10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 8

Make the gold a bit brighter and this ought to be
the Redskins' permanent helmet.

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10.            Trade Deadline

Next Tuesday marks the NFL trade deadline and we usually expect to hear some talk leading up to the date. So far, things have been fairly quiet, and so several NFL.com analysts decided to make some guesses at what big names might be traded.

Some of them are absurd in my mind, such as Mr. Rosenthal’s suggestion that the Chiefs might deal Dwayne Bowe.

Mr. Charley Casserly, meanwhile, brought up an interesting idea of the Jets sending Tim Tebow out west to the Seahawks. Though the headline originally made me laugh – Seattle has Russell Wilson and Matt Flynn – he raised a very good point. Seattle has not been putting the ball into the end zone once they reach the end zone. The Jets haven’t used Tebow, but Seattle certainly could. Whether they would is another story. Tebow is such a polarizing figure it is hard to imagine which team would want him on their roster.

9.            Thursday Night Football

Tampa Bay faces Minnesota on Thursday night in a matchup I am not including in my Games to Watch list, but is intriguing nonetheless. It is a winnable game for Tampa Bay, but the Vikings are 5-2 and making a strong case for their legitimacy as a contender within the NFC. Is this the team to bring Minnesota its first Lombardi Trophy after four empty Super Bowl appearances? I doubt it. But this is a roster that, if most of the pieces stay in place, could be in a few years. Believe it or not, I think Christian Ponder will be considered an elite quarterback within three years.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is resting near the bottom of the league. But their aggressive style of play could keep them in the game. As it was, they nearly beat New Orleans and I don’t think the Vikings will rush out to such a large first half lead.

8.            Monday Night Football

Another game I didn’t include in my Games to Watch list, yet also a game that could be very good. San Francisco’s offense has really been exposing itself the past few weeks. Last Thursday night we were treated to a defensive battle between the 49ers and the Seahawks. This Monday, it’s the Cardinals who will face San Francisco, and the game will be in Arizona, which is very much in the Cardinals’ favor. Expect another defensive battle, but don’t expect the Cardinals to fall so easily.

7.            Fantasy Disappointments

There were plenty of fantasy disappointments this week, so I’ll just list a few that stood out to me.

• New Orleans won their game, but the lack of takeaways and just one sack left them two points in the red.
• After four straight weeks of 13+ points, it was a bit disappointing to see Larry Fitzgerald score just 4 points this week.
• A.J. Green scored 6.5 points in my fantasy league this week. Not bad, right? Well, the last time he scored fewer than 14.5 points was Week 1’s 9.5-point performance. In fact, in that time he’s scored 20 points once and 30+ twice. So I’ll buy a disappointing Week 7 performance from Green.

6.            Fantasy Surprises

• Chris Johnson has been coming on stronger the past four weeks, but I don’t think even he expected to score more than 30 fantasy points this week.
• After a slow start, Josh Freeman has been solid after Tampa Bay’s bye week, recording 28 fantasy points in Week 6 and 31 more this past week.

5.            Games to Watch

Like last week, I’ll be more specific on why these are the biggest games to watch in my predictions post tomorrow.

• San Diego Chargers at Cleveland Browns (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Washington Redskins at Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• New Orleans Saints at Denver Broncos (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)

4.            Power Rankings

For the sake of space, I will list just the top 6 and the bottom 6 here. You can see the rest on NFL.com.

1. Atlanta Falcons	27. Buffalo Bills
2. Houston Texans	28. Carolina Panthers
3. Chicago Bears	29. Cleveland Browns
4. New York Giants	30. Oakland Raiders
5. San Francisco 49ers	31. Jacksonville Jaguars
6. Green Bay Packers	32. Kansas City Chiefs

The Texans are the only AFC team in the top six, you may have noticed. In fact, after Houston at number 2 you have to look all the way down at numbers 8 and 9 to find the Ravens and the Patriots respectively. Meanwhile, the Panthers are the only NFC team in the bottom six. Is the NFC really more competitive this year? I tend to agree with the rankings as they are. We might even see a 7-9 team win an AFC division this year, though I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that.

The Power Poll is a better representation of where the teams stack up, in my opinion. Check that out here.

3.            Chicago Bears

I wrote about the Bears yesterday on my Monday Night Football Afterword. I said then that I’m not buying the Bears, but NFL.com analysts don’t agree with me. The Bears are #3 on the Power Rankings and they were voted to #4 on the Power Poll.

To any of my readers who are fans of the Bears, don’t think that I don’t consider Chicago deserving of their 5-1 record. But I also will restate that I need to see them beat some good teams before I give them a true vote of confidence. So far they’ve played the Packers, who were not at their best, and they lost that game. In the mean time, I’m still keeping myself away from that bandwagon.

2.            Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons maintained the top ranking over their bye week, but will they keep it after Week 8? The Philadelphia Eagles are next to unbeatable after a bye week. Even in their poor years they manage to win the game following a bye. But Atlanta is also coming off a bye. A quick sneak peak into my Week 8 picks, I give the edge to Philly on account of it being at home, but Atlanta won’t give up their unbeaten record without a solid fight.

1.            Throwback Uniforms

Oh, throwbacks. Each one is like the New York Yankees. You either love it or you hate it; there is no in-between. Last week we saw the Patriots and Buccaneers don their throwbacks, ones that I love! I know some people can’t stand the powder orange uniforms from Tampa Bay’s early days, but I love them.

This week, we get to see the Redskins take on the Pittsburgh Bumble Bees Steelers. I’m not so much a fan of those jerseys. But the Redskins could take the hint and get their throwbacks out, too. I’m not talking about the white jersey and gold pants. I love those and they should wear those full-time. I’m talking about the gold helmet with the red ‘R’ – I love that helmet and the Redskins need to bring that back permanently, just like the Pats (and maybe the Bucs) should do with theirs.