Friday, January 23, 2015

2014 NFL Recap: AFC West

My Preseason Predictions:
1.Denver Broncos (13-3)
2.San Diego Chargers (8-8)
3.Kansas City Chiefs (6-10)
4.Oakland Raiders (4-12)

Actual Standings:
1.Denver Broncos (12-4)
2.Kansas City Chiefs (9-7)
3.San Diego Chargers (9-7)
4.Oakland Raiders (3-13)

Denver Broncos: The 2014 Denver Broncos will go down as one of the few elite NFL teams in NFL history that had a complete change in identity almost 3/4 of the way through the season. From September through most of November, the Broncos were riding Peyton Manning and the passing attack that shattered records and led the Broncos to the Super Bowl in 2013. Then out of nowhere in the last five games, Manning's play started to dip considerably and the Broncos became a run-first team behind C.J. Anderson- who started the season behind Montee Ball and Ronnie Hillman on the depth chart. No matter how they were attacking you, the Broncos offense once again put up huge numbers throughout the year. The receiving corps anchored by Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas and newcomer Emmanuel Sanders was without question one of the best overall units in the league in 2014. Demaryius recovered beautifully after a rough start to the year and ended up having the best year of his highly impressive young career, Julius was the most monstrous redzone target in the league for the first two months of the season before an ankle injury slowed him down in mid-November, and Sanders managed to fill the void left by Eric Decker and then some as he registered the first 100 reception, 1,000+ yard season of his career. As I alluded to earlier, the late season boost Anderson gave this offense was huge and kept this team on track when their traditional pass-heavy attack began to falter. Anderson emerged from obscurity in Week 9 against the Raiders after injuries sidelined both Ball and Hillman, and immediately emerged as the best back on the roster. Anderson is an absolute bulldozer of a runner who possesses great pass-catching ability for a power back and the strong nose for the endzone for any running back to be truly great. With his consistently strong play over the second half of the season, Anderson seems like the real deal. If he can keep this going into the next season, the Broncos will have finally found the workhorse back they've desperately desired since Clinton Portis got traded after the 2003 season. Of course, the Broncos having a powerhouse offense is not the least bit surprising. What the 2014 Broncos had that that the 2013 Broncos sorely lacked was a great defense. John Elway's aggressive rebuilding approach paid off as defensive end DeMarcus Ware, cornerback Aqib Talib and safety T.J. Ward all made notable contributions in their debut season with the team. While all of the new additions delivered, it was the return of two incumbent players, cornerback Chris Harris Jr. and outside linebacker Von Miller, from injury that really made this unit standout. Harris Jr. was the only starting corner in the NFL to not allow a touchdown all season long and the Broncos just generously rewarded him for his outstanding play by handing him a five-year/$42.5 million contract extension. As for Miller, he was every bit of the dominant pass-rushing, run-stuffing force he was prior to the torn ACL that cut his 2013 season short, finishing the year with 59 tackles and 14 sacks. Having these two healthy made a world of difference for the Broncos defense and their play was a big reason why this defense was near-elite this season. With Manning on a noticeable decline and contemplating retirement, and at least one of the Thomas brothers potentially leaving in free agency, the prospects for the 2015 Broncos are murky to say the least. If you're a Broncos fan, I'd cross your fingers for next year and relish the memories of your recent success in case things go south next year.           

Kansas City Chiefs: They may not have returned to the playoffs, but the 2014 Chiefs were pretty much the exact same team they were a year ago. It was seriously Groundhog Day-esque as their offense once again ran through Jammal Charles, quarterback Alex Smith maintained his reputation as an effective game-manager who rarely turns the ball over and Justin Houston retained his title as one of the most dominant pass-rushers in the league by leading the league in sacks  with 22. There was a few surprises amidst all the continuity on the Chiefs. Their young offensive line held up far better than expected thanks to a big improvement from second-year tackle Eric Fisher and a borderline All-Pro season from center Rodney Hudson and their mostly prestige-less secondary ended up finishing second in the league against the pass. However, the biggest surprise for the Chiefs this season was the fact that not a single one of their wide receivers were able to reach the endzone all season long. The Chiefs don't exactly have a loaded receiving corps, but their collective inability to reach the endzone even one time this season is mind-blowing. It's a feat so lackluster that it's almost impressive. The Chiefs are far from the flashiest team in the NFL, but as long as they have a solid defense that keeps points off the board and an offense that can manage the clock and not make mistakes, they'll annually be in the hunt for the playoffs.  

