NFL 2011, The Bottom Five

After a long and boring lock out and a fast and exciting preseason, the NFL regular season has begun. As is customary around here at USTN we are going to breakdown the top five and bottom five teams in the league. This will give you a chance to see who will be playing with the Super Bowl in their sites and who will be playing with Andrew Luck in theirs. Our football super-fan Tyler will be covering the best five, so look for his post shortly. I, Kswiss, your less football obsessed author, will be previewing the worst five teams.

In past years you could start your list with the Lions, Raiders and Browns in ink at the bottom and work on filling in the final two from there. This year, picking the five worst teams was a bit of a challenge. There appears to be a lot of mediocrity in the league this year. Only two of the five teams jumped out at me as guaranteed bad. The one common characteristic you will see in all five teams is questions about the ability of the QB. The NFL is a QB driven league and quality play at that position is required to find success. In the past teams with weak QB talent tend to struggle and this year should be no different.


Carolina Panthers (2010 Season Record 2-14)



After a relatively successful nine year run, the Panthers and John Fox parted ways this offseason. That dismissal marked the beginning of the rebuilding mode for the Panthers. To start the rebuilding, they hired a new coaching staff lead by Ron Rivera. He comes from San Diego where he was the defensive coordinator. He is looking to change the style of offensive play in Carolina from Fox's ball control driven offense to something with a little more passing and trickery. Although still expect them to be a run heavy team because of their talented Smash and Dash RB tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. These two provide provide a good starting point for new team and should allow the new coach to at least stay close in most games.

In another rebuilding move, the Panthers drafted QB Cam Newton in the first round. They are planning on starting Cam Newton at QB in week 1. He is in for a real challenge. Newton is a rookie, a scrambling QB, he comes from a college spread offense and didn't get any offseason training camps to learn the offense. All of these things don't bode well for him finding success in his first NFL year.

As if being a rebuilding team wasn't enough of a challenge, Carolina also gets the unfortunately luck of playing in arguably the toughest division in football. The Saint, Falcon and Buccaneers are all predicted to be good this year and all play the Panthers twice. Those games alone could add up to 6 losses. Luckily for the Panthers those games will also provide valuable experience for their team to build on.




Buffalo Bills (2010 Season Record 4-12)



The good news for the Bills is starting QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has shown he can compete at an NFL level. So for the first time in a while the Bills look to have their QB situation under control. The bad news is even with a solid QB the offense is a mess.

The problems start with the o-line. Even though it was an obvious weakness last season, the Bills didn't improve the line at all through the draft. They didn't take an o-lineman until their fifth pick (4th rounder Chris Hairston).  They struggle to pass protect and run block, which keeps the Bills from having any real strength on offense. It is one of the worst lines in the entire NFL. Fitzpatrick won't have much time to think and should expect to get hit lots this year as opposing players breeze through the porous line. The terrible offense line will also hurt the running game. Runningbacks Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller are going to be left looking for holes, that don't exist, to run through.

Although the offense is the weak spot, the Bill's defense isn't much better. As a unit the defense ranked 28th last season. This year they don't look to be much better. In the offseason, the Bills lost their two leading tacklers in LB Paul Posluszny (to the Jacksonville Jaguars) and DB Donte Whitner (to the San Francisco 49ers). Posluszny's departure will hurt the team the most, as he was their best defender. To fill his space they brought in Nick Barnett, who was good in Greenbay a few seasons ago, but had a serious injury last year that ended his season. The Bills are really going to have to hope a lot of people step up big this year.




Jacksonville Jaguars (2010 Season Record 8-8)

With the release of starting QB David Garrard the Jaguars find themselves relying on Luke McCown and Blaine Gabbert to step up. Not surprisingly they also find themselves tumbling down the preseason rankings. Although Garrard was never a world beater, he did provide stability and quality play at the most important position. McCown has failed to stick everywhere he has played and Gabbert is a rookie. This does not bode well for the Jacksonville passing attack.

