Heeding the call. Quo's power rankings

I saw the Chronic's call for user-written power rankings and quality posts, so I'm attempting to do my part



1.) Chargers: Even Norv can’t screw this team up…they are just LOADED. Best/meanest offensive line in the game. Im interested in seeing more vertical passing out of their offense.

2.) Ravens: If Dilfer can win with their defense, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say McNair can. If I was a coach, this team on my schedule would scare me. 27-0.

3.) Broncos: I think the Broncos do a superb job of consistently patching holes in their roster, and this offseason was no exception. Jay Cutler will be a BEAST this season with Travis Henry in the backfield. If they could just lay off the cut blocking, Denver would actually be one of my favorite teams.

4.) Eagles: McNabb and Westbrook put up gaudy, Madden 2004 –esque offensive numbers, Philly fans still don’t realize that their franchise is near-perfect, and Takeo Spikes and Jeremiah Trotter get matching “BFFL” tattoos.


5.) Bears: Despite losing RB Thomas Jones, the new offensive gimmickery with Hester and newly drafted ninja Garret Wolfe make up for it. Pressure is taken off of Grossman as he learns that you can pass to running backs. Defense plays great unless they are covering 4 or more receivers. Opposing coaches don’t really notice.

6.) Colts: Defense gives up 400+ yards a game, Offense gains 450+ yards a game.

7.) Patriots: Tom Brady slumps a bit, Randy Moss talks a lot of trash and gets injured, and the season is decided by a kicker whose name is not Vinatieri. A bad season, for them.

8.) Bengals: Carson Palmer puts up his best season, but their defense and off-field distractions let them down. Again.


9.) Saints: Opposing defenses use a year of watching film to dissect their plays and slow them down a bit. Payton stays a step ahead for the most part, but the Saints AWFUL pass coverage lets them down when it matters most. Reggie Bush gets lit up by late hits and special teams coverage all season, but still scores 10+ TD’s.

10.) Jags: Like every season, their passing game looks suspect, but their 2-pronged rushing attack makes up for it to some degree. Byron Leftwich hopefully lasts the whole season. Drew puts up better season numbers than Reggie Bush. Defense is nasty, as per the norm.

11.) Seahawks: Get back to their winning ways, mostly. Offensive line play still not as good as it used to be in the Hutchinson era.

12.) Rams: Ride Stephen Jackson/Bulger to a great season, but their defense lets them down late in the season/playoffs. Everyone still forgets about Tory Holt.


13.) Buccaneers: Ah, sweet, sweet homerism. Garcia/Caddy/Galloway show is as good as advertised, youth-injected defense actually causes some turnovers, and special teams actually make a difference in some games. Maybe.

14.) Bills: Losman turns the corner, but their defense steps backwards nearly as far.

15.) Jets: Pennington looks good, stays healthy, and they eek out a decent amount of wins, ala last season.

16.) Cowboys: New coach, Romo, TO…could be interesting. Probably just mediocre.


17.) 49ers: Alex Smith steps backwards thanks to Norv leaving, Frank Gore still smashes his way to another 1500 yard season, defense still not that wonderful.

18.) Vikings: Tavaris Jackson stays raw for first half of season, Adrian Peterson hurts his shoulder again, and they make a late season run for the playoffs and just fall short.

19.) Titans: Defenses stack up and spy VY all season long and force him to throw. Like last season, their defense will bail them out in some close games, but their lack of offensive weapons and VY having to pass more will hurt.

20.) Steelers: New coaching staff “opens up” the Steelers offense. Sacks increase and B.Roeth throws more picks. Lose a lot of close ones.


21.) Dolphins: Trent Green can’t get it done with Miami’s offensive line. They beat the Pats at least once though.

22.) Cardinals: Despite looking great on paper, another disappointing season.

23.) Redskins: No pass rush realy hurts their D, Cambell/Betts/Portis almost make up for it.

24.) Panthers: Slumping Delhomme and Carr. What running game? Yikes. Defense looks tired all season, because they are on the field way too much. Steve Smith already vomiting before the season starts.


