Top 3 defenses in the NFL

This is another installment of our “Tops” series of rankings for the 2013 NFL season. Today we will be breaking down the top 3 defensive units in the NFL.

#3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

To say the least the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a disappointing season. Hopes were high coming into 2012 that some, if not all, of the young Buc’s would have that longed for break through season that escalated Tampa Bay to the next level. Unfortunately that never came to be and the most disappointing part of this disappointing team was their defense. The Buc’s have several young talented players on their defensive front but struggled mightily in the passing game. To counter act last season, the Buccaneers have traded for shut down corner back D. Revis from the New York Jets as well as signing star safety D. Golden to a 5 year deal that is sure to make Tampa Bay’s secondary one of the most feared in the league during 2013.

#2: Seattle Seahawks

Wow! What a season the Seattle Seahawks had! The Seahawks in 2012 had their best season since advancing to the Super Bowl in 2006 and much of the credit goes to the players on the defensive side of the ball. Seattle’s secondary was dominant all year long and just seemed to get better as the year went on. I don’t believe I have ever seen such a physically dominating defensive secondary as the one in Seattle this year. The Seahawks have been stock piling draft picks and high potential defensive players for years now and it seems like Coach Pete Carol has finally put the right pieces in the right places. 2013 looks to be very bright for Seattle and their defense.

#1: San Francisco 49ers

Just down the road from Seattle and in the same division are the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers finished the 2012 season with a disappointing near loss in the Super Bowl to the Baltimore Ravens but you can bet that their spirits will not be deterred in 2013. Much like Seattle, the 49ers have been stock piling draft picks and high potential defensive players for the last 4 or 5 years and now you can see why. San Francisco lead the league in almost every statistical category on defense for the past 2 seasons and it wouldn’t be a surprise if 2013 was more of the same.

Top 3 RB's in the NFL

This is another installment of our “Tops” series of rankings for the 2013 NFL season. This week we will be breaking down the top 3 running backs in the NFL.

#3: Ray Rice

One word describes Ray Rice: consistency. Rice has been in the National Football League for 6 years and the only season in his career in which he finished with less than 1,500 all purpose yards was his rookie year in 2008 where he received less than half the carries he has any other season. The problem with playing at that high of a level consistently is that you are then expected to perform at that high level all the time. So how did Rice set 2012 apart from every other year? He simply carried the offense on his back during the entire regular season and playoffs in route to a Super Bowl title.

#2: Arian Foster

Running backs are usually the easiest position to evaluate talent and draft in the National Football League with a low percentage of those picks being draft busts and even fewer draft steals but the Texans got lucky when they signed undrafted free agent Arian Foster. Foster only got the starting job in 2010 after injuries decimated the Texans backfield but Foster rose to the challenge as he put up a career high 2,200 all purpose yards along with 18 total touchdowns. He has been solid ever since and the Texans are looking for even more ground success in 2013 behind Foster.

#1: Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson’s nickname in Minnesota is AD for All Day but in 2012 Peterson ran ALL YEAR. After suffering a torn MCL and ACL in the 2^nd to last week of the 2011 season the outlook for 2012 looked bleak. Peterson was known for nagging injuries throughout college and some experts even predicted this to be a career ending injury. Wow were they wrong! Peterson responded to the injury with the most rushing yards of his career, shy of the all time record by just a handful of yards, and 12 rushing touchdowns to back it up. Outside of individual awards Peterson also carried the entire Vikings team to a wildcard playoff spot culminating in a head to head matchup against the rival Packers in a game that the Vikings eventually lost.

Top 3 WR's in the NFL

Here’s a breakdown of the top 3 WR’s in the NFL going into 2013

3. Roddy White:

Roddy White has been in the NFL for 7 years now and he is finally starting to receive the recognition that he deserves. White stands just over 6 feet tall but is currently one of the best possession receivers in the NFL. White was a bit of a late bloomer coming out of college. A lot of receivers breakout year is either 3^rd or 4^th year in the NFL but White waited until year 5 to really show what he was made of. In 2010 Roddy White put up his best numbers yet while leading the league in receptions (115) and leading his team, the Atlanta Falcons, to the best record in the NFC.

2. Brandon Marshall:

I mentioned above that Roddy White is one of the best possession receivers in the NFL, well Brandon Marshall is THE BEST possession receiver in football today. Marshall stands 6’4 and weighs 230 pounds which makes him a nightmare for defensive backs. By nature defensive backs are short and fast to cover the fast receivers but Marshall flips this on its head by being both very big and moderately fast. This was never more apparent than during the 2012 season when Marshall was reunited with his former QB Jay Cutler in Chicago. This lead to a 118 catch season for Marshall along with double digit touchdowns in route to Marshall’s best statistical year of his career.

1. Calvin Johnson:

Well if you haven’t heard the name Calvin Johnson maybe you know him by his alter ego: Megatron. Megatron got his start at Georgia Tech where he had already been on several scouts radars but his Junior season put him in another class. How good was he projected to be coming out of college? Well the Detroit Lions (who ended up drafting him) had already failed on 2 other highly drafted WR’s in the very recent past and were catching a lot of heat for such actions but they still felt it a lock to draft Johnson 2^nd overall in 2007. Megatron has never given the Lions any reason to doubt him since and in 2012 put up his best statistical year of his career and the most receiving yards in NFL history, falling just 36 yards short of being the first 2,000 yard receiver in NFL history.

