State Your Team's Case

[butta54 371]

Briefly sum up your team's season last year as far as some things you did well and what went wrong to cause your team to fall short of your their desired season. Most importantly state some reasons you feel your team will improve from last year.

 

Chicago Bears: Our defense led the league in defensive touchdowns, top in INT, and second in fumbles recovered. While our defense was busy keeping us in the game our offense was extremely inconsistent as Cutler struggled to get his groove with Brandon Marshall back. Although we came out 7-1 in the first eight games we managed to finish with 10 wins and out of the playoffs.

 

This year with a new offensive minded coaching staff that includes a o-line guru and QB guru we should see our offense finally take a step in the right direction as GM Emery as added pieces around Cutler to help him succeed.

[NaTaS+ 958]

Cleveland Browns: Promising young talent on both sides of the ball without a franchise QB. With a new owner, new coaching staff (Ray Horton and Norv Turner have me excited) and the switch to a 3-4 we're sure to improve. Our division is brutal so it's hard to say where we'll finish up. I don't think 6-10 is completely unrealistic.

[Maverick 791]

Tony Romo.

[blotsfan 2,112]

Bills. Bad qb play, bad defense.

 

Our case for next year: we have an outside shot at an elite qb in Manuel, and a healthy Mario Williams.

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

Why the Lions might win the Super Bowl? Simple really.

 

Potential top 5 offense, arguably the best DT tandem is Fairley can stay healthy, possibly the best DLine in the league depending on Ansah...

 

 

And the best QB in the NFL.

[Attyla the Hawk 197]

Wilson and the Defense.

 

The defense in 2011 was pretty good. Very young. Still as much potential as production. In 2012, the defense had a distinct swagger to it's play heading into the year. Like a thoroughbred who looks great on the hoof, you wanted to see if that defense would rise to the occasion in games. They went against the best of the league (Rodgers/Brady/Romo (?)/Kaepernick) and pretty much had their way with them. They are a great defense. And they know it in a way that defenses who have played against and beaten the best know it.

 

Wilson. He is a true magician. He is virtually the perfect QB to fit this team. From a philosophical, scheme and need perspective. This is a team that is angry. Pete and John have by design picked players who come in with a significant chip on their shoulders. It's a team that needs no motivation. Littered with players who feel slighted/maligned or outright screwed by the NFL. They are angry in January. In February. In March. They come to the OTAs in April or May and they are ready to eat nails.

 

Wilson is the perfect QB for that kind of team. And his ability to be the best player on the field when the game is tight and wins are in the balance is an advantage that is going to result in a Lombardi soon. You can palpably feel it.

 

Week 1 should be a good litmus test. Wilson improved steadily -- oddly predictably throughout the course of the season. Every week for the first 8 weeks, it'd be "Russell needs to not always scramble right" -- so next week he stops that. "Russell needs to improve his 3rd down efficiency". So he solves that issue. Literally week to week it would be, Here's the next thing you need to do -- and he'd solve that the very next week and forever after. Freakish ability to absorb and improve.

 

Last year, Russell ended the year on fire. So did Cam Newton. They'll face off in week 1 at Carolina. I'm not going to lie, I expect to win by more than 10.

 

I was at the BeastQuake game in 2011. But I don't think it's going to compare at all to what it's going to be like in week 2 when SF comes to town. My game day routine is not going to save my voice at all. Pretty sure I'm going to lose it for a good 10 days after that primetime affair.

 

This is an offense that should be capable of dropping 30 on anyone. It's a defense that looks like they should consider 10+ a failure. This is a team that really looks like it's their mission to destroy the NFL. I'd say this team is hungry but I don't know if that does them justice.

[moocao 10]

Ok, I'll give this a go...

 

Offense:

 

1. We got younger and bulkier on the OL. Experience leaves a bit to be desired, I won't refute that, but we have guys like Lamar Holmes at 6'6" 320+ who will be competing for jobs on the OL.

