It's the most, wonderful time, of the yeeeear!

No, it's not that time of year. Everyone knows the real most wonderful time of the year occurs as summer turns to fall, baseball starts to wind down, and football really kicks into gear.

Yes we have had four weeks of preseason, but that barely wets out palette. And sure, college football's return was glorious, with all the upsets and game turning plays. But the NFL is king in this land, and it certainly is in Seattle, regardless of the Huskies' top10 national ranking.

And something is happening in Seattle that no Seattle sports fan  thought they would be accustomed to hearing... we're again favorites to make it to the Super Bowl (one way to tell a true Seattle sports fan from a recent bandwagoner by how credulous they believe positive early season prognostications to be).

Competition for the Seahawks most surely comes in the form of defending NFC champ Carolina Panthers (minus Josh Norman), Aaron Rodger's Green Bay Packers and the NFC West rival Arizona Cardinals. Lending a hand to the Seahawks for the first season in many are the schedule gods, as they open against four straight non-playoff teams. And even after that they face the Atlanta Falcons, who are really not on Seattle's level. The following week however is when we should get a real feel for how good this team is, as they face off against Arizona in Phoenix.

All ain't rose pedals and cupcakes heading into Week 1 though. First-round pick Germain Ifedi went down in practice today with an ankle injury, and is listed as limited. Of the two more high profile injuries, there does seem to be some good news, as Jimmy Graham had a full practice today and has listed at no.1 on the Seahawks' unofficial depth chart recently.

A man who was not listed at no. 1 was Thomas Rawls, which opened up much controversy. He only had two carries in the fourth preseason game against the Raiders, and Pete Carroll said that Week 1 will be treated like his, "second preseason game." In other words, expect Christine Michael to get a healthy amount, if not the majority of carries against the Dolphins come Sunday.

Prediction: Seahawks make the Super Bowl for a rematch against the Patriots. Many think the Cardinals will prevail and make it to Houston, but I feel that Carson Palmer is getting too old and has too long of an injury history to hold up for 16 games plus two more to get to the Super Bowl. Then again, I'm a homer.

Photo: Flickr/Ben Rea