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 other divisions then you can follow the links here(NFL North) and here(NFL South) – 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 East
Dallas Cowboys: Can Dak Prescott be a great statistical NFL quarterback?
Prescott has never thrown for 4,000 yards. He’s never thrown for 25 TDs. He has improved his floor with 280+ yards and 6 TDs on the ground in each of his 3 pro seasons. He’s also never had a losing record. He’s an impressive 32-16 in his regular season career. This year, Prescott has a receiving corps including Amari Cooper, second-year Michael Gallup, hopefully-healthy Randall Cobb, and un-retired Jason Witten. They have upside as a top-of-the-league defense. They should have an above-average offensive line. Hopefully for them, they will have Ezekiel Elliott, one of the NFL’s best running backs. Prescott has proven at least to be a dependable game manager, but this year we may want to see more. If Prescott takes a step up from being dependable to great, the Cowboys team should be pretty scary to its opponents.
New York Giants: If this offense is putrid, can Saquon Barkley still be incredible?
Don’t get me wrong; the New York Football Giants weren’t stellar last year and Barkley still performed excellently. They were actually average or just a little below average in most aspects of the game. The reason they were so bad was that they weren’t good at anything aside from having Barkley break away for long TDs. He had 5 games with rushes over 50 yards. However, aside from the LONG plays, Barkley was often limited on a per-carry basis. His YPC for the year was 5.0. He had 4 games last year in which his YPC number was below 3. Taking away just 5 of his long rushes (you could argue that’s unfair, sure) lowers him to 3.875 yards per carry. Defense were able to stack the box against Barkley, limiting him to a lot of shorts runs. His only real hope was often to bust through the box and get the 60-yard TD, because otherwise he was getting brought down by the line of scrimmage due to no fault of his own. All this was with Odell Beckham Jr. being a member of the Giants. Now the Giants are using Sterling Shephard and Golden Tate (suspended for the first four games, by the way) as their top receivers, along with tight end Evan Engram and Barkley himself. There’s also the looming threat that rookie QB Daniel Jones replaces Eli Manning as the starter at some point. I won’t question how talented Barkley is, but I worry how productive he can be as the only high-functioning cog around.
Philadelphia Eagles: What kind of quarterback is Carson Wentz now?
Wentz was an MVP candidate in 2017, when he played 13 games but was on a 16-game pace for about 4,057 yards passing, 41 passing TDs, only 9 interceptions, and 368 additional yards rushing along with an 84.6% win percentage. This would have likely put him firmly in the race with eventual-MVP Tom Brady instead of a distant third. Unfortunately, Wentz tore his ACL before the season was over and we didn’t get to see how he would finish. To make things more interesting, Nick Foles stepped in as the starting QB, went 2-1 in the final 3 regular season games, and went on to win the Super Bowl with Wentz on the sideline. (As a Celtics fan, I’ve watched Gordon Hayward go down to a season-ending injury and watch the team flourish without him. In conjunction with the rehabbing of the injury, it has been difficult for Hayward to get back to where he was, both mentally and physically.) Last year, Wentz was just 5-6 as a starter (while Foles was 4-1). Interestingly, his completion percentage was much better than in 2017 and he was actually averaging more yards per game with a similar interception percentage. The big changes? A higher sack rate and drastic drop-offs in TDs and rushing yards. The saks and rushing indicate that he was much less mobile, understandably, after the injury. The TD percentage could be indicative of natural regression or just a worse offense around him. The ceiling for Wentz this year is another MVP-caliber year, but there’s also a possibility he’s nothing more than a league-average quarterback at this point.
Washington Redskins: Who emerges on this offense?
