2013 Offseason Update, Week 18

Jake Locker is entering his third season in the NFL, viewed by most as
the most important year in a young quarterback's development.
Photo credit to USA Today.

As of yesterday, we are now eight weeks away from the 2013 Hall of Fame Game in Canton, featuring the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys.

Jake Locker Entering Important Season

Last week I talked a little about the AFC East, focusing on the Dolphins and Patriots. The AFC South appears pre-determined with the Texans leading the way, the Colts close behind and the Titans and Jaguars bringing up the rear.

But the Titans have an opportunity to surprise some people and it starts with Jake Locker, who is entering his third season, typically and important one in the development of an NFL quarterback.

Locker showed great potential at times last season and now needs to become more consistent. High draft picks are expected to break through in their third seasons, and those who don’t tend to flame out soon after. Locker has some solid targets, especially with Delanie Walker coming from San Francisco. If Kenny Britt can stay healthy and out of trouble, Locker has the opportunity to lift Tennessee to the number two spot in the division.

JaMarcus Russell Bears Workout

Russell’s NFL comeback attempt landed him in Chicago on Friday. His accuracy was reportedly erratic at times, but he gained positive reviews overall. The Bears also worked out Trent Edwards and Jordan Palmer, so it doesn’t seem likely that they will sign JaMarcus, but his workout could land him some other opportunities around the NFL, and will certainly boost his standing among CFL teams if it comes to that.

Donté Stallworth

Back in March, Stallworth and his girlfriend were in a hot-air balloon that hit some power lines. Both were shaken up and sustained some injuries, but both recovered and Donté was cleared to resume his NFL career in May.

A few days ago, the Redskins invited Stallworth to participate in their veteran minicamp next week. If they end up signing him, it would be his second stint in Washington after playing in 11 games for them in 2011.

Stallworth suffered an injury last year after playing in just one game for the New England Patriots, but in that game he scored on a 63-yard touchdown pass. So, if healthy, he can bring some explosiveness to an offense that already has plenty of it in Washington.

If I am missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

2013 Offseason Needs: AFC South

This week and next, between Tuesday and Friday, I am going through the NFL division-by-division, writing about what each team needs to address this offseason. I have covered the bases in the AFC East and AFC North, so today I move on to the AFC South.

I won’t pretend to know every detail of what each team needs, but am open to comments from those who may know better what their teams need.

Houston Texans

I like Houston in 2013. J.J. Watt stepped up in a huge way this year and I expect more of the same. Brian Cushing will be back, too, so I have no doubts that the defense will be ready to carry this team at least as far as it went this year.

The offense is what concerns me. Arian Foster is a premier NFL back, and they have one of the best receivers in the NFL in Andre Johnson. Matt Schaub just does not look good when they go up against anything better than a mediocre defense. Cincinnati’s defense, which was little more than ‘up-and-coming’ this year, made him look incompetent in the postseason.

There is no expectation that Schaub could be out in Houston, but he needs to find his mojo, which he lost sometime around 2010, because this is a Super Bowl contender doomed for Divisional Round exits if he doesn’t step his game up.

Indianapolis Colts

The Colts underwent a total overhaul last offseason and found themselves in the playoffs, so they have to be feeling very good about what just a few changes could bring in 2013.

Bruce Arians is out as he takes over head coaching duties in Arizona, but the Colts were quick to bring in one of Andrew Luck’s coaching from Stanford, so we shouldn’t see the loss of Arians affect him too much next season.

The big name among Indy’s free agents is Dwight Freeney, but losing him won’t be as big a blow as fans want to think it will be. Freeney is getting older and isn’t what he was during the mid-2000’s when the Manning Era looked like it may never end.

The offense is just about set, all Indy needs is a lineman or two who can protect Luck better than the unit did in 2012. On defense, the pass rush was a weak point for Indianapolis this season, but mostly because receivers were getting open too quickly down the field. The top priority needs to be the secondary, then the Colts can look to add a linebacker and replace Freeney if he does, in fact, leave.

Jacksonville Jaguars

I’ll tell you right now, the Jaguars will not be turning any heads in 2013. This team looks hopeless right now, and teams that look like that don’t turn things around in one offseason. Nobody likes to hear this, but what Jacksonville needs to do is treat this process as a multi-season thing. If they look for a quick fix, not only will it fail but it will make the process of turning this team into a contender take much longer than it has to.

The Jaguars have the second pick in the draft, and they need players on defense. They need offensive weapons, too, but defense was their weaker point this season. Of course, drafting that pick could help more because then they can add players on both sides of the ball.

