NFL picks: week 17

[ogogo on ice]

Week 17 picks:
San Diego Chargers
N.Y. Giants
Indianapolis Colts
Cleveland Browns
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Kansas City Chiefs
Pittsburgh Steelers
Miami Dolphins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars
Minnesota Vikings
Washington Redskins
Dallas Cowboys

[Croup]

It may not be called the "Best Player Award," but that's who it always goes to. Notice in the MLB it's also called the MVP, but a few years ago it went to the below .500 Rangers with A-Rod. Shaun Alexander should win it, end of story.

Adrian.

I call bull****, at least on the "end of story" part. I refuse to hand out MVPs just because someone broke a record. The fact of the matter is, Carson Palmer is more valuable to the Bengals than Alexander is to the Seahawks. Without the specific skills of Palmer, that Bengal offense couldn't work the way it does. With a slightly lesser version of Alexander (say Corey Dillon if not injured, Willis McGhee or several other backs), the Seahawks would still be on top of the NFC, or at least at the number 2 seed. As Dad said, the Bengals wouldn't be in the playoffs without Palmer.

By the way, try these stats out:

Shaun Alexander

Total Yards From Scrimmage: 1885
Total Touchdowns: 27
Average Yards Per Touch: 5.1
Touches Per Game: 24.3

Tiki Barber
Total Yards From Scrimmage: 2127
Total Touchdowns: 12
Average Yards Per Touch: 5.6
Touches Per Game: 25.1

So Barber has a better average per touch, gained 300 more yards and touches the ball slightly more. He also plays on an offense with a SECOND YEAR QUARTERBACK with a 75.1 Quarterback Rating, a much more varied attack that Seattle's, and had 6 goalline touchdowns taken away from him by Brandon Jacobs (which is a questionable strategy that also cost the Giants touchdowns).

I'll trade the 15 touchdowns (not from the whole offense, but from the specific player) for the rest of the stats, including the fact that Barber has won games singlehandedly for the Giants (see the Kansas City game) when the rest of the team was playing poorly, and is used to bail out Manning when he has bad games.

I'd take Tiki Barber over Shaun Alexander for MVP.

(Disclaimer: I'm a Giants fan, which I know you'll hold against me. But it's true.)

Anyways, picks for the week:

Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers
N.Y. Giants at Oakland Raiders
Arizona Cardinals at Indianapolis Colts
Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns
Buffalo Bills at N.Y. Jets
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
Detroit Lions at Pittsburgh Steelers
Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans at San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars
Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings
Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles
St. Louis Rams at Dallas Cowboys

Ahhh Week 17, bringing us the worst game of the year: Houston vs San Francisco. Ugh.

Great playoff determining games here this week. Some real, REAL big ones. I love it.

[Senor Bezeer]

Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers
N.Y. Giants at Oakland Raiders
Arizona Cardinals at Indianapolis Colts
Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns
Buffalo Bills at N.Y. Jets
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
Detroit Lions at Pittsburgh Steelers
Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans at San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars
Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings
Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles
St. Louis Rams at Dallas Cowboys

[caddad]

The question was: Who is your MVP for this season?

My rookie of the year is without a doubt: Carnell Williams

-D2netDad

[Xoranix]

This has been a fun year, hopefully I won't tank it this week.

Chargers over Broncos
Giants over Raiders
Cards over Colts
Ravens over Browns
Bills over Jets
Panthers over Falcons
Bengals over Chiefs
Steelers over Lions
Patriots over Dolphins
Bucs over Saints
Seahawks over Packers
49ers over Texans
Jags over Titans
Vikings over Bears
Redskins over Eagles
Cowboys over Rams

[Amra]

San Diego Chargers
N.Y. Giants
Indianapolis Colts
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Kansas City Chiefs
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks
San Francisco 49ers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Chicago Bears
Washington Redskins
Dallas Cowboys

[Gibbzilla]

I can see that someone here is rather biased towards their favorite team, considering that Shaun Alexander has 15 more touchdowns than Tiki Barber, and also has made his team better than Barber has made his team. Heck, Tiki isn't even the best player in his family.

Adrian.

[Raft Boy]

I was hoping that the poll would spark a good debate. Looks like there might be one.

If you were to ask me, I would probably waver between Palmer, Brady, and Alexander. No way the Bengals are division champs without Palmer. Playoff contenders maybe, but that's doubtful given the other AFC teams out there. Brady carried the Pats while the defense and Dillon healed up. Same situation here as with Palmer, but to a lesser degree. Take out Brady, and they're average. But I think Brady takes a little bit of a hit since the Pats play in the weaker division versus the Bengals. Alexander's a whole other situation. If he was a "lesser" player, say Dillon or McGahee, would the Seahawks make the playoffs? Yeah, especially since, like the Pats with the AFC East, they get to feast on weaker division opponents (14 of his 27 TDs came against division foes). But would they be tops in the league? I don't think so.

Ultimately, I'm going with Alexander. I think he's enough to put the Seahawks into the Super Bowl with a damn good chance at winning. But I'm not going to be upset if Palmer takes it.

[Moosashi]

Damn. I missed last week. Oops.

Denver Broncos
N.Y. Giants
Indianapolis Colts
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Cincinnati Bengals
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks
San Francisco 49ers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Chicago Bears
Washington Redskins
Dallas Cowboys

An interesting Toilet Bowl in 'frisco. Tough to call.

[Nerf-Herder]

I went with the Bears' Defense. Face it people, they would be 0-15 without it. Lovi Smith is coach of the year, hands down, and the Bears will find themselves a VERY sexy Superbowl pick by most experts (myself incuded, even though I am not an expert).

Pick-n-Rants for week 17 comin' shortly!