San Francisco 49ers and the All-American Football Conference (AAFC)

 

When World War II ended in 1945, the Bay Area was booming. Thousands of veterans were returning and opportunity was in the air. The vegetable gardens south of the city were bought up by Henry Doelger, whose thousands of side-by-side homes at Westlake Village inspired Malvina Reynolds to later write Pete Seeger’s song, “Little Boxes.”

People were hungry for football as many of the local colleges had disbanded their football programs during the war. The All-American Football Conference was formed the next year, 1946, with eight teams. They wisely placed teams in cities where the NFL already had teams to give them competition.

The AAFC consisted of the Baltimore Colts, Brooklyn Dodgers, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Rockets, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Dons, New York Yankees, and San Francisco 49ers.

49ers fans affectionately regard Bill Walsh as the king of coaches. Well, fans, we had a guy in 1946 who had silver hair like Bill. In fact, his nickname was the Silver Fox. He was a brilliant coach who featured some of the most explosive offenses in football history. His name was Lawrence T. “Buck” Shaw.

Like Walsh, he came to the Niners after a very successful career as a college coach at Santa Clara. Buck spent six years there and amassed a 47-10-4 record that included two Sugar Bowl victories for the Broncos. The fact that they had disbanded their football program made Buck available to the Niners.

 

His AAFC Record as Head Coach

1946: In their inaugural season, Buck led the Niners to a 9-5 record, with Frankie Albert running the T-formation and passing to Alyn Beals, a great wide receiver who made All-Pro all four years the team played in the AAFC.

1947: The following season the Niners were also successful, posting an 8-4-2 record. Cleveland won the title for the second consecutive season and featured Otto Graham and Marion Motley.

Needing to improve in 1948 in order to compete with Cleveland, Buck brought in Joe Perry and Veryl Lillywhite to complement his running back tandem of All-Pro Johnny Strzykalski and the tough running Len Eshmont.

It worked. Lillywhite ran for a 59-yard TD in his first carry from scrimmage.

The Niners started out the season at 10-0, destroying most of their opponents. In those ten  games, the 49ers outscored their opponents by 376 to 142. The Niners averaged 37.6 points per game, scoring over 40 twice and over 50 once. They allowed 14.2 points per game.

The only problem: Cleveland also started out 10-0. In Week 11, the Niners faced the Browns in Cleveland. In a close and hard-fought game, the Niners made a couple of critical mistakes that resulted in a 14-7 loss. Beals dropped a wide open TD pass, and a fumble at the one-yard-line ended our chances.

The Niners took it out on the Brooklyn Dodgers the next week on the road to the tune of 63-14, and returned home to face Cleveland again, this time in the friendly confines of Kezar. The game was sold out two weeks in advance. I attended that game at the age of six.

In one of the greatest games ever played in Kezar, the Browns squeaked out a 31-28 win. They won the next week to finish the season undefeated, then defeated the Yankees in the championship game to become the only team besides the Miami Dolphins to play an entire season undefeated.

1949: The Niners continued to be an outstanding team, finishing the season at 9-3. They swamped the Yankees in the playoff game and lost to the Browns and Otto Graham again in the Championship Game, 21-7.

We finished our AAFC experience 38-14-2.

The next season the league merged with the NFL. Three teams from the AAFC were accepted into the senior league—the Baltimore Colts, the Niners, and the Cleveland Browns. The Browns immediately won the NFL title in their first season—1950. Since Cleveland already had a team, the Rams were relocated to Los Angeles. 

Buck Shaw continued to coach the 49ers through the 1954 season. His record as a Niner coach was 72-40-4. His teams scored 3003 points and allowed just 2167 points. Buck was then hired by the Philadelphia Eagles and led them to the NFL title.

 

Pressure Is Key For the Saints 2009 Defense

Coming into the 2009 season I have spent time wondering if the Saints have done everything they need to repair the defense. Lead by QB Drew Brees, the Saints are a team with one of the most feared offenses in the NFL. The Saints have brought in a couple of veterans on the defensive side of the ball, but brought in depth at every position as well.

The players I feel that will have the biggest impact for the Saints in 2009 are veterans Darren Sharper and Jabari Greer. Sharper, the current career interceptions leader in the NFL, brings leadership to a young secondary. He will most likely start at the free safety position and will compete to stay the current interceptions leader.

