chicago
The Bears have sucked for so long I forgot what it was like to have them be competitive. It’s weird. Since their Week 1 collapse, the Bears defense has allowed 41 points over the last three games, and their offense even chipped in last game with Mitchell Trubisky somehow throwing six touchdown passes in a 48-10 rout of the Buccaneers.

The Bears are coming off their bye week, but it’s still much too early to trust them. It’s often easy to get caught up in how a team has played lately, but as a Giants fan I know more than anyone that you need to trust every week in the NFL like a brand-new season. I want to like the Bears, but it’s a little early for them to be giving points on the road, especially in Miami where the Dolphins seem to always play close games and pull out wins.

CINCINNATI -2 over Pittsburgh
I despite both of these teams. The Bengals for me foolishly believing in them so many times during the Andy Dalton era and the Steelers for losing every big game and playoff game to the Patriots. I probably should take the points in this division matchup, but my dislike for the Steelers far outweighs that of the Bengals.

NEW YORK JETS -2.5 over Indianapolis
Jets fans were ready to retire Sam Darnold’s number after Week 1, even though the defense deserved the credit for their blowout win in Detroit. Then after three weeks of losing, despite going into this season knowing the entire season was to be used as experience for Darnold, Jets fans returned to their old ways, questioning whether or not Darnold was the future. Now after a big win at home against the Broncos in which the Jets’ rushing game put up fake-like numbers, Jets fans think there is a path for them to the postseason.

My ideal situation for the Jets would be to just fall short of a postseason berth. That way, their fans are strung along and they end up with a pick in the middle of the first round, which is exactly won’t they don’t need as they try to build a team around Darnold. I don’t even think I need to root or pull for this happen. It’s the Jets, so it will happen all on its own. I can easily see an 8-8 season for them.

Carolina +1 over WASHINGTON
The Redskins were flat-out embarrassed on Monday Night Football as the Superdome Saints made their triumphant return. Those are the Saints everyone thought they would be getting in Week 1 before their loss to the Buccaneers and before their near-loss to the Browns. The Redskins couldn’t have picked a worse time to play in New Orleans.

As a Giants fan, it’s looking more and more like a near-.500 record will win the NFC East and that means tiebreakers are going to play a huge role in determining which of the crappy NFC East teams will win the division. The Giants and Cowboys have both already lost to the Panthers, so that means the Redskins have to as well to keep, and then the Eagles will also have to. Let’s Go Panthers!

MINNESOTA -10.5 over Arizona
Either the Eagles aren’t good (very possible) or the Vikings everyone expected this season have finally arrived (also very possible). But the Vikings’ win on the road over the Eagles was a very good sign for a team that struggled to a 1-2-1 start after being considered a true contender before the start of the season.

I’m a Vikings believer. Not only because Brittni is a Vikings fan and forces me to be when the Giants aren’t playing, but because I think they are a very balanced team, minus their kicking issues, which have now reached the historically-accurate Dan Bailey. The Rams might be 5-0 and the best team in the NFC and possibly the league, but the Vikings proved that they can go there and play with the Rams, and have Kirk Cousins not fumbled on the last possession of their meeting, maybe it’s the Vikings everyone is talking about as the team to beat in the NFC.

The Vikings are a very good team, and the Cardinals are a very bad team with a rookie quarterback. Very good teams blow out very bad teams at home. Well, unless the very good team’s quarterback turns the ball over every possession and then in that case, you lose a game to the Bills you were favored by 17 points in. But that won’t happen again!

CLEVELAND -1.5 over Los Angeles Chargers
A season after going 0-16, the Browns could easily be 5-0. They tied the Steelers because their kicker missed a game-winning field goal, lost to the Saints by 3 because their kicker missed two field goals and only lost to the Raiders in overtime despite four turnovers. The Browns have the ability to be a good team, they just need consistency.

When the Chargers have to play games in the Eastern Time Zone, bad things usually happen. And considering the Chargers never live up to their expectations, and with this specific Chargers team being a preseason favorite to reach the playoffs, there’s no way they don’t go 8-8 this season.

Tampa Bay +3 over ATLANTA
The Falcons are a joke and each week that passes with their current coaching staff makes the joke even bigger. They couldn’t convert in the red zone in their Week 1 loss to the Eagles, couldn’t get a stop in their overtime loss to the Saints, couldn’t hold on in their one-point loss to the Bengals and got destroyed in their 24-point loss to the Steelers.

I enjoy watching the Falcons’ fall from grace after their collapse in the Super Bowl and I can only hope they lose every game.

Los Angeles Rams -7 over DENVER
I thought the Denver defense was supposed to be good? Or did everyone think it was still the 2015 season? The Broncos allowed 323 rushing yards to the Jets last week. Yes, 323! And 198 passing yards for a total of 521 yards of offense to the Jets. The Jets! Yeah, let me back the Broncos against the Rams and feel confident about it …

JACKSONVILLE -3 over Dallas
The Cowboys suck. I can’t say this enough. And the more I say it, the more angry I get that the Giants gave away their Week 2 game in Dallas.

The Jaguars are good and one of only three teams in the AFC with a chance to reach the Super Bowl. Going back to the NFC East tiebreakers, after the Jaguars beat the Giants, I now need them to sweep the division. Let’s Go Jaguars!

TENNESSEE +3 over Baltimore
Two teams that seem to always lose when you think they are going to win. Now in a matchup between them, someone has to win, or I guess they could provide us with the third tie of the season. But considering that both teams will likely show up and play poorly, which is what these teams do when you pick them, give me the points.

Kansas City +3 over NEW ENGLAND
You want to prove you have the best offense in the history of the league? Go into New England on Sunday Night Football against the weakest Patriots team in years and come out with a win. If the Chiefs lose this game, there’s no sense in believing they will be anything other than a minor obstacle for the Patriots on their way to another Super Bowl appearance because a loss in the game could be the home-field tiebreaker in the AFC Championship Game.

GREEN BAY -9.5 over San Francisco
That’s a lot of points until you realize that the C.J. Beathard 49ers lost at home to the Josh Rosen Cardinals.

Last week: 6-9
Season: 30-33