Player Profile: Steven Jackson

Steven Jackson played 9 seasons with the St. Louis Rams before asking and receiving his release after the 2012 NFL season. In that span he recorded 8 seasons of 1,000+ yards rushing and 300+ yards receiving, what happened to the 9^th season you ask? During his rookie season Jackson received significantly less touches due to the fact that he was sharing the backfield with future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk.

Unfortunately for Jackson the nearly retired Faulk was the closest he ever saw to reliable teammate during his tenure in St. Louis. The Rams front office failed to put together a good team around Jackson in his 9 years with the franchise and many analysts close to the Rams organization have harshly criticized the franchise for over working the talented player. Steven Jackson is a pro’s pro: he shuts his mouth, does his job, and repeats.

At age 29 the Rams are looking to move on from the aging running back and go in a new direction, luckily for Jackson the Rams are a class organization. They gave him his walking papers at the end of 2012 allowing him to pursue a featured running back role with another team. In day 3 of 2013 free agency Jackson signed a 3 year deal with the Atlanta Falcons to become their starting running back and new workhorse in Mike Smith’s power run style offense. Jackson adds to a potent offense that had trouble running the ball in 2012, something Jackson is sure to fix.

It’s always good to see a professional like Steven Jackson get what he deserves from an organization like the Rams but now he also has an opportunity to do what he has never done before: play for a Super Bowl contending team. The Falcons made it to the NFC championship game in 2012 and with the addition of Jackson they could go even farther in 2013.

Player Profile: Wes Welker

I wanted to start these player profiles to take a closer look at some of the more interesting players in the NFL and highlight a few things that football fans may overlook at first glance.

I’ll admit that I have a personal preference towards this player but I just can’t understand how anyone doesn't love this guy. Wes Welker stands 5-9 185 pounds, not exactly the prototype for wide receivers, yet he is widely regarded as one of the most productive offensive players around. How does he do this you ask? What Welker lacks in size he makes up for in determination and will. How else do you explain Welker recording 110+ catches in 5 of the last 6 years? Welker is a workhorse that can carry an offense through thick and thin yet the guy gets the bare minimum respect.

The lack of respect has never been more palpable than in the past two off seasons. In 2012 the New England Patriots handcuffed Welker to their team on a 1 year franchise tag effectively forcing his hand and putting his long term career in jeopardy without adequate financial compensation. The franchise tag has been a long dreaded hammer that can be dropped on players at the will of the team. It has become such a problem that many players who are tagged threaten to hold out for more money and refuse to sign the franchise tender at the risk of sitting out an entire season. Wes is one of the few that kept his mouth shut and signed the franchise tender in good faith that the patriots would compensate him at the end of 2012. Unfortunately that faith was misplaced and at the start of 2013 free agency Welker was given a paltry offer by the Patriots that left everyone scratching their heads. This slap in the face was not lost on Welker or his agent as he soon signed with the Broncos for not only more money but more respect as well.

It’s a shame to think that someone who has done so much for a franchise like the Patriots gets passed over by that same team. Wes Welker is a class act football player that New England let slip through their fingers and I’m sure he’ll have revenge on his mind when the Broncos and Patriots face each other next season. 

2013 free agency winners and losers

Winners

1. Denver Broncos

Well the Broncos certainly didn’t have what you would call an active free agency period but the moves they did make we’re substantial. Denver restructured the contracts of key players like Champ Bailey and Elvis Dumervile before free agency kicked off which freed up some cap space to bolster the Broncos roster.  It was expected that the Broncos would target a corner back to sure up the defensive back field but instead stole wide receiver Wes Welker away from the New England Patriots in a shocking move that is sure to heat up an already intense rivalry between future Hall of Fame quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

2. Chicago Bears

As much as Denver was admired for making the flashy move in free agency, Chicago should be congratulated for making what some would call dull moves by getting exactly what they needed. The Bears started free agency in a frenzy to fill the roster spots that they so desperately needed and succeeded by doing just that. The Bears signed TE Marcellus Bennett and LT Jermon Bushrod to long term deals within the first few hours of free agency to dramatically improve their offense, are these the final pieces to a Chicago offense that could finally challenge their defense?

Losers

1. Baltimore Ravens

This is an obvious pick as the biggest “loser” team in free agency this year but it isn’t due to a lack of intelligence in the front office or the locker room. The ravens are simply a casualty of free agency as they were enslaved to the salary cap going into this off season, making free agency a nightmare for Baltimore fans. The Ravens lost key players at MLB (2), LOLB, CB, SS, WR, and OG that will assuredly stomp out any optimistic talk about a repeat.

2. New England Patriots

WOW! That is all I can say after the loss of several key role players in the Patriots offense, most notably wide receiver Wes Welker. Who would have thought one of the most stable franchises in NFL history would succumb to such a bone headed free agency. The Patriots are sure to miss steady contributers like Welker, Woodhead, and Lloyd next season but who knows, maybe New England still has a little magic left up their sleeve.

9 things I learned

1. How to create a blog
2. How to start up a website
3. Reading all of the instructions to an assignment is very important
4. Search engines actively collect data
5. How to set up a pay pal account
6. How to set up a gmail account
7. Cookies are collectable data from users that websites can use
8. Using a pen name is very important for privacy
9. With a decent amount of instruction, creating an ebusiness is not nearly as hard as it seems