Welcome back for the 2021 NFL season! This year's survivor pool has 1274 entries with two of those entries being my own. I already got one in the bag after that nail-biter on Thursday night. Normally I'd prefer to avoid Thursday games, but the first game of the season with Tommy touchdowns with weeks to prepare, I couldn't resist. However, that game was not my top choice for the week.

My top choice for this first week is the Los Angeles Rams over the Chicago Bears in the opening of the brand new SoFi stadium on Sunday night. The Bears defense should be solid as always and may slow down Matthew Stafford, but I can't imagine an Andy Dalton lead offense producing enough points against an Aaron Donald-led defense to get a win. I'm sure all the Bears fans will be rooting for a quick, merciful death for Dalton so they can transition immediately to rookie Justin Fields. I expect the stadium to be loud as Rams fans were already in midseason drunken fighting mode the first preseason game and now they will see real footballing!

Call me crazy, but I want to avoid picking the 49ers over the Lions in Jarred Goff's debut. I wanted to stick to home teams this opening week and get a feel for the teams since everything is held pretty close to the vest these days in the preseason.

Cheers! And happy footballing!