North you are not raining on my parade man. i was giving you ish last time....
But in a nut shell here is why- quick and easy.
Last year we were 8-8
9-7 if orton didnt get hurt against washington
10-6 if we didnt let Jamarcus russell beat us
11-5 if we made our field goal or didnt let philly get past us. we let that game go
we held on against the colts but barely let that one slip away too. Then we blew chunks against the cheifs with ortons couple pick 6s etc....
Anyway this year we have a much simpler schedule. We are going to start out a little rocky imo. BUt the last 6-8 games should all be wins imo. Sure we lost Nolan, but if the reports hold true...Nolan was being a yes man to JMFMD. He was running Joshs scheme, not the other way around. So the defense should probably remain similar. Plus we added some big time beef on the line, to keep guys fresh, stop the run etc....Ayers is looking good and I expect some sacks from him this year... Our whole team now has a year in the system so that IMMEDIATELY is an upgrade.
The OL has also been Drastically upgraded. DRASTICALLY! more time for Kyle, more holes for knowshon. = more yards, tds and 3rd down conversions.
Brandon will hurt being gone, but it is of my own opinion (which means nothing) that it will help our team..Kyle will stop honing in on him. Thus making him progress through his reads and finding other wr...Our scheme should always have someone open. Always. Kyle just needs to react quicker and I think with his go to saftey net, lock on target out he will branch out and spread the ball more like he should.
Really to me it is the schedule and the OL and the DL...Those 3 combined with the fact that we were almost a 10-6, 11-5 club last year leads me to believe that we will infact be that or better this year.