CJ Staff Picks: Week 5

After last week, the cream of the Cincy Jungle crop has begun to rise with four staffers eclipsing 40 correct picks, while the rest of us hang on for dear life. No one hit fewer than nine games last week, but only Rebecca Toback managed to hit more than 10 with her 11 correct predictions. Jason Marcum is still riding the reverse jinx train as he continues his anti-Cincinnati pick this week. With the Bengals' success and last place among staffers earning the duty of watching Super Bowl XXIII on loop for 24 hours straight, I admire his dedication to a noble purpose.

Week 5 brings three games that are all consensus locks according to the CJ staff; Chicago at Kansas City, Washington at Atlanta, and New England at Dallas. At the other end of the spectrum, the game we are most split on is New Orleans at Philadelphia. I'm not terribly shocked by this as both teams currently have a ton of questions. Is Drew Brees healthy? Is Sam Bradford's butt strong enough to throw a football? Is Chip Kelly legitimately insane? Depending on how you feel about those questions, this game could go any number of ways.

Since we are about to begin the second quarter of the season, it seems fitting that we recap where all of the staff ranks against one another.

1. Scott Schulze
2. Scott Bantel
3. Rebecca Toback
4. Kyle Phelps
5. Cody Tewmey
6. Dadio McDuck, Alberto Luque, Alex Healey
7. Art Bidwell
8. Jason Marcum, Mickey Mentzer