AFC East

Over the next few weeks I will look at ways teams may address their needs through the draft. These draft picks obviously will produce their own stats, but look for them to increase or decrease the stats of their new teammates. For the first installment I will be taking a look at the AFC East. Most of these teams lack playmakers on the defensive side of the ball so look for these teams to address those needs in the early rounds of the draft. Read the rest of this entry »

So often the nobodies in the AFC East in the last decade, the Bills should have been the “nearly men” this season, but a slew of injuries to their most important players left Buffalo as also-rans once more. However, with those players returning, the Bills are closer than ever to competing in the AFC East and with a little more luck on the injury front and some shrewd pickups in free agency, they could be the team to emerge from the trio behind New England to take the fight to the Patriots in 2012.

Buffalo is notoriously not a hotspot in free agency with players seeking brighter lights and bigger contracts than the team from upstate New York can offer, so they will need to make the right signings at the right prices and only add the extra dollars for the right player. The Bills have made strides, even though it wasn’t necessarily reflected in the win column, and this is a pivotal offseason for Chan Gailey and his team. Finding the right players to move this team forward in free agency on their customary budget will define whether the team in the throwback uniforms will throwback their form to better times as well.  Read the rest of this entry »

Losing a hard fought Super Bowl is never an easy pill to swallow, but for the New England Patriots, there may be a silver lining when looking toward the future. Since their near-perfect season in 2007, the roster has turned from veteran-laden and declining to youthful and promising. Of course there are a few constants in the mix, starting with quarterback Tom Brady and Head Coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick doubles as the general manager, and his focus has been on surrounding Brady with a good mix of young players to make one last push at the end of his Hall of Fame career. The result is a team that has gone 27-5 in the regular season the last two years and came within a few plays of a Super Bowl victory. In a league where players age seemingly overnight, the Patriots have youth and talent at key spots throughout the roster. Throw in four draft picks in the first two rounds of the draft (as usual) and New England appears in good shape to compete for the remainder of the Brady era.  Read the rest of this entry »

After a horrendous 0-7 start, the Miami Dolphins closed out the remainder of 2011 with a 6-3 run. That poor start led to a coaching change that had Joe Philbin replace Tony Sparano at the helm. Despite finishing the season with a losing record, Dolphins fans can take some positives from the season. The play of Cameron Wake (+43.4), who was our highest graded 3-4 Outside Linebacker as well as Reggie Bush (-3.7) who finished the season with four performances in a row where he averaged more than four yards per carry.

That being said, the Dolphins still face an uphill battle if they want to push the Jets and Patriots. Over the past three seasons, one or the other have played in the AFC Championship game. The roster has some solid pieces but could do with some upgrades at key positions for them to make a playoff run. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the Dolphins needs this free agency period, and which players would fit perfectly in Miami.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Jets were one of the more disappointing teams in 2011. After two straight championship game losses, they failed to make the playoffs. Within their division the Patriots made it to another Super Bowl, and the Dolphins look like an up and coming team. In order for the Jets to keep up they will either need some players to have some dramatic improvement, or they’ll need to bring in some new players.

New York has shown no problems in the past bringing in talent from other teams, as seven of their projected 22 starters have played elsewhere as well as a number of other role players. Now the only question is if they upgrade the positions that need upgrading. They have publicly showed support in the players that are weak points of the team. If they are being honest then these positions won’t be upgraded. However they could be deceiving the media like teams often do, in which we could see a somewhat different Jets team in 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following on from Mike Clay’s review of offensive depth charts, we are now bringing you their defense-focused counterparts.

What I’m doing here is going team-by-team and taking a look at each AFC East team’s roster situation across the three defensive units and Fantasy Football positions (DL LB DB). I’ll also be speculating on a few potential off-season moves we could see each of these teams make.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been an interesting year for the teams of the AFC East. We’ve seen the New England Patriots live up to expectations. We’ve seen the Buffalo Bills flash the kind of talent that makes you take them seriously. And we’ve seen the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets … one lost their Head Coach after a terrible start to the year, and the other talked more game than they were able to deliver on.

The season was characterized by some performances we just didn’t see coming; and that’s both a good and bad thing. So, in the first of eight divisional installments, we’re looking back at each team to highlight players whose performances stood out for three very different reasons: who made major strides from the season(s) before, who fell off most, and who’s most in need of more playing time.

So let’s get to it, Trending in the AFC East.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was a sense of déjà vu in the lead up to the 46th Super Bowl on Sunday and the game didn’t disappoint, delivering a game full of intrigue and drama, that resulted in the New York Giants taking their second Super Bowl in the last five, the franchise’s fourth, and making the New England Patriots wait at least one more year to add their own fourth Super Bowl.

Much of the pre-game build up revolved around the dominance of individual units and individual positional groups but throughout the course of sixty minutes each team’s defense and each team’s offense had spells where they had a clear upper hand on the opposition ensuring that neither team could get out of sight. Ten points is the magic barrier in the Super Bowl but each team fell just short of this margin and instead it was the final swing of the pendulum, a 12-0 scoring run from midway through the third quarter, back towards the Giants that proved decisive. Once again it was the Giants’ offense taking control of the ball with the game on the line that proved decisive as it has in the prior two encounters between these two teams. The Patriots recognized this and tried everything to get Tom Brady the ball back with time to win the game, but 80 yards in 57 seconds proved too much.

Read the rest of this entry »

Come the Super Bowl everything gets magnified, and so it is with the PFF Focus Points. Rather than simply giving you one matchup to look at, we’re dividing our efforts and taking a look at both blind-side protectors to check the impact of two of this game’s more intriguing spots.

PFF Founder and fearless leader, Neil Hornsby, takes a look at New England’s left tackle Matt Light while Sam Monson cast his eye over David Diehl, Light’s New York counterpart. Below is the account of what each learned during the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

Given the incredible success of Sam Monson’s piece telling everybody why the San Francisco 49ers couldn’t beat the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Playoffs, we’ve decided to draft in some help, hedge our bets, and take both sides of the Super Bowl.

While Sam may prove yet again to be wide of the mark, at least this way one of our analysts’ “guarantees” will prove correct. PFF’s Director of Analysis, Ben Stockwell, joins Sam in making cases for why each of the Super Bowl protagonists is fighting a losing battle on Sunday.

Here’s what they’ve determined to be the Achilles heels for the big game.

Read the rest of this entry »