Secret Superstar

In the middle of the Mike Sherman era in Green Bay, the Packers were said to have one of the best offensive lines in football. The middle of that line consisted of Mike Wahle at left guard, Mike Flanagan at center, and Marco Rivera at right guard. In 2005, both Wahle and Rivera left and the team went 4-12.

The man to replace Mike Wahle on the left side was Scott Wells; a seventh round pick from the 2004 draft. When Mike Flanagan left for Houston after the 2005 season, Wells moved to center where he has remained since.

Year after year the Packers have had players try to take Wells spot in the starting lineup, and he has consistently fought them off to keep hold of the Packers’ starting center position. The 2009 Packers’ line earned a bad reputation with the number of sacks it allowed, but things have changed. Josh Sitton at right guard has become one of the best in football, and by far the second best player on the Packers line in 2010 was their Secret Superstar, Scott Wells. Read the rest of this entry »

It was so close yet so far for the Steelers, ending one touchdown drive shy of their third Super Bowl championship since 2006. Though the season ended with Steelers players being ushered off the field as if they were strangers crashing a Packers party, it’s important to focus on the many positives of their season.

After a tumultuous offseason that saw the Steelers get rid of Santonio Holmes – their leading receiver from 2009 – and Ben Roethlisberger get suspended for the first four games of the year, the outlook for 2010 wasn’t promising. With the combined efforts of Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch, however, the Steelers managed to win three of their first four games without Roethlisberger and after starting better than anyone though imaginable, they appeared as a team with the potential to be Super Bowl champions. Read the rest of this entry »

During the 2009 season, the Jets had eight different defensive linemen play 200 snaps or more. Coming into 2010, they transitioned from playing more of a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 and that meant moving Calvin Pace to outside linebacker, letting Marques Douglas go to Tennessee, and eventually letting Howard Green go to Green Bay.

The Jets’ 2010 opening day starting defensive line consisted of Shaun Ellis, Sione Pouha, and Kris Jenkins. Ellis was known for his pass rush ability even though he had a poor 2009 in that category, Pouha had the best run stop rating on the team in 2009, and Jenkins had a great 2008 but generally a down year in 2009.

After just five plays, Kris Jenkins was lost to injury and didn’t see another snap the entire year. This made room for Mike Devito, who made the team in 2007 as an undrafted free agent. He saw 13 snaps per game in 2008 and didn’t really have a lot to show for it. In 2009, however, Devito ranked as the 11th best run-stopping defensive tackle, despite playing as a backup.

We expected him to play well in 2010, but we didn’t know he would play as well as he did. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 Chicago Bears were a team full of should haves, would haves and could haves. Fans and blowhards alike instantly labeled them Super Bowl contenders based on the acquisition of Jay Cutler alone. But any logical football mind knows that even in a quarterback-driven league, one player cannot take you to the promise land.

Enter 2010, a season that involved much greater fortune for a much improved football team. By opening his pocketbook in the off-season Jerry Angelo (General Manager) proved that he was willing to spend big in hopes of achieving playoff glory. The high-risk hire of Mike Martz coupled with the high-dollar signing of Julius Peppers seemed to be steps in the right direction.

When you think of a Martz offense, you envision a relentless vertical passing game that has no desire to run the football. Well, Martz’s stubbornness must be wearing thin because the Bears deployed a much more balanced attack and finished in the bottom half of the league in terms of pass attempts. That being said, the offense finished with a bottom-of-the-barrel -135.5 cumulative PFF grade, making it clear that a majority of the praise should go to Lovie Smith’s defense that finished with a +93.5 mark and 9th in total yardage allowed.

Many thanks for the improvement will deservedly go to Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher, but Secret Superstar Danieal Manning must be added to the mix as the player that shored up the back-end of a leaky secondary. Read the rest of this entry »

It wasn’t so long ago that the Detroit Lions were the laughing stock of the NFL. A winless season, drafting first round receivers for fun, and, of course, Matt Millen.

Eventually though, if you keep at it you’re luck is going to turn around. So, with the introduction of Jim Schwartz and a new way of doing things, the Lions began to rebuild. Year one brought wins, and year two brought competitiveness and further improvement. And what was at the heart of this?

An invigorated defensive line.

The 2010 off season captured imaginations with the selection of Ndamukong Suh in the draft, but lets not forget about the trade for Corey Williams and the free agent pick-up of Kyle Vanden Bosch. Those players joined Cliff Avril in a starting line that would go on to make quarterbacks’ lives miserable, getting up field as quick as a hiccup.

