The NFL’s Top Five Candidates for Defensive Player of the Year

The Defensive Player of the Year award is a better award than the MVP, because the MVP award is often determined based upon popularity, while the Defensive Player of the Year is won by the player who has shown himself as a star, and his team has responded by being successful in the league. It is not purely an individual award, because the player with the best stats won’t necessarily win. It is the players who have shined individually, and as a result of this have made the entire defense and team preform better.

If frustrates me that the MVP award hasn’t been given to a Defensive Player since 1986 (Lawerence Taylor). As the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots have showed us, championships are won through defense. The Greatest Show on Turf (2001 Rams) is nothing more than a show without the defense to back it up. I realize that the defense did very well during the regular season, but against the Patriots when they needed a stop, the defense wasn’t able to do it for them. Defense wins championships, and the Defensive Player of the Year is the general of that defense. These are the five players this year who I think are the respective generals of their team, who are leaders both in word in action and thus deserve recognition.

Begin Slideshow

The Most Underrated Players on the Teams who won’t make the Playoffs

This picture is not of Deangelo Williams, in fact, this is a picture of Jarius Byrd taking down the Pro Bowl running back. A rookie from Oregon, he currently has more interceptions than he has starts, (7 starts to 8 interceptions.) There are many unheralded players like Jarius who are having excellent years, but who aren’t getting any publicity because they’re playing for teams that are surrounded with disappointment. These are the teams who won’t make the playoffs, (I determined the teams who won’t make the playoffs are those with currently 3 or less wins.) These are the ten Most Underrated Players on the ten teams not going to the playoffs.

Begin Slideshow

19-0 New England Patriots Cement Their Legacy As Team of the Decade!

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Under the leadership of returning quarterback Tom Brady, the New England Patriots go 19-0 defeating the New York Giants 30-10, to become the undisputed team of the decade.

The New England Patriots won Super Bowls in the 2001, 2003, and the 2004 seasons. They lost in the 2006 season, after going 18-0 through the games leading up to the Super Bowl, but despite the loss, the Patriots had already become a dynasty.

Few people would’ve challenged the statement that the Patriots were the team of the decade. But suddenly, there is competition.

In 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers quietly won the Super Bowl. I say “quietly,” because that year is most famously remembered as the Patriots blotched opportunity to make history as the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row, instead of because of the Steeler’s victory.

But the Steeler’s victory this past year made it two Super Bowls in the last four years, and now they have a chance for two in a row. If this happens, the Steelers could suddenly dethrone the Patriots.

My personal sports philosophy is that the most recent champions, should still be considered the champions, until proven otherwise. If the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl this year, making it three Super Bowls out of the last five years, I will have to concede the Steelers are the team of this decade, because their Super Bowl victories are more recent…but thankfully, I won’t have to do that, because the Patriots are going to dominate this year, and below I will explain why.

Despite crippling injuries to many of their stars, the team was still able to pull together and accomplish an admirable 11-5 season. Shockingly, they still didn’t make the playoffs, but this record could’ve won four other divisions in the NFL.

To go 11-5 with a brand new quarterback, five different starting running backs, and five defense starters over the age of 32, is frankly incredible. But this year, all the pieces have come together.

This team is better than the 2006 one, and this time no “miracle David Tyree catch” is going to stop them from winning it all. Starting with the coaching, I’m going to explain how this team is better than even the incredible 2006 one, and how they have the star power to finally go 19-0.

 

Coaching:

Bill Belichick is hands-down the best coach in the NFL. Even his biggest haters, can’t put him below the top three.

Year after year the Patriots are a top five team in the league. A defensive and offensive genius, he seems able to make any coach under him seem brilliant.

Take a look at some of the coaches that have emerged from under his wing: Charlie Weis (coach of Notre Dame,) Romeo Crennel (former coach of the Cleveland Browns,) Eric Mangini (current coach of the Cleveland Browns,) Josh McDaniels (coach of the Denver Broncos.) Take another look at those names.

Have any of them achieved anything even close to success? They were all heralded as geniuses, who Bill Belichick spawned ideas from.

But eventually they all got greedy and went after money, only to find, they weren’t as smart as they thought they were. Meanwhile, the Patriots have continued to be a top team in the league, without missing a beat without their “star” coordinators.

