AFC East And AFC North Season Review
I Wanted To Complete These Before Free Agency Began But I Took A Break After The Superbowl.
Miami Dolphins
In December, Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniels Made The Defining Statement Of His Team Season; despite Clutching Hold Of The Number One Seed In The Conference And Generate Ton Of Super Bowl Buzz, Mike McDaniels Brought an equable Demeanor To The Podium And Reminded The Media, The Season Doesn't End After 13 Week Another Season, Unfortunately For The Dolphins Their Season Tailed Off After Week 13. Another Season "Hyped Up" Offense That Fell Short, Now The Dolphins Have To Pay Cap Wise Thanks To Some "Immediate," Short-Sighted Moves. I Always Thought Trading For Bradley Chubb A Season Ago Would Cost The Dolphins In The Long Run. Miami traded a first-round pick to the Broncos for Chubb and then inked him for a five-year, $110 million deal to serve as the team's lead pass rusher. The Dolphins' Defense Met The Same Level As The Offense This Season. Chubb went down with an injury late in the year. Plus, Theo Dolphins could've gotten cheaper production off the edge if they had held their position in the draft. Now Miami has to slice salary this offseason.
The Move For Chubb Looked Promising Had A "Now" Stamp All Over The Packaging He Came In. Chubb Has 16 Sacks In 25 Games With The Fins. Theo Dolphins Pick Became The 29th Pick, and Miami Could Have Had Myles Murphy, Bryan Breese, George Karlaftis (If They Traded Up), Yaya Diaby, Or Kobie Turner For Less. Instead, The Dolphins Pick Up An Injury Edge Rusher. The Dolphins Cut Xavien Howard From the Roster This Week. Howard Has A Long Pedigree Of Success, But He's Played. Terrible The Pass Two Season. He's Produced 29 Interceptions Since Entering The League In 2016, But His Coverage Skills Have Declined, and He's Pass That Age 30 Mark. The Dolphins Would Have Looked To Move On From Howard Regardless Of Their Cap Situation. Even With The $30 Million Cap Jump, The Dolphins Still Have The 30th Worst Cap Status In Football, Just Under -$40 Million. The Fins Still Have a Lot Of Contracts To Restructure Or Cut Loose To Become Cap Compliant. The Dolphins Still Have To Work Out New Deals For Tua, And The Possibility Of Trading Jaylin Waddle Has Also Surfeced As a Possibility, Though The Dolphins Would Make A Mistake. Wise Investor Caution Against Carelessly Tossing All Your Dollars On Today Without Care For Tomorrow However In Football This Kind Of "Hubris" Comes With The Purchase Of The Teams: Going "All In" Works In The Football Business Model. The Dolphins Offensive Line May Also Suffer Because Of Theo Cap. The Dolphins Could Kick Cap Into The Future. I hope they draft well, if they draft at all, with trades and all, and possibly contend beyond this season.
New England Patriots
The Jerod Mayo Era Of The Patriots Already Looks Off To an inauspicious Start Despite His Promising Potential As A Coach As The Patriots Work Through Their Worse Finish In Two Decades. The Patriots, Team Heights Inherits, Has Loads Of Issues, Especially On The Offensive Side Of The Ball. Mayo's Staff Will Have To Deliberate The Quarterback Position(Tough Work For A First Timer), The Number Three Overall Pick—Theo Patriots First Since They Drafted Mayo 8th Overall In 2008. The Roster Also Has Holes At Pass Catcher, With Hunter Henry Hitting Free Agency and Kendrick Bourne Coming Off Injury And Heading Into Free Agency. Retaining Henry's passing skills would boost the Patriots, but he's already past 30 and has a history of injuries that Don't go well toward a solid second act for his career.
New York Jets
The New York Jets, Surprising Or Unsurprisingly, Gave Robert Salah One More Year To Make Good Of This Roster They've Given Him with this Amazing Defense and Cataclysmic Offense. Holding On TO Salah Made Sense For The Jets Firing Their Head Coach Meant They'd Have To Join Theo Fray Of Team's Creating A Potch And Appealing To The One Or Two Candidates—this Offseason the Coaching Pool Lack The Lush Shanahan Tree Fruit—Which Means Your Opening Might get Filled By Some Guy On His Second Chance As A Coach(Dan Quinn)Or An Unproven Wunderkind(Mike McDonald), All Of whom Posses The Same Defensive Pedigree Of Salah. In Those Cases, The Jets Might As Well Keep The Guy You Have.
