So Saturdays have traditionally been the down day of the week on our little website but I’m trying to change that.  Da Saturday Show (soon to be sponsored) will be a half hour, weekly show featuring a short commentary segment, my two brothers and I making weekly NFL picks against the spread, guests on occasion and a one-minute rant from the Reverend.  I’m still working through the kinks but the show will make its debut – in some form – next Saturday.

Here’s the fan component:

• Each week my brothers and I will pick three games each.  At the end of the season, the winner will be given a flight – anywhere in the country – paid for by the other two. (We’ll be using Sheridan’s Odds in the Friday USA Today.)
• In the comments for Da Saturday Show, each of you will be able to pick three games yourselves.  You can not duplicate the picks of any of the three of us.  You can use games we’ve used but not our combination.  You guys are free to use the comments to discuss whatever you like but I’m asking that your selections be in their own post.
• We’ll do this for all seventeen weeks (starting today!).  To make the postseason, you only need to have five perfect weeks.  That means you’ll have seventeen opportunities to go 3-0.  You go 3-0 five times and you qualify for the postseason.
• The postseason will be a Fantasy Postseason set-up that I’m quite fond of and will make every postseason game fun to watch.  (Not that the Bears Super Bowl run won’t take care of that on its own.)  The details of the set-up we’ll go over in December.
• “What do we win, Jeff?”  I’ll tell you.  There will be varying gift certificates, in varying amounts, to all those who make the postseason.  And if you beat my brothers and I in the fantasy postseason, you’ll win a monthly column on da site from March through August.  That’s six full columns where you’ll be able to voice your opinions on the main page to the readers on free agency, the draft, OTAs and throughout training camp.

The picks this week:
(Remember you can’t use the combination chosen by myself or either of my brothers.)
Jeff
Carolina +6.5 over the Giants
Cleveland +3 over Tampa Bay
Baltimore +2.5 over the Jets

My brother Chris
San Francisco -3 over Seattle
San Diego -4.5 over Kansas City
Cincinnati +4.5 over New England

My brother Jon
San Diego -4.5 over Kansas City
Cleveland +3 over Tampa Bay
Denver +2.5 over Jacksonville

And so it begins again, this holiest of holies.  The Chicago Bears, stale taste of unfulfilled promise fresh on their tongues, attempt to prove to a skeptical media and desperate fan base that they’ve made enough alterations their often-bested roster and are now fit to attend the grandest wedding of them all: the Super Bowl.  It begins Sunday in Soldier Field.  Where it ought to begin.  Where it has to begin.  Against a Detroit Lions team that is quickly becoming the in vogue pick for a turnaround season.  It begins in Chicago.  Will it end in Dallas?

So here’s the schedule.  Tomorrow we’ll do the season opener thread.  Friday will be my first Bears game pick column of the season and rumor has it I’ll be taking the Chicago Bears (Why DO I like the Chicago Bears this week?  Tune it and find out!)  Saturday comes the launch of DaBlog Saturday Show – a weekly picks phone/radio show that will have a cool fan component with an interesting, year-end giveaway prize.  And I’m pleased to announce that the new t-shirts are in development and will hopefully be available before the Week Two kickoff in Dallas.

The twelve teams that will make a run into the postseason in 2010 are:

AFC

Bears fans, be warned!  We are about to embark on a rickety roller coaster ride – this 2010 season – for at least seventeen weeks.  There are many possible outcomes, most of which we’ve discussed ad nauseam.  The disaster of a 5-11 season, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year and an overhaul of football operations at Halas Hall.  The plodding, mundane nightmare of another campaign hovering around the .500 mark, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year and an overhaul of football operations at Halas Hall.  A solid, respectable ten-win year and early playoff exit, subsequently followed by a city-wide debate over the future of Lovie, Jerry and company.  And then there’s always a wonderful winter, confetti and champagne, seas of orange sweeping the American landscape.

We’re not going to be waiting till the second half happens.  Not a single player on the field will mean anything to the 2010 Chicago Bears.  Here are my first-half notes:

The Bears have finally brought in a backup quarterback that is capable of winning football games.  Todd Collins looked poised and polished at times, finding receivers across the field and checking down when appropriate. 

Can someone please explain the appeal of DJ Moore to me?  Everything I think he’s a complete waste on the defensive side of the ball he does something eveb more wasteful on special teams?  What purpose does his making the roster serve?  (Joshua Moore, on the other hand, might be able to play some kind of role.)

I don’t quite understand the Desmond Clark-to-fullback transition.  Clark may not be the fastest man on the roster but he is still our most reliable pass-catching tight end.  I can’t imagine he’ll be able to last an entire season withstanding the physical duress of a lead blocker.

I don’t know how the Bears are allocating roster slots but Garrett Wolfe can not make this team over Kahlil Bell.  Bell is a professional-caliber tailback and shows a genuine reluctance to being tackled.

If you’re struggling kicking field goals during the preseason, kick more field goals.  Don’t go for a fourth-and-one in the first quarter and certainly don’t throw an out route to Richard Angulo.  You’ve got a shot to work on something that will actually take place in the regular season.  Why not work on it?  (Nice to see the snap and kick executed at the end of the half.)

Brian Iwuh is pretty impressive at the linebacker.  He hits like a freight train and charges the hole like a running back.  I’d imagine he’s the sixth man right now at the position.

Of all the third-tier players that seem longshots to make the roster, Henry Melton seemed to have the most promise. 

I’m not going to lie.  The chances of me getting away from some preexisting plans to watch the Bears fourth preseason game are not very good.  I’ll give some of it a watch when I come home later in the evening but the thought of watching our parade of rookie quarterbacks horrifies me.  Here’s what I will be watching for.

Who Plays, How Long.  We’ll know what positions Lovie & Co. are still undecided about by the amount of playing time allotted across the field.  Who is going to start opposite Orange Julius (and does it matter)?  Will Danieal Manning really be starting at free safety against Detroit (sweet God)?  Will the coaches want to see Chris Williams log some more playing time before the season opens (they might)?

Todd Collins.  Watching Collins navigate the offense will probably be the only real football-related item to keep an eye on.  I’m frequently obsessed with the backup quarterback at this time of year because it’s painful to think how bad this team will become should a defensive end roll up on the wrong part of Jay Cutler’s leg in Week Three.  Collins was a solid signing and it’d be refreshing to see him play an efficient, mistake-free game and instill some confidence in the position moving forward.

The Result and its Aftermath.  If the Bears lose this game, and I’m kind of hoping they do, it will be interesting to see how Lovie handles the winless preseason questions that will follow from the press.  There is literally no difference between 0-4 and 1-3 in the preseason but a meaningless win will soften the confrontation between media and coach.  Lovie can be pushed to testiness and I like it when that happens.  Why?  Because it’s an emotion.  And too often the stoic approach lends an arrogance to his tone.