It’s clear that Bill Belichick was the glue for these coaches, and without him they couldn’t succeed. As long as Bill Belichick is with the team, “coaching” will be a strength for this team.

 

Offense:

Under Tom Brady in 2007, the Patriots averaged 411 yards a game, easily winning first in the league. The next closest team was the Green Bay Packers with 370 yards.

That’s a 40 yards a game difference between first and second! Their running offense was 13th in the league.

Their leading rusher was Laurence Maroney with 835 yards, and he only played in 13 games, only starting six of them. Last year he spent all but three games on IR.

Will he be a top 10 running back this year? No, but he is going to manage at least 800 yards again, and could get over 1000.

The Patriots were fifth in the league last year in rushing, without getting a running back over 750 yards. They signed Fred Taylor who has had seven 1200 yard campaigns in the last 10 years.

Will he be able to duplicate that success? Most likely not, but with Laurence Maroney sharing carries with Fred Taylor, Kevin Faulk, and young upstart BenJarvus Green-Ellis, this team’s rushing attack is going to a formidable bunch.

Bill Belichick will create a subbing plan to keep them all fresh, but still take advantage of their very different styles, making them near impossible to stop.

Then on the passing side, if Tom Brady has 15 less touchdowns than the 2006 season, he’ll still be the league leader. Tom Brady completely tore up the league in 2006.

Will he do it again? Probably not quite as much, but again, the incredible thing about the Patriots, is that they won’t even need him to.

He will be much better than Matt Cassel, as well as coming with a fire off of his injury. A Tom Brady looking for revenge, combined with a top five run game, with two Pro Bowl Receivers, who do you double team?

Do you put the extra man in the box to help in the run game and get burned deep by Randy Moss or Joey Galloway? Or do you double coverage Moss and try and stop the run game?

What do you do when Tom Brady beats your double team? I don’t see how this offense can be stopped with the talent they have.

The weakest part on this team’s offense is their offensive line. It is still a powerful line, but it did give up way too many sacks last year. They need to do a much better job of protecting the quarterback.

 

Defense:

The Patriots had the 10th best defense in the league last year, which was somewhat of a disappointment for them. Watch this defense return to the top five this year, as they continue to get younger and faster.

The defense got much better this year as they added youth to their aged linebacker corp, and to got new defensive backs in their secondary who are better at coverage. Rodney Harrison was much more bark than actual bite. He’s been getting slower for years, and though Patriots will miss his attitude and leadership, they will be improved with Patrick Chung as their safety.

The Patriots fans got worried as they saw Bill Belichick’s secondary stars, one by one leave the team. Randall Gay, Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs, and Eugene Wilson, all left the team after Super Bowls looking for money.

But what most people didn’t see, because it was covered up by the massive pressure of their defensive line, is that all of these defensive backs were atrocious in coverage. They merely looked good because of their interception stats, which came as a result of not having to cover too tightly.

But now that they left, they aren’t having the same success. Asante Samuel had good interceptions stats last year, but was beaten often in coverage.

The Patriots filled the holes by their departures, by picking up coverage specialists, Shawn Springs, Leigh Bodden, and Tank Williams. They also have two possible Pro Bowl safeties in Brandon Merriweather and Patrick Chung.

These safeties will add speed and run game help, because they’re both “in the box” safeties. This will not be the typical turnover causing defense that Bill Belichick usually spotlights. But it will be very hard to beat, and will have very good yardage stats. 

The defensive line has three Pro Bowlers, who all can stuff the run, but who still generate a terrific pass rush. It is easily a top five line, and is the nucleus of Bill Belichick’s defensive strategy.

They clog up the line, allowing “physical beast” Adalius Thomas, Rookie of the Year Jerod Mayo, consistent Tedy Bruschi, two-time 115 tackle season Paris Lenon, and first team All Big East Tyrone McKenzie, to make sacks and tackles. This defense starts up front, but it has support all the way through. It is possible Julius Peppers could still be signed, and if that happened, this could be a season of legend. 

 

Special Teams:

This unit is stacked full of veteran Pro Bowlers. Starting with punter, you have Chris Hanson.