Jabari Greer, coming over from Buffalo, has a pair of pick six’s in 2008, but is not a ball hawk. The speedy cornerback has struggled staying healthy, which to me is a concern. Does anybody remember why Jason David was starting because of injuries?

The Saints have addressed a lot along the secondary and brought in depth at every position, but I do not feel the Saints have done enough to become a top 10 defense yet.  The Saints have yet to address what can make or break some defenses, and that is getting after the quarterback. 

If you take a look at some of the top defenses in the NFL you will see that they all have a solid amount of sacks. Getting sacks doesn’t always mean being the best defense, but it can benefit any secondary. If the Saints want to cause more turnovers in 2009 than 2008, they will simply need to get after the quarterback on a consistent basis.

Bringing pressure to the quarterback does a lot more than just cause interceptions—it creates incompletions and can shake up nearly any quarterback. If a quarterback is flushed out of the pocket, it takes him time to reset his footing and throw the ball.

Most quarterbacks are not as great on the run as they are in the pocket, which will cause more incompletions, sacks, interceptions, and last but not least, will get the opposing teams offense off of the field.

The Saints have a solid defensive line starting in the inside with second year player Sedrick Ellis. Ellis will demand double teams and will let loose any blitzers and the defensive ends. If Rod Coleman can return to even half of the form he had when he was with a division rival, the Saints could have an outstanding amount of pressure in the inside which will result in the quarterback being flushed out the pocket.

If the Saints defensive ends can return to their top performance you can see the sack total for the Saints rise. Defensive ends Will Smith, Charles Grant, Bobby McCray, and Paul Spicer will be expected to bring pressure from the outside, forcing the quarterback to either take a step inside to the defensive tackles or get rid of the ball.

Then comes the pressure from either the secondary or the linebackers. Expect the new defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, to blitz his linebackers and safeties often. Williams wants his defensive players to be aggressive—not let the offense attack first, but attack the offense first.  That is the style his defenses play with.

Expect the linebackers of the Saints to blitz a lot more than they have in past years which will keep some pressure off of the secondary and the defensive linemen.

This is just my belief on what the Saints need to do in 2009 to boost up the defense. You can bring in as many great corners as you want, but pressure is needed or the quarterback will find the open man. The  more pressure the Saints bring the more turn overs.

Randy Lerner: Tolerating Failure in Cleveland

With a little more than six weeks to go until training camp starts, it’s time to look at what the Browns have done so far.

 

Since the end of last season, owner Randy Lerner has hired a new head coach and general manager. They, in turn, have almost completely overturned the rest of the coaching staff and have begun rebuilding the roster from the ground up.

 

But I’m going to focus on Lerner.

 

Lerner’s track record with the Cleveland Browns has been one of absenteeism. It would be fair to say the Browns are not his top priority. He bought the Aston Villa F.C. in the autumn of 2006, and, anecdotally, it is known that being a part of the English Premiership Association was something he wanted for years.

 

My powers of ESP have failed me, so I can’t read Lerner’s mind, but actions speak louder than words in this matter.

 

What has he done with the Browns since inheriting it from his father in October 2002?

 

Lerner has gone through two front offices in seven years with nothing to show for it. His mediocre teams have managed just one playoff appearance (a loss to the Steelers).

 

That’s it.

 

The only thing I can say about Lerner’s time as an owner to date is that he has an amazing tolerance for failure.

 

Head Coach Butch Davis resigned during the 2004 season when it became apparent he’d lost the team and wasn’t going to be retained anyway. Then Lerner hired a new head coach and general manager, Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage.

 

They only produced one winning season that upon reflection was more a scheduling fluke and good timing than fielding a talented, productive team.

 

In fact, the Savage/Crennel duo produced one of the most unprofessional teams in the league. Players were not held accountable for their actions and the sloppy play on Sundays was met with indifferent shrugs and vague promises to get better.

 

Once again, losing was accepted and failure was tolerated in Cleveland.

 

It is maddening to look back on the last few years and see the Savage/Crennel team having more opportunities to fail than most any other organization would’ve even dreamt about giving in the name of continuity and patience.

