NFL Week 9 Primer (With Picks): And the Race is On

Peyton Manning returns to Indianapolis with the chance to break two of the NFL's most significant records against his old team.

 By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) 

It's crazy to think, but the NFL season is now half-done, and playoff races are already in full swing. While a bunch of divisions are wrapped up, as we said last week, there are still some exciting divisional races, as well as Wild Card battles, going on in both conferences.

I won't waste any more of your time, here are our games of the week and picks against the spread.

Game(s) of The Week

Oakland at Pittsburgh (1 pm, Sunday, CBS)

Beaten and bruised Pittsburgh renews its rivalry with now up-and-coming Oakland in the Steel City. It may seem like a breakthrough for the Raiders to beat the Steelers, but Oakland has actually won the last two against Pittsburgh, a streak the Steelers will want to break at home.

The winner here would get big boost in the race for an AFC Wild Card spot.

NFL Week 7 Primer (With Picks): Who's Actually Any Good?

Are the Jets actually good? Who knows, but we do know they have Darrelle Revis again, and the All-Pro corner will make his return to Foxboro this weekend after helping the Patriots win the Super Bowl last year.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Week 7 has already begun, but there are plenty of teams we still don't know what to think about. The entire NFC East, for example, is an enigma. Are the Giants actually good? Is Philly back? Washington was good on defense, now apparently it isn't any more. Dallas should be good when people get healthy, we think.

But basically every division has a team that we're not entirely sure about. The Bills and Jets in the AFC East, the Browns in the AFC North, Oakland and San Diego in the AFC West, and… Ok, we pretty much know what to think about the AFC South.

Joe & Daphne's Preview: The AFC West

 By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Daphne Parello (@DaphnePup)

Daphne and I have already broken down both the AFC East and the NFC East, so we'll move west to close out the week with a look at the AFC West.

The division is home to two quarterbacks that should again put up big numbers in Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers, along with one of the league's better game managers in Alex Smith and, perhaps, an up-and-coming star in Oakland's Derek Carr.

The division is not as cut and dry as it has been the past few years, however, as concerns over Manning's age and health, along with a transition to new coach Gary Kubiak, have many feeling that the Broncos can be beaten.

Will there be a changing of the guard out west? Daphne and I investigate.

When Dumb Teams are Forced to Spend Money

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

NFL free agency is upon us, and with it comes one of the most interesting situations in sports: Dumb front offices with a ton of money they HAVE to spend.

You see, while the NFL has promoted competition through the use of a salary cap, it is the less-often discussed salary floor that makes free agency truly compelling. The base salary cap in the league is just over $143 million this year, but teams carry over unused cap space from 2014 to make their "adjusted caps" far larger.

Just look at the case of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were around $25 million under the cap in 2014, leading to an absurd cap figure of $168.5 million this off-season!

As one of only three teams with payrolls currently under $100 million (the other two being Oakland and the Jets), the Jags also have the chance, or in this case, obligation, to spend lavishly. Jacksonville has over $69 million in cap space, but the Jaguars front office probably isn't salivating over the chance to build a contender in one off-season. More likely, the Jacksonville brass is stressing about reaching the salary floor for this league period.

Catching Up With Bob Lobel: The Hot and Cold Patriots

On this week's edition of  "Catching Up With Bob Lobel," legendary sportscaster Bob Lobel and host Joe Parello discuss New England's disappointing week one loss to the Dolphins, and its bounce-back blowout win over Minnesota.

Which team is the real New England, and are the Patriots still the Super Bowl contenders we all thought with Tom Brady's numbers dipping?

That, and more, on this week's episode.

Long And Suite Preview: The AFC West

Can the Broncos make it back to the Super Bowl?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The AFC West was the only division to send three teams to the playoffs this past season. That might have more to say about the overall quality of the conference, rather than the overall quality of the division, but even adjusted for strength of schedule, the AFC West was the third-best division in football last year. Here are all eight division, ranked by average SRS:

NFC West: 7.92
NFC South: 3.12
AFC West: 3.05
AFC East: -1.05
AFC North: -1.98
NFC East: -3.38
NFC North: -3.85
AFC South: -3.88

Most of the league's good teams were clustered in those three divisions at the top. This year, with the NFC North expected to improve dramatically, and the AFC North and AFC South expected to improve marginally, it's unlikely that there will be such a large disparity between the best division and the worst division. That means it's unlikely that the AFC West will get three teams back to the playoffs.