He is not the best punter in the league by any means, but is a very serviceable punter for the few times when their offense doesn’t succeed. Stephen Gostkowski is a Pro Bowl kicker, who has helped the Patriots already forget about “the Benedict Arnold” Adam Vinatieri.

They resigned Larry Izzo who is a three time Pro Bowler as a special teams player. Wes Welker is a punt returner who holds three of the four team records for punt returning with the Miami Dolphins.

And the sure-handed Kevin Faulk has been returning kicks for years for the Patriots. They will miss the speed of Ellis Hobbs, but they should be able to find a serviceable replacement for him.

 

Summary:

Offensively, simply because of the return of Tom Brady, they’re a top five team. Defensively, they need several players to play big for this team to be a top five unit.

Patrick Chung, Brandon Merriweather, Jerod Mayo, and Darius Butler, are all first or second year players. They could have a huge impact, but the Patriots will need all of them to play like their potential.

Injuries on the defensive line could cripple this team, as they have little depth there, but everywhere else they could recover from injuries. This is an incredibly talented, deep, motivated team.

They’re trying to get back to the Super Bowl after the humiliating defeat by the New York Giants. Do I actually think they will win 19 games in a row?

Probably not, they have the fourth hardest schedule in the league. But do they have the talent to win every game this year?

Definitely. Right now they are definitely my Super Bowl pick.

And my summary statement is this, 2010 AFC championship game, buy your tickets as soon as you can. New England Patriots vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers to determine the team of the decade.

Offense vs. defense, it’s going to be a hell of a game.

Top NFL Players Who Keep Us Entertained During the Long Offseason

The NFL Off-season is long… There’s very little news coming from the top NFL sites. Teams are very secretive about any information of worth, and so we’re left with reading articles about Donte Stallworth, highly unlikely rumors, predictions which have already been predicted, and then information about stadiums and VPs. Do you even know any team’s VPs? And If you’re wondering where I came up with those article subjects, just take a look at the most recent NFL.com articles.

Fortunately, there is a group of players who have taken it upon themselves to keep us from getting bored while we wait for the first kickoff. You can see two of them in the picture above. But just a note, not all of these players are one’s who make the news for their egos or poor behavior. Some of them are just good players that have excited us anew with their potential for stardom.

So without wasting more time, here are the top NFL Players, who entertain us during the long off-season.

The 2009 NFL Draft (Round 1) Done Right

I’ve tried doing mock drafts in the past, and they always end up with me getting frustrated. Trying to predict what people like Al Davis and Scott Pioli are going to do, is near impossible, and so I’ve given up. So now, I will just post who the team’s Should have drafted. I take into context the team’s needs, free agency, trades, retirements… and decide upon picks that profit will most help every team. So here is my opinion, of how the 2009 NFL Draft Should have gone.

*Note* I am using the original draft order without any of the trades. So the teams picking will be slightly different than how it actually happened, but like I said before, this is my opinion of how it *should have* happened, not how it actually did.

The NFL’s 2008-1998 No. 1 Overall Pick Power Rankings

This picture is of Ryan Leaf, the most famous bust in NFL history. As every NFL fan knows, there is a huge risk factor with every NFL draft pick, and for the number one overall this is only escalated. This is the Power Rankings of the 2008-1998 No. 1 draft choices. It is difficult to make a final judgment about several players because they’re still new to the league, but here are my rankings accordingly to how they have played thus far.

AFC Power Rankings for 2009

Entering the 2009 seasons, everybody is wondering who’s on top. I am starting with the 16 AFC teams, and will publish one of the NFC teams later in the week. The division winners are pretty easy to predict, but there is a large body of average teams, that will all be fighting for the wild cards. We are now past the NFL Draft, and most of the top Free Agents are signed. Several major trades may still occur, but assuming the teams stay the same as they’re now, these are my Power Rankings.

NFL Sport Channel Latest

• Just How Far Would You Go?
• Sorry Rex, But It Isn’t Happening
• Super Bowl Predictions: Five Stat-Free Reasons Why the Eagles Will Reach The Super Bowl
• Seahawks Attempt to Turn Corner With Heavy Pursuit of Pete Carroll
• Bill Cowher Unlikely to Coach in 2010