 

2. We upgraded our running game significantly in SJax... If this guy has a season at 80% of his normal production, we upgraded over Turner.

 

3. Julio entering his 3rd year at WR when a lot of WRs find their true stride. Gonzalez is back. Roddy. And we drafted a 6'8" TE in Levine Toilolo who has a 31" vert and 34.5" arms. There may come a time where Ryan can just throw 12 foot high jump balls at the back of the endzone and we'll actually have a guy who can catch those.

 

4. Our OC Dirk Koetter has shown his propensity to be a great play caller and I think this second year in his system, we will see even more great things from him.

 

5. Matt Ryan has continuously gotten better each year that he's been in the league.

 

Defense:

 

1. We traded in an aging Abraham for a younger Umenyiora, and reports out of OTAs are that he's fitting in perfectly.

 

2. We drafted two young CBs in Trufant (4.38 40) and Alford (4.39) who look like they could arguably be an upgrade to what we already had in Dunta (shitty coverage skills) and an injured Grimes. Robert McClain had 11 PD and a pick against Peyton Manning in a VERY limited role. Then we have Asante Samuel who's been as good as advertised for us, in many ways.

 

3. One of our best DTs in Corey Peters looked like he bulked up in the offseason and won't be coming off of a leg injury this year. We basically got younger on DL with the loss of Abe and the addition of our draft picks.

 

4. Mike Nolan..... Not enough can be said about his role in our defense. Last year, Atlanta was 5th in scoring defense. We held Seattle to 0 points through the first 20 minutes of the NFC divisional round game and also shut out the 9ers through the first quarter of the NFCCG.

 

All in all, we are loaded on offense and our defense looks to be trending up. We had an easy schedule last year, and this year will prove to be a whole lot tougher with the NFCW, GB, Tom Brady, and RG3 on the schedule.

 

We start off the season in NO against our most heated rivals. We'll find out, immediately, what this team can do.

Edited June 6, 2013 by moocao

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

Completely forgot SJax plays in ATL now...

[Jayrus 51]

Wilson and the Defense.

 

The defense in 2011 was pretty good. Very young. Still as much potential as production. In 2012, the defense had a distinct swagger to it's play heading into the year. Like a thoroughbred who looks great on the hoof, you wanted to see if that defense would rise to the occasion in games. They went against the best of the league (Rodgers/Brady/Romo (?)/Kaepernick) and pretty much had their way with them. They are a great defense. And they know it in a way that defenses who have played against and beaten the best know it.

 

Wilson. He is a true magician. He is virtually the perfect QB to fit this team. From a philosophical, scheme and need perspective. This is a team that is angry. Pete and John have by design picked players who come in with a significant chip on their shoulders. It's a team that needs no motivation. Littered with players who feel slighted/maligned or outright screwed by the NFL. They are angry in January. In February. In March. They come to the OTAs in April or May and they are ready to eat nails.

 

Wilson is the perfect QB for that kind of team. And his ability to be the best player on the field when the game is tight and wins are in the balance is an advantage that is going to result in a Lombardi soon. You can palpably feel it.

 

Week 1 should be a good litmus test. Wilson improved steadily -- oddly predictably throughout the course of the season. Every week for the first 8 weeks, it'd be "Russell needs to not always scramble right" -- so next week he stops that. "Russell needs to improve his 3rd down efficiency". So he solves that issue. Literally week to week it would be, Here's the next thing you need to do -- and he'd solve that the very next week and forever after. Freakish ability to absorb and improve.

 

Last year, Russell ended the year on fire. So did Cam Newton. They'll face off in week 1 at Carolina. I'm not going to lie, I expect to win by more than 10.

 

I was at the BeastQuake game in 2011. But I don't think it's going to compare at all to what it's going to be like in week 2 when SF comes to town. My game day routine is not going to save my voice at all. Pretty sure I'm going to lose it for a good 10 days after that primetime affair.

