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Sports Second: Football is BACK!!

With the season a few weeks away there are several things I think we need to take note of that I think are going to be some major highlights going into this year. First of all yes, I will be writing about football frequently. Football is awesome. Second I am an Eagles fan as my close friends know and luckily for me one of the major highlights of this season involve:

1. Sam Bradford and those Philadelphia Eagles

I know everyone is really focused in on Sam Bradford and what to expect from him this year, but at this moment I'm of the mindset that he's not going to be as important as everyone thinks he is. I think I heard the analogy on First Take when one of the football guys called Chip Kelly's QBs the equivalent of a basketball player that runs the floor for his team. His job is to pass the ball around and give his playmakers (and he has alot of them) the ball so they can make something happen. So far his dead on accuracy is proving that it can be done, and I look forward to seeing him get more comfortable moving forward.

Although I just spent an entire paragraph writing about Sam Bradford, the focus isn't on him in my mind. The running game will absolutely carry this team through the season. This team will rise or fall on the backs of Demarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, Darren Sproles and Chip Kelly's former now new player (hopefully) Kenjon Barner. Everyone is saying that "Murray can't stay healthy" or that "Mathews" can't stay healthy and all these other things that sound like they are coming from fans of another team. But my guess based on McCoy's load last year is that these guys are going to be lucky if they get 250 carries each this season since they will be splitting the workload. They will be fresh, and they will run downhill. We've only seen a snippet of what can be done in Kelly's system with these guys running the rock and I think that was done purposely on Kelly's part. He doesn't want to give anything away. There are a ton of other factors surrounding this team like the QB situation, Kiko Alonso, the secondary but none of those mean anything.

If The Dallas Cowboys showed us anything last year its that a great running game travels and controls the flow of the game, and Kelly took that to heart. I'm excited to see what they do this year.

2. Marcus Mariota vs. Jameis Winston

Ahhh I can already hear the debates getting started concerning these two top picks in the draft. Who is the better QB? Who will have the better career?

Well I'm not here to discuss that, I'm here to discuss what we've seen so far. Jamies is exactly what we thought he would be, a playmaker who truly believes he can make every throw and will make mistakes. I think he'll go through some growing pains, but as long as he keeps his confidence he will keep things interesting for us this season (yes Bucs fans, tune in this year you will be competitve).

I feel like we already knew what we were going to get out of Jameis for the most part since he ran a pro-style offense at Florida State, Marcus Mariota and his growing pains converting from the "quack attack" at Oregon is the more interesting transition. He looks comfortable so far back there, and that may not seem like much but trust me for a rookie QB the number one thing a coach wants him to be is comfortable closely followed by confident. Unfortunately for him I don't know how long that's going to last. Jameis has the twin towers Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans on the outside to safeguard his crazy throws. In fact you can argue that he will be more inclined to heave the ball down the field because of them. Who does Marcus have? Kendall Wright? The rookie Beckham? I know Titans fans are hopeful but honestly I don't like for any team to go into the year not sure about thier QBs supporting cast. I'm rooting for both of them, I hope thier confidence doesn't get destroyed out there. Year one is all about comfort and confidence.

3. Quarterback prediction watch: Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater

So I've been watching the NFL Draft very closely since 2003, monitoring first round picks and predicting how I think they are going to do. Well last year I decided to do something I know is going to make me look like a genius (insert sarcasm) and start picking first round picks that I believe will turn out to do great things.

So far my two guys from last year, Bortles and Bridgewater are looking good. Teddy should have a great year with a motivated Adrian Peterson in the backfield (if you didn't draft Peterson in your fantasy league your a fool) and an emerging defense with a young linebacker group. Everything else around him is just a bonus, because frankly everyone should be very worried about AP this year. He will dominate. Teddy is poised, comfortable and very smart. He's emerging as a leader out there and something big! He looks to be gaining some muscle mass, it was as if he heard me last year afraid he was going to break in half taking some of those hits. So far Teddy's making me look like a genius out there!

Bortles has me on the edge of concern. Funny thing is, I was more excited about Blake Bortles than I have been about a lot of people I've seen come out of college. You could see the fire he had when he was at UCF, he was running and chucking the rock all over the place (look up the highlights). With Julius Thomas hurt right now when they should be building chemistry, I gotta be thinking that his Head Coach is really confident in these young recivers Bortles has on the outside, because he didn't add anyone! Well see what happens when the bullets start flying, but Bortles is definitely still playing confident. This will be a big year for him!

**Sidenote: My two rookies for this year are Raiders WR Amari Cooper (its like Tim Brown all over again, great reciever on a bad team-come on Carr no more excuses!) and Chargers Runningback Melvin Gordon (already got me sweating smh)

3.Last Notes

-I'm a little nervous for the Seahawks. The legion of Boom has become the legion of "where's my money?" One left for Philly to get more money another is holding out for a bigger contract, and the other two were hurt playing in the Superbowl still trying to get back into the swing of things. Pete Carroll will find a way.

-I hate to see great players like Jordy Nelson and Kelvin Benjamin go down. I love when the league is competitve and every game is fun to watch (come on Oakland, Jacksonville get it together!).

-Vick is FINALLY getting another shot, flying to Pittsburg to get a physical. I can think of several teams that could use him as more then a backup. The whole situation with the Jets was a fluke.

-Did I mention to look out for Adrian Peterson this year?

-I went the entire post without mentioning the words Tom Brady and deflategate until here. And that will also be the last time I mention it. You know why? because NOBODY CARES. Nothing is going to change and we all admit that Brady is awesome either way. Next.

-All in all I think this will be a great season, I still need to do about three more fantasy drafts though but I wanted to wait until several of the preseason games went by in case players got hurt. I have to have at least three teams, because really, who can have enough fantasy teams?

Tell me how you think your team is going to do this year, and feel free to drop some fantasy draft advice as well!

Be About It,

Kevon Brown

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