It’s so close I can smell it! The longest wait in all of professional sports, the NFL offseason, has almost reached its conclusion. With what started as an exciting, eventful spring, quickly turned to a lacklustre, dull summer. With the NFL taking a backseat to much more crowd pleasing stories and social media trends these past few months, I feel a brief recap is in order, followed by an 8 part series in the coming weeks before opening kickoff consisting of what I predict will happen this upcoming season. Enjoy.
After a controversy ridden playoffs, culminating with a questionable play call which resulted in the villainous New England Patriots winning their 4th Vince Lombardi trophy, the 30 remaining teams outside the Super Bowl 49 festivities exited the metaphorical gate with ferociousness. The Seahawks weren’t far behind, trading for red zone threat, Jimmy Graham and resigning corner stone, Marshawn Lynch, further deepening their Offensive core complimenting an already lethal defense. One team that also made some waves but did it on and around Draft Day was in my opinion, the Cleveland Browns. Snagging Dwayne Bowe, Brian Hartline, Randy Starks, Donte Whitner and even making the bold move of switching Terrelle Pryor to WR, should all result in a Browns playoff push, dependant on the QB carousel. Mix that with the kind of draft they had and you have a recipe for major success.
On the subject of the Draft, it should be noted that most teams had very competitive results. Each team had their strengths and weaknesses coming into the offseason and on paper it seems the management and coaching from almost every team did exactly what needed to be done. From Baltimore’s fulfillment of their ever absence WR core, to the Jets’ absolute cleanup of defensive studs, to Oakland whom landed a future pro bowler in Amari Cooper and added three workhorse linebackers. Though much can be made of draft rankings and projections of rookies, one can not properly gauge how well a team will do based on the players they selected in the draft.
One situation that can not be overlooked in this article is the rapidly increasing player suspensions that all take effect on the first week of the regular season. High profile names such as LeVeon Bell and Antonio Gates will be sitting the first few games out due to substance abuse violations, the most shocking name on the list of offenders though, the “DeflateGate” ringleader, Tom Brady. The Pats gunslinger will have to sit the first four games of the regular season, a daunting scenario Belichick and Co, would rather not endure to start the year, especially after the loss of a corner stone on defense, Darrelle Revis.
In other news, Ray Rice is still in search of a team to call home. While many teams would be the perfect suitor for the RB, none have pulled the trigger on a deal with him yet. In Denver, Peyton Manning made the decision to return for one final year, a sure fire way to boost his teammates coming into the 2015 season. Could the Broncos have a storybook ending to Peyton’s career? A la Ray Lewis? Numerous trades were made which will ultimately change the landscape of many divisions. Ndamukong Suh landed in Miami while Haloti Ngata filled the gap left by Suhs’ absence in Detroit. Drama ridden Brandon Marshall took his services to The New York Jets, a move that no one really saw coming. Leaving the Windy City is one thing, to go to the mediocre Jets is another.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be an ultra intense 2015 season. With so many alterations to franchises the stage is set for an unpredictable five months of football. This was just a minuscule preview, stay tuned for an in depth look into the 8 divisions and the predictions I have for each squadron.