 

This is an offense that should be capable of dropping 30 on anyone. It's a defense that looks like they should consider 10+ a failure. This is a team that really looks like it's their mission to destroy the NFL. I'd say this team is hungry but I don't know if that does them justice.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself. The positives anyway. There are, however, a few negatives I want to touch on.

 

The first is penalties. The Seattle Seahawks had two of the top 5 most penalized players in the league last year, and both of them were on our O-Line. The players in question being Russel Okung and Breno Giacomini. Okung had 13 penalites for 70 yards. Giacomini 12 for 120. That's a lot of going backwards and there were many times where this double act absolutely killed our offensive momentum. I can't count the number of times I saw big plays get reversed or a promising drive result in a punt because one of these two schmucks did something stupid. However, they were getting used to a new rookie QB so some miscues were bound to happen. Most of their penalties were early on in the first few games and their play got cleaner as the year wore on. Hopefully an offseason without the confusion of a QB battle will help them get things cleaned up.

 

Our other big negative has really already been dealt with, and by dealt with I mean we killed it dead. That being our d-line which we have turned from being our weakest point to one of the most stacked positions in the league. Still there's no denying that had we had any legitimate pass-rush outside of Chris Clemons we would most likely have held on for that last 30 seconds against the Falcons and been in the NFCCG last year.

 

This does, however, also come down on Carroll for calling blitzes when he knew we had no pass rush to speak of. As well as he's done rebuilding our team he's also made some bonehead playcalling mistakes. His desire to call gutsy plays when the situation calls for something more conservative hurt us a few times last year. There's nothing wrong with making bold calls, but when you're risking a game on a bold call when a conservative one would probably win it you're not being brave. You're being reckless. Hopefully Carroll learns this for next year.

[OakBlack 28]

I picked the 2012 Raiders to make the playoffs..hmm, we all know how that went. See the Raiders made sense to me as a team that should have been able get over .500 for the first time in a decade! It wasn’t a team that had enough talent to win more than 9 or 10 games, but it was one that had enough talent to win at least half of its games. And it’s not like the defense could have been any worse than it was in was in 2011 and the pieces of the decade-best offense that Hue Jackson built in 2011 were still intact, thus fueling the optimism here in Oakland.

 

The 2012 season basically was a major disappointment, even by the standards the Raiders set. An 8-8 roster in my eyes went 4-12, and at times looked worse than a 4-12 team. We weren’t a deep team last year at all, and we were a really injured team in 2011, so it was reasonable to expect the Raiders to not get their depth tested in quite the same way as 2011. Man was I wrong. Last years team that lacked depth got that depth tested, and lost. Big Time! Then we released everybody!

 

McFadden has never been a great player, by the #numbers, but I picked him to win offensive player of the year last year, which was won by Peyton Manning. McFadden was perhaps the worst running back in the league last year to be honest. Some of that was scheme, some of it was poor blocking up front, most of it was McFadden trying to bounce everything and do too much on a team that had a very competent quarterback in Carson Palmer and an offense built around him. Palmer threw for 4,000 yards last year, but largely disappointed any reasonable expectation for his performance. He did not play poor at all, but the offense was built around him, and the Raiders passing offense has been fairly progressive the last two years. But IMO Palmer left way too many plays on the field. Of course our receivers didnt help Palmer any with all the drops!

 

Also, for a team that cannot tackle well is likely not going to improve much on defense. We somewhat improved our tackling in 2012, but Doug Martin was not aware of this and all that improvement in tackling just exposed the real problem..personnel mistakes such as Aaron Curry and Rolando McClain. One of those players ended last season out of the league, and the other is currently out of the league.

 

We were frugal in FA, waiting until last week to add our biggest offseason acquisition, WR/KR Josh Cribbs. Cribbs feels like he’s been around forever, but he’s just thirty years old. We had a really nice draft, one that can be the cornerstone draft for the next eight or so years of the franchise, one that would not have been possible without the assistance of the Dolphins, who liked Dion Jordan enough to trade up with us for third overall pick. We got the player we wanted, CB DJ Hayden, who profiles as a cornerstone defensive player at a position where we have been weak since letting Nnamdi go.

