The 2008 "Who needs to step up" thread

[MTK]

Ok we all know that Jason Campbell is at the top of this list, so let's just cross him off and move on. Who else needs to step up this year to help get the team back to the playoffs? I'm going to start by identifying 3 players that I think are critical to this year's success.

1. Santana Moss - When healthy and focused he's a gamebreaker. He needs to get on track early on and establish a good rapport with Jason Campbell. If he can recapture some of that 2005 magic the offense is in for a big year.

2. LaRon Landry - We started to see some glimpses of what he's capable of at the end of last season. When he took over FS for Sean Taylor he almost seemed like a clone of ST... flying around, making the big hits, and coming up with 2 big INTs in the playoffs against Seattle. He needs to take over where Sean Taylor left off for this defense. Big shoes to fill indeed, but I think he's capable of being a game changer at safety.

3. Clinton Portis - WhilePortis certainly did not have a bad year in 2007, he has plenty of room for improvement. Now in an offense that will use more of the zone blocking schemes that he likes, we need to see a more explosive Clinton Portis and less of the 3 yards and a cloud of dust we saw last year. Heading into this season in better shape should help him get off to a better start.