 

(I’m looking at you, Detroit.)

 

Conversely, since Lerner became chairman of Aston Villa, they have won the Intertoto Cup. While I’m not sure what the correlation to American Football would be, at least his English team has won SOMETHING.

 

(I know the Intertoto Cup has been abolished and it was kind of a consolation prize to begin with, but that’s not the point.)

 

In Cleveland, not only has Lerner allowed his front office to wallow in failure, he avoids the media and has no bio page on the official Cleveland Browns website. You have to do an internet search to find a picture of the guy.

 

It’s one thing to be a hands-off owner, it’s another thing to just not show up.  I couldn’t conceive of running a sports team and being as hands-off as Lerner is.

 

I’m glad he’s not as overbearing as a Jerry Jones or George Steinbrenner, but those guys both have multiple championships and don’t tolerate multiple losing seasons. Mimicking SOME of their qualities would be beneficial.

 

Tolerating failure in Cleveland isn’t unique to the Browns, though.

 

When you look around the other teams in Cleveland, you see the Indians have fallen into the same funk as the Browns had, and then there are the Cavaliers.

 

Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry has done everything he can to bring a winning team to Cleveland. He built the 2008-09 team to beat the Celtics, since it was assumed that’s who we would have to face in the Eastern Conference Finals, only to be beaten by Orlando.

 

Now the Cavs have Shaquille O’Neal, and Ferry once again has said anything less than a championship is not acceptable.

 

With the Indians, General Manager Mark Shapiro and coach Eric Wedge are seemingly joined at the hip and spend so much time tinkering and counseling patience, they’ve forgotten you’re supposed to win games and get rid of players who don’t produce.

 

I don’t want to hear any complaints about injuries because every single player that went on the disabled list this year wasn’t producing prior to their injury, and injuries are never an excuse for losing. Injuries should be an opportunity for the team to show their depth and showcase new talent.

 

But not in Cleveland.

 

As long as you “grind it out” during the season, you get to keep your job with the Indians. Once again, winning doesn’t seem to be the goal.

 

However, talking further about the ineptitude of the Indians is its own column (perhaps a novel), so I’ll shut up about the Indians now.

 

In conclusion, if the Browns show no progress this year, or worse, regress further, Lerner has no track record of holding them accountable.

 

He certainly won’t be in the office.

With Contract Year Looming, What Can We Expect From Braylon Edwards?

The Cleveland Browns have quite a decorated history of wide receivers.  Dub Jones, Dante Lavelli, Marion Motley, Gary Collins, Paul Warfield, Dave Logan and Webster Slaughter are among some of the greatest to ever play in Cleveland.

However, the Browns have also had their fair share of problematic wideouts as well.  Who can forget Quincy Morgan, Kevin Johnson, Andre Rison, Dennis Northcutt and even Donte Stallworth?  Well, if you haven’t forgotten them, you’ve certainly spent the past few years trying your hardest.

Yet, through this mixed bag of gems and busts, no receiver has been as enigmatic and complicated as the Browns’ current No. 1 target.  Yes, when it comes to an overall inexplicable and thought provoking career path, it gets no better than Braylon Edwards.

If you’ve been following Cleveland football for the past few years, I don’t have to tell you what it is about “B-Easy” that makes him so perplexing. 

You probably saw his rookie season in 2005, where he showed quite a bit of potential before being sidelined due to injury.  In the years following, you watched Edwards blossom from a pretty good receiver on a terrible team to a breath taking, record breaking, highlight making touchdown machine.

Yes, after the breakthrough 2007 season, which ended at the Pro Bowl, hopes were high for Edwards coming into 2008.

And then, it happened.

On the first ball thrown to him, Edwards broke open for a long fade route against Dallas in the season opener.  It would’ve been a sure touchdown, a catch which could’ve changed the tune of the game.

Instead, it slipped through Edwards’ hands.

This sight, met with groans so loud you could hear them in Canada, became the broken record of the Browns ’08 season.  By the end of the year, Edwards was a marked man in Cleveland. 

Fans turned on him.  They let him hear it anytime he dropped a ball he undoubtedly would’ve hung onto in years previous.  By the end of the season, No. 17 jerseys were becoming an endangered species at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

He threw more gas on the fire when he claimed fans were only hard on him because he played at the University of Michigan.  As 2008 came to an end, Edwards had put together one of his worst seasons as a pro, both on the field and off.

