DeMeco Ryans, freed from the shackles of his rookie contract, is hell-bent on bringing the Texans to the top. Last year, teaching his new partner Brian Cushing the ropes, he again started all 16 games, registering 93 tackles and quarterbacking the defense to competency for the first time since Aaron Glenn donned a jersey. I would make statements about his run defense prowess but I think we've all had enough of the kind of bickering that brings, so let's simply move on and tell you, the reader, that you get to guess if Ryans' existence on the field will continue to bring dividends.
Will DeMeco Ryans continue to bring the hammer to anyone who hasn't blocked him? Will he sleep as soundly as he did on the first day of training camp in a semi-famous picture? Will Jamie Sharper come back from the (NFL) grave and challenge Ryans to a duel before realizing that ghosts can't tackle? Will his new contract tweak Zac Diles' fragile balance of skill and money, driving him insane with rage?
Simply predict Ryans' regular season tackles, sacks, and the total number of his forced fumbles, interceptions, assists, and passes defensed.. Additionally, as a tiebreaker, put down the number of tackles Brian Cushing will have for the Texans at the end of the 2010 regular season. I'll list the weighted formula behind the jump so as to not bore you, but the person who is closest to these numbers will receive...something Texans-related as a prize, should they be around after the season to claim it. I can't tell you what the prize will be, both because it would ruin the surprise and because I'm just planning to make it something on sale and random at Amazon for the free shipping, but believe me when I tell you that it will change your life.
I'll try and run an average of what we come up with as well in a few days. If we were a baseball site, here's where I would include a player's CHONE and PECOTA and KERNSIE systems, but to the best of my knowledge, there aren't really any companies doing that for free. Football Outsiders has a projection system, but they only predict individual defensive stats in their KUBIAK projections, which cost extra and so I'm assuming they don't want them leaked out. Last year, Ryans' combined FF/INT/ASSIST/PD number was 33, if you need a baseline on that.
Oh, and just to clear things up for me. Write "PROJECTION" as the subject of your actual projections. Thanks.
I'm going to stop accepting entries at 11:59 CT on Thursday, August 19th, so I don't have to refer back to this thread since I'm going to be putting everything in a spreadsheet. You have until then.
Real simple here, I'll just dock you a point off for every tackle, sack, and (FF/ASST/INT/PD) you are off. Because of the lower nature of these numbers, I'll add an additional 5 points if you hit the number exactly. Lowest number of points off takes home the...whatever the hell it'll be. First tiebreaker will be whoever guessed closest to Cushing's tackles, second will be whoever was docked less on Ryans' tackles, third tiebreaker will be whoever has been in my kitchen most**.
**-since none of you have, it'll be a coinflip.