I’ve always enjoyed opening up Fandom Correspondents for fellow writers, especially when they’re on a subject that I don’t personally know as much about. That’s exactly what’s happening here : My dear friend Chase has written out a question for each NFL team and since the season starts this Sunday, I figured it’d be a perfect time to publish this. We’ll be doing 2 divisions a day, one from NFC and one from AFC. If You’re interested in reading about the North Divisions the you can follow the link here – Vance
One Question I Look Forward to Seeing Answered for Each NFL Team
As the beginning of the NFL season approaches, there are so many things I am eager to see. To keep this relatively short (edit: I didn’t), I will narrow things down to one question per team, and while I consider myself more than a casual fan of football, I am more inclined to pay attention to the offensive side of the ball than the defensive side. That’s what most of my questions will address.
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons: Can Devonta Freeman return to healthy excellence?
In his second and third seasons in the NFL, Freeman averaged over 1,500 scrimmage yards and 13 TDs. He was one of the most productive running backs in all of football. In his 4th season, he had less usage but still gained over 1,000 scrimmage yards and scored 8 TDs in 14 games, which was a step down from his astounding numbers, but still helpful for the Falcons. Last year, however, foot, knee, and groin problems kept him out of all but 2 games. There was continued optimism for Freeman to return for weeks until he went on IR ahead of week 7. Freeman has the potential to ball out during any given game. The Falcons are also, given current roster construction, desperate for Freeman to have a healthy season. While he was injured last year, the team relied on Tevin Coleman, and most people thought he would be a comparable replacement given his success as a complementary piece. To an extent, he was. Coleman improved his career yards per touch average, but put up essentially the same numbers in 14 starts in 2018 as he did in 3 starts in 2017. The more I look at the numbers, the more it appears the problem was the insistence of using two running backs. Coleman’s rush and reception totals didn’t rise that significantly. Coleman replacing Freeman was not the issue; it was Ito Smith replacing Coleman in the auxiliary role. Bad news for the Falcons: Tevin Coleman is gone, and Ito Smith is still likely in the backup role. Good news: Ito Smith was a rookie, so there is a possibility he improves. Nonetheless, the Falcons need Freeman to stay healthy, and he should produce if that is the case.
Carolina Panthers: Is Cam Newton’s shoulder a legitimate concern?
Cam Newton has had excellent accolades in the NFL. He threw for 4,051 yards as a rookie. (This was a then-record for rookie passing yards, but was broken the next year by Andrew Luck. To this point, this is also a career-best total.) He also continues to add on to the NFL career record for rushing TDs by a quarterback. He led the Panthers to a 15-1 record in his 2015 MVP season and to the Super Bowl that year (though I think they’d rather not talk about the end result). He’s arguably the best rushing QB the NFL has seen, and his passing game has been impressive in addition. I’m concerned with the shoulder issues he had at the end of last season. He missed the final two games, and even before then he was being pulled from games for plays he would have to throw downfield. It’s also not the first time he’s had shoulder issues. At the end of the 2016 season, he tore his rotator cuff and would eventually require surgery for his throwing shoulder. Reports act as if his shoulder is fine, though now he’s recovering from a sprained foot. I’ll hope that Newton has a healthy and successful season, but that is unfortunately not a given.
New Orleans Saints: Do the Saints have Super Bowl karma, and will it happen this year?
The Saints are coming off of two of the toughest breaks a team can be dealt. Two seasons ago, the Saints were poised to face the Carson Wentz-less Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game. They had erased a 17-0 halftime deficit when playing in Minnesota against the Vikings. I mean, they led 24-23 with 10 seconds left. It was 3rd and 10 and the Vikings had the ball on their own 39-yard line without any timeouts left. And then Stefon Diggs happened. I just watched the video and got chills. I remember watching this game live, with no real stake in the game, and being so shocked watching Diggs bring the ball down, turn around after a tackler missed him, re-establish his balance, and run into the endzone. I struggle to come up with a more exciting feeling for a fanbase: staring down the end of a season right before a walk-off, improbable touchdown keeps their season alive. On the other side, the heartbreak for New Orleans fans hurts me (not a Saints fan) now, 19 months later. Then the next year, the Saints reached the NFC title game. Tied inside the 20 yard line with less than 2 minutes left, the Saints definitely had a leg up on the Los Angeles Rams. But on 3rd and 10, a horrific no-call on a clear pass interference occurred. The lack of a call itself was absolutely egregious, and the ramifications it later had make it quite possibly the worst call/no-call in NFL history. (Something that stands out to me is how unnecessary the DPI was, even if it wasn’t called. The pass was probably ill-advised by Brees and could’ve been easily broken up by the defender had he turned around and made a play on the ball. Instead he bulldozed the intended receiver. The play was almost certainly not going to result in a catch or a first down, but the DPI should’ve given the Saints a first down around the 11-yard line with 1:45 left and the Rams having only one timeout remaining.) Even if all the Saints did was score a FG, the Rams would’ve been left with probably less than 30 seconds to win or send the game to overtime. Instead, both teams had plenty of time to score FGs in regulation and the Rams secured a Super Bowl slot in overtime. The Saints have the most accurate QB in NFL history who has also thrown for the most career yards of any player. He may be 40, but Drew Brees is still productive even if he isn’t in his prime. They also have one of the NFL’s best current RBs and WRs in Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas. They brought Jared Cook in at tight end. They have a solid defense, an elite offensive line, and a brilliant coaching staff which employs effective systems. Notably, they also have karma on their side. The question is just how far all of this takes the Saints in 2019. It feels to me that Drew Brees and the Saints have just as good a claim to Super Bowl LIV as any other team.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Is Jameis Winston good?
