Sporting News AFCW Team Reports

[Direckshun]

Mandatory late night football jackoff thread. As always, do what you wish with the thread.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...=tsn&type=lgns

WEST DIVISION

Denver Broncos

Teammates jokingly called safety Nick Ferguson "Barbaro" since he limped so badly coming off surgery for torn knee cartilage. But Ferguson, who thrives on people discounting his ability, healed and was a full participant in the recent passing camp. Ferguson says it's important to prove to the organization that the injury won't affect him moving forward. Ferguson must continue building strength and endurance but moved well during seven days of practices.

Kansas City Chiefs

Management is hurting Brodie Croyle's development by refusing to trade Trent Green. Croyle must get most of the snaps in offseason practices to speed his development, but coaches were splitting them among Croyle, Green, Damon Huard and Casey Printers. They must discover quickly whether Croyle can be their quarterback. If he shows potential, they are better off making him the starter now to start his development. If he doesn't, the team can prepare to draft a quarterback next year. Green's presence is divisive in the locker room and a distraction. Management is holding out for a better offer from the Dolphins.

Oakland Raiders

Running back Michael Bush is making progress in his recovery from a broken right leg. He is jogging and doing light individual drills in hopes he will can participate in training camp. Bush has a titanium rod in his leg and had two surgeries to repair his injury. Management isn't counting on much from Bush this season and can wait because LaMont Jordan, Dominic Rhodes and Justin Fargas are on the roster. However, the team is eager to get Bush in shape because of his immense potential as a bruising runner between the tackles who can bust loose on the perimeter. Coaches will take a long look at Bush during camp and bring him along for use in 2008. Even so, don't rule out Bush's getting significant playing time this season, especially if one of the other backs struggles or is injured.

San Diego Chargers

Special teams standout Kassim Osgood is dropping the ball - literally -- in his best chance yet to show on the new coaching staff he can be a receiver. Osgood is big and fast but not terribly athletic, and his bouts of the dropsies not uncommon. With a potent offense looking to spread the ball around more, the fifth receiver slot is open for Osgood or Greg Camarillo to take. Osgood isn't consistently catching passes in coaching sessions and could again find himself lacking chances.

[Direckshun]

Two things:

1. As a Chiefs fan, I am getting more and more excited about the Chargers WR position. The talent there is simply not threatening whatsoever, which will give us plenty of manpower to focus on Gates and Tomlinson.

Then again, save the QB, the Chargers offense looks eerily like the prolific Vermeil Chiefs looked. Brilliant rungame, top notch pass protection, and blowing off any major talent at WR and just depend on your All Pro TE to open up the field.

2. I don't want to say this, but there's an outside, OUTSIDE chance the 2007 Raiders are the 2006 Saints. Perennially terrible team completely shakes up organization and roster and take advantage of a good draft to all of a sudden become a success story.

Their RB position is my example. Over one offseason, the Raiders have gone from a shoddy run team to a decent run team by recruiting a bunch of decent lineman and a brigade of good-to-promising RBs. This will be a very interesting year watching the Raiders, to see if they are indeed the future threat to the AFCW that their fans would have us to believe.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Two things:

1. As a Chiefs fan, I am getting more and more excited about the Chargers WR position. The talent there is simply not threatening whatsoever, which will give us plenty of manpower to focus on Gates and Tomlinson.

Then again, save the QB, the Chargers offense looks eerily like the prolific Vermeil Chiefs looked. Brilliant rungame, top notch pass protection, and blowing off any major talent at WR and just depend on your All Pro TE to open up the field.

2. I don't want to say this, but there's an outside, OUTSIDE chance the 2007 Raiders are the 2006 Saints. Perennially terrible team completely shakes up organization and roster and take advantage of a good draft to all of a sudden become a success story.

Their RB position is my example. Over one offseason, the Raiders have gone from a shoddy run team to a decent run team by recruiting a bunch of decent lineman and a brigade of good-to-promising RBs. This will be a very interesting year watching the Raiders, to see if they are indeed the future threat to the AFCW that their fans would have us to believe.

I don't think we have been following the same Chargers. I think Vincent Jackson is already a gamer, and has the potential to be a 10 TD guy this year, shoot Im willing to bet he is a 10 TD guy.

Eric Parker is alright, nothing special.

Malcom Floyd will be our 2nd best WR w/ about 8 TD's I think.

And we also used our 1st rounder on a WR, Craig Davis out of LSU. Many LSU fans have said that they believe Davis is better than Bowe, only time will tell.

[Thig Lyfe]

Good to read that Casey Printers is getting snaps. He's our future.

[Direckshun]

I'll give you Jackson, of course.

I'm not sold on Floyd just yet. He's got phenominal size -- I love his size. It's perfect for the red zone. But he hasn't done enough to convince me he can do much anywhere else, though.

And Davis is alright, he's alright. Was a good acquisition, if not necessarily a very good 1st pick IMO. Time will tell on Davis v. Bowe, of course, but I couldn't be happier with Bowe's measurables and how well he'll fit on our possession-oriented offense. But maybe you see things in Davis that I don't, because he seems like he'll be good. But lethal? Naw.

In my opinion, you guys are sporting one very good receiver, the rest are guys don't put the fear of god in me until you get Floyd in the red zone.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I'll give you Jackson, of course.

I'm not sold on Floyd just yet. He's got phenominal size -- I love his size. It's perfect for the red zone. But he hasn't done enough to convince me he can do much anywhere else, though.