 

Menelik Watson makes sense in the starting line up as a rookie. And we're definitely going to enjoy watching LB Sio Moore wreck people on special teams before they have to worry about finding a spot in the starting lineup at this time next year.

 

Now we had little choice but to let some of our strongest contributors from 2012 walk in free agency. Wheeler signed with the Dolphins, Kelly was released and signed with the Patriots. Heyward-Bey was released along with McClain and Huff. Shaughnessy signed with the Cards. But the player that GM McKenzie really wanted to retain, Desmond Bryant, signed with Cleveland for a lot more money than he was worth. And being Palmer was traded to Arizona, we brought in Matt Flynn in part because of his leadership qualities. Yet Flynn, both on the field and in the locker room, isn't about to force the issue.

 

IDK..maybe its not as bad as I make it out to be. But the Raiders do have some semblance of their identity, and we don’t have any candidates for regression on the roster, which will happen when you get rid of everybody that is established and only shop for bargains. I guess all I can do is stay positive!

[moocao 10]

Completely forgot SJax plays in ATL now...

 

Many people forget this fact. If we would've been able to put together any sort of run game in the playoffs last year, I think our ending would've been different.

[AllYouNeedIsLovie 377]

Well, last year we were 7-9 and that was with a historically bad pass defense and a ton of injuries. I'll just post a bunch reasons why I can see us being a serious contender next year, splitting it between the offense.

 

Offense:

 

1. Last year was the first year under our new OC, Mike Sullivan. It took Eli Manning more than a year to learn this offense as it includes a lot of option routes, long developing plays that go deep down the field, etc. Another year of experience with this offense should make the offense be better.

 

2. We are getting Davin Joseph and Carl Nicks back. Both of these guys are Pro Bowl guards, and Nicks may even be the best guard in the NFL. Having these two big bodies back will help our o-line a lot and will create more holes for Dougie and allow more time for Josh to throw the ball.

 

3. If our o-line stays healthy, we probably have a top 5 o-line in the NFL. Having a good offensive line is one of the most important things for an offense and allows for everything to get going.

 

4. We have great skill players. Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams are both studs, and Doug Martin was one of the best RB's in the NFL last year. All 3 of these guys can make big plays at any given moment and that is huge for an offense.

 

5. We already ranked in the top 12 for scoring offenses last year. With another year learning Sully's system and getting Joseph and Nicks back, the Bucs should have a top 10 offense next season.

 

Defense:

 

1. Obviously, the addition of Darrelle Revis is huge. Even if he doesn't come back 100%, he will still probably be a top 5 CB and will be able to shut down most receivers. This was easily our biggest move of the off-season.

 

2. We signed Dashon Goldson. He's an All Pro safety and fills a big need after Ronde Barber retired.

 

3. Drafting Jonathan Banks. I like this kid a lot and I think he will be our #2 CB for week 1. With the additions of Revis, Goldson and Banks, our secondary has been completely revamped from the worst secondary in the league, to one of the best.

 

4. DaQuan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn will be coming back from injuries. Getting pressure on the QB was something the Bucs struggled a lot with last year and not having these guys in the lineup was a big reason why. If these guys live up to their potential with rushing the passer, we can have a dirty d-line pairing these 2 monsters up with McCoy.

 

5. Another year of experience for Lavonte David and Mark Barron. David was great last year, but Barron struggled. I think another year of experience and the fact that he now has great guys around him in the secondary will result in a much better sophomore season for Barron.

[Glanvilles Grits 142]

Last year the Falcons had one of the most prolific receiving duo, and trio when including Gonzalez, in the NFL. Matt Ryan played like an absolute stud for most of the season - let's omit two terrible games against Oakland and Arizona and he was easily the league regular season MVP. Our defense was nothing special, they were the typical bend but don't break Falcons defense, they got the job done when they needed to. They once again folded in the playoffs after breaking out to big leads in both games. The famous Matt Ryan finger tip fumble could have possibly been the difference between winning and losing against the 49ers in the championship game.