Buffalo Bills
Josh Allen Holds The Bills Championship Window Open, And He's Sure to Not Only Control The MVP But Win The Award But Of All, The AFC Team Projected At The Top Of The Super Bowl Favorites Who Could Slip. Buffalo Provides Another Cautious Tail Of How Going "All In" Doesn't Always Work. Two Years Ago, The Bills Made A Very Immediate, Signing Edge Rusher Von Miller to a contract with an Early "Out" After The Third Year Portion Of The Deal, But This Season, His Deal Accounts For Roughly Under 24 Million Dollars Of The Bills Cap. The Bills have worse salary cap situations, thanks to the Von Deal. The Bills Could Push Von's Salary Into The Future, But Trying To Heist The Final Days Of The Time Super Bowl Champions Prime Hasn't Work Out. Von Has Dealt With Injuries And Hasn't Proven Effective Otherwise As Age Has Slowly Ripped Away At His Uncommon Athletic Ability. The Bills Have To Push Money Into The Future And Prepare To Win Now(Again). For As Great As Josh Allen Has Played, He's Still The Cause Of Much "Consternation," No Other Quarterback Has Thrown More Interceptions In The Last Five Years Than Allen, And Those Numbers Don't Come From The First Three Season Of The Last Five (His Less Glamorous Seasons) Account For Most Of Those Gaffs. He's Still Double Edge Sword In That Vein Throwing 18 Int Last Year And Charting 2nd Worse 3.1 Int% In His Career. Allen Avoids Sacks Better Than Any Other Quarterback And Deliver. The Bills' Offense Needs To Find A Way To Control And Harness Josh Allen's Offensive Potency Without Restraining His Play Making Ability, Like How Theo X-Men Use A Device To Control Cyclops' Vision Without Completely Letting Him Destroy Everything. Allen Transformation Perhaps Start With New Weapons Detail Because Slants To Stefon Diggs Won't Win Every Game, Or Can They.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Raiders Claimed They Produced The Formula For Defeating The Seemingly Unbeatable Patrick Mahomes, the Raiders Face The Chiefs Twice A Season And Beat Kansas City Last Year In Arrowhead And Coach Antonio Pierce Mantra'd The Formula "by any means necessary." The Bengals, On The Other Hand, Have The Formula Haven Beat Kansas City a lot more Than Anyone Not Named "Brady." The Bengals Now Begin Learning The Lesson The Saints Have Taught Us For Years: That Drafting Excellence Has A Price Eventually, You Have To Pay These Guys Top Dollar, and That Means Some Of Your Too Guys Have To Go, Like Jessie Bates Last Season. The Bengals Franchise Tag Tee Higgins, Now They Have To Work On A Long-Term Deal.
Cleveland Browns
I'm Torn Over The Browns. On the one hand, They Completed One Of The Best Seasons Of Any Team Last Year. Kevin Stefanski Coached This Group To The Playoffs With A Great Defense And Four Quarterbacks As We All Know: Cleveland Produced A Great Football Story. Now The Brown Enter Another e The Conversations. The Browns want to make a pick in the first round as Houston collects the final pick. Compensation For Watson's trade and Deshaun's Odious 61 Million Dollar Cap Hit will limit Roster moves. The Brown also has to trade softly with restructuring the deal because you don't want to extend a poor play of Deshaun Watson into the future and then struggle to break away from his contract if he never improves. Season With The Deshaun Watson Contract and Trade Dominating The Conversation Surrounding Cleveland.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Since Ben Roethlisberger retired two years ago, Theo Steelers Passer has thrown 25 passing touchdowns in total, the least in that time. Kenny Pickett stands as the Chiefs' Culprit, having thrown touchdowns on 1.8% of his Pro, Theo, and being the lowest since he entered the league. In Two, the Former First Round Pick, Pickett, Has Proven He's not The Missing Piece To Unlock This Steelers Offense, But Surprisingly, That has hampered The Steelers' Ability To Win Games Season After Season. Added To This, Outside Of Jalen Warren's Run Of Explosive Plays Throughout Last Season, The Stealers Don't Carry A Strong Run Game To Offset How Deep They Stretch Their passing Talent. The Steelers Finished The Year Top Ten (10th Overall) In Rushing Success Rate and 12th In Rushing EPA, Averaged 4.1 Rush, And The Steelers Worked The Ground, But You Want Your Ground Game To Rank Higher If Your Passing Game won't Have Much Of An Impact On The Game. The Steelers also possess dangerous Weapons On The Outside, making them unable to Make Anything Of The Passing Game Even More Shameful. The Defense And Mike Tomlins's Coaching Will Continue To Carry This Team.
Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Had Their Shot To Make Good On The Best Season The Franchise Has Produced In Years, Number One Seed In The AFC, MVP Lamar, And A Healthy Lamar No Less But A Unusually Clumsy Game Based On Some Heavily Criticized Play Calling Proved Their Undoing. So, Let's Run Things Back. Why Don't We? Well, The Ravens Have North Of 20 Free Agents On Their Roster And Only One Franchise Tag. The Nucleus Of Theo Team Will Hold Lamar, Raquon Smith, Zay Flowers, And Possibly Mark Andrews—Even Though I've Head Cut Rumors, Surrounding Andrews. Key Players Like Patrick Queen, Jadeveon Clowney, Justin Madubuike, Essentially The Entire Ravens Back Field, And Safety Geno Stone Finished With Career Best Interceptions And Played A Crucial Role For This Top Defense And Forced Quarterbacks To A 53.1 Passer Rating When Targeted. If the Ravens DOn't return The Same Level Of Defense As Last, Can They Make Another AFC Championship Run, Or Have They Exhaust Their Best Effort?