And Davis is alright, he's alright. Was a good acquisition, if not necessarily a very good 1st pick IMO. Time will tell on Davis v. Bowe, of course, but I couldn't be happier with Bowe's measurables and how well he'll fit on our possession-oriented offense. But maybe you see things in Davis that I don't, because he seems like he'll be good. But lethal? Naw.

In my opinion, you guys are sporting one very good receiver, the rest are guys don't put the fear of god in me until you get Floyd in the red zone.

Hopefully you would agree that you don't need great players at all positions on offense to win a championship.

I think that with the Chargers O-Line, TE, backfield, and one good WR, plus an above average Defense, they definitely have a chance at winning it.

The only question marks right now are the coaching staff, the secondary, and the QB (to some people, not including me).

And I heard a good quote yesterday. Norv Turner did it w/ Gus Frerotte, why cant he w/ Rivers?

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by SportsRacer

Good to read that Casey Printers is getting snaps. He's our future.

Total garbage. This is the one part of our offseason where I think what we're doing is total garbage.

I can understand some of what we're doing with the equal reps. Herm's not the negotiator, he's the talent evaluator and it's his responsibility to do the best with what he's given -- in this case, what could be three starting-quality QBs. He doesn't know if he's going to have Trent or not and he at least has to posture to Miami. So giving Trent snaps makes sense.

But PRINTERS? This is a joke. No reasonable person thinks Printers will be anything more than our 3rd stringer. Giving him equal snaps hurts Croyle more than Trent does.

[Buck]

As far as the rest of the AFC West...

Broncos - Will be just alright. I dont see Cutler pulling a Rivers/Roethlisberger in his first full season.

Chiefs - Sorry folks, you already know...(however you never know right?)

Raiders - Will be a bit better than last year but thats it.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by BuckinKaeding

Hopefully you would agree that you don't need great players at all positions on offense to win a championship.

I think that with the Chargers O-Line, TE, backfield, and one good WR, plus an above average Defense, they definitely have a chance at winning it.

The only question marks right now are the coaching staff, the secondary, and the QB (to some people, not including me).

And I heard a good quote yesterday. Norv Turner did it w/ Gus Frerotte, why cant he w/ Rivers?

Yeah, like I said your offense looks just like our offense did when we were #1 for 4, 5 years. All Pro RBs and FBs, ironclad OL, All Pro TE to relieve the deficiencies at WR. We had the exact same thing and we sent waves of offensive players to the Pro Bowl too -- and this time, you guys have a defense to compliment it. Only major difference is Green vs. Rivers.

But Norv Turner did what, exactly? I don't follow.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Yeah, like I said your offense looks just like our offense did when we were #1 for 4, 5 years. All Pro RBs and FBs, ironclad OL, All Pro TE to relieve the deficiencies at WR. We had the exact same thing and we sent waves of offensive players to the Pro Bowl too -- and this time, you guys have a defense to compliment it. Only major difference is Green vs. Rivers.

But Norv Turner did what, exactly? I don't follow.

http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/1070

Take a look at Frerotte's stats from 96-98, not great, but way better than Frerotte should have been. The teams didnt make it to the playoffs, but under Turner's Tutelage (say that 5 times fast), Frerotte put up quality numbers.

All Im trying to say is that Rivers will not fail because he has a good QB Coach (speaking about Norv), and the rest of the team is better than any other team Norv has coached, save the Dallas cowboys of the early 90's.

Im rambling now, hopefully that makes sense.

[SoCalBronco]

Michael Bush is going to be a very good power back in this league pretty soon.

[Direckshun]

Rivers has fine measurables and plenty of talent. Not to mention he's surrounded by a practically infallible offense.

His big weakness, obviously, is his head. Also his biggest strength, because to his credit he did spearhead a couple monster comebacks last year.

But I only watched him in a handful of games, compared to your 17. Two of those were against the Chiefs, and except for one half of the game when Tomlinson was dragging the team back into the game @ Arrowhead, Rivers was out of his good senses for at least three of those four halves.

That'll be an Achilles heel if you can't remedy it, but those are very good stats Frerotte managed under Turner. Maybe he can pull it off with Rivers, and I don't really know enough about Frerotte to make any meaningful distinctions between the two.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

Michael Bush is going to be a very good power back in this league pretty soon.

The Raiders are clearly gearing up a threatening RBBC attack.

Which backs cut it and which backs won't in that Raiders offense will have to be seen.

I'm thinking Rhodes and Bush, with Fargas filling in. I don't think Jordan will outplay either of those two.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Rivers has fine measurables and plenty of talent. Not to mention he's surrounded by a practically infallible offense.

His big weakness, obviously, is his head. Also his biggest strength, because to his credit he did spearhead a couple monster comebacks last year.

But I only watched him in a handful of games, compared to your 17. Two of those were against the Chiefs, and except for one half of the game when Tomlinson was dragging the team back into the game @ Arrowhead, Rivers was out of his good senses for at least three of those four halves.

That'll be an Achilles heel if you can't remedy it, but those are very good stats Frerotte managed under Turner. Maybe he can pull it off with Rivers, and I don't really know enough about Frerotte to make any meaningful distinctions between the two.

My point was simply look what Norv Turner did w/ Frerotte.

From '91-'93 he coached Aikman,

and If I had enough time I'd look up all his QBs, but of what I can think of, Aikman (great), Frerotte (good), and his one year with Alex Smith, he improved him from 1 Td to 11 Td's.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by SportsRacer

Good to read that Casey Printers is getting snaps. He's our future.

Why do we need any QB's when we can run the option with Dee Brown. Then we won't can have an extra spot on the roster too. Note to self: Dee Brown is not important enough for me to still know if he is on the Chiefs or not for the upcoming year.