There’s understandably not a lot of optimism for the Washington offense this season. The defense looks up to the challenge of doing its part, but it may have to do more than that to win games, as it is difficult to see where points will come from this unit. With Alex Smith having suffered an injury which very well may end his football career, the Redskins get to choose between Colt McCoy, Case Keenum, and Dwayne Haskins at quarterback. McCoy, listed at #1 on the depth chart but unlikely to win the position due to nagging injury, is 7-20 as a starter in the NFL. Case Keenum is more interesting, as his career includes an 0-8 season with the Texans, but also an 11-3 season with the Vikings. Most recently, however, Keenum disappointed in Denver, going 6-10 with only 18 TDs and a concerning 15 interceptions. Dwayne Haskins is a rookie out of Ohio State who could be promising. Most likely, Keenum will start the season with the caveat that poor play could give way to Haskins. The receiving corps is mostly uninspiring but has room for someone to emerge out of Josh Doctson, Cam Simms, Trey Quinn, and others. There is hope at tight end, but not a lot of it. Jordan Reed is talented, but can rarely stay healthy and appears to have suffered a concussion in the preseason. Considering his far-too-extensive concussion history, this will likely keep him out indefinitely. Behind Reed on the depth chart is Vernon Davis, a 35-year old tight end who still has something left in the tank, but won’t inspire much more as he drew less than 3 targets per game last year. The running back position, though still a pretty big question mark, is probably the biggest strength of the team. Adrian Peterson just had his 8th career 1,000-yard rushing season and added 7 TDs. They also have Derrius Guice, a second-round selection from the draft two years ago who appeared promising before tearing his ACL in last year’s preseason. Additionally, they still have receiving specialist Chris Thompson at the position. Anyway, I’ve written far too much about this uninspired offense, but it feels at least one of these weapons has to be relevant. Otherwise, this would have to be one of the worst offenses in NFL history.
AFC East
Buffalo Bills: What happens in this backfield?
Oddly enough, the 2018 Bills were a top-10 rushing offense. However, the running backs didn’t play a large role as their leading rusher was quarterback Josh Allen. This year, the team brings in veterans LeSean McCoy and Frank Gore at the top of the depth chart, followed by T.J. Yeldon and 3rd-round rookie Devin Singletary. Will McCoy (31) and Gore (36) be able to stay young enough to maintain productive roles, or will we see Singletary take over at some point and provide a spark to the offense?
Miami Dolphins: What is going on with these running backs?
It seems no one knows who really tops the Miami depth chart at running back, or if it really matters. Kenyan Drake was expected by most to be the top back with the exit of Frank Gore, but Kalen Ballage has seen as much or more work with the first team in training camp. Both are coming off a season of 4.5+ YPC and a TD for about every 30 rushing attempts (whereas Gore never got in the endzone on the ground), though Drake had higher volume and significant success in the receiving game. Regardless of whether one of these players takes a lead role or if they truly share the backfield, this should be an interesting team to watch at the running back position.
New England Patriots: Where do the targets go?
The Patriots return target hogs Julian Edelman and James White, both of whom are shoo-ins to reprise their roles with triple-digit target shares. However, with Gronkowski retiring, Chris Hogan joining the Panthers, and unfortunately not being able to count of Josh Gordon with confidence (since writing this, Gordon has been conditionally reinstated), they may be missing targets 3, 4, and 5 from last year’s offense. As good as White and Edelman are, there has to be more than 2 targets for Tom Brady. Will they give more targets to running backs not named James White (i.e. second-year player Sony Michel and rookie Damien Harris)? Will first-round selection N’Keal Harry become a focal point? Will the tight end still be a functional part of the offense without Gronk? Or will someone else emerge as a third or fourth option?
New York Jets: Will Le’Veon Bell be worth the contract?
In addition to joining a new team, we haven’t seen Bell play in over a season. There are now a few question marks about him. I’ve been hearing people say that the Pittsburgh offense didn’t miss a beat without him. James Conner definitely had success, but the last time Bell played for the Steelers, he had nearly 2,000 yards rushing+receiving. Conner was on a great 16-game TD pace and about 1,800 yards, but I truly don’t believe he moved the ball as effectively as Bell, especially in the passing game. This isn’t to say that Conner isn’t an excellent back and that Pittsburgh won’t have a great offense with him. The point is I do believe Bell is an elite running back. The question is: Will he still look elite in the Jets offense?
