Post by TheShadow on Aug 18, 2007 6:48:52 GMT -5
www.pfcritics.com/
By Ian Hetherington, PFCritics Writer
After a summer of promising your esteemed PFCritics webmaster that I’d write for the site and then not doing anything of the sort, I’ve finally shifted my backside now that I’ve got a few ideas mulling around. The season isn’t far away after all, and I can’t deny that there’s now more than enough to talk about what with the Michael Vick situation, Brady Quinn’s odd refusal to sign a contract and various teams shuffling players around the league.
So I’m starting here, with an admittedly misleadingly-titled article. I basically called this article “Ones to Watch” because I couldn’t think of anything better, but rather than be solely about individual players this is going to be a look in to a key story for each team and my thoughts on their effects for the coming season. Some of the stories are big stories already, some could start or end a team’s campaign, some or just situations it’ll be interesting to see pan out.
Arizona Cardinals – Edgerrin James
“The Edge” had a respectable but often workmanlike 2006 season. Admittedly, he wasn’t helped by an initially shaky quarterback situation in Arizona, but his personal performance was still short of what he’d have expected for himself. A 3.4 average gain coupled with a season longest gain of 18 yards doesn’t make for pretty reading, especially when you’re a three-time Pro Bowl player with a selection of 1,500+ yard seasons under your belt. Okay, I’ll cut him a little slack, running for Arizona was never going to be as easy as running for the Colts who have a far superior offensive line and Peyton Manning in the minds of the defense. Still, if Ken Wisenhunt manages to improve the problematic (and he knows it) O-line, James’ll expect better of himself this year, And it’d do Matt Leinart a world of good if James was to start playing in such a way that opposing defenses were properly scared of him again.
Atlanta Falcons – Michael Vick
With the ups and downs that Atlanta have had in recent seasons it’s hard to say whether attention being drawn away from the playing staff is a good or a bad thing. Good or bad though, the attention around the Falcons will still be on Mike Vick even though he’s not going to be playing when the season gets under way, if at all. Up until the day he’s in court and on after that until sentencing, Mike Vick is going to be the headline. Whether it be his guilt or innocence, his attitude, his character, his future with the Falcons and even his future as a professional football player, Vick will be hogging the headlines. So long as he’s officially a Falcon, it’s still their story as well, no matter how much the team are distancing themselves from the situation.
Baltimore Ravens – Jarrett Johnson
I’ll be honest, before this season I’d heard of Jarret Johnson –possibly picked up from Ravens match reports last season- but little more. Apparently though, he’s likely to be the man who steps into the shoes of Adalius Thomas and last season was on the field for more snaps than you might think. Johnson isn’t quite as versatile as Thomas who played just about everywhere on defense for the Ravens last year, but he’s still capable of playing anywhere along the row of linebackers as well as defensive end. Rex Ryan knows what he’s doing with this defense and they’ll cope with the loss of a big name like they usually do, but Thomas’ top-draw ability in so many positions will mean that Johnson will have to be at his most flexible to give the defense the same kind of options.
Buffalo Bills – Offensive line
The Bills O-line has been re-jigged a little and the success of this could end up being the defining factor of their season. Losman was looking a little more assured behind center as last season progressed and if they can protect him better he could have a solid year. Add this to the fact that they’ve added Marshawn Lynch, one of the most talented running backs in the draft, and the line has got a lot of work to do to help the Bills’ offense do the best it can.
Carolina Panthers – Dwayne Jarrett
Let’s take a look at how his NFL time thus far:
March 2006: Keyshawn Johnson signs with the Carolina Panthers. He’s going to be the experience and strength that helps draw defenders away from star wideout Steve Smith.
April 2007: In the NFL draft, the Carolina Panthers draft Dwayne Jarrett. He’s a position receiver, so seemingly he’s going to be the natural successor to Keyshawn Johnson. Keyshawn says he’s looking forward to mentoring his new team-mate.
May 2007: Mere days after the draft, Johnson is released. Soon after he becomes a TV analyst for ESPN.
