AFC East AFC North AFC South AFC West NFC East NFC North NFC South NFC West For the Jets Challenge No. 1: Fix the Pete Kendall issue. Too bad Pete Kendall is old, greedy, and a big whiny baby Challenge No. 2: Find a capable backup for Chad Pennington. Don't we have Kellen Clemens? Challenge No. 3: Get the top draft picks on the field. Darelle Revis will breakout, David Harris is solid, Chansi Stuckey and Jacob Bender were steals.
Washington Redskins Challenge No. 1: Help Jason Campbell build off last season's success. No crap Sherlock! Campbell has to be a bigger part of the offense for it to be truly successful. He did a decent job of being a game manager but he has the tools to be more than that. He should have a better understanding of the offense but he also has to face the whole season now and while the fans wanted him to play so much last year, a few average games or struggles could see them turn on him (Redskins fans turn on QB's very quickly it seems). Challenge No. 2: Figure out how to best use Betts and Portis. This will be most interesting. Betts has shown he can play and be very effective but Portis is a special player, a breakaway threat and a better pass pro blocker than Betts. I'd expect Portis to start, get the majority of the carries and Betts work his way into the game and also feature as a receiver a lot. Sometimes it depends on the game, one guy can't get it going, another has more success or vice versa so that could certainly happen but I think I'd like to see portis open and close games and Betts be the grinder in the middle. If Portis can be kept fresh in the 3rd quarter and come in to face tired D's in the 4th, he might be able to break a couple of game killing runs. Challenge No. 3: Challenge the secondary to play better. A pass rush would help so they obviously need to help out the secondary but I do feel Shawn Springs was missed last year. Our corners all suit man coverage better than zone and the addition of Smoot adds some depth. Landry might have some rookie mistakes to compensate for and carlos Rogers needs to show why he got drafted 9th overall because he has the talent.
I agree, I could also see them working in Betts, like Dallas did with Barber last season. Campbell could be a good one did pretty good last year at managing the game like you said, but needs his WRS to step up and help him out.Secondary, well didn't they get Smoot back. He should be better than what they had last season. Rogers has another year of experience under his belt.
Challenge No. 1: Replace key starters in the secondary Key? Really, the only player he names that could be described in that manner is Nick Harper, and that's even a bit of a stretch. The Colts had planned for the eventual departure of these CBs back in 2005 when they drafted Marlin Jackson and Kelvin Hayden, and now they're expecting their third year CBs in which they invested heavily to pay dividends as starters. As for Doss, Antoine Bethea had won the starting safety spot in camp, and was starting even when Doss was healthy, so I don't know how he could be called a "key starter". Challenge No. 2: Improve the league's worst run defense A legitimate concern, and one that the Colts didn't do much to address in the offseason. Drafting Quinn Pitcock with the 98th overall pick is the only move they really made that can legitimately be considered a move to help bolster the run defense, but I think the key here will be the health of Bob Sanders. In the Tampa 2 scheme, the in-the-box, enforcer safety is vital to the team's ability to stop the run. This showed on the defenses of both of the Super Bowl participants, with the Colts' defense becoming much better at stopping the run upon Sanders's return, and the Bears' ability to stop the run becoming vastly inferior after they lost Mike Brown to what it was before Challenge No. 3: Find out if Joseph Addai can carry the load This is the most vital issue the writer brought up and arguably the Colts' biggest question mark heading into 2007. Addai has not been asked to shoulder the load since high school, with his 226 carries in 2006 being the most he's been asked to run the ball at any point in the last 5 years. This would be less of a concern if he didn't have an injury history from his collegiate career, or if the Colts had some NFL experience behind him in the backfield, but unfortunately, that's the situation the Colts are in right now. He has the talent to be a 300 carry back, the only question is whether his body will hold up. If Addai can handle it, expect the Colts' offense to be as explosive as ever.
Smoot suits our style of D better, he was lost in Minny's cover 2 last year. he has good man to man skills but is an average zone defender and not the best tackler, something a cover 2 D needs. The WR's will be interesting. Hopefully Moss will stay injury free, he got nicked mid-season and that hurt the passing game. I thought Randle El did ok but he needs to get more involved and Lloyd has to perform a lot better and get far more consistent. He has the talent but lets his temper get the better of him at times. I'm sure a few Niner fans will chime in now...........
