NFL Picks Week 1: 3 Teams That Will Give False Hope with Week 1 Wins

All 32 teams are in action during the opening week of the season. Obviously, what that means is that 16 teams will win this week.

Well, only 12 teams make the playoffs. So, we're going to have at least four teams that win that will not make the playoffs. We're also going to have a few teams lose that will come back and make the playoffs.

But we're not going positive here. Let's take a look at the teams who will win their opener but will won't make the playoffs.

Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals are playing at home against Carolina. The Panthers' quarterback situation is stable, but it's nowhere near good.

Cam Newton has been named as the starter. In all honesty, as long as he stays healthy, he should remain the Carolina starter for the 2011 season.

But he's not shown himself terribly ready for the NFL game. At least, he hasn't yet shown himself to be ready for the NFL game.

The Cardinals should handle this one with relative ease. But they do have their own issues. The main one is that they have invested a lot of talent and hope into Kevin Kolb, who has never played a full NFL season.

Arizona plays in the NFC West. Winning the division there is not impossible, but still not likely. But against Carolina, look for Kolb to find Larry Fitzgerald early and often.

 

 

Prediction: Cardinals-27, Panthers-13

Oakland Raiders

This is actually an interesting game. In 2011, I fully expect the Raiders to regress and the Broncos to progress from what they did in 2011.

But let's look for that evening out to come later in the season. Denver will have a hard time stopping Darren McFadden, who torched the Broncos in two meetings last year.

 

I know that Oakland won all six games against AFC West opponents last year. Still, I like the Chargers in that division. They have learned their lessons from the...

About the Author