After an eternity away from the Diner, Dang and Doc are reunited as training camp approaches in the NFL. Kicking off a weekly look at each division, the guys take a look at the AFC East which seems to have been the division making the most headlines. Granted most of these noises have been coming from the New Jersey area; but are the Jets for real? Will the Patriots still be a strong challenger? What can the Dolphins do and are Buffalo destined for a very high draft pick next April?
Buffalo Bills Last season 6-10 Key additions Dwan Edwards (DE/DT, Baltimore) Andra Davis (LB – Denver) Key losses Terrell Owens (WR – Free Agency), Josh Reed (WR – San Diego) Draft picks include R1 – CJ Spiller (RB – Clemson), R2 - Torrell Troup (DT – Central Florida), R3 – Alex Carrington (DE – Arkansas State)
DOC: Oh where to start with this. Are they going to be worse this year than they were last? With the talent that is going to be lined up against them in the division, I really think that they need to simply focus on rebuilding the franchise because I really think they have a shot at being the worst team in football this year. If they achieve anything more than being a basement dweller in power rankings then I will be quite surprised. The appointment of Chan Gailey was a most intriguing move, because whilst we might look at reasons at how it can work and it might be an effective appointment; the reality is that he's a lame duck coach at a team with little to no expectations. The QB position is anaemic, offensive weapons aren't exactly in major supply despite the addition of arguably the best playmaker in April's draft in the form of CJ Spiller. But did the Bills really need him? Could they not have done more with what they had before them than add what is, in effect a luxury player? I mean no disrespect to Spiller but I definitely think so. For the Bills it's another season of struggle against three strong teams in their division, a poor record and another high draft pick in 2011, if not the first pick come next April.
DANG: Clearly still the weakpoint in the AFC East, The Bills will find it tough in the 2010 campaign. At this point, the Quarterback situation is up in the air, and none of them are actually much cop, regardless of who starts. We'll see the Bills going very run heavy in the new season, relying on rookie Running Back CJ Spiller to break a big play every game, whilst also hoping that Fred Jackson can follow up on his excellent 2009 season. The loss of Terrell Owens shouldn't hurt them too much, he was clearly trying to be bigger than the team and still being unsigned shows what a mistake the Bills made last year with their gamble to pick him up and having the Quarterback situation they still have, he was likely to have seen even less of the ball if he had stuck around. The Offensive line is poor, we could see the Bills using their full compliment of Quarterbacks in 2010 and I expect them to be close to picking up the first overall draft pick in 2011. I also see the Bills using a lot of Heavy formations on Offence, bringing the Tight Ends into the receiving game a lot more than we'll see them trying to get the ball to Lee Evans down the sidelines and after Evans, the drop in quality is still very noticeable. A truly horrid and backwards draft will not help this team one jot in the short-term. My Bills breakout player for 2010: WR Steve Johnson, a young player with a strong desire to succeed, he could stand out on a poor offence, despite my concerns listed above.
Prediction: 4th AFC East.
Miami Dolphins Last season 7-9 Key additions Brandon Marshall (WR – Denver), Richie Incognito (OG, St Louis), Karlos Dansby (LB, Arizona), Charles Grant (DE – New Orleans) Key losses Ted Ginn Jr (WR/KR – San Francisco), Juston Smiley (OG – Jacksonville), Joey Porter (OLB - Arizona) Jason Taylor (DE - New York Jets) Draft picks include R1 – Jared Odrick (DT – Penn State), R2 - Koa Koa Misi (DE – Utah), R3 – John Jerry (OT – Ole Miss)
DOC: The Dolphins are the wild card of this division for me and could really finish anywhere from where they did this past year, to even perhaps nicking a wild card spot come the last week of the regular season. The simple reason for this is they are a team that keeps game close and as we've seen before with teams in this mould if you can hold your nerve and use that little of quality you can consistently win those games. With the addition of Brandon Marshall, the continued development of Chad Henne and a strong running game and defence, the Dolphins could quite easily be one of those sides in 2010. Tony Sparano, in line with the commander in chief Bill Parcells will always have his teams drilled to be disciplined. Last year, the secondary in particular was young and got exposed on occasion, but I anticipate a stronger performance from them given the experience now under their belt. Despite the niggling hip injuries and the chance that he might do something stupid off the field, picking up Brandon Marshall was a very good piece of business for the Dolphins who have been crying out for a play maker on that level for years. The Dolphins are a dark horse – nobody should under-estimate them, otherwise you do so at your own risk.