Johnson is a natural at speaking his mind but being charismatic with it, so if during pre-game shows the conversation should come around to the Panthers and Jarrett has been in the spotlight, for good reasons or bad, you know he’s going to have something to say and people are going to listen.
Chicago Bears – Rex Grossman
This is a bit of a no-brainer. Lance Briggs had a bit of a tantrum before the poor soul had to settle for a mere $7m for the next year, meaning that the spotlight will be back on Rex Grossman whether he likes it or not. Grossman has proven he has the talent to be a good quarterback; it’s consistency that’s the problem. In 2006 he’d have one game where he’d make three or four touchdown passes and he’d follow it up a couple of weeks later with three interceptions. Whatever Lovie Smith says, that has to cause a bit of a headache. Grossman shouldn’t regress, but the Bears fans will be desperate for him to stop having nightmare games and play at something like his best much more regularly. This will be his pivotal season as a Bear, it’s time for Grossman to look like the main man for this team or start thinking about where his future as a starter might lie.
Cincinnati Bengals – Defense
“The best defense is a good offense.” If there’s one team in the NFL who prove that rule isn’t always the case then surely it’s the Bengals? They’ve got one of the league’s highly regarded quarterbacks, talent in the running game and –even with Chris Henry suspended- a group of receivers any team would be pleased to have. They were only 8 points off the pace when they had a shootout with free-scoring San Diego last year. After averaging a hair under 21 points allowed per game in 2006 and looking incredibly vulnerable against the likes of New England, Indianapolis and San Diego it’s clear what they need to rectify to be a post-season force.
Cleveland Browns – Quarterback
When is a third overall pick in the draft not a third overall pick? When they slide down to twenty-second that’s when. That man is Brady Quinn. It was widely expected that the Browns would take Quinn at third, as it was they decided to solidify the offensive line with tackle Joe Thomas. Quinn was apparently forewarned by the Browns’ GM Phil Savage that they wouldn’t necessarily take him third but what really seemed to irk Quinn was the fact that he lasted long enough for the Browns –after some trading for picks- to take him at twenty-second in the first place. And then of course there are the millions of dollars it was going to cost him. He wanted to be paid like a top-five pick, his agent said that he was high on the Cleveland’s draft board and that they should pay him in kind, and they rightly disagreed. So he held out, the implication being that he wasn’t going to appear at training camp and he was absent for ten days. This seems already to have cost him his chance of being the starting quarterback in the early stages of the season but he has finally signed a contract so his NFL career proper can get under way. It’s already been an eventful time for Brady Quinn and the Browns in the NFL, and with Derek Anderson apparently looking good to win the starting job Brady Quinn isn’t even guaranteed to be first back-up this year. Cleveland are probably hoping things will settle down now, but the gossip-hungry media and fans will be waiting for the next instalment of the Quinn tale eagerly.
Dallas Cowboys –Terrell Owens
There’s always a chance T.O will be the big story just because he’s one of those characters. It was another interesting year for Owens in his first as a Cowboy. On the field he had mixed fortunes, he led the league in regular season touchdown receptions but also in the unofficial statistic of dropped passes. After a relatively quiet opening few weeks to the season where Owens only really featured in match reports, he unintentionally got back to his media-hogging form in the worst way as he was rumoured to have been found following a suicide attempt. It turned out to be an accidental overdose, but it was vintage T.O none the less. With a range of questions surrounding him as always (Does he think he’s getting the ball enough? Will his seemingly decent relationship with Romo last?) I see no reason it shouldn’t be another season of ups and downs on the Terrell Owens Rollercoaster.
Denver Broncos – Jay Cutler
Even Mike Shanahan had given up on him, and that was the beginning of the end for Jake the Snake. The Denver Broncos defence was on championship-winning form for the first third of the season and that had carried the Broncos ailing offense, but being dissected by Peyton Manning and Indianapolis showed that they weren’t even really a playoff team last year, let alone a championship team. And so the reigns were handed over to first round draft pick Jay Cutler. And the rookie didn’t do bad, but he wasn’t helped by an inconsistent running game and as the Broncos were shooting for a Wild Card spot, Plummer was brought in for the dying moments of the game against San Francisco. But in his big chance to do something special and try to make Shanahan reconsider, he tried two passes, completed none and turned the ball over. His time as a Denver Bronco was done. He was traded away to take part in a controversy of his own in Tampa Bay and now it’s Cutler’s time. With Travis Henry brought in he should have a consistent running back to help bear the load and with a few games and a full off/pre-season under his belt he needs to start showing that the Broncos faith in him wasn’t misplaced.