 

This year, the Falcons could definitely win the Superbowl, why? The Falcons will likely be a top 5 offense with the addition of Steven Jackson in the backfield. This year Julio Jones will have his breakout third season, while Roddy White and Gonzalez continue to contribute heavily. I believe the Falcons defense will show more consistency under Mike Nolans 2nd year. The Falcons could easily ride into the season with something to prove and carry it all the way through the playoffs.

 

 

Or, Matt Ryan could do it again.

[AL_Royalty 489]

Hmm... Where did the Chiefs go wrong last year? Anyone else wanna field this one? No? Okay. Brady Cassel, err, Matt Quinn, err, let's just say quarterback. Turnovers and horrible QB play—usually both were one in the same—killed this team. Every time the D got a stop, the offense would drive and turn the ball over or three-and-out. Add to that the fact that Romeo Crennel proved to the football world that no, his Browns failure wasn't just because he was in a shitty situation, and you've got Some of the worst football I've ever seen, and I'm a Chiefs fan so that's saying a lot. Were there other things that went wrong? Sure, but it all stems from this three-headed monster of a problem.

 

As for this season, there is talent on this roster. They had SIX Pro Bowlers. That's three times as many stars as they had wins. Romeo, Quinn, and Cassel are gone, they traded in Pioli for a reliable sedan, they have one of the best OT tandems in the game on paper to protect new QB Alex Smith who, as luck would have it, is known for NOT turning the ball over, they have probably the best Running back in the game not named Peterson, new coach Andy Reid will be the guy who finally unleashes Bowe the way he should be unleashed, they have small speedy guys with good hands for Reid to play with, they have dangerous edge rushers on each side of the QB, they added size to the defensive backfield to make it harder on bigger receivers to go along with Flowers and Berry, they have Berry who is all the way healthy and a monster sideline to sideline player when unencumbered, and they have an amazing kicking Colquit. Remembering the division that they play in, there's really only one good team that they have to contend with there, and we're a good candidate for the next "worst to first" team.

 

Knowledge: dropped.

[Dutch 874]

Matt Ryan played like an absolute stud for most of the season - let's omit two terrible games against Oakland and Arizona and he was easily the league regular season MVP.

 

 

 

[AL_Royalty 489]

 

 

Dude, I gotta ask: What the hell is up with the sig? lol

[FartWaffles 1,857]

This is my team's Case.

 

[rzb+ 367]

This is my team's Case.

Nice.

 

Here's ours..

 

 

 

For real though, weak defense and soft offensive line.

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

I picked the 2012 Raiders to make the playoffs..hmm, we all know how that went. See the Raiders made sense to me as a team that should have been able get over .500 for the first time in a decade! It wasn’t a team that had enough talent to win more than 9 or 10 games, but it was one that had enough talent to win at least half of its games. And it’s not like the defense could have been any worse than it was in was in 2011 and the pieces of the decade-best offense that Hue Jackson built in 2011 were still intact, thus fueling the optimism here in Oakland.

 

The 2012 season basically was a major disappointment, even by the standards the Raiders set. An 8-8 roster in my eyes went 4-12, and at times looked worse than a 4-12 team. We weren’t a deep team last year at all, and we were a really injured team in 2011, so it was reasonable to expect the Raiders to not get their depth tested in quite the same way as 2011. Man was I wrong. Last years team that lacked depth got that depth tested, and lost. Big Time! Then we released everybody!