Oakland Raiders: Since their Super Bowl appearance in 2002, the Raiders have been one of the worst, if not the worst team in the NFL. The 2014 Raiders lived up to that shameful billing once again as they failed to get much of anything going on either side of the ball for most of the season. They finished in the bottom half of the league in every major statistical category except pass defense (where they ranked in the dead center of the league at 16th) and allowed a ton of points and scored barley any in over half of the games they played this season. This failure wasn't exactly surprising as a majority of their starters were either rookies, veterans far past their prime or journeyman who wouldn't be starting on pretty much any other team in the league. To be fair, there was some bright spots amongst all the misery The Raiders served up this season. This year's draft class appears to be a success as their first two choices, outside linebacker Khalil Mack and quarterback Derek Carr, both impressed in their rookie year. Mack was great against the run all season and started to heat up as a pass-rusher in the last month of the season where he picked up three of his four sacks on the year. Their 3-13 record may not show it, but Carr had a pretty solid season under center. He was pretty accurate and managed to make a lot of plays despite the general lack of talent around him. There's certainly some room for improvement with his mechanics and pocket presence, but Carr appears to be on the right track to blossom into a legit franchise quarterback over the next few years. Second-year running back Latavius Murray also shined when he was thrust into the spotlight late in the season after he picked up a ridiculous 90-yard touchdown run against the Chiefs. Murray saw an increased workload after shining in spot duty and appeared to be the real deal as he finished the season averaging over five yards a carry. With Mack, Carr and Murray joining other young talent like outside linebacker Sio Moore, inside linebacker Miles Burris and much improved cornerback D.J. Hayden, the Raiders are establishing a promising young nucleus of players that could finally turn this team around. New head coach Jack Del Rio will have plenty of cap space and a roster with some serious budding talent on it heading into 2015 and even if it doesn't pan out right away, this is easily the most promise the Raiders have had since Rich Gannon, Rod Woodson, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown led them to their last playoff berth 12 years ago.  

San Diego Chargers: Much like their divisional counterparts in Kansas City, The Chargers were able to follow up their playoff bid from a year ago with a solid season that saw them fall just of short picking up back-to-back postseason appearances. However completely unlike the Chiefs, the Chargers had a whole different set of player step up and strengths as a team emerge this season. Their secondary made a wild transformation from an abysmal unit that ranked 29th in the league in 2013 to a very stout one that ranked fourth in the league this season. What makes this sudden turnaround that much more remarkable is that save for cornerback Brandon Flowers-who was acquired in free agency after he was released by the Chiefs- this is the exact same corps of starters that were got torched on the regular in 2013. Flowers certainly helped matters by returning to the dominant form that was completely absent during his last couple of seasons with the Chiefs, but it was the equally impressive play and sharp improvement from cornerback Shareece Wright and safety Marcus Gilchrist that pushed this unit over the edge. The Chargers seem to have finally formed a complete secondary around perennial Pro Bowl safety Eric Weddle and it has helped out their whole defense immensely. On the flip side, the rushing attack that got them so far in 2013 was all but completely gone this season thanks to injuries to Ryan Matthews and Danny Woodhead. Matthews missed significant time with knee and ankle ailments and Woodhead went down for the year in Week 3 with a broken fibula. Without the two-headed monster of Matthews and Woodhead on the field, replacements Branden Oliver, Donald Brown and Ronnie Brown couldn't get much of anything going, which forced this offense to become relatively one-dimensional for most of the season. If there is any silver lining for the Chargers, Matthews and Woodhead looked good when they were on the field this season, so their return to full strength should remedy their problems in the run game. The one thing that carried over to this year's Chargers from 2013 was the strong play of quarterback Phillip Rivers. Even with a highly disappointing season from top wideout Keenan Allen, Rivers had yet another season with over 4,000 yards and 30 TD's. Given the inconsistent play from all his receivers not named Antonio Gates- who proved his doubters wrong by having another outstanding season at age 34,  it's pretty damn remarkable that Rivers was able to put up the numbers that he did. He may not have the eye-popping resume of a Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers, but Rivers is undoubtedly amongst the upper echelon of quarterbacks in the NFL. The Chargers have a pretty talented roster and if they can sure up their front seven and run the ball on a more consistent basis, they won't be sitting on the couch come playoff time next year.

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