25.) Chiefs: Holmes < LJ. Passing game is a big question mark. Defense as well. Could get ugly unless they make some moves, soon.

26.) Packers: Come on Brett, just hang it up.

27.) Raiders: Some progress, but Russel’s holdout keeps him off the field for the majority of the season. Culpepper spends most of the season on the ground, glad he only signed a one year contract.

28.) Giants: Eli still looks lost, no Tiki, Michael “cyanide” Strahan poisons the team even when he isn’t at camp, and the coach is hanging by a thread. Oh, and the New York media wont pull punches on it (do they ever?) Disastrous season.


29.) Lions: firemillen.com

30.) Falcons: Oh, the humanity. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. My Falcons hate stops at Dunn, I feel bad about his injury.

31.) Browns: Brady Quinn courageously rides the pine as he frantically learns the offense. Gets in games, looks awful, daydreams fondly of throwing TD’s against Army/Navy/UNC defenses.

32.) Texans: They are the Texans, and this is where they belong until they can prove otherwise. I just can’t buy into them until I see some real results. Hope Schaub likes the taste of turf.

[Malibu]

I think we should focus more on individual analysis for the time being, as any power ranking done before the fourth week of the season is bound to be met with a lot of skepticism.

I'll comment on the Panthers/Giants game last night. DeAngelo Williams is supposed to be challenging Deshaun Foster for the starting job as his style of play suits the new zone blocking scheme better, however he was held out last night due to a sore ankle. Instead Foster and Nick Goings got the majority of the carries. Goings does not fit the cutback mold very well but he performed well running the ball. Foster looked outstanding, breaking off several long runs against a Giants first team defense that was admitingly missing more than a few starters. It appears that new OC Jeff Davidson has done a lot of work in the offseason, so I expect the running game to be improved by leaps and bounds.

All three Panthers quarterbacks put up outstanding numbers. Delhomme looked sharp, completing several passes into tight coverage including a 5 yard TD to Steve Smith on a deep cross in the back of the endzone. David Carr's first pass as a Panther was a screen. I assume the Panthers staff wanted to get his jitters out by putting him in a familiar situation by running a play in which nobody blocks for you. He hit Taye Biddle on a 35 yard lob to the endzone at the end of the half in which the Giants corner blew coverage by breaking to the flats. I assume it was a miscommunication because there was not a single player within 20 yards of Biddle in the endzone. Third stinger Brett Basarez hit Biddle on an 85 yard catch-and-run in which the Giants safety took an unusual angle towards Biddle, running himself out of the play. Overall the Panthers passing game looked better than it probably should have as the Giants defense was incredibly inept.

On defense the Panthers have a DE by the name of Stanley McClover who will most likely be filling in for Mike Rucker for the first few games while he recovers from his ACL injury. McClover put on 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason, allowing him to stay on the field on rushing downs. Last year he was often pushed around late in the season when he started getting on the field. He has looked explosive all throughout camp and it showed last night. I believe he will surprise a lot of people this year and may unseat Rucker by the end of the season.

Both teams have a lot of work to do, but the Giants look a lot worse off, having to replace a number of valuable starters from last year.

Also the Giants apparently have moved Mathias Kiwanuka to linebacker despite Strahan's possible retirement. The move supposedly is because Kiwanuka and Osi Umenyiora both play the same position at end and the Giants staff feel having both on the field at the same time at end would create too much of a liability in the run game. Kiwanuka looked bad last night. I'm curious to see how long Giants fan put up with this little experiment.

[dawgland]

dilfer won it with a defense 7 years younger....

[simpletonsteve]

Originally Posted by dawgland

dilfer won it with a defense 7 years younger....

Yeah, I look for the ravens to take a huge step back this year.

Yeah, its a total crapshoot, but hopefully it can start some interesting discussion. Plus, if Im right, I can crow about it after the season!

Nice observations from the game, I didnt get a chance to watch it. The panther's entire season hinges on that running game, but I just cant get behind zone blocking as a tactic. Ugh.

Not that I want the Panthers to succeed or anything, but if the bucs switched to that I would be mightily displeased.