Now, Edwards is embarking on what could be the most important season of his professional career.  In the final year of his current contract with Cleveland, 2009 will be the utter definition of “make or break.”

Every player in any sport knows the importance of a contract season.  Edwards’ will have one final year to prove to the Browns and the rest of the NFL that he is indeed a player who deserves top dollar.  A year full of impact plays and incredible stats will result in huge contract offers from around the league.  A poor season will lead to salary cuts, as the world will see how, more often than not, Edwards just doesn’t merit a blockbuster deal.

So, with this in mind, which Braylon Edwards will Browns fans be seeing this year?  Will he be breaking touchdown records again?  Or will he be trying to see just how many times a receiver can lead the league in drops and still retain his position as No. 1 wideout?

Its no secret how Browns fans feel about Edwards.  They’ve grown tired of his antics and wish he’d just shut up and catch the ball.  When trade rumors began to surface regarding a deal sending Edwards to New York, many people in Cleveland were ready to say good riddance.

Coming into this season, Edwards will no doubt still receive skepticism throughout Browns Town.  However, he could change this tune by simply showing off the skills fans came to love two years ago.

There are a few reasons to believe Edwards may break out of his current funk this year.

Let’s face it, nobody understands the importance of this season quite like Edwards.  He knows everyone in the NFL will be keeping tabs on his stats, deciding whether or not he’ll deserve big money as a free agent in 2010. 

Due to this fact, Edwards will undoubtedly try his hardest to show his critics how his stats in 2007 were not a mirage.  Knowing how no team will give millions of dollars to a wideout with a severe case of the “dropsies,” he may spend much of this offseason working on his hands so as to become a more reliable target.

If this is indeed the case, it seems as though he has a good coaching staff to dig him out of the hole he’s put himself in.

During the team’s OTAs and voluntary mini-camps, head coach Eric Mangini worked with his staff in attempting to solve another Browns mystery–linebacker Kamerion Wimbley.  In attempts to make him more effective, Mangini and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan moved Wimbley around on the field, testing his ability in different positions.  Where the previous regime seemed intent on waiting for Wimbley to figure out his own problems, the new personnel is seeing what they can do to unlock the talent hidden in a once-threatening linebacker.

I struggle to believe this staff won’t try the same thing with Edwards.

Say what you want about how awful last year was, but the idea of Edwards being a great receiver still isn’t terribly inconceivable.  I know this, and so does the Browns front office.

With this in mind, I think the coaches will do what they can to get their big-name receiver back to his productive ways.

The new bosses already seem to be effecting Edwards.  In his post-practice interviews, he just sounds like a different player.  His quotes aren’t laced with the “me first” attitude contained in each press conference from last year.  Heck, even after being forced to practice in the rain, Edwards came up with reasons as to how it could benefit the team as a whole.

Mangini’s discipline will most likely yield results for Edwards on the field, and it may also give him a different perspective mentally.  He won’t feel the need to run around barefoot at practice, and he’ll be spending a lot of time studying the new routes and plays being implemented by offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, as the excuse of having a new coach certainly won’t earn him a pass for a terrible season.

However, while Edwards will certainly try his hardest to earn a big paycheck this year, there are more than a few factors playing against him.

The biggest enemy Edwards will face this year will be pressure.  Pressure to perform to the best of his capabilities, and pressure to do this on a weekly basis.

This will be quite a task, as I believe it was the same burden which became too heavy for him last year.

During the 2008 campaign, the Browns were expected to bust out of the AFC cellar, which lead to them being scheduled for five primetime games.  Of all the players on the roster, Edwards was the one who was supposed to anchor fantasy teams throughout the country.

Unfortunately, the spotlight became too bright for the Browns wideout.  He talked multiple times throughout the year about how he was putting too much weight on his own shoulders when it came to playing his best.  His stats continued to do anything but disprove this.

While the Browns won’t be gracing Monday Night Football as much as last year, his upcoming contract expiration may be even more of a task than performing for a huge TV audience.

He’ll also spend 2009 facing more defensive pressure than ever before. 