I don’t think Jameis Winston has a good general reputation, and that may be warranted. He’s shown some character flaws which have resulted in different consequences. The list is too extensive and honestly inappropriate for me to want to dive into. The off-the-field issues were plentiful in college and have followed him into his professional career. The consequences included a 3-game suspension to open the season last year, resulting in a season-long QB battle between him and Ryan Fitzmagic Fitzpatrick. It’s hard to trust a QB who can’t hold the starting job. Still, he started 16 games in each of his first two NFL seasons, and threw over 4,000 yards, a very rare mark for a rookie, in both. In each of the last two seasons, he failed to play 16 games, but had 16-game paces for over 4,300 yards. Another concern is his 58 career interceptions. The only anticipated 2019 starters with a career interception percentage higher than Winston’s 3.02% are rookies from last year and, coincidentally, Ryan Fitzpatrick. There’s certainly an opportunity for statistical success in Tampa Bay, though. The system is favorable to the quarterback position: last year, he and Fitzpatrick impressively combined for more passing yards than the Mahomes-led Chiefs and the Roethlisberger-led Steelers. They led the NFL in passing yards with 5,358 combined yards. Had either of them achieved this on their own, it would’ve been the 3rd-most ever by a quarterback. Mahomes and Andrew Luck were the only QBs to throw more than their 36-combined TDs. Unsurprisingly, they also led the NFL with 26 interceptions. Still, there’s a world in which Winston can be a 5,000-yard, 35-TD quarterback. I’m not sure if he’s a good NFL quarterback even if you ignore the off-the-field issues, but this year is likely to help answer that question. Don’t be surprised if Winston is at the top of a lot of the statistical categories this season.
AFC South
Houston Texans: Can the wide receivers stay healthy?
Deandre Hopkins has been an elite wide receiver for a while. The two targets behind him on the wide receiver depth chart also seem to be extremely talented, but they struggle to stay on the field. Hopkins had seven 100-yard games with 11 TDs in 17 games last season. Will Fuller had three 100-yard games and 4 TDs last season, but only appeared in 7 games. (The previous year, he pulled in 7 TDs but could only stay on the field for 10 games.) Rookie Keke Coutee had two 100-yard games and 2 TDs in 7 games last season. He missed the first 3 games of the season with a pulled hamstring which later caused him to miss further stretches of 2 and 5 games. Coutee is dealing with an ankle injury which could cause him to miss time, and Fuller popped up on the injury report with something undisclosed. This team could have three great receivers, but it may be a struggle to have them all playing at the same time.
Indianapolis Colts: Will this team be dead in the water after Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement?
In the first three years of his pro career, Andrew Luck went 11-5 as a starter. He missed at least one game in each of the next three seasons and the Colts fell hard, going 10-12 in games even when Luck did start and 10-16 when he was inactive. The team seemed to be gaining momentum last year, when Luck went 10-6 as a starter. T.Y. Hilton has played his entire NFL career with the Colts in the exact same stretch as Luck had. When Luck missed the entire 2017 campaign, Hilton posted solid totals of 966 yards and 4 TDs, nothing to sneeze at. However, the TDs were a career low and the yardage was his lowest total since his rookie season. In the rest of his career, Hilton averages almost 1,200 yards and exactly 6 TDs. It seems pretty clear Hilton is capable of more success when paired with a talent like Luck. If other position players take the same hit, there’s certainly cause for concern in Indianapolis.
Jacksonville Jaguars: How big of an upgrade is Nick Foles over Blake Bortles (assuming he is an upgrade)?
Bortles turned some still-doubtful heads when he threw for nearly 4,500 yards and 35 TDs in 2015. It feels like that season bought him a little more time, and he nearly led (okay, let’s be honest, the defense was the leader) the Jaguars to the Super Bowl just two years ago. However, last year the Jaguars seemed to realize they could no longer think of Bortles as their QB going forward after a 5th season which left him with a career completion percentage still under 60%.. Now they have Nick Foles at the helm. This is a QB who actually won the Super Bowl two years ago, and whom we’ve seen have much more stints of NFL success than Bortles. The AFC South is looking a little rattled in the preseason, and this could be another year in which the Jaguars could make a run. The defense should still be stifling. While they may not have a wide receiver stud, they do have a few players, in particular Dede Westbrook, poised to potentially breakout. And who knows, maybe they’ll win the lottery that is Leonard Fournette’s health this year. Foles might be enough of an improvement to make the Jaguars a real threat.
Tennessee Titans: Was the end of the season a flash in the pan, or has the offense figured out how to use Derrick Henry?
Through Week 12 last year, Derrick Henry had failed to reach 60 yards rushing in a game and had only scored 4 TDs. Over the final four games of the season, Henry scored 7 TDs (getting in the endzone in three of these games) and produced rushing totals of 238, 170, 84, and 93 yards. The first three games were against teams who would miss the playoffs and were struggling mightily. The 4th game, in which Henry had a solid 93 yards but no TD, was against the playoff-bound Colts. Unlike the previous games in which the Titans won, they never led against the Colts, which made it much more difficult to feed Henry the ball over and over again. If the Titans get behind in games this year, they’re probably in trouble. However, if they can manage to keep games close or maintain leads, maybe Derrick Henry can help them manage games and have a better season than most expect.
