DV Staff: We're back with an extensive preview of the 2010-11 NFL season! Beginning with the AFC East and finishing with the NFC West, we'll cover every single team in the league, division by division.
Ryan: The AFC East is one of the stronger divisions in football, featuring the perennial powerhouse New England Patriots, the reloaded Miami Dolphins, and one of the Super Bowl favorites; the New York Jets. Star power has crept into this division in the form of free agents and trades, namely Brandon Marshall, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie, and blazing fast rookie C.J. Spiller. Young quarterbacks Chad Henne, Mark Sanchez, and Trent Edwards look to create names for themselves, while Tom Brady looks to tack on another great season to his Hall of Fame career. It should be a thrilling race to the finish between the Jets and the Pats, but I think the Jets will nudge them out for the crown.
Place-Team, Record
1st Place- New York Jets, 13-3.
The Jets feature by far the league's most intimidating defense as well as the most inventive and intelligent defensive mind in all of football in Head Coach Rex Ryan. Although the Darrelle Revis contract situation is a troubling one, the Jets really do have a bright future. They still have two fantastic DBs in Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, the rookie 1st rounder out of Boise State. Bart Scott and David Harris are two of the 10 best linebackers in the whole league, and Kris Jenkins is a force to be reckoned with on the D-line when healthy. The Jets also have a stellar running game, which should only improve with Shonn Greene's insertion into the starting lineup at RB, and they have improved in the passing game by adding former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. LaDainian Tomlinson is also a Jet for at least this season, which just increases the star power and veteran leadership this team already has. The only huge question Mark is the QB Sanchez, who had 20 picks last year and looked lost, which is very bad considering his responsibilities mostly consisted of not tripping over his own feet while handing the ball to his backs. Still, a division title for the Jets is very likely, and the Super Bowl is a distinct possibility.
2nd Place- New England Patriots, 11-5
Maybe Tom Brady has never been the best QB in the NFL, but he has always been its best winner. Aside from that one absurd 50 touchdown season, Brady has never stood out that much statistically; rather its been his winning that makes him such a legendary player in this league. Even though Welker is still recovering from a serious injury and newly acquired Torry Holt is out for the season with a knee injury, I still believe Brady will keep this offense operating at a very high clip, maybe even at a higher rate than the Jets' offense. The Pats defense, however, is far from stable right now. Ty Warren is out for the season, and the core from the dynasty of old is just that; old. No Bruschi, no Seymour, no Warren, no Division Title. The best this team can hope for is a Wild Card spot, but there is just no way I envision them outperforming the Jets to an extent great enough to win the Division.
3rd Place- Miami Dolphins, 9-7
Brandon Marshall, in my opinion, is the 2nd best receiver in the league behind Andre Johnson. But Kyle Orton was not the QB for such an explosive athlete to catch balls from, as he rarely takes the chances required to take advantage of Marshall's skill. But this season, Brandon has taken his talents to South Beach, and I believe that the Henne to Marshall combo can do some incredible things through the air. That being said, the Dolphins have the misfortune of being in this top heavy division, and probably will win at most 1 game against the Pats and the Jets combined. Assuming they take 2 games from the hapless Bills, their division record will be 3-3, a record that will make it very difficult for them to compete for a playoff spot.
4th Place, Buffalo Bills, 3-13
Jake Locker...Andrew Luck...Ryan Mallett...mmmmmm. Oh, wait, we still have another season until the 2011 draft? Darn..okay, well..lets just tough it out, I guess. The Bills have pretty good young talent in C.J. Spiller and Paul Posluszny, but have very little else besides home field advantage. They may go winless in the division unless they can steal a game at home, and this season may just be chalked up to the development of Spiller and the rest of the young guns before they reload with a high pick in next years draft. Maybe they'll take a QB like Locker and stop putting all of their faith in a QB who's best season in college featured a 5 and 6 record...
Ryan: The AFC East is one of the stronger divisions in football, featuring the perennial powerhouse New England Patriots, the reloaded Miami Dolphins, and one of the Super Bowl favorites; the New York Jets. Star power has crept into this division in the form of free agents and trades, namely Brandon Marshall, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie, and blazing fast rookie C.J. Spiller. Young quarterbacks Chad Henne, Mark Sanchez, and Trent Edwards look to create names for themselves, while Tom Brady looks to tack on another great season to his Hall of Fame career. It should be a thrilling race to the finish between the Jets and the Pats, but I think the Jets will nudge them out for the crown.
Place-Team, Record
1st Place- New York Jets, 13-3.
The Jets feature by far the league's most intimidating defense as well as the most inventive and intelligent defensive mind in all of football in Head Coach Rex Ryan. Although the Darrelle Revis contract situation is a troubling one, the Jets really do have a bright future. They still have two fantastic DBs in Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, the rookie 1st rounder out of Boise State. Bart Scott and David Harris are two of the 10 best linebackers in the whole league, and Kris Jenkins is a force to be reckoned with on the D-line when healthy. The Jets also have a stellar running game, which should only improve with Shonn Greene's insertion into the starting lineup at RB, and they have improved in the passing game by adding former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. LaDainian Tomlinson is also a Jet for at least this season, which just increases the star power and veteran leadership this team already has. The only huge question Mark is the QB Sanchez, who had 20 picks last year and looked lost, which is very bad considering his responsibilities mostly consisted of not tripping over his own feet while handing the ball to his backs. Still, a division title for the Jets is very likely, and the Super Bowl is a distinct possibility.