Gabbert needs to be Jacksonville’s man, and they need to get him the offseason work he needs. They have to make sure Maurice Jones-Drew is fully recovered and they might want to get a decent backup, because they didn’t have anything this season once he went down.

The defense needs a total overhaul, each part needs to be replaced or refurbished. If the Jaguars can do enough to notch six wins in 2013, then next offseason could hold brighter tidings in the crystal ball.

Tennessee Titans

Chris Johnson needs to get back in his groove next season to take the pressure of Jake Locker, who came on strong this year but is still too young to trust as much more than a game manager.

Offensively, I like where Tennessee is going. They are slowly looking more and more like the Titans of the late 90’s, a team I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Defensively, the Titans need work. The line and secondary are clearly the biggest areas in need of improvement, depth at linebacker is important, too. They lost Colin McCarthy, a very good young linebacker, to ankle and concussion injuries for most of the 2012 season and nobody was there to step into his role.

Tomorrow I will go through the AFC West, looking at each team’s offseason outlook just like I did for the AFC South today. Keep up with new posts as I publish them by ‘liking’ my Facebook page and by following me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.

2012 Season in Review, Last 8 Weeks

The tandem of rookies RG3 (10) and Alfred Morris (46) is the
basis of everything the Redskins do on offense.
Photo credit to NY Daily News.

Yesterday, I reviewed the first nine weeks of the regular season. So today, naturally, I am looking back at the second half of the regular season, which was very different for many teams and all too similar for others. My predictions for this weekend will come tonight on The All-Sports Crew’s blog and in each of my Wild-Card previews, which will start coming out tomorrow.

These are the NFL standings for the final 8 weeks of the regular season:

AFC East	AFC North	AFC South	AFC West
1. NE (7-1)	1. CIN (5-3)	1. IND (6-2)	1. DEN (8-0)
T-2. MIA (3-5)	2. BAL (4-4)	2. HOU (5-3)	2. SD (3-5)
T-2. NYJ (3-5)	3. CLE (3-4)	3. TEN (3-4)	T-3. OAK (1-7)
T-2. BUF (3-5)	4. PIT (3-5)	4. JAC (1-7)	T-3. KC (1-7)
NFC East	NFC North	NFC South	NFC West
1. WAS (7-0)	T-1. GB (5-2)	T-1. ATL (5-3)	1. SEA (6-1)
2. DAL (5-3)	T-1. MIN (5-2)	T-1. CAR (5-3)	2. SF (5-2-1)
3. NYG (3-4)	3. CHI (3-5)	3. NO (4-4)	3. StL (4-3-1)
4. PHI (1-7)	4. DET (0-8)	4. TB (3-5)	4. ARI (1-6)

Of course the talk of the NFL in the second half of the season was the Redskins entering their bye week 3-6, voting Robert Griffin III a captain when they returned, and then going on to win their final 7 games to clinch the NFC East for the first time since 1999. Hidden in the shadow was the Colts’ run to nearly take back the AFC South and Cincinnati doing the same in the AFC North.

AFC East

The Bills had a decent offense, but their defense was atrocious. Ryan Tannehill did not carry his momentum into the second half of the season and the Jets were at the mercy of Mark Sanchez. The Patriots didn’t need to win 7 of their last 8 to run away with this division, but they did and now hold the AFC’s #2 seed.

AFC North

Baltimore seemed hot in the second half of the season, winning their first three games. They’ve dropped 4 of 5 now and only a win against the reeling Giants kept the Bengals from claiming the division. An injury to Ben Roethlisberger hurt Pittsburgh more than some people want to admit.

AFC South

Houston struggled late and Indy didn’t, allowing the Colts to come within a Week 15 loss in Houston of winning the AFC South. Jacksonville repeated their first-half record and the Titans struggled despite Chris Johnson getting into a groove and Jake Locker putting up big numbers in several games.

AFC West

The Broncos had an easy schedule but never let an opponent give them a serious scare as they rolled through the competition. The question for them is whether the lack of competition will hurt them in the postseason. San Diego only had the second best record during the second half because their competition was Oakland and Kansas City.

NFC East

The Giants suffered their typical late-season collapse and for once there was a team there to take advantage. In fact, there were two teams. The Redskins, as I mentioned, never lost in the second half of the season. The Cowboys made a late run at a division title but came up short in Week 17 against Washington. Philly has won just one game since the Phillies last victory and Andy Reid was fired the day after the regular season ended.

NFC North

Green Bay and Minnesota went neck-and-neck for the NFC North title and Green Bay held off the Vikings, despite losing to them in Week 17. Chicago, as I said early, was a product of an easy schedule. They lost to the good teams they faced in the second half.