 

McFadden has never been a great player, by the #numbers, but I picked him to win offensive player of the year last year, which was won by Peyton Manning. McFadden was perhaps the worst running back in the league last year to be honest. Some of that was scheme, some of it was poor blocking up front, most of it was McFadden trying to bounce everything and do too much on a team that had a very competent quarterback in Carson Palmer and an offense built around him. Palmer threw for 4,000 yards last year, but largely disappointed any reasonable expectation for his performance. He did not play poor at all, but the offense was built around him, and the Raiders passing offense has been fairly progressive the last two years. But IMO Palmer left way too many plays on the field. Of course our receivers didnt help Palmer any with all the drops!

 

Also, for a team that cannot tackle well is likely not going to improve much on defense. We somewhat improved our tackling in 2012, but Doug Martin was not aware of this and all that improvement in tackling just exposed the real problem..personnel mistakes such as Aaron Curry and Rolando McClain. One of those players ended last season out of the league, and the other is currently out of the league.

 

We were frugal in FA, waiting until last week to add our biggest offseason acquisition, WR/KR Josh Cribbs. Cribbs feels like he’s been around forever, but he’s just thirty years old. We had a really nice draft, one that can be the cornerstone draft for the next eight or so years of the franchise, one that would not have been possible without the assistance of the Dolphins, who liked Dion Jordan enough to trade up with us for third overall pick. We got the player we wanted, CB DJ Hayden, who profiles as a cornerstone defensive player at a position where we have been weak since letting Nnamdi go.

 

Menelik Watson makes sense in the starting line up as a rookie. And we're definitely going to enjoy watching LB Sio Moore wreck people on special teams before they have to worry about finding a spot in the starting lineup at this time next year.

 

Now we had little choice but to let some of our strongest contributors from 2012 walk in free agency. Wheeler signed with the Dolphins, Kelly was released and signed with the Patriots. Heyward-Bey was released along with McClain and Huff. Shaughnessy signed with the Cards. But the player that GM McKenzie really wanted to retain, Desmond Bryant, signed with Cleveland for a lot more money than he was worth. And being Palmer was traded to Arizona, we brought in Matt Flynn in part because of his leadership qualities. Yet Flynn, both on the field and in the locker room, isn't about to force the issue.

 

IDK..maybe its not as bad as I make it out to be. But the Raiders do have some semblance of their identity, and we don’t have any candidates for regression on the roster, which will happen when you get rid of everybody that is established and only shop for bargains. I guess all I can do is stay positive!

 

Welcome to my world. Haha.

 

Last year the Falcons had one of the most prolific receiving duo, and trio when including Gonzalez, in the NFL. Matt Ryan played like an absolute stud for most of the season - let's omit two terrible games against Oakland and Arizona and he was easily the league regular season MVP. Our defense was nothing special, they were the typical bend but don't break Falcons defense, they got the job done when they needed to. They once again folded in the playoffs after breaking out to big leads in both games. The famous Matt Ryan finger tip fumble could have possibly been the difference between winning and losing against the 49ers in the championship game.

 

This year, the Falcons could definitely win the Superbowl, why? The Falcons will likely be a top 5 offense with the addition of Steven Jackson in the backfield. This year Julio Jones will have his breakout third season, while Roddy White and Gonzalez continue to contribute heavily. I believe the Falcons defense will show more consistency under Mike Nolans 2nd year. The Falcons could easily ride into the season with something to prove and carry it all the way through the playoffs.

 

 

Or, Matt Ryan could do it again.

 

Well... At least you're half seeing it my way now.

[housemd 338]

Injury gods decided to shit on our team. Hopefully they choose some other team next season.

[Crash 105]

Why the Lions might win the Super Bowl? Simple really.

 

Potential top 5 offense, arguably the best DT tandem is Fairley can stay healthy, possibly the best DLine in the league depending on Ansah...

 

 

And the best QB in the NFL.

Mmm the lions would be better if suh played with his head not with his body, it's easy to take advantage of that wide 9 because suh doesn't play heads up. I think the bengals have the best dline in the league

[Omerta+ 1,206]

Last year....holy shit.

