My take:

AFC:

East: Indy with Jets a wildcard

Central: Baltimore with Tenn a wildcard

West: Denver with Oakland a wildcard (KC finishes in the basement *sad sigh*)

NFC:

East: Philly with D.C. a runnerup

Central: Packers (someone has to win) with Tampa a wildcard

West: Nawlins with St. Louis and San Fran as wildcards.

Hey I'm proud of KCJ! He's back on the wagon. Welcome aboard. Just have a little faith baby (hmmm seems odd saying that to you after all I am a heathen :D ) I think halfway through this season the Chiefs are going to be smoking!!

Sure, Red Eyes.

This is how I see the season breaking-down:

We're going to start on fire, going 4-0, beating Oakland at home, Seattle on the road, the Giants at home and the Redskins on the road. We'll lose at the new pile high, but we'll win 3 more in a row, beating Pittsburgh at home, Arizona on the road and Indy at home. We'll lose a close one to San Diego on the road. We'll lose to the Jets at the Meadowlands, finish the sweep of the Seachickens at home following a bye, but lose to the Eagles at home on a nationally-televised Thursday night game (DV can't beat his old team). We'll beat Oakland at the black hole, beat Denver at home, and beat San Diego at home but finish the season with a loss to Jacksonville on the road.

11-5

Home Record: 6-2
Road Record: 5-3

AFC West record: 5-3
vs. Denver: 1-1
vs. Oakland: 2-0
vs. San Diego: 1-1
vs. Seattle: 2-0

Conference record: 8-4
non-Conference record: 3-1

I see our division like this (not taking injuries into account - I can't predict that...):

KC 11-5. Our offense will be good, but more balanced, with more scoring (we'll score at least 380 points, about 24 per game), but less lofty passing numbers. The rushing game will be much-improved behind the running of Holmes and Richardson. The defense will be improved, also, despite the naysayers, and will be just good enough to keep us in games (we'll give up about 19 points per game, just over 300 for the year, but we'll be much, much improved in the red zone - we were horrible inside the 20 last year). This will be a very exciting season, and Pepto sales in KC will reach an all-time high. I think we're looking good in every offensive position, with only the obvious question marks on either side of the ball (IMHO) being at DT and CB, which keeps us from being a true Super Bowl contender.

Denver 10-6. They'll post the offensive numbers we're used to seeing (although losses along the O-line will hurt them), but still lack the horses on defense which will ultimately limit the success of Ray Rhodes.

Seattle 9-7. A year away and lacking at receiver. Watters will have a great year despite that. The defense will be only slightly improved with the acquisitions made.

Oakland 8-8. I see them as the most overrated team in the division, by far. Aging offensive talent with an overrated defense. They won't have the luck schedule-wise that they did last season and all the bounces won't go their way. They'll continue to have a strong rushing game, I believe, but the lack of a downfield passing game and the fact that their defense won't skeep anyone out of the endzone will cost them.

San Diego 7-9. Like Seattle, they're a year away (at least) and severely lacking on the offensive side of the ball. Their defense will keep them close, but they don't have much but Tomlinson to threaten anyone on offense, nothing in terms of receivers other than Freddie Jones, and a horrible offensive line. Much better than last year, however, and they'll at least split with all the teams in the division (they may sweep Oakland, who had a lot of trouble with them last year).

Kyle,
If the Chiefs go 5-3 on the road next year, I'll swear off liquor.
KCJ
Juicer:eek:

John, I won't hold you to that. I'd never stand between a man and his liquor.

I think it's possible. Let's just say that last post was my "best case scenario", I can see things going entirely another direction as well, but I happen to think that, while it is difficult, our schedule has fallen into almost a perfect order for us. Think about it:

1) We get Oakland at home. We know what they're bringing to the table, but we're, for all intents and purposes, a mystery.

2) We get Seattle on the road early. A tough game, but neither team will be at full speed yet. Better to have them early on the road than later, IMHO.

3) The Giants at home, as opposed to at the Meadowlands.

4) Redskins on the road could be a tough one, but like the Seattle game, it's early in the season, so they may not be at full-speed yet (will we?)