DANG: Brandon Marshall in, Ted Ginn Jr Out, instant upgrade for the Dolphins and they finally have a legitimate big play guy at Wide Receiver who can actually bring it to the field, unlike Ginn who generally let it hit the field, who appears to still have greasy fingers in San Francisco's OTA's. I want to like the Dolphins and I want to predict a really good season for them, but my main concern with their offence now, is at Running Back, surely the durability of Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown must be almost at its end now, can they both stay fit enough to keep the game calling honest? Lex Hilliard and Patrick Cobbs could see extended action in 2010 at Running Back and these guys would be my joint nominations for Break out player for 2010 as one more knock for Brown and Williams and they could be done for. Other than that, I quite like Henne, the O line is good and strong. All the cogs are in the right place for them to succeed if these two can stay fit. I like the Defence of the team, they are a very young group with two excellent early round rookies added to the mix, this unit could be a force to reckon with over the next few years, particularly if Mike Nolan stays as Defensive Coordinator, which he is extremely good at, he just sucks at being a Head Coach, but 2010 might be a year too soon, I can see a little bit of naivety costing them a game or two. Karlos Dansby should be an excellent pickup for them and will bring them a vocal leader and a solid, older head for the youngsters to feed off. Prediction: 3rd AFC East, finish with the same record as the Patriots if Brown and Williams can stay fit for the whole year, 3rd on head-to-head.
New England Patriots Last season 10-6 lost in Wild card weekend vs Baltimore. Key additions – Torry Holt (WR – Rams) Alge Crumpler (TE – Tennessee), Gerard Warren (NT – Oakland) Key losses – Adalus Thomas (LB) Draft picks include R1 – Devin McCourty (CB – Rutgers), R2 – Rob Gronkowski (TE – Arizona), R2 – Jermaine Cunningham (DE – Florida), R2 – Brandon Spikes (LB – Florida), R3 – Taylor Price (WR – Ohio)
DOC: After being comprehensively thumped by the Ravens in the post-season, I, like most people thought that the era where the Patriots remained amongst the automatics for the post-season and subsequently as AFC contenders to be over (at least for now). Based on their off-season that reflection hasn't really changed all that much, even though I fully expect a re-grouped and re-motivated team under Bill Belichick. But despite the great man still being at the helm I think the Pats are not quite there again this time around. Indeed, within the AFC East they have been very definitely challenged by the Jets now and I think this might be the year where they ultimately find themselves being usurped by the previously noisy but relatively unthreatening upstarts from New Jersey. The Patriots have, for years, been labelled as too old but still managed to pull out a strong season despite injuries and god knows what other forms of adversity. They added considerable depth in the draft, really stocking up on talent that I believe will be consistent but perhaps won't be superstars of tomorrow, although I did rate Devin McCourty very highly. But they will all take a year to truly bed in. Their fortunes in 2010 to me depend on the return of Wes Welker to full health. If he is fully fit the offence just seems to click that much more, and without him they look less dynamic even though the Patriots have always spread the ball around. Overall, I see that as always, the Patriots will continue to be there and thereabouts but I think this year they may be sat on the sidelines when the rest are playing well into January.
DANG: It looks like we may see something we're not overly used to in recent times, a season or two of rebuilding in New England and what may be classed as an uncomfortable season for the Prawn Sandwich brigade. No longer can the Patriots be considered as pre-season favourites for this division, the gap is much closer between the Jets, Patriots and Dolphins now than it has been for many a year. The gulf in class between them and the Ravens was clear for all to see in the 2009 playoffs as the Ravens dismantled them before coming unstuck to the Colts.
Of course, we can never write off the Patriots, as even in times such as these, Belichick will still always have them playing at a superior level to many other teams in this league, but it won't be a smooth ride and they'll be in a foot race with Miami to try and sneak a wild card spot at best. The draft was of course, at an extremely high level and they got a whole host of young talent once again including 3 Florida Gators. Rookie Tight Ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez can help in the shorter receiving game, and I expect them to be part of the early season game calling if Wes Welker doesn't recover from his injury in time to play. I think both can have real coming out parties in their rookie season with Brady at the helm and Belichick isn't afraid of letting him get the ball to his Tight Ends. Julian Edelman, Brandon Tate and Taylor Price could easily play Welker's role in the team, but none come close to the quality that Welker brings to the table on a Sunday, we also need to put Torry Holt into the mix, he's far from washed up and couldn't have landed in a much better place after years of being the best player on a dreadful Rams team, Joey Galloway he won't be. Prediction: 2nd AFC East, pipping the Dolphins on head-to-head.