Detroit Lions – Everywhere but the passing game
Odd as it undoubtedly sounds, Jon Kitna threw 22 interceptions in 2006 and still had a decent season. Considering throwing the ball was about all the Lions were good at, passing plays were order of the day. A lot. As well as his 22 picks thrown, he passed for 21 touchdowns and over 4,000 yards. So the Lions decided to use their high draft pick on….. Calvin Johnson. Okay, we’ll let it go… everybody’s pretty much admitted that while the Lions keep drafting receivers Johnson truly is something special. But adding another receiver to an already talented group puts more pressure on the re-tooled running game, because to get the very most out of the pass and give the ball away less, the Lions need to be able to look at the pass as an option, not the necessity for each play. If T.J Duckett, Tatum Bell and the currently injured Kevin Jones can make the run more dangerous then it might allow passing plays to be used more selectively. This would mean Kitna doesn’t have to make a huge play as often as was required of him last year, so turnovers could be a little less frequent.
Green Bay Packers – Running back
Brett Favre presumably keeps deciding to put off his retirement for two reasons. Firstly, he simply enjoys playing football. Secondly, he surely must believe there is hope for the Packers to mount one last glorious campaign before he quits as I don’t see a player of his stature playing without thinking he can win. The chances of that kind of season aren’t looking great right now though, as Favre’s support in the running game no longer includes Ahman Green. Instead he’ll be relying on the young tandem of Vernand Morency and the explosive rookie Brandon Jackson, which has potential but an air of unpredictability about it. They’ll be relying on Favre to be at his most solid to give them the breaks to make a mark on the ground and the extent of their success will have a strong bearing on how well Green Bay performs this year.
By Ian Hetherington, PFCritics Writer
After a summer of promising your esteemed PFCritics webmaster that I’d write for the site and then not doing anything of the sort, I’ve finally shifted my backside now that I’ve got a few ideas mulling around. The season isn’t far away after all, and I can’t deny that there’s now more than enough to talk about what with the Michael Vick situation, Brady Quinn’s odd refusal to sign a contract and various teams shuffling players around the league.
So I’m starting here, with an admittedly misleadingly-titled article. I basically called this article “Ones to Watch” because I couldn’t think of anything better, but rather than be solely about individual players this is going to be a look in to a key story for each team and my thoughts on their effects for the coming season. Some of the stories are big stories already, some could start or end a team’s campaign, some or just situations it’ll be interesting to see pan out.
Arizona Cardinals – Edgerrin James
“The Edge” had a respectable but often workmanlike 2006 season. Admittedly, he wasn’t helped by an initially shaky quarterback situation in Arizona, but his personal performance was still short of what he’d have expected for himself. A 3.4 average gain coupled with a season longest gain of 18 yards doesn’t make for pretty reading, especially when you’re a three-time Pro Bowl player with a selection of 1,500+ yard seasons under your belt. Okay, I’ll cut him a little slack, running for Arizona was never going to be as easy as running for the Colts who have a far superior offensive line and Peyton Manning in the minds of the defense. Still, if Ken Wisenhunt manages to improve the problematic (and he knows it) O-line, James’ll expect better of himself this year, And it’d do Matt Leinart a world of good if James was to start playing in such a way that opposing defenses were properly scared of him again.
Atlanta Falcons – Michael Vick
With the ups and downs that Atlanta have had in recent seasons it’s hard to say whether attention being drawn away from the playing staff is a good or a bad thing. Good or bad though, the attention around the Falcons will still be on Mike Vick even though he’s not going to be playing when the season gets under way, if at all. Up until the day he’s in court and on after that until sentencing, Mike Vick is going to be the headline. Whether it be his guilt or innocence, his attitude, his character, his future with the Falcons and even his future as a professional football player, Vick will be hogging the headlines. So long as he’s officially a Falcon, it’s still their story as well, no matter how much the team are distancing themselves from the situation.
