Pretty pumped for Wednesday. Never get too excited over preseason but there's a lot to look forward to seeing. JJ back on the field. Pretty much our whole offense is up for completion besides C & Wr #1. Ready to see Savage, Watson, who steps up in the WR group. Foreman, Ervin, Braxton, Mccarron, Dres Anderson, & Wendall are some guys I'm eager to watch. On the defensive side, just getting a look at Watt, Clowney, Merci, Cush all on the same field again will be a nice image. The safety group is definitely one to keep an eye on. I feel like this Eddie Pleasants breakout year. Probably the first time he's known he's got a spot heading into the season and all reports out of camp have been raving. He's always made plays when he's out there. We need someone to step up back there with Demps gone. Watkins, Cunningham, Cole, Denzel Rice, Marcus Roberson, Dee Virgin, Ankou, KJ Dillon, Dayon Pratt are some young guys with opportunities who I'll be keeping an eye on. Here's to clean, no injury football. Good to be back.
Relevant teams: 11. Jacksonville Jaguars 2016 ranking: 1 Spoiler The high-end talent added on defense finally started to pay off for Jacksonville last season. Rookie cornerback Jalen Ramseyranked 10th in adjusted success rate even though quarterbacks challenged him often. Myles Jack only played 239 snaps, but should be ready to contribute more this season. Dante Fowler finally got on the field and added 31 hurries, but was overshadowed a bit by Yannick Ngakoue's 8.0 sacks. Remember, sacks aren't everything, and Fowler had 10 more hurries than Ngakoue, but productive players fighting for playing time is a good problem for Jacksonville to have. The offense is what gives us pause in dropping the Jaguars down from No. 1 last year to 11th this season. Blake Bortles' problems had a lot to do with it, but Allen Robinson was just not that sharp last season after a Pro Bowl year in 2015. T.J. Yeldon fell out of favor in the running game, and now the team will rely on LSU rookie Leonard Fournette. The offensive line is still a big question mark, especially with the retirement of Branden Albert. This means that second-round rookie Cam Robinson will likely be the Week 1 starter at left tackle now. The Jaguars never got what they needed out of Luke Joeckel at that position, but maybe things will be different under the tutelage of head coach Doug Marrone, who has shed the interim label in replacing Gus Bradley. 12. Tennessee Titans 2016 ranking: 11 Spoiler Tennessee's ranking may actually be too low for those who are very high on quarterback Marcus Mariota. He certainly looked the part of a franchise quarterback last season after a slow start, before a broken leg ended his season. The Titans will be the favorites in the AFC South this year thanks in part to Mariota's efficiency, but he must stay healthy. He already has had three injuries that led to missed starts in two seasons. That's more injuries than most of the top quarterbacks in this era have sustained in their whole careers. Right tackle Jack Conklin was a first-team All-Pro in his rookie season. The charting backed this up as he ranked No. 1 at his position in snaps per blown block. Other than Mariota and Conklin, Tennessee's under-25 talent is loaded with potential and depth rather than production. Tajae Sharpe was not as good of a receiver as we thought he could have been last season, but first-round pick Corey Davis might become a legitimate No. 1 wideout in Tennessee. Derrick Henry is a productive backup running back, but DeMarco Murray is still the leading rusher. Austin Johnson may compete for a starting nose tackle job, but the team did bring in Sylvester Williams, a former first-round pick from Denver. The secondary is really where the Titans need a boost from young talent, especially since Jason McCourty was released in March. First-round rookie Adoree' Jackson could win a starting job this year, or it could go to last year's third-round pick LeShaun Sims. A player who often stood out last year was safety Kevin Byard, who ranked second among safeties in adjusted yards per pass allowed. 15. Houston Texans 2016 ranking: 2 Spoiler A big part of Houston's slip from No. 2 last year is that DeAndre Hopkins turned 25 in June. Will Fuller V started fast last year as a complement to Hopkins, but he had some big drops, including one in the playoffs in New England; furthermore, he's out for the season after a training camp injury. We have yet to see much from Braxton Miller and Jaelen Strong, but the Texans certainly have a lot of potential at receiver. Perhaps that potential is realized with rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson, assuming the Clemson product starts instead of Tom Savage. Watson's performance likely will be the driving factor behind Houston's ranking on this list in the next couple of seasons. Houston's other big recent draft pick, Jadeveon Clowney, finally stayed healthy and gave us a taste of the potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2014. Clowney's 6.0 sacks in 2016 won't make anyone forget about J.J. Watt, but without Watt available to draw the attention of the offense, Clowney still racked up 33 hurries. Now imagine how he might do in a season where he and Watt are both healthy. 24. Indianapolis Colts 2016 ranking: 25 Spoiler Donte Moncrief did not have the 2016 season he wanted, due to injury, but he still had a career-high seven touchdown catches in nine games. He is a solid No. 2 option to T.Y. Hilton and this will be his contract year. As a former first-round pick, vertical threat Phillip Dorsett needs to show more in his third season. Andrew Luck had the third-highest pressure rate among quarterbacks last season. The Colts' offensive line could feature three under-25 starters, but are any of them good? Center Ryan Kelly was solid as a rookie, ranking 12th at his position in snaps per blown block. Joe Haeg played multiple positions and charted well, too. He could settle into a starting guard job. Le'Raven Clark only started three games as a rookie, but should be an improvement over Joe Reitz. Defensively, the Colts are still stuck with starting a lot of veterans from other teams, but a few draft picks should contribute heavily this year. Recent high picks on safeties T.J. Green and 2017 first-round pick Malik Hooker should lead to a lot of snaps. Green did not chart well as a rookie (55th in adjusted success rate), but Hooker is better suited to play center field against the pass. Second-round pick Quincy Wilson is a big press corner who could also start as a rookie.