NFC South

Carolina, as they did last year, picked it up in the second half. The hole was too deep for them, but they had the same record as the Falcons. If they can put things together for a full season, 2013 could be a scary year in the NFC South.

NFC West

Seattle scored over 170 points in their final four games – 150 points between Weeks 14, 15 and 16. They make fans of every other team nervous. The only thing that gives other teams’ fans a little relief is that they won’t be able to host a playoff game unless they play the Vikings in the NFC Championship. San Francisco held them off the division championship by virtue of a tie against the Rams.

2012 Season in Review, First 9 Weeks

The 'Monday Night Fiasco' finally put an end to the NFL's
replacement officials. Photo credit to CBS Chicago.

Happy New Year, everyone! To kick off 2013, I am reviewing the 2012 regular season. Today I will cover the first nine weeks and tomorrow I will review the last eight weeks of the season. My predictions for this weekend will come Wednesday on The All-Sports Crew’s blog and in each of my Wild-Card previews, which will start coming out Thursday.

Heading into Week 10, these were the standings in the NFL:

AFC East	AFC North	AFC South	AFC West
1. NE (5-3)	1. BAL (6-2)	1. HOU (7-1)	1. DEN (5-3)
2. MIA (4-4)	2. PIT (5-3)	2. IND (5-3)	2. SD (4-4)
T-3. NYJ (3-5)	3. CIN (3-5)	3. TEN (3-6)	3. OAK (3-5)
T-3. BUF (3-5)	4. CLE (2-7)	4. JAC (1-7)	4. KC (1-7)
NFC East	NFC North	NFC South	NFC West
1. NYG (6-3)	1. CHI (7-1)	1. ATL (8-0)	1. SF (6-2)
T-2. DAL (3-5)	2. GB (6-3)	2. TB (4-4)	2. SEA (5-4)
T-2. PHI (3-5)	3. MIN (5-4)	3. NO (3-5)	3. ARI (4-5)
4. WAS (3-6)	4. DET (4-4)	4. CAR (2-6)	4. StL (3-5)

It seemed clear at the time that Atlanta and Houston were a close one-two in the NFL. Houston had picked up right where they left off when Matt Schaub got hurt in 2011 and the Falcons were flat-out winning, even if some games were closer than they should have been.

AFC East

The Patriots had suffered a few tough losses, and they didn’t have a feel of consistency to them. They seemed to be in line to win the division, but mostly on the merit of everyone else in the division being bad. Down in Miami, Ryan Tannehill was turning heads with pretty rapid improvement through the first several weeks.

AFC North

Baltimore kicked off the season with a big win over Cincinnati in which they showcased a very efficient hurry-up offense. Things settled down for them after that game but they kept control of the division early. Cincinnati started the season slow but Andy Dalton and A.J. Green were starting to make their offense look like a serious contender.

AFC South

Houston, as I mentioned, was considered one of the league’s best teams. Losing Brian Cushing seemed not to hurt as much as we thought it would, thanks mostly to J.J. Watt’s phenomenal play. Indianapolis, meanwhile, was in the middle of a CHUCKSTRONG campaign to win games for Coach Pagano, who was away from the team receiving treatment for leukemia.

AFC West

San Diego controlled the division early on, but a memorable second-half collapse handed the division on a silver platter to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, allowing Denver to lead the division with the hard part of their schedule completely out of the way.

NFC East

The Giants struggled in their season opener against Dallas, becoming the first defending Super Bowl champs to lose the NFL Kickoff Game. Dallas cooled off after that game and New York caught fire, winning six of their next eight.

NFC North

Chicago was rolling through the first half of their schedule, mostly due to a weak schedule. Their only loss was to Green Bay and they hadn’t played another good opponent otherwise. The Packers, meanwhile, were hot and cold early one but seemed to be on the rise. The Vikings were the surprise of the NFL. Adrian Peterson hadn’t been noticed as much as Christian Ponder as the second-year quarterback was playing excellent ball in the early part of the season.

NFC South

Atlanta was running away with the division and was the only undefeated team left after Week 9. Tampa Bay seemed to be picking things up and a young man named Doug Martin seemed to be inserting his name in Rookie of the Year discussions while Josh Freeman was throwing for 300+ yards seemingly every game. New Orleans was suffering the effects of having their head coach, and their interim head coach, on top of a few players, suspended.

NFC West

The 49ers had suffered a few letdowns but still seemed to be a close second to the Falcons in the conference. Seattle seemed more of a pretender than anything with a home win over New England in a game when Tom Brady played awful and of course the infamous ‘Monday Night Fiasco’ against Green Bay.

