We, including I, have continued to pound on a weak right side of the OL, Linebacker corp, Safety, and depth. We’re all bitten by 3 years of an inexplicable quantity of injuries. But in the off season we can only go on the assumption the injuries won’t continue. Who are we afraid of? Drill down into every NFC roster, and you’ll find there is not a team without a vulnerable unit.
We have as we sit in May:
1. A top 5 - 8 QB, who has won 2 super Bowls.
2. A top 1 - 3 WR.
3. A Front four which could potentially be the best in the league.
4. Our top 3 CB’s are top 10
5. Vastly improved Special teams last year, with a top 3 return man. ( For all the grumbling about Reese overpaying for JT Thomas, Casillas, Vereen, and Harris last year, Harris is the one who performed to his contract. I really don’t like him as a WR, but 2 Return TD’s, only one fumble, and top 10 in both return categories. He earned his money.
That’s a nice starting point!
Part of my “rose colored glasses”, are Sheppard, & possibly Perkins. We desperately need another weapon and I believe we got a Welker, “healthy Victor” in Sheppard. If Perkins can earn his way onto the field, he adds a dimension we have been lacking. If he can’t, can Vereen be as ineffective his second year as his first?
Which NFC team is Complete?
Carolina - Kuechly, Cam & Greg Olsen as his #1 threat. Do Jonathan Stewart, Kelvin Benjamin, and Ted Ginn, strike fear in anybody? Lost Norman. Would take our front four and Corners in a heartbeat.
Seattle - Starting with trading an all pro center for Jimmy Graham in 2014, there offensive line is worse than ours. Granted, Wilson might be a little more elusive then Eli. Marshawn is a big blow to them, and they have lost parts of that great D for 2 years.
Cardinals - Palmer, great secondary, WR depth, and David Johnson is a possible stud RB. Offensive line on par with ours, and had no pass rush last year.
Green Bay - Rodgers, Clay Matthews, good secondary, and ok front 3. Cobb fell down to earth last year and they couldn’t move the ball without Jordy Nelson in a lot of games. Decent OL with Bulaga and guys found late in drafts. (wish we could do that)
Minnesota - Teddy Bridgewater at QB. That won’t strike fear in me till I see it.
DIVISION
Eagles - Bradford, Ryan & Jordan Matthews? Good OL & front 7. Fletcher Cox is a stud. Secondary is terrible and basically rebooting the team for 2017.
Cowgirls - Brittle QB, Dez, Zeke, & great OL. They can’t keep the ball for 60 minutes, and I predict they will have one of the worse defenses in the league this year.
Redskins - I have concerns the Skins are legit. Mentioning injuries for the last time, barring a rash of injuries to our key players, I believe they are our only obstacle to a Division Championship. WR/TE options are strong. OL is good. Norman will help (but he’s not Revis, Peterson, etc.) Handed starting RB to Matt Jones, who hasn’t shown he can hang on to the ball. Is Kirk for Real? There are enough question marks on this team to not hand them a division.
Everybody has warts, or Robert Newhouses. It’s wide open and we’re in the mix.
Thoughts?
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
DC has done nothing in 24 years. This year will mark a quarter century of futility. Basically, if you are a DC fan 30 years or younger you may as well have been rooting for the Browns.
They have Nkemidiche (sp) and Chandler Jones added to a VERY good defense. They will be dangerous.
I would put Cards, Packers, Seahawks and the Panthers as the NFC favs.
The Redskins and Gmen will be battling for the NFC-E as I see it. The Cowboys would be dangerous if their D didn't suck so bad and Romo is a BIG ?
Our roster still has too many issues for us to be considered a serious contender.
Superbowl in 2017.
But this is the most opportunistic I have been in years. Barring injuries, we are the most improved in the conference, with a weak division, no less.
I hate the fluffy schedule argument. They won those games. We didn't.
I never discount a Tony Romo team, but I agree that he's fragile and one solid shot away from retiring. I'd be surprised if he lasts more than 12 games this season, and they don't have a back up who can cover for him.
Philly will be lucky to win 5 games in 2016.
I see us behind Washington and basically on par with Dallas in the league's weakest division.
But a new right tackle would make us competitive.
reporter: "what about Washington?"...."well? they're there too"
Quote:
Granted, Wilson might be a little more elusive then Eli.
You must have never seen eli elude the lines at the olive garden on mother's day.
