Who wins the AFC West?

[DJ]

Plus Williams, Lofton, Smith, and Crabtree are still in the primes of their careers. And last season Woodley and MJD weren't exactly high priced free agents. Those were relatively cheap deals.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Way too short summary.

Still going Denver until proven otherwise- Manning is not, and never truly was, a gunslinger; he's a technician through and through. It's far from the very strong bet that it has been since Manning has been in the West, however. KC and SD are both capable, but Denver is still definitely the favorite for now.

If there's any kind of significant jump from the WR's and OL which were both near the bottom of the league, KC should be able to grab a WC. Defense gives them a significant advantage on the rest of the division, but just how far is the offense going to lag behind? It's going to have to do better than 16th in PPG (12th in PPD) that it produced last year in order to make the playoffs.

I do not trust SD's roster much outside of Rivers. I still think they'll run into some rather obvious problems when Rivers isn't quite able to put the team on his back so to speak. With that said, Rivers makes up for a ton of flaws and gives SD a chance to sneak into the playoff race themselves. Melvin Gordon adds some life to a lifeless running game, so there's that. Can Varrett stay healthy for them at CB? Secondary? How big of an impact can Gordon be, exactly?

Oakland is still an ongoing project to be sure, but they are going in the right direction for once. They'll have plenty of times where the look just awful, and they'll have some ups as well. Definitely a dangerous spoiler team. Carr needs to show continued progress.

 

[Broncosr0k]

I believe Denver has lost their choke hold on this division. It took Peyton about 12 games last year for his arm to turn into a noodle? Maybe this year it's only 8 or 10. I think he'll start strong and be fine in Sep/Oct, but it's clear to me at this point his arm can't hold up after 400 throws or so.

Well, Manning has never had a cannon for an arm. He has always needed his body and legs to get the power in the ball and when you have a partial tear in the quad that keeps you from running 5 yards for a 1st, it probably affects your throws. I agree that he is slowing down but I think the offense sees a greater shift to the run game and leans on a tougher defense for wins. Last year's vanilla defense meant you had to score 24+ to have a chance against good teams.

Anyway, the point is we're giving the GM credit for building the right way and not blowing money on high priced has-beens, but it seems he actually did quite a bit of that last off-season. When I think of teams who typically do that, the Raiders pop up immediately. I do think they have some good, young talent on the team though.

They did pick up a few guys for more than they were probably worth but that happens when your team has experienced years of ineptitude. Browns are in the same boat. The fact is you lose talent every year and need to fill those spots. You can pick up a bunch of UDFA or pay to get some guys with some experience. And to attract players you have to pay a crappy team penalty. I think this will get better as time goes on.

Besides, the current contracts are nothing compared the bloated ones we have seen in the pass. Tommy Kelly is one that springs to mind.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

Broncos ....