Baltimore Ravens – Jarrett Johnson
I’ll be honest, before this season I’d heard of Jarret Johnson –possibly picked up from Ravens match reports last season- but little more. Apparently though, he’s likely to be the man who steps into the shoes of Adalius Thomas and last season was on the field for more snaps than you might think. Johnson isn’t quite as versatile as Thomas who played just about everywhere on defense for the Ravens last year, but he’s still capable of playing anywhere along the row of linebackers as well as defensive end. Rex Ryan knows what he’s doing with this defense and they’ll cope with the loss of a big name like they usually do, but Thomas’ top-draw ability in so many positions will mean that Johnson will have to be at his most flexible to give the defense the same kind of options.
Buffalo Bills – Offensive line
The Bills O-line has been re-jigged a little and the success of this could end up being the defining factor of their season. Losman was looking a little more assured behind center as last season progressed and if they can protect him better he could have a solid year. Add this to the fact that they’ve added Marshawn Lynch, one of the most talented running backs in the draft, and the line has got a lot of work to do to help the Bills’ offense do the best it can.
Carolina Panthers – Dwayne Jarrett
Let’s take a look at how his NFL time thus far:
March 2006: Keyshawn Johnson signs with the Carolina Panthers. He’s going to be the experience and strength that helps draw defenders away from star wideout Steve Smith.
April 2007: In the NFL draft, the Carolina Panthers draft Dwayne Jarrett. He’s a position receiver, so seemingly he’s going to be the natural successor to Keyshawn Johnson. Keyshawn says he’s looking forward to mentoring his new team-mate.
May 2007: Mere days after the draft, Johnson is released. Soon after he becomes a TV analyst for ESPN.
Johnson is a natural at speaking his mind but being charismatic with it, so if during pre-game shows the conversation should come around to the Panthers and Jarrett has been in the spotlight, for good reasons or bad, you know he’s going to have something to say and people are going to listen.
Chicago Bears – Rex Grossman
This is a bit of a no-brainer. Lance Briggs had a bit of a tantrum before the poor soul had to settle for a mere $7m for the next year, meaning that the spotlight will be back on Rex Grossman whether he likes it or not. Grossman has proven he has the talent to be a good quarterback; it’s consistency that’s the problem. In 2006 he’d have one game where he’d make three or four touchdown passes and he’d follow it up a couple of weeks later with three interceptions. Whatever Lovie Smith says, that has to cause a bit of a headache. Grossman shouldn’t regress, but the Bears fans will be desperate for him to stop having nightmare games and play at something like his best much more regularly. This will be his pivotal season as a Bear, it’s time for Grossman to look like the main man for this team or start thinking about where his future as a starter might lie.
Cincinnati Bengals – Defense
“The best defense is a good offense.” If there’s one team in the NFL who prove that rule isn’t always the case then surely it’s the Bengals? They’ve got one of the league’s highly regarded quarterbacks, talent in the running game and –even with Chris Henry suspended- a group of receivers any team would be pleased to have. They were only 8 points off the pace when they had a shootout with free-scoring San Diego last year. After averaging a hair under 21 points allowed per game in 2006 and looking incredibly vulnerable against the likes of New England, Indianapolis and San Diego it’s clear what they need to rectify to be a post-season force.