2nd Place- New England Patriots, 11-5
Maybe Tom Brady has never been the best QB in the NFL, but he has always been its best winner. Aside from that one absurd 50 touchdown season, Brady has never stood out that much statistically; rather its been his winning that makes him such a legendary player in this league. Even though Welker is still recovering from a serious injury and newly acquired Torry Holt is out for the season with a knee injury, I still believe Brady will keep this offense operating at a very high clip, maybe even at a higher rate than the Jets' offense. The Pats defense, however, is far from stable right now. Ty Warren is out for the season, and the core from the dynasty of old is just that; old. No Bruschi, no Seymour, no Warren, no Division Title. The best this team can hope for is a Wild Card spot, but there is just no way I envision them outperforming the Jets to an extent great enough to win the Division.
3rd Place- Miami Dolphins, 9-7
Brandon Marshall, in my opinion, is the 2nd best receiver in the league behind Andre Johnson. But Kyle Orton was not the QB for such an explosive athlete to catch balls from, as he rarely takes the chances required to take advantage of Marshall's skill. But this season, Brandon has taken his talents to South Beach, and I believe that the Henne to Marshall combo can do some incredible things through the air. That being said, the Dolphins have the misfortune of being in this top heavy division, and probably will win at most 1 game against the Pats and the Jets combined. Assuming they take 2 games from the hapless Bills, their division record will be 3-3, a record that will make it very difficult for them to compete for a playoff spot.
4th Place, Buffalo Bills, 3-13
Jake Locker...Andrew Luck...Ryan Mallett...mmmmmm. Oh, wait, we still have another season until the 2011 draft? Darn..okay, well..lets just tough it out, I guess. The Bills have pretty good young talent in C.J. Spiller and Paul Posluszny, but have very little else besides home field advantage. They may go winless in the division unless they can steal a game at home, and this season may just be chalked up to the development of Spiller and the rest of the young guns before they reload with a high pick in next years draft. Maybe they'll take a QB like Locker and stop putting all of their faith in a QB who's best season in college featured a 5 and 6 record...
Jason: Full disclaimer, I am a huge Jets fan. With that in mind, this division is one of the best in the N.F.L. and should be competitive. The AFC East has been owned by the Patriots for the last decade but now the Jets and Dolphins are making a push to be considered the top dog of the division. The Bills don't have much to look forward to except next years top draft pick. As Ryan pointed out there are many new players in this division including Santonio Holmes, Jason Taylor, and Karlos Dansby. I think the Jets should win the division and one other team from this division will make the playoffs as a wild card.
1st Place, New York Jets, 12-4
Generally after a team reaches the conference championship game the team stays intact however that was not the case with the Jets. They added former MVP LaDainian Tomlinson, Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes, all-pro Antonio Cromartie, Jason Taylor, and draft pick Kyle Wilson. They have the best defense in the league run by Rex Ryan and anchored by current hold, out all-world Darrelle Revis. Although Revis is the best defensive player in the league, the Jets don't want to give him 16 million dollars and they shouldn't. Even if Revis doesn't play this season the Jets D still should be one of the tops in the league with Harris, Scott, and the return of Kris Jenkins. On offense, Second year QB Mark Sanchez looked very good in the playoffs passing for 4 TD's and 2 INT's with a 92.7 QB rating. Sanchez has also gotten new weapons. L.T. is still a pass catching threat out of the backfield and Holmes will help open up the playbook. Shonn Greene was very solid in the playoffs and the games he started in the regular season and should be ready to carry the main workload for the Jets. Overall I think the Jets can finish 12-4 with their difficult schedule and win the division and perhaps the whole thing.
2nd Place, New England Patriots, 10-6
The Pats have owned the division for most of the decade but their dominance has come to an end. Unlike the Jets, the Patriots haven't made many moves this offseason. Brady and Moss are getting older and their once formidable defense is no longer a big threat as made evident in their playoff loss at the hands of the Ravens. Wes Welker has made a very speedy recovery from his knee injury suffered in week 17 and should be ready for the regular season. The Patriots are also dealing with a holdout, that of guard Logan Mankins, and it appears that he won't be on the Pats this year. They also lost their starting D-lineman Ty Warren. The Pats still have tallent and one of the best cheaters, I mean coaches in the league and should be able to win 10 games and sneak into the playoffs.
3rd Place, Miami Dolphins, 8-8
There is a-lot of hype in South Beach these days and not all of it is centered around the Heat. The Dolphins had a nice offseason bringing in Brandon Marshall and Karlos Dansby. They also have a young talented QB in Chad Henne. The Henne to Marshall combo could be one of the most feared in the NFL for years to come. The talent level is there but I don't think that it can translate into enough wins in the AFC East to make the playoffs.
4th Place, Buffalo Bills, 4-12
There isn't much to look forward to in Buffalo. They don't have a QB, defense, or wide receivers. They do have electric back C.J. Spiller who could be special and is now thrust into the starting role due to injuries to the top two backs for the Bills. The Bills are in the process of rebuilding and it will take a few years before they are relevant again.
Thats it for the first division preview. Stay tuned for the rest of out previews leading up to the start of the season which is less than a month away.
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