In addition to the weak passing game, the Jacksonville defense has major problems. The secondary is a mess. Last season none of the DB were any good and the defensive line and LB failed to get any pressure on QB. This combination resulted in a terrible 250.3 ypg passing last year. This year the DB are still not very good. However, the LB and defensive line have been improved at least in name recognition. The Jags added Paul Posluzny and Aaron Kampman. If the defense can get pressure on the QB, than they might be able to cover up their terrible coverage down field by forcing quick throws and getting sacks.

The absent air assault and weak defense in Jacksonville is going to put all the pressure on star RB Maurice Jones-Drew and his offensive line. Jones-Drew has been the full time starter since the departure of Fred Taylor two seasons ago. During his time as the feature back, MJD has averaged 4.4 yd/carry, which is very solid. The problem is he has also taken quite the beating over this time. This year, because of the with the lack of other offensive options, opposing defenses will be aiming for him more than ever. If Jones-Drew goes down with injury so does any hope the Jaguars have a respectable season.




Denver Broncos (2010 Season Record 4-12)

The Broncos are the one of two teams on this list where the starting QB isn't a major problem. They kept Kyle Orton, who threw for 3653 yds, 20 TD and only 9 INT. However, even with a good starting QB, they still manage to have a QB problem in Denver. Namely third string passer Tim Tebow and the fan's and ownership's want for him to play. Tebow isn't good at playing QB, at least not at an NFL level. His primary weapon is his ability to rush. He is essentially worthless at passing. At the NFL level run first QB have a very limit history of success; early career Michael Vick is the only player that I can think of. If Orton falters at all in the beginning of the season and new coach John Fox gives into the pressure to play Tebow, the Broncos don’t stand a chance.

The biggest problem with Denver's team is definitely their defense. They finished 32nd in the league in defense giving up 29.4 ppg and 390.8 ypg. To help sure up the point prevention unit the Broncos brought in Defensive minded head coach John Fox. He should help bring in a new emphasis and philosophy to the defense. While in Carolina he was know for his strong defensive teams. The Broncos also drafted LB Von Miller to help the defense. In addition to Fox and Miller, the return of Elvis Dumervil, who missed all of 2010 with an injury, will be a huge upgrade. However, Dumervil is often considered a one dimensional player and he can only help so much. The other Denver players are going to have to step up if they are going to find success as a unit. Things are looking better for Denver this year on the defensive side of the ball, but, considering how bad they were last year, that doesn't mean much.




Cincinnati Bengals (2010 Season Record 4-12)

In my mind the Bengals are the worst team in the NFL and by a large margin. Just a few years ago the Bengals had a strong passing offense capable of putting points up on the board in bunches. Now, all of the players that made those past offenses successful have moved on, leaving the team depleted. After a heated feud with management, star QB Carson Palmer is set to retire, rather than return to the Bengals for another season. Talented WR Chad Ochocinco has moved on to New England, where Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will probably find a way to keep him a star. Ochocinco's main counterpart WR TJ Houshmandzadeh moved on to Seattle, than Baltimore. Finally, tragedy struck the final part of the Bengals talented WR trio, Chris Henry, when he was killed last year.

The responsibility of replacing the past premium offensive players falls onto a new core, including Andy Dalton, A.J. Green and Jordan Shipley. All of these guys are young and have potential, but haven't yet proved themselves. A common belief is that rookies will struggle this year because of the shortened offseason and missed practices, caused by the labor dispute. If this is the case the Bengals are going to have a huge challenge to overcome. There will be learning pains.

The defensive side of the ball looks to be pretty mediocre. The biggest problem is in the secondary. The pass defense is so weak that the Bengals actually traded for ex-Seahawk Kelly Jennings. This is the same Kelly Jennings that Seahawks fans were constantly forced to watch blow coverage after coverage. As for the linebackers and D-line, the Bengals should do ok.