Football is less than 60 days away; the free agency landscape has settled, teams are moving through the early sessions of OTA’s and this year’s draftees are mostly signed and well into their hazing acclimation to the league. It’s at this early juncture when the foundations for a chance at immortality as a Super Bowl champion are being laid. Each of the 32 team’s records are currently at 0-0, which will be the high-point for some poor bastard fan base this year.
While it’s grossly premature to declare anything definitive about this upcoming season, we can all revel in the currency of the off-season, otherwise know as “hope”. Hope is often irrational and can even be detrimental to one’s own psyche, but we can watch as it crumbles giving way to despair when fall turns into winter. It’s summertime so let’s bask in bright shiny hope! With that in mind, I present the top ten things we are hoping to see for this upcoming season in the National Football League!
1) Can We Turn Injuries Off Please??!!
Unfortunately in the blood sport that is football, injuries are constantly showing their ugly faces. These modern-day gladiators are a fluke injury away from losing their entire season and dashing the hopes and dreams of their franchises. The Packers and Panthers lost their number one receiving threats — Jordy Nelson and Kelvin Benjamin respectively — before last season started. On November 1, the Pittsburgh Steelers could only watch as an MCL tear caused them to lose one of the best running backs in the game in Le’Veon Bell for the season.
These are just three quick examples of the annual “who’s who” of players forced out of action. As always, injury luck will go a long way in determining our next champion, which underscores the importance of building depth throughout a 53-man roster over the summer. No team is safe; we can safely expect the worst as fans we have no choice but to hope for the best.
2) Ezekiel Elliott running wild in Dallas
There may not be a better player-team fit from the 2016 draft class than former Ohio State Buckeye Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys. Over the past two season at THE Ohio State University, Elliot racked up 3,699 yards and 41 touchdowns in just under 600 carries. Dallas ranked ninth in rushing yards per game but only 17th in points last year, due in no small part to losing Tony Romo to injuries. This year the Cowboys will have Romo back, and will feature Zeke Elliot behind the massive offensive line which in 2014 helped DeMarco Murray set the single-season franchise record for rushing.
Elliot may not reach those lofty heights this season but he should be the favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year. His combination of strength and speed will allow him to make the best of the gaping holes that this offensive line has been known to create. The Cowboys are at their best when they can limit mistakes and control the time of possession as they did in 2014; Ezekiel Elliot — with all of Buckeye Nation behind him — will be a huge part of getting back to that identity. Now if we can just get the Cowboys to lose in hilarious fashion somehow (semi-kidding).
3) Stop the Madness!
You know how the monster in horror movies always comes back from being assuredly murdered by the hero? Run them over head on with an old pickup truck…they come back. Drop a house on them…they come back. Shoot or stab them…probably don’t even blink. The monster under the bed of the NFL right now is the “Deflategate” storyline.
Whether you think Tom Brady and or the Patriots are innocent, guilty or somewhere in between most fans can agree that this odyssey has gone on long enough. We’re on the verge of starting the 2016-2017 season and this all started from the AFC Championship game of 2015— Deflategate jumped the shark at least a year ago! The league has very real and pressing issues to contend with that would be a much better use of resources and time: steroids/HGH, CTE, domestic abuse, public outcries against owners demanding tax payers fund new stadiums while said owners use Las Vegas as a way to bludgeon local governments etc.
The conspiracy theorist in me believes this is all a clear distraction. My identity as someone without a dog in the fight doesn’t care and can’t wait until somehow, someway, this is over once and for all.
Sidebar: Odyssey is defined as “a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune.” There is no better word to describe Deflategate.
Update: It happened. It actually happened. One down, nine to go!
4) Go Home, Roger!
You can’t talk about the Deflategate sham without it’s two principal participants: Tom Brady and Roger Goodell. As mentioned above, there is a wide schism in the public debate on wherein the truth lies. For what it’s worth (not much in the grand scheme) I don’t believe the Patriots organization is completely clean here. However the true villain here is Commissioner Roger Goodell.
While Deflategate has given him his most high-profile foe, Goodell has had numerous well-known rivalries over the years as he has ruled with a wildly inconsistent iron fist. The Goodell commissionership exists somewhere between the WWE’s Vince McMahon and the world nightmare scenario of a Donald Trump presidency. Under the watch of Goodell, any integrity the shield had has been tarnished repeatedly.
When was the last time the NFL really got something right?
We can only hope that somehow, someway, Roger Goodell is given a g-rated version walk of shame that Cersei Lannister took.
5) Young Gunz Stepping Up
Let’s get back to the actual game we all love. There has been a drought in Oakland, Jacksonville and Houston— each team is looking to reach the next level with the help of a young quarterback ready to take the leap.
Out in Oakland (where things have been a little uneven this summer) the Raiders fans have to be absolutely giddy thinking about the prospect of Derek Carr and Amari Cooper growing together. Carr showed respectable improvement last year for the no-longer lackluster Raiders as he increased his touchdowns and remained stable with the INT’s. They aren’t there yet, but the Raiders brain trust is building something good on both offense and defense.
The same can be said for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who absolutely nailed the 2016 draft, and have seen great things out of Blake Bortles. In 2015 Bortles, who was drafted the year prior out of nearby UCF, had the best season for a quarterback in Jags history setting single-season records for touchdowns, passing attempts, completions and yards, and the most touchdown passes in a single game. The Jaguars have traditionally been known as a defensive team so the competition is admittedly weak but Blake Bortles is well on his way to being the best quarterback in the Jacksonville history.
Houston is in the most interesting position amongst these three teams. Like the Jaguars, they have historically built around defense and running the rock. Unlike the Jaguars and Raiders, they’ve had recent playoff trips, which is not to be confused with playoff success. Houston finished last season at 9-7 and got bounced in the first round. They dumped Brian Hoyer the Destroyer and acquired fifth-year vet Brock Osweiler from Denver. The 6’8″ Osweiler was Peyton Manning’s understudy in Denver but was never seemingly in the mix to become the successor, not even when he took over for an injured/garbage Manning mid-season in 2015. Aside from that, Osweiler has played sparingly in Denver, recording just over 300 pass attempts in four seasons. In eight appearances last season he didn’t exactly light the world on fire with 10 TDs/6 INTs/1,967 yards/61.8% completion percentage. Still, it was enough to help steady the Broncos heading into their Super Bowl run, and consequently, it was enough to (as Jalen Rose would say) keep gettin’ them checks!
Houston has had a top ten defense nearly every year since 2010 led by stalwart defensive end and Captain America on steroids J.J. Watt. If the Texans want to pass mediocrity, they ironically need to be at least be mediocre at the position that passes the ball. And trust, they’ve got the weapons to do it. Houston grabbed running back Lamar Miller from Miami to pair with Osweiler this offseason. Osweiler will play throw-and-catch with the outstanding and possibly underrated DeAndre Hopkins, along with rookies Will Fuller (his 4.3 40 time was the fastest at this year’s combine) and slot receiver Braxton Miller who showed an early grasp of the position in his last year at The Ohio State under Urban Meyer.
The Texans have pinned their hopes to an unproven guy who sat for years behind a great quarterback (again) and are hoping that he can be the guy (again).
Click here for Part II. #MakeFootballGreatAgain