The Patriots are almost certain to win the AFC East, and the Broncos are almost certain to win the AFC West. The Colts are probably safe in the AFC South, if not as the division winner, then as a wild card. When you throw in the AFC North winner, whoever that may be, you end up with Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati (two of those three), Houston, Kansas City, San Diego, and possibly even Miami or another surprise team (New York? Tennessee?) fighting for two spots. Both of them going to the West again seems far-fetched.

Weekend Football Roundup - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Tom Brady threw the game-winning touchdown to beat New Orleans, but was he the real star? (Flickr)

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Every Tuesday during football season, editors Jeremy and Joe will bring you the good, the bad and the ugly from the college and pro football weekend that was.

(Editor's Note: Joe is too busy this week "going to New Hampshire" and "getting married to his fiancee" to contribute to the recap. I know, selfish, right? So I've taken it upon myself to do the Weekend Roundup myself this week, which is why you won't see initials designating the author of each section. Except this one. Also, I didn't watch any college football on Saturday, so you're only getting NFL coverage this week. Don't blame me, blame Joe. Nobody is forcing him to get married. -JC)

The Good

Aqib Talib

Everyone's favorite NFL writer Bill Barnwell already covered this in his column yesterday, but Talib may as well be the best cornerback in all of football so far this season. After three good-to-great games in coverage opposite Vincent Jackson, Julio Jones, and A.J. Green, Talib produced the best cover game of any defensive player in the league this season, holding Jimmy Graham to zero catches off six targets in Sunday's game.

Playing Talib in "zero" coverage (i.e. no help over the top) for most of the game allowed Devin McCourty to constantly shade towards Marques Colston's side of the field, and Colston ended up with just one catch (off three targets) for 11 yards. When the top two downfield targets for an explosive passing attack combine for just one catch off nine targets, that's an indisputable win for the defense.

Lane Kiffin Fired on Team Plane

Yet another disappointing Lane Kiffin coaching job comes to an end...

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

I think most people had accepted than Lane Kiffin getting fired was just going to be one of those pleasant eventualities of the 2013 college football season.

Like Johnny Manziel acting out as soon as he came off his one-half suspension and Georgia losing one early, we pretty much knew this was going to happen.

But, we couldn't have imagined the humiliating way that USC would do it. Now, mind you, Athletic Director Pad Haden recently gave Kiffin the dreaded "vote of confidence," so you knew he was one bad loss away from being out the door. But, after a 21-point road thrashing at the hands of mediocre Arizona State, Kiffin didn't even make it back to campus with his job.

Long and Suite Preview: The AFC West

Peyton Manning and the Broncos look to repeat as AFC West champions.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

While pretty much everybody expects Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos to take care of business in the AFC West this season, the division is not devoid of story lines.

Among them will be how the Broncos deal with the loss of pass rusher Elvis Dumervil (To a paperwork delay, no less), and the six-game absence of rising star Von Miller on the other side of the defense. Miller was suspended for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

After the Broncos, it's a cluster of teams that have underachieved on a grand scale in recent years, headlined by San Diego and "guy we thought would be an elite quarterback by now," Phillip Rivers. The Raiders seem to always have speed, but production has failed to follow athleticism to Oakland. Members of the Black Hole might not recognize the product on the field this season, particularly on defense, where the Silver and Black look to replace as many as nine starters.

Then you have a new era beginning in Kansas City, and suddenly the Chiefs are a trendy playoff pick due to the additions of head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Alex Smith.

The Best Bad Quarterback Battles in the NFL

You don't think that petition for Tebow will work, do you?

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, with historic names like Brady, Manning(Both of 'em), Rodgers, Roethlisberger and Brees capturing nine of the last 10 Super Bowls.

Oh, and I guess last year's winner Joe Flacco ain't too shabby either.

The point is, to play a good football at the NFL level, you need high-level quarterback play. None of these teams have that luxury. So, without further ado, here is a look at the quarterback battles that will be entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

Buffalo Bills: Tavaris Jackson vs Kevin Kolb vs E.J. Manuel