BigHairedAristocrat
03-12-2013, 11:31 AM
Just wanted to add a couple thoughts about this teams chances of success this year, even with our ability to do much of anything in free agency being limited.
We've essentially resigned the entire offense from 2012. Last year, our offense was literally unstoppable. Defenses simply could not stop our offense from scoring touchdowns. The only thing that stopped our offense were mistakes. Penalties, dropped passes, and errant throws. Thats what stopped drives and forced field goals and punts.
Consider that this will be the 2nd year of the team running the RG3 version of this offense. Every key contributor on offense is either in their prime, or years away from entering their prime - and they were still as good as they were last year. I see no reason to think our offense will take a step back in 2013. They should be even better. Last year we were 4th in the league averaging 27 points per game. The Pats lead the league with 35 points per game. Assuming RGIII is healthy, I see no reason why we should not EXPECT our offense to score 35 points per game this year. That's enough to win just about every game, even with a horrible defense.
Speaking of our defense, we are all concerned about our secondary. until our late season run, the secondary was beyond awful and ranked 32nd in the league. But heres the thing, when your defense is 32nd in the league, you really cant get any worse.
Our front 7 is all coming back, and we'll have a healthy orakpo. We will have a healthy pass rush, which we lacked essentially all of last year. That will cover over some of our secondary issues. But our secondary is bound to improve. They tightened up in the later part of last year. This is a very deep FA and draft for secondary players. Our 2nd round pick is almost certainly going to net us a safety or corner that can start at some point this season.
For those reasons, i dont necessarily beleive we'll take a step back in 2013. In fact, i think we'll take steps forward. Its the NFL, so anything can happen, but i dont see how we wont be able to match or improve on our 10-6 record from last year. We just won't be able to improve as much - or as fast - as we would have without the cap penalty. But we will improve.
We've essentially resigned the entire offense from 2012. Last year, our offense was literally unstoppable. Defenses simply could not stop our offense from scoring touchdowns. The only thing that stopped our offense were mistakes. Penalties, dropped passes, and errant throws. Thats what stopped drives and forced field goals and punts.
Consider that this will be the 2nd year of the team running the RG3 version of this offense. Every key contributor on offense is either in their prime, or years away from entering their prime - and they were still as good as they were last year. I see no reason to think our offense will take a step back in 2013. They should be even better. Last year we were 4th in the league averaging 27 points per game. The Pats lead the league with 35 points per game. Assuming RGIII is healthy, I see no reason why we should not EXPECT our offense to score 35 points per game this year. That's enough to win just about every game, even with a horrible defense.
Speaking of our defense, we are all concerned about our secondary. until our late season run, the secondary was beyond awful and ranked 32nd in the league. But heres the thing, when your defense is 32nd in the league, you really cant get any worse.
Our front 7 is all coming back, and we'll have a healthy orakpo. We will have a healthy pass rush, which we lacked essentially all of last year. That will cover over some of our secondary issues. But our secondary is bound to improve. They tightened up in the later part of last year. This is a very deep FA and draft for secondary players. Our 2nd round pick is almost certainly going to net us a safety or corner that can start at some point this season.
For those reasons, i dont necessarily beleive we'll take a step back in 2013. In fact, i think we'll take steps forward. Its the NFL, so anything can happen, but i dont see how we wont be able to match or improve on our 10-6 record from last year. We just won't be able to improve as much - or as fast - as we would have without the cap penalty. But we will improve.