Sorry, will not post due to being a Cowboys fan. Spoiler http://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/20218920/nfl-ranking-all-32-teams-25-talent-2017-season 1. Dallas Cowboys | 2016 ranking: 24 Dallas climbed higher (23 spots) than any team in our rankings this year for two huge reasons: Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. The pair was phenomenal in leading the No. 3 offense to the NFC's No. 1 seed. They didn't disappoint in Dallas' playoff loss either, losing 34-31 on a last-second field goal to the Packers. While skeptics point to the great Dallas offensive line that helped these rookies, that line was intact when the offense finished 31st in 2015 and the Cowboys were 4-12. Elliott won the rushing title by 318 yards without even playing in Week 17. Prescott had arguably the best rookie season ever by a quarterback. In ESPN's advanced quarterback metric for expected points added (EPA), Prescott's 102.5 EPA ranked No. 13 among all seasons since 2006. The only seasons ahead of him were all engineered by the group of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan. Prescott is in incredible company after one season. Dallas' under-25 talent extends beyond Dak and Zeke. La'el Collins is moving to right tackle and just signed a contract extension through 2019. Safety Byron Jones, a 2015 first-round pick, has quietly charted well in his two seasons in spite of just one career interception. He ranked ninth among safeties in adjusted success rate last year. Anthony Brown was promising for a sixth-round rookie cornerback. Rookie defensive tackle Maliek Collins had 11 hurries as a starter. David Irving will be suspended for the first four games this season, but he finished 2016 with a perfect run-stop rate and had a team-high 26 hurries. First-round pick Taco Charlton will be expected to contribute, and the Cowboys may finally get something out of very talented linebacker Jaylon Smith. He missed all of last year after a serious knee injury in the Fiesta Bowl. 2. New York Giants | 2016 ranking: 12 3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 2016 ranking: 4 4. Miami Dolphins | 2016 ranking: 3 5. Atlanta Falcons | 2016 ranking: 13 6. Los Angeles Chargers | 2016 ranking: 22 7. Buffalo Bills | 2016 ranking: 10 8. Cleveland Browns | 2016 ranking: 29 9. New Orleans Saints | 2016 ranking: 15 10. Kansas City Chiefs | 2016 ranking: 16 11. Jacksonville Jaguars | 2016 ranking: 1 12. Tennessee Titans | 2016 ranking: 11 13. Pittsburgh Steelers | 2016 ranking: 7 14. Oakland Raiders | 2016 ranking: 27 15. Houston Texans | 2016 ranking: 2 A big part of Houston's slip from No. 2 last year is that DeAndre Hopkins turned 25 in June. Will Fuller V started fast last year as a complement to Hopkins, but he had some big drops, including one in the playoffs in New England; furthermore, he's out for the season after a training camp injury. We have yet to see much from Braxton Miller and Jaelen Strong, but the Texans certainly have a lot of potential at receiver. Perhaps that potential is realized with rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson, assuming the Clemson product starts instead of Tom Savage. Watson's performance likely will be the driving factor behind Houston's ranking on this list in the next couple of seasons. Houston's other big recent draft pick, Jadeveon Clowney, finally stayed healthy and gave us a taste of the potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2014. Clowney's 6.0 sacks in 2016 won't make anyone forget about J.J. Watt, but without Watt available to draw the attention of the offense, Clowney still racked up 33 hurries. Now imagine how he might do in a season where he and Watt are both healthy. 16. Carolina Panthers | 2016 ranking: 9 17. New England Patriots | 2016 ranking: 32 18. Chicago Bears | 2016 ranking: 17 19. San Francisco 49ers | 2016 ranking: 14 20. Washington Redskins | 2016 ranking: 28 21. Detroit Lions | 2016 ranking: 31 22. Green Bay Packers | 2016 ranking: 18 23. Seattle Seahawks | 2016 ranking: 21 24. Indianapolis Colts | 2016 ranking: 25 25. Philadelphia Eagles | 2016 ranking: 30 26. Cincinnati Bengals | 2016 ranking: 20 27. Los Angeles Rams | 2016 ranking: 5 28. Minnesota Vikings | 2016 ranking: 6 29. New York Jets | 2016 ranking: 19 30. Baltimore Ravens | 2016 ranking: 23 31. Arizona Cardinals | 2016 ranking: 8 32. Denver Broncos | 2016 ranking: 26
You realize this is the Texans offseason thread, right? I wouldn't have made the assumption that you were a Cowboys fan.
I do. I wanted to read all of the teams (sitting in an airport bored) not just the Cowboys. Thanks again.