Regardless of his off-year last season, most defensive coordinators around the league aren’t going to sleep on Edwards.  They’ve seen what he can do when he’s on his game, and they won’t risk letting him find a rhythm on the field.

However, the biggest reason for the tough coverage he’ll receive has nothing to do with his ability to be an impact player.  Instead, it’ll be because there are no other legitimate receiving threats in Cleveland.

Rookies Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi are untested, David Patten is on the wrong side of 30, and while tight end Steve Heiden can be reliable, he won’t give defensive coordinators nightmares. 

This being said, Edwards will be a prime target for coverage regardless of how many drops he accumulates.  Try as he may, he’ll never be able to convice opposing teams to yell, “TRIPLE COVERAGE ON MIKE FURREY!”

So, will Braylon Edwards put his best foot forward this year?  I’d like to believe so.

But, will his task of becoming an impact player be more difficult than ever before? Definitely.

Its his last chance to prove he’s not an overrated prima donna, and if he comes through on top, nobody benefits more than the Browns.

Julius Peppers: How Not to Hold Out for a New Contract

The smoke has cleared on the Julius Peppers saga.

What started as an impassioned plea for a new team, contract, and position has ended with the disgruntled defensive end folding like a lawn chair and signing his franchise tender.

Further cementing Peppers’ Maginot Line is the news from the Charlotte Observer that Peppers is now open to signing an extension with the same team he so publicly condemned only months ago.

Just to recap the soap opera, Peppers first refused a contract extension after the 2007 season that would have reportedly made him the highest paid player in the NFL.

Following an embarrassing loss at home in the playoffs to the upstart Arizona Cardinals, a game where Peppers was completely ineffective, he came out through his agent and stated strongly his desire to play elsewhere.

It is now clear the Panthers never had any intention of letting him walk, and slapped the franchise tender on him soon after inking left tackle Jordan Gross to a long-term contract.

Instead of signing his tender and working the problem out behind the scenes, Peppers instead decided on taking the most rash courses of action possible.

If you’re trying to maximize your chances of being traded out of a city, first you make it legally possible for your team to do so. By not signing his tender until yesterday, Peppers made it impossible for general manger Marty Hurney to field offers from other teams. Anything else would be tampering. 

If you’re trying to maximize your chances of being traded out of a city, you don’t limit your choices to four teams, all of which your current team plays in 2009. While it was most likely an attempt to have the tag moved off of him, all it did was harden Hurney’s resolve and alienate fans.

If you’re trying to maximize your chances of being traded out of a city, you don’t declare your preference to play a position in the 3-4 you’ve never played before, especially when everyone in the NFL knows you’re not built for it. 

All of these perplexing decisions have led Peppers, with his head bowed, back to the team he tried to hard to scorn.

Perhaps the players on the team understand this better than the fans, but he’ll have to work hard to regain the trust and confidence of those that will make his $17 million salary possible.

Looking back on other holdouts makes this even more embarrassing.

Sean Gilbert was traded from the Redskins after sitting out a year and claiming God wanted him to sign a bigger contract. Corey Dillon stated he’d rather work at McDonald’s than suit up with the Bengals again.

Outside the NFL, NBA guard Latrell Sprewell famously claimed he “had a family to feed.”

Hopefully, Peppers will be able to console himself knowing he could feed quite a few players families with the contract he had to settle on. 

Tennessee Volunteers’ Lane Kiffin:A Glimpse at The Future

University of Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t pull any punches. He also doesn’t connect on a lot of them either. But to listen to his philosophy behind being successful, you realize that he really may not need to.

In his first several months on the job Kiffin has made negative news the old-fashioned way. He’s earned it.

With secondary recruiting violations being reported in Knoxville more often than a Brett Favre come back, some people around the college football sector have been wondering aloud if Kiffin truly knows what he is doing.

But Kiffin has also landed a top 10 recruiting class in only handful of months, and put together an intense and energetic coaching staff that has players excited about playing football for the Volunteers.

So maybe Kiffin doesn’t excel in compliance. No one is perfect right? I don’t think that Kiffin was brought to U.T. to be a compliance director. I also don’t think athletic director Mike Hamilton expects him to be one either.

