NEW ENGLAND; 11-5: Ty Schalter, the writer of this article, projects the Patriots go 11 and 5 this season. Now, I can’t really disagree with this prediction much because as long as Belichick doesn’t run out of grungy cutoff sweatshirts and Tom Brady doesn’t have a career-ending ankle injury walking around his house in a pair of faulty UGG boots, they have proven season after season to be the team to beat. However, the Patriots are lacking weapons. Wes Welker is gone. “Meathead” Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez can’t stay healthy. And I am not sold on Amendola either (also consistently injured). My prediction for the Pats is close, 10-6… With one of those losses coming to the Bills in Week 1, 28-23 (calling it now).

MIAMI; 9-7: This pick I am also OK with… They had a BIG offseason and you have to project improvement after only losing Jake Long (who they are still working on replacing) and Reggie Bush (I know they lost a few more but those would be the main two). They went out and made a big splash and picked up Wallace (completely overpaid), Ellerbe (their best pick-up) and Keller (good TE). But as Buffalo knows, making a big splash in Free agency doesn’t mean big wins. Everything is in the hands of Tannehill, who had an ok first year as a rookie. But to put this on the shoulders of a QB who was 12 TD, 13 INT and a QBR of 76.1, is a lot to handle and a potential playoff berth is a lot to expect. I am going to give the Dolphins an improvement and say they will go 8-8.

Now I am going to do the Jets and Bills together because it is unfathomable that someone could and would project these two records for teams with the same record last year.

NEW YORK (JERSEY); 5-11 & BUFFALO; 2-14: WHERE DO I EVEN START?!?! The Jets lost REVIS, Scott, Keller, Green, Landry and Bell. Those are honestly 6 of the top 10 players the Jets had on their roster. Now they make senseless draft picks that don’t fill their needs (I am a big fan of Millner as a player though). Ohhhh and they draft Geno Smith, who within days after the draft is already proving to be the crybaby and egomaniac that he appeared to be on draft night. Good luck NY, you need it with Smith, Sanchez and Garrard. Honestly, their best QB is Garrard but he is so old and fragile that he can’t even play with his kids in the pool without getting a season-ending injury. But not to worry Jets fans, who needs a QB when you have no one for him to pass the ball to and no one to hand the ball off too.
And what moves did the Bills make to justify a 4 game drop from last year??? Get rid of dead weight and fill holes in our roster? The only real loss is Levitre, who was a good linemen and worth the money he received. I don’t know if he wanted to leave or if they Bills wouldn’t match the offer, but I would have liked to see him stay. But we lost a GUARD… A GUARD… That’s it. We cut old defenders who make tackles 10 yards from the line of scrimmage and a QB who was shaky and completely over paid. We signed a vet QB who has more talent than the one we dropped for 1/5th of the money AND who really didn’t get a chance to succeed in Arizona (Peyton Manning couldn’t turn that offence around). Oh and we picked up an extremely talented QB with a lot of upside and arguably the most NFL ready receiver in the whole draft to complement Stevie, Freddie and CJ… Sorry Ty, but if you ever read this, I will make a sizable wager that the Bills win more than two games next season… MY PROJECTIONS: JETS; 1-15 BILLS; 10-6 (sorry, still a homer)

GO BUFFALO!

Check to see how the rest of the league fared out here.

-Augie Delia

Oct. 14, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Detailed view of a Buffalo Bills helmet and footballs on the sidelines against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

With the NFL season officially over, today starts another aspect for every team.  The teams will begin to look at who will be the next collegiate athlete to  help their team and make them better than this past year.  Below is the NFL schedule for the beginning of the off-season to include freee agency as well as the NFL Draft.

NFL Off-season Schedule

Feb. 9-10: Regional Combine (Orange Coast College in Los Angeles, CA)

Feb. 16: Regional Combine (Methodist Training Center in Houston, TX)

Feb. 17: Regional Combine (Cleveland Browns Training Facility in Cleveland, OH)

Feb. 20-26: NFL Combine (Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN)

March 2-3: Regional Combine (Atlantic Health Jets Training Facility in Florham Park, NJ)

March 9: Regional Combine (One Buccaneer Place in Tampa, FL)

March 9-11: Teams can begin negotiating with the agents of players set to become unrestricted free agents at the start of the league year (teams can only talk to agents and not the players during this negotiating window)

March 10: Regional Combine (Halas Hall in Chicago, IL)

March 12: 2013 League Year begins at 4 p.m. ET, opening free agency and the trading period

March 16-17: Regional Combine (Atlanta Falcons Training Facility in Atlanta, GA)

March 17-20: Annual League Meeting (The Biltmore in Phoenix, AZ)

March 23-24: Regional Combine (Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, WA)

March 23-24: Regional Combine (Baltimore Ravens Training Facility in Baltimore, MD)

April 7-8: Super Regional Combine (Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX)

April 25-27: 2013 NFL Draft (in New York City, NY)

May 20-22: NFL Spring League Meeting (Hyatt Harborside in Boston, MA)