Stampede Blue’s NFL Week 1 Staff Picks

As we get set to see our Indianapolis Colts kickoff their season tomorrow afternoon our staff here at Stampede Blue is similarly anxious to see the rest of the league get their seasons started as well. The games should be very interesting, and a large portion of them will already have some significance added to them as seven of the fourteen games between today and Monday night are divisional rivalries.

Additionally, including the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots game from Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks are also facing off who each won their respective divisions in 2016. Other games of note are the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders, as well as the Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals who square off, and all finished second in their divisions. Had the Buccaneers and Dolphins game not been pushed back, we would have had three such games to enjoy.

Any way that you look at it, it’s going to be an exciting opening week of the 2017 NFL season. Every fan thinks that their team – well, maybe not fans of EVERY team – actually has a chance to do something this season. With all of the excitement, we wanted to give you our collective picks for Week 1.

The following contributors voted on each game: Brett Mock, Matt Danely, Jake Arthur, Chris Blystone, Andrew Aziz, Stephen Reed, Josh Hudgens, Jared Malott and Faraz Majid. Our ‘winners’ have been bolded, with the vote counts in parenthesis with unanimous predictions noted by an asterisk (*).

Here are our picks for the Week 1 lineup, with those in the minority noted to shame them mercilessly.

Sunday @ 1:00 ET

Jets @ Bills (8) | Contrarian: Chris Blystone

Steelers (8) @ Browns | Contrarian: Stephen Reed

Raiders (5) @ Titans | Contrarians: Matt Danely, Jake Arthur, Reed, Blystone

Eagles (6) @ Redskins | Contrarians: Andrew Aziz, Brett Mock, Danely

Jaguars @ Texans (8) | Contrarian: Danely

Cardinals @ Lions (5) | Contrarians: Jared Malott, Reed, Aziz, Arthur

Falcons* @ Bears

Ravens @ Bengals (8) | Contrarian: Faraz Majid

Sunday @ 4:05 ET

Colts (7) @ Rams | Contrarian: Danely

Sunday @ 4:25 ET

Seahawks @ Packers (7) | Contrarians: Danely, Majid

Panthers* @ 49ers

Sunday @ 8:30 ET

Giants @ Cowboys (6) | Contrarians: Josh Hudgens, Majid, Arthur

Monday @ 7:10 ET

Saints (6) @ Vikings | Contrarians: Reed, Arthur, Blystone

Monday @ 10:20 ET

Chargers (8) @ Broncos | Contrarian: Danely

Please share your thoughts in the comments to let us know what your picks are for these Week 1 matchups.