He was, however, brought in to restore some of the luster that had faded from the program in recent years. Without the benefit of having played the first game, he has already started that process.

So where knowledge, and execution of recruiting rules, may not necessarily be his strong point, Kiffin is focusing rather, on what is.

For someone who critics claim may not know what he is doing, Kiffin actually has a plan.

A very detail oriented workaholic, and schedule slave, his philosophy of igniting a non-existent offense is similar to his handling of his coaching responsibilities.

He isn’t focusing on what a player can’t do on the field, but rather what he can do and then applying that to his offense.

In an interview with Dave Hooker on GoVols Xtra, Kiffin says of his younger players, “find out what they do really well and focus on that and make them do that.”

It’s a simple philosophy, but one that may get overlooked more often than not, as we all have sat in front of our T.V.s and screamed “why are they running Joe outside! You know he can’t turn the corner!”

We all have strengths and weaknesses. Some will argue to spend your time working on your weaknesses to make you a better overall player or person. Kiffin takes a different approach with the youngsters.

He goes on to say during the interview that when dealing with running backs that don’t pass protect well, “if they can’t protect, put them in a situation where they don’t protect.”

He compares the system he is trying to put in play at U.T. to the one they implemented at Southern Cal for getting freshman on the field early and often.

“We have a system that has been great over the years of making guys into freshman All-Americans, playing them right away by focusing on what they can do extremely well.”

It seems to be working as well, as early reports from Knoxville have talked about intense and physical practices. Excitement breeds more excitement and it’s apparent that this coaching staff has infused this team with confidence and energy.

Kiffin has brought in a handful of extremely talented players. In addition he inherited a team where the cupboard wasn’t exactly bare. By getting the ball into the hands of his playmakers and letting them doing what they do best, he has a chance of resurrecting an offense left for dead last year.

His goal will be to come closer in numbers to the 2007 U.T. offense which ranked 4^th in the S.E.C. by scoring over 33 points a game. Couple that with a defense that was 4^th in the nation last year and Kiffin may very well back up the talk that got him the job.

To Kiffin’s credit, he has done an excellent job of staffing positions with some of the best in the field. Monte Kiffin, his father, is a defensive specialist. Ed Orgeron and Lance Thompson are recruiting gurus.

Maybe (Lane) Kiffin should choose his battles and hire a compliance secretary, adhering to his own philosophy of allowing people to do what they do extremely well.

After all, the reason mike Hamilton brought him here was to win games.

I’m sure Hamilton hopes Kiffin does that……extremely well.

 

Fantasy Football: Terrell Owens or Chad Ochocinco?

According to 12-team mock drafts being held on fantasyfootballcalculator, Terrell Owens is being selected in the middle-late third round, whereas Chad Ochocinco is being plucked off the board in the middle of the fourth.

Both of these trouble-makers find themselves in brand-new situations this season (Owens going to Buffalo, and Ochocinco being the main man in Cincy).

So who is going to produce the better numbers this year?

We will start with Owens (since he is being drafted first).

Last year with the Cowboys, Owens totaled 1,052 yards on 69 receptions, and also snagged ten touchdowns.  It’s impressive that he was able to do this while sharing the field with such capable players as: Marion Barber, Roy Williams, and Jason Witten.

However now Owens goes from an established offense to one that is a work in progress.  Buffalo’s top offensive talent, Marshawn Lynch, is suspended for the first three games of the NFL regular season because of a weapons charge from the offseason. 

This will make it easier for opposing defenses to key in on Owens, since the running game will not be a threat.  Owens does, however, have receiver Lee Evans to take away some attention, as Evans has shown that he can play as a more-than-serviceable receiver in the NFL.

But perhaps the biggest switch that Owens will have to deal with is the quarterback change.  No longer does he have trusty QB Tony Romo to throw him the ball; the new commander in chief is Trent Edwards, the third-year man out of Stanford who has flashed some, but not a ton of potential in his brief stint in the NFL.

Last year, Edwards posted decent numbers for only throwing the ball 374 times.  He garnered nearly 2,700 yards and threw 11 touchdowns with a 65.5 completion percentage but also played victim of the pass 10 times.

Edwards should though show more maturity this upcoming season though since he has had a few years to fit under his belt while seeing how the NFL operates.