I dont think they have too much to worry about on their defensive line either...they always seem to have a pretty nice pashrush. It was their offense that seemed to let them down last season.

The Giants, on the other hand...I cant see good things happening there AT ALL.

Originally Posted by dawgland

dilfer won it with a defense 7 years younger....

Their defense was SICK last season, not just 7 years ago. It's just how they roll up in Baltimore, sort of like here (minus last season).

But you know that, they play your team twice a season

[simpletonsteve]

Originally Posted by NoStatusQuo

Their defense was SICK last season, not just 7 years ago. It's just how they roll up in Baltimore, sort of like here (minus last season).

But you know that, they play your team twice a season

Baltimore's defense is always good but do you think they will be able to improve on the #1 ranked defense and a 13-3 record after losing pieces like Adalius Thomas, Jamal Lewis, and others. Willis Mcgahee has been mostly bark and not much bite.

Originally Posted by simpletonsteve

Baltimore's defense is always good but do you think they will be able to improve on the #1 ranked defense and a 13-3 record after losing pieces like Adalius Thomas, Jamal Lewis, and others. Willis Mcgahee has been mostly bark and not much bite.

I agree that adalius thomas is a loss, but Jamal Lewis isn't, in my opinion.

[Malibu]

Originally Posted by NoStatusQuo

Yeah, its a total crapshoot, but hopefully it can start some interesting discussion. Plus, if Im right, I can crow about it after the season!

Nice observations from the game, I didnt get a chance to watch it. The panther's entire season hinges on that running game, but I just cant get behind zone blocking as a tactic. Ugh.

Not that I want the Panthers to succeed or anything, but if the bucs switched to that I would be mightily displeased.

I dont think they have too much to worry about on their defensive line either...they always seem to have a pretty nice pashrush. It was their offense that seemed to let them down last season.

The Giants, on the other hand...I cant see good things happening there AT ALL.

I cannot think of a single team in the NFL that has gone from potential contender to possible cellar dweller because of so many small things. I believe Tiki would not have retired had it not been for Tom Coughlin's obstinance. I believe Strahan would not be considering retiring had the Giants actually attempted to work out a new contract with their future first-ballot Hall of Fame star. I believe the situation at LT was poorly addressed and the GMs comments about Petigout have further divided the players from the coaching staff. I believe the drafting of Mathias Kiwanuka in the first round last year was one of the worst moves on draft day. The Giants already had Strahan and Umenyiora and there were a number of solid linebackers available, including DeMeco Ryans, who was projected to go in the mid-to-late first round. Now they are trying to convert Kiwanuka to linebacker and will probably have to endure an entire season of his mistakes while he learns the position on the field.

For a team that should have been having Super Bowl aspirations, they now look like the team most likely to fire its head coach midway through the season.

Originally Posted by Malibu

I cannot think of a single team in the NFL that has gone from potential contender to possible cellar dweller because of so many small things. I believe Tiki would not have retired had it not been for Tom Coughlin's obstinance. I believe Strahan would not be considering retiring had the Giants actually attempted to work out a new contract with their future first-ballot Hall of Fame star. I believe the situation at LT was poorly addressed and the GMs comments about Petigout have further divided the players from the coaching staff. I believe the drafting of Mathias Kiwanuka in the first round last year was one of the worst moves on draft day. The Giants already had Strahan and Umenyiora and there were a number of solid linebackers available, including DeMeco Ryans, who was projected to go in the mid-to-late first round. Now they are trying to convert Kiwanuka to linebacker and will probably have to endure an entire season of his mistakes while he learns the position on the field.

For a team that should have been having Super Bowl aspirations, they now look like the team most likely to fire its head coach midway through the season.

That's a sinking ship if I have ever seen one.

[UCLABUCSFAN]

Originally Posted by NoStatusQuo

Their defense was SICK last season, not just 7 years ago. It's just how they roll up in Baltimore, sort of like here (minus last season).

But you know that, they play your team twice a season

They definitely have the D that makes the most big plays. Very fun to watch, and I think they will still be pretty solid.

Quo & Malibu............solid posts........