New York Jets Last season 9-7 lost to Indianapolis in AFC Championship game Key additions Antonio Cromartie (CB – San Diego), Santonio Holmes (WR – Pittsburgh), LaDainian Tomlinson (RB), Jason Taylor (DE – Miami), Brodney Pool (S – Cleveland) Key losses Leon Washington (RB/KR - Seattle), Thomas Jones (RB - Kansas City) Alan Faneca (OG – Arizona), Lito Sheppard (CB – Minnesota), Kerry Rhodes (S – Arizona) Draft picks include R1 – Kyle Wilson (CB – Boise State), R2 - Vladimir Ducasse (OT – Massachusetts), Joe McKnight (RB – USC)
DOC: And so we come onto the Jets. Easily the most talked about franchise of the off-season. Rex Ryan truly has assembled the cast of stars which will no doubt continue to be the talk of the League when HBO's Hard Knocks begins broadcasting. The Jets shocked a lot of people when they clawed their way through to the AFC Championship game through a tough running game, good game management by rookie Mark Sanchez and exceptional defence. So we come to Rex's second year and thanks to him, expectations remain sky high. There simply doesn't seem a way possible for the defence, even if they suffer some injuries to be weaker – indeed it should be stronger this year if anything. This has to be to the Jets advantage. And offensively they're going to be better. Sanchez has a year under his belt. I'm not entirely convinced that LT instead of Thomas Jones makes the running game that much better but Shonn Green is still going to be a force to be reckoned with. Despite acquiring Braylon Edwards, the receiving corps needed to do more. So, despite a four game ban, adding a Superbowl MVP in Santonio Holmes is an absolute steal and gives the Jets instant offensive credibility. The hype is there and it's not hard to see why. The tough division will give us an indication of how seriously we should take this team going into the post-season. Last year there were no expectations but this time around everyone expects from them. I see them being in the mix come the end of the season – a repeat AFC Championship game anyone?
DANG: Providing there is no sophomore slump for Mark Sanchez, I'm looking at the Jets to take the East by a couple of games and considering the excellent Offensive line in front of him, Sanchez should only improve on mediocre 2009 numbers. Offensively, they're in a much stronger position than they were last year with the additions of LaDanian Tomlinson and rookie Running Back Joe McKnight out of USC and former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes, once he has served his suspension. McKnight and LT together should be at least an equal to Thomas Jones and Leon Washington and will provide a nice balanced attack from the brute strength of Shonn Greene the new starting Running Back who improved ten-fold in the playoffs from his regular season performances. Defensively, there really aren't any noticeable weaknesses and drafting Kyle Wilson and picking up Free Agent Antonio Cromatie in the Defensive Backfield only help to increase its potency. I might surprise a few people here, but I think Rex Ryan, just might get something out of Vernon Gholston this year, I may live to regret this sentence come our season review, but with all the weapons around him on Defense its make or break for him now, officially we'll know if he's a huge bust or whether he can contribute, and quite frankly, if he can't with the players around him on this Defense, then he never will. Prediction: AFC East Champions and heading deep into post season again.
DOC: And so we come onto the Jets. Easily the most talked about franchise of the off-season. Rex Ryan truly has assembled the cast of stars which will no doubt continue to be the talk of the League when HBO's Hard Knocks begins broadcasting. The Jets shocked a lot of people when they clawed their way through to the AFC Championship game through a tough running game, good game management by rookie Mark Sanchez and exceptional defence. So we come to Rex's second year and thanks to him, expectations remain sky high. There simply doesn't seem a way possible for the defence, even if they suffer some injuries to be weaker – indeed it should be stronger this year if anything. This has to be to the Jets advantage. And offensively they're going to be better. Sanchez has a year under his belt. I'm not entirely convinced that LT instead of Thomas Jones makes the running game that much better but Shonn Green is still going to be a force to be reckoned with. Despite acquiring Braylon Edwards, the receiving corps needed to do more. So, despite a four game ban, adding a Superbowl MVP in Santonio Holmes is an absolute steal and gives the Jets instant offensive credibility. The hype is there and it's not hard to see why. The tough division will give us an indication of how seriously we should take this team going into the post-season. Last year there were no expectations but this time around everyone expects from them. I see them being in the mix come the end of the season – a repeat AFC Championship game anyone?