My gut feeling on T.O says that his stats will regress a bit, just because of the fact that more attention will be focused on him and he has a lesser QB throwing him the ball.

Expect stats around the ballpark of 900 yards, and eight touchdowns.

And now Mr. Golden Toes.

Last season, Ochocinco caught the ball 53 time for 540 yards and four scores; a down year for him to say the least.  It is important to note though that Chad missed a total of three games during the course of the season.

Unlike Owens, Chad is remaining with the team that he had played for last season.  Also different from T.O is the fact that Chad won’t be burdened with having to share a significant portion of targets to another capable receiver on the club;  (since fellow receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh was signed by the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason). 

Instead, Ochocinco now has Laveranues Coles to share the load with; which isn’t all bad.  Coles will help to deflect some of the defensive attention that Ocho would be getting otherwise, since he [Coles] has shown that he can play, and play well.

But let’s not kid ourselves: Coles is no Houshmandzadeh.  He will not garner the same amount of looks that a player of Housh’s caliber would.  As a result, look for Ochocinco to receive the leftovers.

Perhaps the biggest reason why Ochocinco suffered such a miserable season was because his quarterback, Veteran Carson Palmer was out for 12 games.  12.  That’s 75 percent of the season people.  Would you expect Reggie Wayne to produce consistent numbers if Jim Sorgi was throwing to him?  No, so why should we hold Chad to it?

I believe that he is being undervalued since people just remember the[crappy] stats that he put up, and not the fact that he had a backup throwing to him almost all season.

With Palmer back and healthy, expect Ochocinco’s numbers to rebound to their normal lines; lines of- 1,000 yards and ten touchdowns.

And for my final opinion, I would say that I would rather have Chad Ochocinco.  He has a better QB throwing to him, and the Bengals will be behind more than the Bills will be, forcing them to throw the ball more often, (which will result in more receptions for Chad).

However, either represent a fine No. 2 option for your fantasy team.

An AFC West Comparison: Part 2

The Chargers are the clear favorite in the AFC West, and so far on the offensive side of the ball, that remains a fact. Now lets take a look at the defensive side of the football to determine the factors that will decide divisional games between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers in 2009.

Here is Part 1: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/205668-a-complete-comparison-chargers-vs-raiders-part-1

Tennessee Titans: Duo of “Smash and Dash” is SO “Last Year”

It’s about time that the moniker of “Smash and Dash” was dropped. After last season’s controversy between the Titans’ Twins and the Panthers’ Pals as to which team’s running backs held the rights to the name, Chris Johnson decided to divorce himself from LenDale White.

Surprisingly, his motive to rid himself of the nickname was not fueled by the controversy last season, but because he wanted his own nickname, and didn’t want to play second fiddle to LenDale White’s “Smash.”

Johnson’s new nickname, “Every Coach’s Dream,” is the not-so-humble handle he came up with.

“I have to be my own guy; so no more Smash-and-Dash, that was last year,” Johnson said. “Every Coach’s Dream, that’s me. Because they say every team has it’s own identity. I feel for me, I can’t be noticed as a group any more. I am my own guy.”

The poor part of Johnson’s decision,was that he made the initial announcement on Twitter, without the input or courtesy of informing teammate LenDale White of his desire. He also Tweets that “Lendale White is upset mad he don’t know to accept that we are split up.”

How terrible it must be, to see LenDale upset mad.

Is it just me, or is a player’s production on the field more important than a ridiculous nickname? Perhaps Johnson has been in touch with Chad Ochocinco—someone less of a coach’s dream.

The Oakland Raiders, Offensive Line: The Big Uglys’

The Oakland Raiders have been dreadful at the line of scrimmage for the past few seasons.

Much of this is due to the, “revolving door policy”, at head coach.

With Robert Gallery finally finding a home at Left Guard, and Mario Hendersons coming out party at the end of last season, it seems the Raiders have found someone to protect Jamarcus Russells blind-side.

Even if some of the guys like Henderson don’t perform up to expectation the Raiders have one thing this season that they haven’t had in a while….depth.

With the addition of guys like Samson Satele, Kalif Barnes, and Erik Pears the Raiders are going into this season with with high hopes for the O-Line.

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