Cleveland Browns – Quarterback
When is a third overall pick in the draft not a third overall pick? When they slide down to twenty-second that’s when. That man is Brady Quinn. It was widely expected that the Browns would take Quinn at third, as it was they decided to solidify the offensive line with tackle Joe Thomas. Quinn was apparently forewarned by the Browns’ GM Phil Savage that they wouldn’t necessarily take him third but what really seemed to irk Quinn was the fact that he lasted long enough for the Browns –after some trading for picks- to take him at twenty-second in the first place. And then of course there are the millions of dollars it was going to cost him. He wanted to be paid like a top-five pick, his agent said that he was high on the Cleveland’s draft board and that they should pay him in kind, and they rightly disagreed. So he held out, the implication being that he wasn’t going to appear at training camp and he was absent for ten days. This seems already to have cost him his chance of being the starting quarterback in the early stages of the season but he has finally signed a contract so his NFL career proper can get under way. It’s already been an eventful time for Brady Quinn and the Browns in the NFL, and with Derek Anderson apparently looking good to win the starting job Brady Quinn isn’t even guaranteed to be first back-up this year. Cleveland are probably hoping things will settle down now, but the gossip-hungry media and fans will be waiting for the next instalment of the Quinn tale eagerly.
Dallas Cowboys –Terrell Owens
There’s always a chance T.O will be the big story just because he’s one of those characters. It was another interesting year for Owens in his first as a Cowboy. On the field he had mixed fortunes, he led the league in regular season touchdown receptions but also in the unofficial statistic of dropped passes. After a relatively quiet opening few weeks to the season where Owens only really featured in match reports, he unintentionally got back to his media-hogging form in the worst way as he was rumoured to have been found following a suicide attempt. It turned out to be an accidental overdose, but it was vintage T.O none the less. With a range of questions surrounding him as always (Does he think he’s getting the ball enough? Will his seemingly decent relationship with Romo last?) I see no reason it shouldn’t be another season of ups and downs on the Terrell Owens Rollercoaster.
Denver Broncos – Jay Cutler
Even Mike Shanahan had given up on him, and that was the beginning of the end for Jake the Snake. The Denver Broncos defence was on championship-winning form for the first third of the season and that had carried the Broncos ailing offense, but being dissected by Peyton Manning and Indianapolis showed that they weren’t even really a playoff team last year, let alone a championship team. And so the reigns were handed over to first round draft pick Jay Cutler. And the rookie didn’t do bad, but he wasn’t helped by an inconsistent running game and as the Broncos were shooting for a Wild Card spot, Plummer was brought in for the dying moments of the game against San Francisco. But in his big chance to do something special and try to make Shanahan reconsider, he tried two passes, completed none and turned the ball over. His time as a Denver Bronco was done. He was traded away to take part in a controversy of his own in Tampa Bay and now it’s Cutler’s time. With Travis Henry brought in he should have a consistent running back to help bear the load and with a few games and a full off/pre-season under his belt he needs to start showing that the Broncos faith in him wasn’t misplaced.
Detroit Lions – Everywhere but the passing game
Odd as it undoubtedly sounds, Jon Kitna threw 22 interceptions in 2006 and still had a decent season. Considering throwing the ball was about all the Lions were good at, passing plays were order of the day. A lot. As well as his 22 picks thrown, he passed for 21 touchdowns and over 4,000 yards. So the Lions decided to use their high draft pick on….. Calvin Johnson. Okay, we’ll let it go… everybody’s pretty much admitted that while the Lions keep drafting receivers Johnson truly is something special. But adding another receiver to an already talented group puts more pressure on the re-tooled running game, because to get the very most out of the pass and give the ball away less, the Lions need to be able to look at the pass as an option, not the necessity for each play. If T.J Duckett, Tatum Bell and the currently injured Kevin Jones can make the run more dangerous then it might allow passing plays to be used more selectively. This would mean Kitna doesn’t have to make a huge play as often as was required of him last year, so turnovers could be a little less frequent.
Green Bay Packers – Running back
Brett Favre presumably keeps deciding to put off his retirement for two reasons. Firstly, he simply enjoys playing football. Secondly, he surely must believe there is hope for the Packers to mount one last glorious campaign before he quits as I don’t see a player of his stature playing without thinking he can win. The chances of that kind of season aren’t looking great right now though, as Favre’s support in the running game no longer includes Ahman Green. Instead he’ll be relying on the young tandem of Vernand Morency and the explosive rookie Brandon Jackson, which has potential but an air of unpredictability about it. They’ll be relying on Favre to be at his most solid to give them the breaks to make a mark on the ground and the extent of their success will have a strong bearing on how well Green Bay performs this year.