8/13/15 –Welcome to the View from 151

Preseason game 1

Ravens vs. Saints

The main wish for the preseason is no injuries to any player on any team, well, maybe Roethlisberger… no I can’t say that, not even Roethlisberger. The preseason is for the bubble guys: can they play or will they be cut?

The Ravens have three big areas of need.

• Safety, Matt Elam is out for the season that leaves only Will Hill as a starter. So take note of who starts opposite Will Hill and who gets most of the playing time at safety.
• Wide receiver, Steve Smith is the only starter right now, who will step up and gain Joe’s trust.
• Tight end, Crokett Gillmore is the only player you can put on the depth chart right now and that’s not a lock since he is only a second year player. Will another tight end shine in preseason? Look for him this week.

Before we look at the division, can I complain about our schedule? It is, undoubtedly the worst schedule in the NFL. Let’s run it down.

• We start the season on the road at Denver again!
• We have four west coast games in the first eight games and one of them is a Monday night game.
• We have five Prime Time games but only two at home. I like my 1:00 p.m. games; the late games go way past my bed time.
• The two home Prime Time games are Sunday nights in December. We will have to break out the long johns and hand warmers. Lots of hot chocolate sales at the stadium.
• We play the Steelers in Pittsburgh with a short week on Thursday night.

Thanks for letting me clear that off my chest. Of course, I could go on and on……

During the Regular season this blog will go through all of the games. Since this is preseason lets only look at the teams in the AFC North and the teams we like. How have they changed? What kind of moves did they make during the off season? Let’s take a look.

AFC North: What did the Steelers, Bengals, and Browns do in the off season?

Steelers

Sadly, I think the Steelers offense got better with the addition of another good wide receiver Martivis Bryant and the offensive line will come back intact after last year’s good season. Joe Flacco will be happy the defense is in rebuilding mode losing Brett Keisel, Jason Worilds, and Troy Polamalu. It’s tough to replace all that talent in one year. Roethlisberger will keep them in their games but the defense will lose it for them.

Bengals

Did the Bengals do anything to improve this year? Not really. The Bengals are relying on injured veterans returning and playing better than before they were injured. They added running back Jeremy Hill but they play in the AFC north against three of the best run defenses in the NFL. I’m not sure what good Hill will do for the team. What I do know is that they didn’t upgrade last year’s soft defense. So, same old Bengals; they are just not quite where they want to be.

Browns

Again we can just laugh at the Browns. They don’t have a quarterback. You can’t win in the NFL without a QB. The Browns try but they just don’t get it. They have shuffled players out only to replace them with free agent older players on the down side of their careers. Just the same old Browns. But I like it that way.

In the next few weeks I will go around League with the teams of our friends, Cowboys, Eagles, Packers, Seahawks, and Washington.

So enjoy the preseason games and remember this is only the preseason. Wins and losses don’t matter. So pick a bubble guy and see if he makes the team and hope nobody gets hurt.

That’s just the view from 151

 GO RAVENS!