Looking at the rosters though, I do think the Giants have the most talented team in the division. The O will be fine, even if Newhouse is the,starter at RT. They were 6th in the entire league in both points and yards per game, and that's without Cruz and before the additions of Perkins, Shepard, and Adams.
The big question mark regarding the Giants is how the defense will come together. On paper they should be at the very least average. JPP is a year removed from the injury and will be better this year. Vernon on the opposite side brings another two way DE into the fold. Hank is solid and should only look better with arguably the best NT in football eating up blockers next to him. They also appear to have the requisite 3 CBs that are now necessary in DRC, Jenkins, and Apple. Collins is in year two and regardless of who wins the job opposite him it's a safe bet that they're better than Merriweather and the other band aids they trotted out last year. The LBers are admittedly anybody's guess. But they look to have added some talent in Robinson and Goodson.
If Spags gets the D to even middle of the road I think the Giants can win the division by 2 or 3 games. I really think they have a good shot to be one of the "worst to first" type teams that pop up every year. Yes, they lost 10 games last year. But they had a fourth quarter lead and lost by 5 or fewer points in 7 of those games. Now that's not a good team, but it's not a team that's 2 or 3 years away either. It's a team that needs some talent on D and some tweaking. It's a team that needs to learn to close out games. Should they be able to do that they can be a dangerous football team.
Whoever comes out of the west will be battle tested with 3 solid teams in Seattle, Arizona and the Rams.
Carolina should be team to beat.
They have Nkemidiche (sp) and Chandler Jones added to a VERY good defense. They will be dangerous.
I would put Cards, Packers, Seahawks and the Panthers as the NFC favs.
The Redskins and Gmen will be battling for the NFC-E as I see it. The Cowboys would be dangerous if their D didn't suck so bad and Romo is a BIG ?
I think the Cards are the team to beat. Panthers would be right there too since they get their top WR back, although losing Norman and who knows about their pass rush. Seahawks are the Seahawks. The Packers should be much improved offensively with Jordy back.
Talk to me in September.
The roster looks better than it has since 2007, IMO.
Just need the D to move up to "average".
The offense will be the best they've had since the 11-1 run in 2008.
Hardy is gone, Lawrence and Gregory on drug suspensions. I don't think you can win with that defense.
Palmer didn't look like "money" at the end.
Ok, I'm going to say it, the OP understated it. Our front four is going to be superb. Barring injuries it simply can't be anything but great. The maligned linebackers are potentially good and have great depth. The back four (or five) is also superb.
We have been blessed with wonderful superbowl runs. But only the Ill fated Plax team looked like it could dominate from start to finish.
THIS GIANT TEAM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DOMINATE FROM THE OPENING GAME against Dallas to the closing of the superbowl. And barring injuries that's the treat that's in store for us.
Reed and Cousins won some big games for me down the stretch of my Championship also (but Eli & OBJ got me there). I would rate Reed with Dez as the biggest offensive threat in our division, due to his strength in the middle, is our biggest weakness.
No NFL team is complete or ever will be complete in this era.
And to keep it real, the Giants beat more complete teams to win the SB in 2011.
--Carolina - Kuechly, Cam & Greg Olsen as his #1 threat. --Do Jonathan Stewart, Kelvin Benjamin, and Ted Ginn, -----strike fear in anybody? Lost Norman. Would take our -- front four and Corners in a heartbeat.
Yeah, but can you stop the run? Did you see how that divisional game against Seattle started? 60 yard run against a pretty good defense.
Denver was able to stop the run and get after the QB to beat Carolina in the SB. Without either of them accomplished, I wager Carolina wins that game for sure.
We'll see how good Carolina and Denver still is to kick off 2016, should be good.
The one thing to keep in mind is that I think identities hold very strong in the NFL. For example, the current Giants are an offensive team, the current 49ers are a defensive team. For either to show they have made significant progress on the other side, it would have to be proven on the field and not in the offseason acquisitions.
--Seattle - Starting with trading an all pro center for ---Jimmy Graham in 2014, there offensive line is worse -----than ours. Granted, Wilson might be a little more -------elusive then Eli. Marshawn is a big blow to them, and ---they have lost parts of that great D for 2 years.
Naturally I agree that Seattle has been overrated a bit, resting on their laurels a bit. As long as that defense stays strong they are in every game, even when trailing by a lot. But I say that I judge the Hawks (and most other "threats") by their diminished impact in the postseason, and not so much regular season. They've trended downward slowly since they won their first SB, and without a major response on O, I see that trend continuing, albeit slowly.
