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Had Lee Evans hung on to a late toss from Joe Flacco in the end zone, the Baltimore Ravens may have been the team taking on the New York Giants on Super Bowl Sunday rather than New England.
He didn’t and they weren’t. So it’s on to 2012, when an offense full of up-and-coming stars like Joe Flacco, Ray Rice and Torrey Smith will partner with a better-than-solid but also aging defense, whose stars Ray Lewis and Ed Reed are getting close to the end of future Hall of Fame careers.
So do they have enough to make a run in a division that also includes Pittsburgh and fast-improving Cincinnati? Tony Lombardi is the founder of 24×7.com blogs and the lead writer on the site’s blog dedicated to the Ravens. He thinks if the team catches some breaks they can pick up where they left off. Lombardi shared some thoughts with Zoneblitz. Here’s what he had to say:
Zoneblitz: What are your thoughts on the development of Joe Flacco and his future as quarterback of the Ravens? – What kind of impact will adding former Colts head coach Jim Caldwell have on Flacco and the Ravens’ offense? Continue reading
When Green Bay annihilated Oakland 46-16 to finish off a 13-0 start in 2011, talk turned to whether or not the Packers could complete a perfect season. But then they lost two of their last four games, including a whitewashing in the playoffs at the hands of the New York Giants.
Still, the Packers finished with a 15-1 regular season record and they remain one of the league’s most talented teams. So what happened at the end of the season? And how do the Packers stay on track toward making another deep run in the playoffs in 2012? Brandon Benson, lead writer and founding editor of the Acme Packing Company blog shared his thoughts with Zoneblitz.
Zoneblitz: Aaron Rodgers had a great season and is one of the top couple quarterbacks in the league. With Matt Flynn likely moving on, how are the Packers set for depth at the position?
New Orleans is just a couple years removed from its first Super Bowl championship and despite a disappointing loss to San Francisco in the 2011 playoffs, the Saints and their fans enjoyed a record-setting season.
But there are many questions going forward. The team has been unable to sign Drew Brees to a long-term extension, which meant using its franchise tag to retain him. That leaves Carl Nicks, Marques Colston and several other players eligible to leave as free agents.
Couple that with penalties the Saints are expected to receive due to the bounty system uncovered recently and this proud organization is facing some uncertainty. So where do they go from here? Travis Dauro, a writer for the Canal Street Chronicles, says the door is still open for New Orleans to be a strong threat in 2012. He joined Zoneblitz to share some thoughts and here is what he had to say:
Zoneblitz: What is your sense of Bountygate and how it will affect the Saints heading into 2012?
It took a few years for the Houston Texans to build a playoff roster. But now that they’ve made that first appearance in the postseason, it looks like this is a team that could stay there for awhile.
This team has talent up and down the roster, enough so that team officials and observers are prepared to lose star defensive end Mario Williams with nary a blink of concern.
Williams, quarterback Matt Schaub, running back Arian Foster and wide receiver Andre Johnson are just a few of the stars who felt the injury bug throughout the 2011 season and Houston still advanced to the second round of the playoffs. With better luck on the injury front and a couple of complementary players at a couple positions in the offseason, the Texans will be a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl in 2012, according to Barrett Walton, managing editor of the Texans Bull Blog.
Zoneblitz: The Texans are coming off a franchise-best 2011. How well is this team set up to compete in 2012 and beyond?
As the NFL closes in on free agency and then the draft, we’re closing in on the end of the “In Depth” series of reports we started publishing in mid-January on each of the league’s teams.
In getting a look at most of the franchises through the eyes of people who observe them more closely individually throughout the season than I do, I’ve learned a lot about what went right and wrong for them in 2011. A handful of them stand out as teams that could really make a jump, if they catch a few breaks, in 2012.
There’s a lot of player movement that will happen between now and late-July when training camps open, but here are my early picks for who could become the surprise teams of 2012.
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