 

Well we got smacked the fuck up by injuries all year, and not just injuries to that dime corner who plays 6 games in a year. We Lost Webb all Season, Suggs, Half the season, Haloti for several games, Ray for almost the Season, Marshal Yanda for a while, I mean right there that is 4 pro bowlers, 3 all pros, and 1 who is the leader of that team. Somehow we hung in there until we got a lot of our guys back.

 

Our offense was dog shit and the daily rimjobs to mr harbaugh by his lover Cam Cameron only lasted so long until there was a literally public outcry in the stadium for that moronic piece of shit to be fired and the owner had to step up and do it.

 

That happened at an opportune time because immediately after that we started hanging some 30 point games on people and Flacco started to warm up. Then in the playoffs he got blazing hot.

 

Why we will win in 2013 ? Fuck I dont know. This is the largest turnover on a ravens roster in years (which says something as we have said by to over 20 starters in 3 years) and nobody really knows what will be coming out of baltimore next year except for a few caveats.

 

Our pass rush should be on par with the best in the league. We are young EVERYWHERE. The two correlations to that is we are inexperienced in some places, however we are going to be the fastest we have ever been by a large margin and position for position we could be the fastest team in the league....including the Raiders. Will that pan out into shit ? Who knows.

[Glanvilles Grits 142]

 

 

 

Good point. I did kind of go overboard there, didn't I. :grinno:

 

Well, I think we can all agree that he played great, and he was one of the better players in the league if it weren't for those two games. I think the defense during those games is easily the same defense Giants fans use year in and year out, "Too many tipped passes, they weren't our QBs fault!".

 

Either way, Matt Ryan needs to stop choking. Regardless of the rest of the team faltering as well, if he didn't choke, we still probably would have won and been in the SB.

[CampinWithaMissingPerson 2,025]

What went wrong: Gene Smith, Mike Mularkey.

 

Why they will improve: Dave Caldwell, Gus Bradley.

 

6 wins seems reasonable to me

[KempBolt 498]

Chargers-

 

2012, The Good:

-Young defensive players began to emerge (Liuget, Reyes, Butler, Ingram).

-Overall defensive production experienced significant increase under John Pagano.

-Uncovered unforeseen help from complimentary receiver Alexander and 3rd down back Brown.

 

2012, The Bad:

-A.J. Smith's free agent forays proved to be near worthless, and inadequate to make up for poor drafting in 2006-2009.

-Norv Turner was clearly found wanting in terms of handling both HC and OC responsibilities, as well as adjusting to roster issues.

-The blocking. Like, all of it. Harris was the worst LT in football, Green was below average, Hardwick was uninspiring, Vasquez was reliable, and Clary was one of the worst RT's in the league. Also, McClain is a fullback who can't run block, and our tight end blocking was woeful. Ancillary problem was Rivers' and Mathews' piss poor showings behind said blocking.

 

2013, The Good?:

-Continuity (Pagano) and positive defensive additions should keep the unit trending upward (Cox, Freeney, Te'o, Thomas full-time).

-Offensive line additions and offensive scheme should at least create an opportunity for the rehabilitation of Rivers and Mathews.

-Coaching. No one knows how McCoy will be as a HC, but at least he will be able to focus on it after hiring Whiz to be the true play-calling OC. Frank Reich was another nice move, as was Milus and D'Allisandris.

 

2013, The Bad?:

-Loss of Ingram. Freeney will only partially mitigate the loss of a 3 down player that many (even non-Charger fans) believed was ready to break out in 2013.

-Pass protection. Despite positive additions on the offensive line, the ability to handle outside speed is still a major question mark.

-Roster uncertainty. Many starters/contributors are new to the team, new to their roles, or new to the NFL (Starks, Rinehart, Clary, Fluker, Allen, Woodhead, Thomas, Te'o, Freeney, Cox, Wright, Gilchrist...). The hope is that they all thrive, but reality says that some won't. Will the core of the team (esp. Rivers), be good enough to overcome the new players that don't pan out?

Edited June 10, 2013 by KempBolt