They did lose Brandon Mebane, Bruce Irvin this offseason, so it should be interesting to see how that run D holds up -- pass D will always be pretty good so long as they keep Thomas/Chancellor/Sherman in the back end and Bennett/Avril on the edges. Bennett's been chirping for awhile about getting paid....so should be interesting to see how long that unit lasts.
On offense, it should be interesting to see how Rawls takes over for Lynch now that he's no longer an unknown quantity. Rawls rushed for over 160 in a game last year, something Lynch never did in his career even once. We'll see how good he really is, and if Wilson can continue carrying this team.
--Cardinals - Palmer, great secondary, WR depth, and --- David Johnson is a possible stud RB. Offensive line on par with ours, and had no pass rush last year.
AZ with improved trenches I would have no qualms calling the best team in the NFL. But they haven't really had that, esp. on the offensive side. Palmer and that passing offense can look really dominant sometimes, but their run game hasn't been on Seattle/SF/St Louis level, which is why they didn't make it to the Super Bowl IMHO.
Their convincing win in Seattle last year (and even two years prior) shows me they do have the mental fortitude to win big games. But gotta be able to pound the rock somewhat.
--Green Bay - Rodgers, Clay Matthews, good secondary, and --ok front 3. Cobb fell down to earth last year and they --couldn’t move the ball without Jordy Nelson in a lot of --games. Decent OL with Bulaga and guys found late in ----- drafts. (wish we could do that)
Green Bay is another team that will always be competitive and sometimes surprisingly dangerous when you count them out. The way they played AZ tough in the playoffs, and SHOULD have played in Super Bowl 49 means they've still got it. But in a weird way, it's been so many years since they won the SB, that they have to prove they belong again. In a way they should follow as the NFC's Broncos who were all offense and then flipped the identity and won it all with an offense that was embarrassing by their standards.
--Minnesota - Teddy Bridgewater at QB. That won’t strike ---fear in me till I see it.
Indeed.
Young QB still....so we'll have to see. We'd probably be saying a lot of the same things about Wilson and Kap if they didn't have such dominant defenses early on.
DIVISION
--Eagles - Bradford, Ryan & Jordan Matthews? Good OL & ----front 7. Fletcher Cox is a stud. Secondary is terrible --and basically rebooting the team for 2017.
This is probably pretty accurate. Ever since the team dismantled a bit from 2015 onwards, it's been hard to predict....and now new head coach and QB....harder to call.
As I learned last year, rebooting is mighty hard to do in year 1.
--Cowgirls - Brittle QB, Dez, Zeke, & great OL. They ------can’t keep the ball for 60 minutes, and I predict they --will have one of the worse defenses in the league this --year.
Cowboys last year dropped off a bit changing RBs, losing Romo and also being a target. They snuck up on the league in 2014. Should be interesting to see how they rebound.
--Redskins - I have concerns the Skins are legit. ---
-- Mentioning injuries for the last time, barring a rash --of --injuries to our key players, I believe they are ----our only obstacle to a Division Championship. WR/TE --
-- options are strong. OL is good. Norman will help (but --he’s not Revis, Peterson, etc.) Handed starting RB to --Matt Jones, who hasn’t shown he can hang on to the ball. --Is Kirk for Real? There are enough question marks on ----this team to not hand them a division.
I think the Skins are trending up to being a legitimate team. The dysfunction they've had go away is something I can relate to now. Their GM McCloughan is legit based on his SF/SEA resume, and not being overpowered by Snyder.
Norman is a good signing. I don't see it as a splash move. Might be a big cap hit, but I don't see him as overrated in ability.
I must say this is the one offseason in at least 4 or 5 years where I cannot truly predict anything in either conference.
In that aspect, it's pretty exciting because you know there's most likely going to be a fresh face or two in the playoffs this year.
Giants have correctly fortified their pass defense more than their run defense because this is a passing league. But that could make them vulnerable to teams like the Cowboys and Panthers.
I think the Giants will make the playoffs his year and how far they go depends on matchups because I really don't see a dominant team. I see a half dozen good teams with different strengths and weaknesses.
I think the Packers showed in the playoffs that they were better than their record. And I always fear a team with an elite QB more than I do teams like the Vikings and Redskins.
Salut to Inspector Closeau and Peter Sellers.