Replacement Refs

The first three weeks were dominated by talk of how poor a job the replacement officials were doing. We may have been a little too hard on them and not hard enough on the league for not getting a deal done with the officials’ union, but it was pretty bad and it all culminated on that Monday Night game between Seattle and Green Bay. Thankfully the madness ended within a couple days of that game and we the real refs were back from Week 4 on.

Bounty Scandal

The New Orleans Saints had to deal with a lot with the NFL’s crackdown on their bounty system, which we still don’t really seem to have concrete evidence of. They lost the first several games of the season, including an overtime loss to Kansas City, who never led during regulation of any game in the first half of the season.

Rookie Quarterbacks

With five rookies starting under center in Week 1, an NFL record was set. Never had so many rookies been named the starter of their team to kick off a season. Robert Griffin III, the 2011 Heisman Trophy Winner, was starting in Washington and quickly made the Redskins into one of the best rushing teams and one of the highest scoring offenses in the league. Andrew Luck was not very efficient, but always seemed to come through in the clutch in Indy. Russell Wilson pissed a lot of people off against Green Bay on Monday Night when he threw the winning interception for Seattle. Ryan Tannehill showed improvement early in the season for Miami and Brandon Weeden was doing the same in Cleveland.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 15 Early Games

Kirk Cousins is now #2 on the Redskins all-time Rookie list
for single-game passing yards. Photo credit to SB Nation.

The Giants had not been held scoreless in more than 15 years until the Falcons, the Falcons, did just that yesterday. After Atlanta’s 34-0 route of the defending Super Bowl champions, the first home win against such an opponent in Matt Ryan’s career, I am left to guess whether the game did more to answer questions about the Falcons or raise questions about the Giants.

I’ll cop out and say it was a little of both. This game said a lot about the Falcons character. It remains to be seen what that would count for in the playoffs, but this was an important statement for them to make. New York, on the other hand, has been back and forth the past five weeks and even a bounce-back game against Baltimore next Sunday will do little to immediately answer questions about them.

Denver’s win in Baltimore felt like a bigger blowout than the 34-17 final score indicated, but I found it disturbing that Joe Flacco said it feels like they are 0-14. That game, while important, was not the end-all-be-all of the season, and Flacco’s comments should be very indicative to Ravens fans of what kind of postseason they can expect: a short one.

Green Bay got out to a nice lead against Chicago. They let the Bears claw their way back, but did not give up the lead as they clinched the NFC North and put Chicago in serious danger of missing the playoffs with three NFC East teams to contend with. Brandon Marshall’s press conference really got to me, I feel for the guy, but that isn’t enough if the team doesn’t make plays.

Credit Indianapolis for fighting in Houston. The Texans were playing for the AFC South title while the Colts were playing for a chance to take it from them when they meet again in Week 17. The Texans took care of business to clinch their second consecutive division crown, and the second in franchise history.

There isn’t much to say about the game in Miami. The Dolphins kept their near impossible chance of making the playoffs alive with a 24-3 win, but it was against the Jaguars so I can’t say enough how little that means.

Tampa Bay is done. They have not officially been eliminated, and neither has New Orleans, but the Saints are a whole lot closer to the playoffs after yesterday’s game. After Tampa Bay got upset by the Eagles last week, I expected a bounce-back for them. I didn’t think they would win, simply because the game was in New Orleans, but I never expected them to get shut out by the Saints. This is one of the worst defenses in the league and Tampa Bay, a team with one of the best balanced attacks in the NFL, could not put up one point in a 41-0 route. Turns out the Bucs were pretenders after all.

Adrian Peterson carried the Vikings to a big win in St. Louis. The Rams were fighting to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, and now they have been all but snuffed out. Peterson topped 200 yards for the second time this season. Last time it wasn’t enough, but yesterday it was. The Rams put up a valiant effort and late in the game it looked like they might make it back, but Minnesota had put up enough to outrun St. Louis in a 36-22 win that has them now ahead of Chicago based on tiebreakers.

I had to save the Redskins for last. You all know I am a huge fan, and yesterday was a game worth getting excited about. Kirk Cousins struggled early in the game, throwing a pick that lead to a Cleveland touchdown, but he settled down, Kyle Shanahan delivered an excellent game plan, and the Redskins get into a groove that the Browns could not knock them out of. Everything went Washington’s way yesterday, including a fumble by Santana Moss than Pierre Garçon somehow ended up on top of. Considering those breaks never go the Redskins’ way, I think it’s safe for Redskins Nation to start getting pumped.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the six late games. Thanks for reading everyone!