Crazy off-season. Lots of movement all around the league. Coaching changes. QB swaps. Retirements. Un-retirements. Even some prison time. The point is that the time has finally come for us to watch all of this hype play out. That’s right…September 13, 2009 is that other Good Sunday. And to sweeten the deal, we here at thehellerboyz.com have decided to give you exclusive access (tell your friends) to our 2009 NFL season preview.
We divided the teams up into the following 5 tiers (in order of best to worst):
Fresh To Death
Word
Somewhere Between Word and Aight
Aight
You’re Not Good
Let’s take it from the top…
FRESH TO DEATH
The class of the league. With so much turn over in the NFL playoffs from year to year (usually about half of the teams don’t make it back the next season) it’s hard to call any team a “lock” to get there. If these teams aren’t locks, the least we can say is that we’ll be shocked if they don’t make the playoffs (barring season-ending injuries to their best players a la Tom Brady last season).
Pittsburgh Steelers – No reason to believe the champs won’t be strong again this year. Even if the Ravens steal the division, we see the Steelers making a run at a repeat. Everything will be clicking by the end of the season and any superbowl hangover should wear off by then.
New England Patriots – Preseason, Week 3. Patriots vs. Redskins. Pats have the lead nearing the end of the 1st quarter. They have the ball on the Redskins 27. It’s 3rd & 1 and Brady lines up in the shotgun. Brady drops back. He has room to skip to a first down if he takes it himself, but why bother when he could just throw it to Randy Moss for the 27-yard TD catch. This team is hungry. Brady is on a mission. If their defense holds up, this team is really, REALLY dangerous.
San Diego Chargers – Shawn Merriman is back this year, and unlike LenDale White, he’s still got a firm grip on his ‘Tequila’, so their defense will be putting more pressure on QBs than last year. Phillip Rivers looks good. The AFC West is weak. We expect the Chargers to run away with their division.
WORD
We expect these teams to be good. All probable playoff picks with enough talent to keep them in the conversation of potential superbowl contenders. Anything less than 10 wins would probably be a disappointment.
New York Giants – Between Brandon Jacobs being a beast and having maybe the best offensive line in the league, we like the Giants running game. They still need to figure out who’s going to be their go-to receiver, but overall this team looks solid across the board. The Giants are the only NFC team to make the playoffs each of the last 4 seasons.
Green Bay Packers – Did you see Aaron Rodgers this preseason? The kid oozes star quarterback. If their defense can transition to the 3-4 smoothly then we might like them for a superbowl run.
Baltimore Ravens – Don’t think the defense suffers as much from losing Rex Ryan as another team’s defense might after losing its coordinator. With so many veterans on that side of the ball, we see the Ravens’ D continuing to ruin quarterbacks’ Sundays. Flacco should be better as well. Like we said earlier, they might even snag the division from the Steelers.
Indianapolis Colts – “Peyton Manning flow, I just go, no huddle.” – Lil’ Wayne
Philadelphia Eagles
Minnesota Vikings
Tennessee Titans
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN WORD AND AIGHT
Only time will tell with these teams. 10-6? 6-10? Nothing’s shocking. Their placement between the “Word” and “Aight” teams is less about where we think they’ll finish and more about how tough they are to peg. Any one of these teams might end up running with the “Word” squads or struggling with the “Aight” crew.
New York Jets – Rex Ryan will have this defense humming. The offensive line is one of the best in the league, which opens things up for Thomas Jones and our boy Leon Washington. It might take Sanchez a few games to adjust, but he’s smart and should improve over the course of the season.
Houston Texans – This team has talent, but plays in what might be the toughest division from top to bottom. Can’t see them making the playoffs this year, but look for them to make a splash for the first time in franchise history if Matt Schaub can stay healthy. P.S. How crazy is it that Mario Williams turned out to be the right pick for 1st overall in the 2006 draft? Did anyone see that coming? (Besides Charlie Casserly, of course)
Chicago Bears – Opinions about the Bears this year are all over the place. They definitely have a lot of talent. Matt Forte will probably have another great year. Greg Olsen is a dynamic tight end. Devin Hester finally has someone who can throw far enough to reach him when he gets behind a defense downfield (yeah, but can he catch?). Their defense was awful last year, but they’re healthy now and look like they might be back on track this season. This team could be really good, but we need to see it first.
New Orleans Saints – Drew Brees is like, suuuuuuuuper good at football. Defense needs to step up.
Dallas Cowboys
Atlanta Falcons
Jacksonville Jaguars
Carolina Panthers
Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks
AIGHT
These teams have enough upside to keep us from associating them with the bottom feeders, but enough downside to probably keep them out of the playoffs. And enough middleside to make them…well…aight.
Washington Redskins – Got off to a great start last year and then kind of collapsed. Haynesworth is a nice addition. NFC East is always a tough conference. Interested to see what they can do, but don’t hold your breath for anything super impressive from the Redskins this year.
Cincinnati Bengals – If Carson Palmer comes back healthy (and stays that way), the Bengals become a much more interesting team. Palmer definitely has some weapons. Chad Ochocinco should be back for a solid year. We love Chris Henry’s upside. It all really hinges on Palmer’s health and the offensive line’s ability to keep Carson on his feet.
Miami Dolphins – Super easy schedule last year. We think it was a fluke. Chad Pennington won’t throw games away and Ronnie Brown is a solid running back, but this team is not going to contend for the division this year.
San Fransisco 49ers – Might steal the NFC West just because it’s a weak division.
Denver Broncos
Oakland Raiders
YOU’RE NOT GOOD
See heading.
Buffalo Bills
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions
St. Louis Rams