When the preseason officially ended, the Denver Broncos lost LB, Von Miller for the season with an ankle injury. They took a massive hit. On HBO’s “Hard Knocks Series” the Chargers lost free safety, Derwin James for the season with a knee injury. After that, there is a slew of players that are already banged up, and there are players who will get them in the future.
Teams are carrying as many as five quarterbacks because of Covid19. As an example, the Eagles re-signed Josh McCown, who will be on the Zoom calls from his home in Texas as a “just in case” option in case they have an injury or outbreak problem. The Eagles first game of the season is September 13, where they are -6 on the spread and (-265) on the favorites to win against Washington.
Look for a lot of NFL firsts from talented rookies. There could be quite a few of them that get more playing time than expected because they’re filling in for an injured player, an example would be Tua Tagovailoa, the new back up quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. He dropped in the draft because of a gruesome injury he suffered while playing for the University of Alabama and so far, Ryan Fitzpatrick is the starter there. Don’t expect that to last long, and that can impact what decisions you make from week to week.
There are always surprise teams in the NFL, and this season will be no exception. I can see a lot of improvement with the Indianapolis Colts with their new quarterback, Philip Rivers. He should throw for over 4,000 yards again this season, he has a good offensive line, and they have two good running backs in Marlon Mack and rookie Jonathan Taylor. Rivers always finds open receivers, and that won’t be any different in Indy. They can get the kinks out against the Jaguars in Week 1 and still win. Keep an eye on them in the AFC.