sports: Welcome to part two of what became after a lot of words last night something of an NFL extravaganza, and my first ever two part post. Last night I discussed the NFC and made my picks for who would go where in the conference. Tonight it is the AFC. So Lets get started.
The AFC South seems to be the easiest division to figure out. The Houston Texans are the runaway favorites. Despite losing Pro Bowl defensive end Mario Williams, the Texans defense should remain solid. And with Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson returning after seasons full of injuries, not to mention the contract extension given to Arian Foster, the offense should be one of the best in the entire league. Assuming everyone can stay healthy, this could be one of the top teams in the entire conference. Even if some of their best players get injured, the division should be easily within their grasp. The Tennessee Titans should come in second at or just below .500. Their defense has lost its star player, Courtland Finnegan, to the Rams, but they should remain decent. The offense will have to rely heavily on Chris Johnson with first time starter and second year quarterback Jake Locker taking the reigns. Despite the fact that Locker looked shaky last year in his few opportunities, his time holding the clipboard, despite modern the modern wisdom of starting rookie quarterbacks, could help him adjust with a better understanding of his offense. But really it comes down to Johnson and if he can rebound from his more or less bad year last year. If he can be even close to what he was in 2010, this team could get to 8-8. The Colts will be in a rebuilding mode this year. Andrew Luck should be able to step in and show why he was so highly regarded in the draft process. But with a bunch of either really young or really old players around him on offense, this year is still a transition. Not to mention they did nothing in the off season to improve their defense, instead focusing on getting young players around Luck(which by the way was the right thing to do). The Jaguars round out the South as a team that is still looking for a lot of improvement. Blaine Gabbert showed very few signs in his rookie season last year as a starter that he is capable of being successful at the NFL level. The addition of Justin Blackmon should make his job easier. But with Maurice Jones Drew holding out till only days before the start of the season, and not getting the deal he wanted, and given the short shelf life of the modern day back, it is hard to believe that he will have a true impact on this teams success. This is possibly the team in the AFC playing for a great spot in the draft to continue to build for tomorrow. The Texans come out of this division seemingly by default, but also as a real threat.
The AFC East is probably the other easiest division to handicap. With a weak schedule, the AFC South and the NFC West, as well as home games against those divisions toughest opponents, the Texans and 49ers, the Patriots have pretty smooth sailing. Not mention they have added deep threat Brandon Lloyd to the dynamic passing game that includes two of the top five tight ends in the league and pass catching machine Wes Welker. The Pats have also seemingly improved their defense through the draft. Landing Alabama standout Donta Hightower and physically and genetically gifted, Chandler Jones (he is the brother of Ravens defensive linemen Arthur Jones and UFC Light Heavyweight champ Jon Jones). The Jets seem to be a total mess. They have not scored a single touchdown in the preseason on either side of the ball. Their best wide receiver is cornerback Antonio Cromartie. And their best quarterback is third stringer Greg Mcelroy. Not to mention with Tebow, a marginal signal caller and all time great media guy, Sanchez, a fragile media guy with equally marginal talent, and the big mouth of their coach Rex Ryan, the media distraction for this team alone could be enough to bring them below .500. The Buffalo Bills could be a team on the rise in the East. If Ryan Fitzpatrick and dynamic, yet sometimes crazy, Stevie Jackson can play together healthy for a full season, the passing game should be good. And running back duo Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller should take enough pressure off Fitzpatrick to keep him effecient while providing a great running game in the brutal Buffalo winter. The Dolphins are another team to throw in with Jacksonville as a play-for-next-year team. They got rid of their best play maker, Brandon Marshall. They are relying on Reggie Bush to be their feature back. Bush can make plays sure, but I am not sure he is a 25 to 30 carries a game back. He certainly never has been. To make matters worse, the Dolphins are sending out rookie first round quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill someday could turn into a very good player, but he is an eighth over pick that should have gone in the third round and held a clipboard and learned for two years, if not for Miami's desperation. New England should make a joke of this division, not to mention the rest of their schedule, with Buffalo stealing a wild card spot and ending their playoff draught that dates back to the music city miracle.