5) Donkos on the road early is a tough one.

6) Pittsburgh at home is better than Pittsburgh in the new stadium.

7) Arizona on the road. TERRIBLE team, let's hope we don't overlook them.

8) Indy at home. Like some other tough games, better at home than in the dome.

9) San Diego on the road.

10) Jets in the Meadowlands. Tough one.

11) Seattle at home.

12) Eagles at home. Like I said, Vermeil struggles against his old team.

13) Jokeland on the road.

14) Denver at home. December game in Arrowhead bodes badly for the Donkos.

15) San Diego at home.

16) At Jacksonville. Can we win in Florida?!?

Look at it this way:

Home: Indianapolis, NY Giants, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
Away: Arizona, Jacksonville, New York Jets and Washington

You may see it differently, but I think we got the tougher of the non-division/conference teams at home, and, although that doesn't mean the road games are a pushover by any means, the schedule could be much worse - imagine if our home games were Arizona, NY Jets, Pittsburgh and Washington (Marty returns to Arrowhead) and our road games were Indy, Jacksonville, NY Giants and Philadelphia. Now that would be a brutal road schedule.

As for the schedule as it stands, well, it could go either way, really, we could be 11-5 or we could be 7-9 again. I could see us going 5-3 on the road, but I could also see us going 2-6. Who knows - ask me after training camp, but for now I'm going to stick with my 11-5 prediction...

Another benefit of the schedule this season that I forgot to mention is the fact that we don't go on any sort of extended "road trip." The most road games we have in a row at any time during the year is 2, and that only happens twice (weeks 4-5 and weeks 9-10 - may not be the actual week numbers, I forget when the bye is...); that also means we don't have a lot of consecutive home games either, but the ones we do have all come late in the year (11-12, 14-15).

That could be a big plus (or a big minus if we struggle early). We only have 4 home games in the first 10 and if we can come out of those games 5-5 or even 6-4, which is certainly possible, we play 4 of our last 6 games in Arrowhead. Good potential for momentum there. Or disaster.

It could go either way...

John, I just realized something.

I wrote the home/road records down incorrectly!

It should read:

4-4 road (losses to Denver, San Diego, NY Jets and Jacksonville)
7-1 home (Philadelphia)

Got to win those home games!

All in all, not too bad. If we lose a second home game, but still go 4-4 on the road, we're still 10-6, and probably a wild card, if not still the division winner.

Thats more like it everyone!!!!

CG

is glad to see everyone being positive:)

*whew*
 

Thanks for getting me off the hook on my wager, Kyle (sipping burgundy contentedly).

Geat points about the schedule. My take is pretty simple: go 7-1 or better at Arrowhead and we are in the playoffs. That simple.

KCJ
BTW, I may not be able to go to the Redskins game: my Brigade is on 2-hour recall at that time as the 82nd Airborne Division's Ready Brigade. We have to be able to respond to the President's call to go wheels up to perform an airborne assault anywhere in the world within 18 hours. Man, I was REALLY hoping to go. Some guys don't realize what it costs to be a soldier. I'm happy to do it, but that is a sacrifice for a Chiefs junkie.
:mad:

Ouch.

Man, this isn't the time I'd want to be on 2-hour recall with the situation brewing in the Middle East. At the risk of sounding cocky, I'll say that there aren't very many things that frighten me bit the mid east right now scares my pants off.

Hope you never hear that call...

You may not go to the Skins game?

If you do go, will you be the one wearing that pig mask that I always see on NFL films, etc?:D

It's probably for the best if I can't go. Maybe I'd hate it, anyway. There will be a lot of Drama with Marty and Trent Green facing their old teams, but...

...duty calls!

Airborne!
KCJ

AFC - Titans

NFC - Rams


Division Winners AFC

West - Donx
Central - Titans
East - Colts

Division Winners NFC

West - Lambs
Central - Bucs
East - Eagles

Quit your job, John. It is the only sensible thing to do. How dare them schedule that recall deal when they knew this game would be going on. I'd just quit!!!