But they weren’t the only ones making an impression, there was another – the Lions’ Secret Superstar, Lawrence Jackson. Read the rest of this entry »

After a second consecutive one-and-done postseason, there may be some cause for concern for Patriots fans who have grown accustomed to playoff dominance in the past decade but are now asking: is the championship window closing? What has softened that concern is the success of recent Patriot rookies.

In many ways, the 2010 team was playing beyond expectations. After trading Randy Moss in one of the most shocking stories of the season (maybe only second to his release a few weeks later,) many – including Patriots’ fans – thought it was a move conceding defeat.

With a lackluster roster full of youth and inexperience, what followed was one of the most improbable runs imaginable. After trading away Moss, the Patriots went 11-1, beating opponents by an average of 17 points. Included in that span were six playoff teams, including both Superbowl participants. But, just when everything seemed to be going so right, a blunderous postseason loss to the bitter rival Jets shattered high expectations and dreams of another championship.

With a new season on the way (hopefully) and the sting of last season fading, Patriots fans can cling to hope that last year’s rookies continue to progress. With a special look at one of those rookies whose future shines bright, we introduce our Secret Superstar for the New England Patriots, Brandon Spikes. Read the rest of this entry »

Going into the 2010 season, the thing holding the Ravens back from being an elite team, according to most experts, was their defensive backfield. Dominique Foxworth was out for the year with a training camp injury, not everyone was sold on the pair of Chris Carr and Fabian Washington, and Lardarius Webb was returning from an ACL injury, fueling doubts of his reliability.

To add depth and some security to the secondary, the Ravens traded for Josh Wilson late in training camp. The Seahawks were apparently sold on Jordan Babineaux, Marcus Trufant and Kelly Jennings, which to them meant 2007’s second round pick was expendable. We had Wilson rated better than all three players in 2009, making us think we had witnessed a pilfering.

While Chris Carr played at a high level, Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb struggled. As the season went on, Webb showed some improvement, but after allowing eight catches for 164 yards and three touchdowns against Buffalo, Fabian Washington’s time as a starter was over.

His replacement? The Ravens’ Secret Superstar, Josh Wilson. Read the rest of this entry »

2010 played out to be quite a roller coaster ride for the Seattle Seahawks. The offseason started with new head coach Pete Carroll immediately putting his stamp on the team by making over 40 transactions that involved 95 players by the time training camp started. Fans and experts alike loved the plethora of young draft picks with the right mix of veteran talent sprinkled in.

A 7-9 season for any team would usually be categorized as a disappointment. Unless, of course, it involves a division title and a playoff victory over the defending Super Bowl champs. Laughable, right? Every Seahawk loss last year was by at least 10 points and if you go strictly by the numbers, it’s hard to tell if Seattle was collectively a better team than they were in 2009.

Their offense took a step back, finishing the year with an overall grade of -13.9, while their defense took a surprising step forward, finishing at an impressive +68.3, which placed them in the top 15 of all defenses. The D isn’t a powerhouse, but they flashed talent and there were plenty of positives to build on heading into next season.

One of the bright spots was our Secret Superstar, Raheem Brock. A nine-year veteran that helped revive Seattle’s pass rush after it went missing in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

The season didn’t end the way the Saints expected. As a matter of fact, the season didn’t end the way anybody expected as Marshawn Lynch broke as many New Orleans’ hearts as he did tackles on his punishing run securing the Seahawks’ surprising upset.

Defending a Superbowl championship is an uphill battle – returning a team as dedicated to working hard, getting every team’s best shot, the raised level of expectations – not winning a second consecutive Superbowl inevitably reads like failure. That said, to classify the Saints season as anything more than a good season with a surprising ending would be a mistake.

The Saints finished the season 11-5, winning seven of their last nine games. As the play of the offense, specifically the passing attack, began to resemble that of the previous year’s Superbowl team, the Saints seemed poised for another deep run in the postseason. That run didn’t happen, but there are still reasons to cheer, one of them being wide receiver Lance Moore.

A player vital in helping Drew Brees get the passing attack back on track, Moore is the Saints’ Secret Superstar. Read the rest of this entry »

If you ignore Atlanta being hammered by Green Bay in the playoffs, it was a pretty good year for the Falcons.

The problem is you can’t ignore it. So brutal was the defeat, and so deflating the disappointment of being one-and-done in the playoffs for the second time in two years, Atlanta ended the 2010 season with a very bitter taste in their mouth.

Much of the blame has been put on a pass rush that couldn’t bring Aaron Rodgers down and relied heavily on John Abraham for sacks all year. Naturally, the talk that has followed has been of the Falcons focusing on finding more pass rush in the draft, but what if they don’t? What if they already had someone on the roster who just needs to turn the consistent pressure he is getting into sacks?

What if Kroy Biermann is ready to go from Secret Superstar, to just superstar? Read the rest of this entry »