Silly Season Returns in the NFL

The 2015 schedule is out and draft day is coming up fast.

The media are full of speculation about the draft and full of commentary on how tough or how soft a given team’s upcoming schedule is. I’ve been tuning the noise out for years.

There are dozens of mock drafts out there. Most are at best, nothing more than involved, intricate wild guesses. Some of the mock drafts I’ve seen were little better than wild guesses without getting to the level of intricate, or involved. I haven’t paid much attention to mock drafts since Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly died over a decade ago. He had some extraordinary sources within the league and he published some very solid information. There are also a lot of stories about teams trading up or trading down, about what players have made visits to team headquarters, and so on. The above pictured Phillip Rivers will star in pre-draft trade speculation. One of the things Buchsbaum and others who were actually on NFL payrolls have pointed out is that a good deal of the information behind the rumors was planted by teams wanting to disguise their draft day intentions.

Kansas City also has the Justin Houston contract extension side show. I get the feeling this is a training camp dodge and that Houston will sign on the dotted line about the time the Chiefs break camp in St. Joseph. But there will be plenty of speculation in the meantime. Silly stuff.

The NFL released the 2015 schedule on Tuesday and pontification about who has a tough schedule immediately followed. With parity and all the player movement, it’s impossible to tell right now how tough a given schedule is.

Kansas City’s schedule is a good example. As seen from here in late April, it is safe to say that Denver will be good, maybe very good—especially in week 2. (So long as Peyton Manning is healthy.) Green Bay will also be very good. Chicago, Oakland, Minnesota, and Cleveland probably won’t be very good. The other teams on the schedule could go either way. And, it’s hard to tell how good the Chiefs will be too. As is the case with about half of the league, 11-5 would not be out of the question and 7-9 could happen too.

I will pay close attention during the draft, but I’ve tuned out the silly stuff. Besides, this is baseball season.