Yesterday, in my End of the Lockout post, I shared a factoid related to my newfound optimism of the likelihood of a deal getting done to give us football in 2011...
Just yesterday I put in for getting a vacation day on the day after we're supposed to play the Packers on opening Thursday.
Well, in running the usual Saturday errands with my wife, I took it a step further, and proceeded with an annual summer ritual (getting an ice cream cone on the last day of school and drinking at least one Coca-Cola icee are two other ones) that I had been holding off on because of the labor strife: purchasing Lindy's Pro Football Preview magazine.
Peyton Manning is on the cover of the one I bought, but here's a link to allow you to see the Calm Brees Leads Saints cover.
It appears that I am now officially "all in" on expecting a 2011 NFL season. I sure hope it works out for me.
Make the jump to find out some highlights of the mag's Saints and NFC South coverage.
Liindy's, which bills itself as "America's Leading Football Authority", is my favorite of all the NFL summer preview magazines. (For more on the Lindy's Sports Media Empire, go here.)
Features that I appreciate: It contains five pages of content for each team, groups these profiles alphabetically by team within their divisions and respective conferences, and contains a divisional preview page prior to the team prospecti.
The individual team coverage provides the typical information - projected finish, position-by-position breakdown, overall team intro, coaching staff chart, cool graph of the five previous season win totals, pre-training camp roster with commentary, team offseason additions and losses, a 2010 team stat summary, 2010 schedule review, and the 2011 schedule. It also includes the following features: previous first-round draft choices with current status with the team, and sidebars called "On The Hot Seat" and "3 Things To Look For".
Content-wise, there's not much here that we CSC members don't already know because of our studied approach to New Orleans Saints fanaticism, but I always enjoy reading this magazine every summer to hold me over until training camp starts.
Here are some nuggets I found in the Saints pages:
- We are predicted to finish first in the NFC South.
- The three things to look for are: Drew Brees reducing INTs, reestablishing a balanced rushing attack, and GW getting more pressure on opposing QBs
- The Saints play on UBU-Speed Series-S5-M turf (whatever that is).
- Because we haven't completed the free agency period yet, they list our only key offseason loss as Jeremy Shockey.
- The title of our section is "Trying to Prove They're Not a One-Hit Wonder".
And here are some things I read on the NFC South Page:
- Two of the five "Questions to be Answered" involve the Saints (Can the running game rebound? and Did we give up too much for Ingram?).
- Carolina has the toughest "strength of schedule" factor in the division for 2011, based mostly on the blistering .708 winning percentage the Saints, Falcons, and Buccaneers combined for last year.
- Quality quarterbacking was noted as a hallmark of the division. (Really?)
Lagniappe items found flipping through the other NFC South team's pages:
- There's nothing funny about death, and it was jarring to see Gaines Adam's status as "deceased" in Tampa Bay's first round draft choice chart (as opposed to starter, backup, not in NFL, or IR).
- Folks on the "Hot Seat" - Pierre Thomas, Julio Jones, Jimmy Clausen, and Gerald McCoy.
- The Panters have no identified "key losses", not even John (cough) Fox.
- They think the Falcons gave up too much for Julio Jones.
So, now I ask of you - what do you think of this information? Do you read any of the summer preview magazines? Let's discuss below...