2012 AFC Preview

AFC SOUTH

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

When you draft a guy in the first round that would rather drink and drive than catch passes, you may want to reevaluate who you are drafting. If you draft a punter in the 3^rd round you need to fire your scouts, your GM and your president of football operations. The Jags could do some damage if Blackmon can stay off the sauce and Gabbert has time to find himand MJD decides to come and play. Other than those three guys the talent pool drops to the murky dirty stagnant pond scum we all stay away from. Even the Colts will have a better season than the Jags, maybe they tank the season, grab the 1^st pick in the draft and move to L.A.? I really hope not!

TENNESSEE TITANS

Chris Johnson needs to have a HUGE season; if he does it could make the AFC South pretty interesting.  Kendall Wright should help whoever gets the starting QB job.  I think Locker sits another year and they let Hasselbeck try to make some magic happen. Zach Brown adds depth for the defense and should make his impact known early on. I don’t see the Titans being a Super Bowl bound team, but they could ruin a lot of teams seasons with some wins later in the year. I think they should think about trading Chris Johnson, they have a talented Running Back pool and they could really load up for the future by trading him now.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

Chuck Pagano will bring a new attitude to Colts, a nasty, smash mouth aggressive style of defense will set the tone much like his Ravens defenses did. Andrew Luck should be able to help the team win more games than last year but I don’t ever give a rookie QB the mark of “Savior”. Plus the Colts tanked a ton of games last season to ensure they landed Luck, it was well thought out plan Jim Irsay worked out in his head as soon as Manning was injured. It may pay off big for him and all will be fine in Indy again, or where ever he moves his team in the middle of the night with those lovely Mayflower moving trucks…wait that was his dad that did that. Still mad Baltimore? Back on track, the Colts will do much better than last year but fail to make the playoffs.

HOUSTON TEXANS

Let’s look the best team in the AFC South for a minute. They drafted Akron, Ohio native and former Illinois defensive end Whitney Mercilus in the first round and they moved him to outside linebacker. He is going to continue to give defensive lines and quarterbacks headaches with his speed and constant pressure. Wade Phillips will make this guy a true beast on defense.  The Texans then go out and draft DeVier Posey from The Ohio State University to play opposite Andre Johnson at Wide Receiver. He may have been a reach for the 3^rd round but he has a ton of potential. Arian Foster and Ben Tate are about as good of a 1-2 punch as you get at running backs and if all key players can stay healthy I think the Texans may find themselves in the hunt for a Super Bowl this year.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO BILLS

The Bills should have one of the best Defenses in the AFC this year; they only added Mario Williams, Mark Anderson, Nick Barnett, Stephon Gilmore, Tank Carder and Nigal Bradham to the mix this off season.  The weakness comes by way of offense, after Steve Johnson they really have no true starting Wide Receiver, Coach Gailey better hope one of the other Wide outs can have a breakthrough season, without a real passing threat the opposing defenses will crowd the line and shut down the running and that will make for a long season and more loses than wins.

MIAMI DOLPHINS

A new Head Coach a 1^st round draft pick at QB and a very, very good offensive line still will not help the Dolphins win enough to get into the playoffs. Ryan Tannehill may end up being the best QB the Dolphins have had since Dan Manino but how many Super Bowls did he win? Right, ZERO. Coach Philbin has a great coaching staff and some very good plasyers, but he is still about 2 years from impacting the AFC EAST let alone the NFL.

Bill Belichick had a ton of draft picks as normal, the only difference is he used them this year, he helped the team get stronger, younger, and faster. Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower are guys that Bill will move around the

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

defense and use in multiple roles, he took a chance on Alfonzo Dennard at Cornerback that could end up being the steal of the draft if he gives up his off the field issues and follows the Patriots way.

Tom Brady is still Tom Brady and with Speed demon Jeff Demps the running backs group is set, the Wide Receivers, well it really doesn’t matter who is there as long as they understand the system they will be fine. Brady will be Brady, Gronk will be Gronk and the Hoodie will be the Hoodie. On paper this is the best Patriots team they have had in years, which is scary because they are always good.

Tebow is here, all is saved! Not really but it will be interesting to see how the Jets play with a new offensive system in the wildcat. The Jets certainly added to their Ground and Pound attack with Terrance Ganaway, this guy is a built like boulder, just a bruising runner that will not only run but block as well. They lost Plexico so they went out and drafted Stephen Hill from Georgia Tech a 6’4’’ 220 pound Wide Receiver that runs a 4.36 40 yard dash.  So with Tebow, Ganaway and Hill the offense looks much different and much better than last year.

The Defense will still be the reason the Jets stay in games, Rex and crew need to do better than 8-8 this season or there may be some major changes. Changes like trading Sanchez seem like the first logical step, if the Jets start off slow and Tebow is put in as the Starter, Sanchez will be traded this year rather than in the offseason. Either way if Sanchez doesn’t win early on or the Jets don’t improve past 8-8 Sanchez is a goner. Maybe the Raiders or the Seahawks would bit on a Sanchez trade.

AFC WEST

DENVER BRONCOS

Does the name Peyton Manning ring a bell? This guy just makes everybody around him better. The Broncos MUST protect him that is priority number 1,2 and 3 for the team. One thing that can almost always be said is that the Broncos have very good Offensive lines. Putting Manning behind a good O-Line at a high altitude letting him call plays at the line of scrimmage will be fun to watch. Defenses will be flat out tired in the 4^th quarter and if the Broncos need a comeback, Manning can do it better than about anybody.

The Broncos defense needs to be in a constant attack mode, they need to have as many 3 and outs as they can muster up, Manning will control the tempo of the game and from there it’s smooth sailing into the playoffs.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Very good Defense, loaded at Running Backs and some very hard to shut down Wide Receivers. Did I leave something out? Oh yes they don’t have QB worth starting. K.C. wants to build a version of the Patriots but they are light years away. They need a QB that can control the game; none of the Chiefs QB’s can do that. Maybe they should take a chance on Sanchez or Colt McCoy both guys would do better than Cassel, Quinn and Stanzi.

Another season, another non-playoff season, just more of the same for K.C.

OAKLAND

Now that walking skeleton is dead the Raiders should be in rebuilding mode right? Well not after they traded away all of their draft picks on a Carson Palmer. Note to all teams, when you need to rebuild, don’t trade for an old, and beat up QB, think about the future of the team. Back to the Raiders, Palmer might have a season or 2 left in him, but I doubt it. If he goes down you have Matt Leinart and Terrelle Pryor to fill in. So what I am saying is you have nothing on the bench in case of an emergency. Michael Bush is gone so you better hope McFadden stays healthy and because of the thinking of Al Davis you have a ton of track stars with Vaseline hands at Wide Receiver.

Raiders, just the bottom of the barrel in my opinion.

Fire Norv Turner, trade Phillip Rivers and tank the season. I mean really it’s not like the Chargers will be making a trip to the Super Bowl or even

SAN DIEGO CHARGERS

to the playoffs this season, You might as well load up on draft picks and rebuild the team. What else can be talked about here? The Chargers are

known for almost getting there, but just falling short. Insanity is doing the same thing, the same way and expecting different results. Alex Spanos must be insane or Norv Turner has a file with some photos of Spanos because he should have been fired years ago and Spanos keeps him around, but I don’t know why.

AFC NORTH PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN BY JOSH OTT