TransGriot 2014 NFL Picks-Week 1

The 2014 NFL season kicks off tonight, and after a horrible (for me) 2013 season on two levels I get to once again match football wits with 2013 NFL prognostication champ Eli Blake and Mike Watts and attempt to bring the title back to Texas.

After running away with it most of the season, Mr. Blake survived a furious late season 23-9 finishing kick by Mr. Watts to take the title to Arizona and win by three games.   Eli also got to watch his Seahawks finally claim that elusive Super Bowl title with a win over Mike Watts' adopted Denver Broncos squad.

2013 is history I definitely want to put in the rear view mirror.   The Texans putrid 2-14 season resulted in Gary Kubiak's firing, a new coaching staff under Bill O'Brien and number one overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney about to play his first NFL game in a Texans uniform.   

Can they go from worst to first in the AFC South this season like the Colts did?    We'll see.

The rules are the same as last year.  Eli, Mike and I pick the winners of that week's NFL games, no spread.  Picks and changes of picks have to be posted no later than 10 minutes before scheduled kickoff time of Thursday's (or Saturday and Sunday) early games.  If you fail to select a winner for a game, that's considered a loss for tabulation purposes. Tie games get recorded as a tie on our season records regardless of team we selected.  Person with the best record at the end of the NFL regular season gets prognostication title and bragging rights until next season.

So let me get started with my picks for Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season.   Sixteen games, and it's always the most volatile week because you really don't have much to go on in terms of just how well these teams will play when the games start counting after four weeks of preseason games.

I want to get off to a good start and lay the foundation.  This week and the next four weeks of the 2014 NFL season will reveal which teams are contenders and which teams are pretenders fighting for the first pick of the 2015 NFL Draft next May. 

Team I'm selecting will be in underlined bold print.  And this year, I'm just listing the cities and not the nicknames so I can avoid writing the racist Washington NFL squad nickname they need to change ASAP. 

Mike and Eli's picks are here.

2013 Season Record
TransGriot      144-111-1
Eli                  163-92-1
Mike              160-95-1

Thursday Night Game
Seattle over Green Bay

Sunday Early Games
New Orleans over Atlanta
Cincinnati over Baltimore
Chicago over Buffalo
Houston over Washington
Kansas City over Tennessee
New England over Miami
New York Jets over Oakland
Philadelphia over Jacksonville
Pittsburgh over Cleveland
St Louis over Minnesota

Sunday Afternoon Games
San Francisco over Dallas
Carolina over Tampa Bay

Sunday Night Game
Denver over Indianapolis

Monday Night Games
Detroit over New York Giants
Arizona over San Diego