2008 NFL Predictions by Aaron Schatz:

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The beginning of the season is always a pretty crazy time for those of us in the sportswriting business. When you run your own company/website and are trying to promote a book like Pro Football Prospectus 2008, that makes it triple crazy. Just trying to keep track of what I need to write when and who I'm talking to at what time can be difficult.

Today on the docket: a trip down to beautiful Bristol, Connecticut, to appear on ESPN2 "First Take". Usually, doing media is no problem for me.

Few people know this, but before I was a football expert I was actually a modern rock radio DJ. However, television is a different story, mostly because I'm not used to wearing a suit. Hey, I'm an Internet writer. I think today was maybe the third time all year I had worn slacks instead of jeans.

Fitting everything you want to say into a four-minute segment is difficult, but I've learned to summarize our surprising predictions, because that's what really grabs people. This year's surprising predictions include:

1. Baltimore, which was terrible last year, rebounding on defense to win the AFC North over Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
   
   
2. Houston sneaking into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
   
   
3. Green Bay playing just as well without Brett Favre at quarterback, thanks to talent up and down the rest of the roster.
   

One prediction that isn't that surprising? We're picking the Patriots to win the Super Bowl, just like we did a year ago. No guarantees, of course, as the Pats learned last February. But on top of being so talented, the Patriots are also gifted with the easiest schedule in the league, because the natural rotation of division-on-division play has them taking on the weak AFC West and NFC West. It's almost unfair, except that it was completely random. As a result, Pro Football Prospectus 2008 lists the Patriots with a ridiculous NINETY-NINE percent chance of winning 11 or more games. Yikes.

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