Now we move on to the AFC North, one of the two divisions with a little more room for error. There are three teams in the division that could seem like they could fight for the top spot. The Ravens are mostly in the same spot they seem to be in every season since about fifteen years ago. They have a tough defense and a great running back, and that will get them to the top of their division. This year will be different though. The Ravens have vowed to open up their passing game and really let quarterback Joe Flacco take the reigns of the offense. With Ray Rice, maybe the second best running back in the league, in the backfield, this could prove both exciting and problematic. Rice's skills could only help a passing game by forcing a defense to account for him. But Flacco has not shown much besides being adequate that would lead one to believe that one of the most consistant teams in recent years should revamp their offense to make him the focal point. So not relying on Rice like usual could be their demise in the end. On defense this could very well be the year the Ravens start to show their age. This is not because of some sort of tipping point that has clearly occurred, but more because it has to happen sometime. And what better time than when their all world outside linebacker, Terrell Suggs, is out for the season with a torn ACL. The Pittsburgh Steelers are another model of consistancy facing potential problems this year. Their questions seem to be coming almost entirely on offense. Yes Mike Wallace is back after his holdout, but it may take him a few weeks to get into game shape. More importantly though, the Steelers have a new offensive coordinator, Todd Haley. Haley seems to be the lynch pin of the Steelers season. After playing in the same system for years, it is unclear how Ben Roethlisberger will acclimate to a new system. That new system could also be what is the their undoing. Haley wants to implement a new pass happy offense. This will take the focus off of running back Rashard Mendenhall, who has been a rock in the Pittsburgh back field. With a suspect offensive line, and putting Roethlisberger in a place where he is consistently looking to pass will only force him to take more hits. This could be horrible for a guy who thanks to his toughness already takes too many. The Cincinatti Bengals would be the third team in contention in this division this year. Everything about this team is just plain old solid. They have starless and yet remarkably good defense. And their offense is lead by the potentially damn good A.J. Green at wide receiver and the not flashy but efficient, Andy Dalton, at quarterback. People seem to be expecting Dalton to take a step back and have the sophomore slump, but with his no frills style of pocket passing and the growth of report between him and Green, I find it hard to believe. The Cleveland Browns are our third and final AFC play for next year team. Regardless of how good rookie starter Brandon Weedon will play, they just don't have enough talent to make any headway. And if Weedon doesn't work out then they are still at square one, instead of at best square two.
And finally we come to the final division to cover, the AFC West. This is a division with no great teams and no terrible ones. Everyone should finish in the middle of the pack, and thus the mix. The Denver Broncos are certainly the most intriguing team with Peyton Manning coming off of four neck surgeries. I am going with superstition on the Broncos. Someone with that much going on in their neck in a game where the goal is to hit someone as hard as they can can't end well. Not to mention trading Tebow should make God mad at them. I hope Manning makes it through the season, but I just can't believe it. The Raiders are looking to build on last years first sign of improvement since their Super Bowl appearance against the Bucs. This team may just have too much working against them though. The roll over in the front office after the death of Al Davis, and the changes on the coaching staff seem to be heading the franchise in the right direction, just not immediately. The offense will need Darren Mcfadden to be healthy for the whole season, especially after losing his replacement, Michael Bush, to the Bears in free agency. Carson Palmer is the really wild card though. If he can be the player he was before things in Cincinatti go so bad he retired, he can give the Raiders a real chance to win. The Kansas City Chiefs seem to be the team with the most upside in the division. After an injury riddled 2011, they are returning a lot of players, most notably running back Jamal Charles, that could have enough talent to cancel out the resume of Romeo Crennel. Then again, this team seems to like Crennel. The last team in this division is the San Diego Chargers. I love Phillip Rivers. I love his game. I love his swagger and trash talk. But he lost his go to receiver Vincent Jackson. And he is still saddled with Norv Turner who seems to roll out such remarkably mediocre teams year after year. There is no team in this division that will have more than nine wins or less than six. Look for a new look, thanks to health, Chiefs to take it.
In the playoffs, a healthy Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson will lead the Texans to the AFC championship after beating a few teams not quite there yet and one or two that have been there too many times. In that game they will face the Patriots in a shootout between the conferences best team of the past ten years and its best team of the next ten years. Brady, Gronk, experience, and a slightly improved defense will prove too much for the Texans to handle as they continue to make their climb towards the top of the league. Their, as stated in last nights post, the Patriots will meet the Packers in what should be the highest scoring game in playoff history and the game everyone wanted last year. With the two most unstoppable quarterbacks in the game going head to head the game ends at a staggering 63-58. I wish I didn't have to pick a winner and just could marvel at the beauty that game could create, but here we go. Brady gets his fourth in six trips and cements himself as the best ever. Meanwhile Aaron Rodgers doesn't feel too bad because he knows that he will someday have a chance to take down all of Brady's records.
So there we go. I have now spat out what I see to be the NFL season we are about to watch. Now I just need the players not to prove me wrong, especially on the final score of the Super Bowl.
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