10 Teams Under the Most Pressure Right Now
The pressure is on for Manchester United. They've got a new manager, an expensive new superstar and a three-year Premier League title drought that would seem paltry for most clubs, but not for the New York Yankees of English football.
Manchester United isn't the only club feeling the heat right now. Let's put aside the obvious caveat that all professional (and big-time college) sports teams are under tremendous pressure to win and talk about those likely feeling an immense and immediate pull.
What makes for a particularly dense pressure cooker in sports? It could be several things—past seasons have made it such that anything less than a title is failure, for instance. Or, a team has made a lot of offseason moves that look good on paper. Or perhaps, it's got a collection of aging stars casting doubt on the title window.
Whatever the reason, these 10 teams are probably feeling the heat just a bit more than everyone else at the moment.
Honorable Mention: Team USA
1 of 11
To say Team USA is under a lot of pressure right now is intentionally vague.
For instance, the women's basketball team is shooting for its sixth straight gold medal in Rio. Coach Geno Auriemma said, "It's my experience that the more you win, the more paranoid you become about losing because you know down the road it's going to come," per Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
The men's basketball team is going for three straight golds. It certainly seems as though gold for the U.S. women in gymnastics is a forgone conclusion, but with high expectations comes intense pressure.
Also going for gold-medal streaks: the women's 4x400-meter relay team, Kerri Walsh Jennings and the women's soccer team, to name a few.
The U.S. topped the medal count in London in 2012, and the pressure to do so again is significant.
New York Knicks
2 of 11
First, some business: The amount of money spent during NBA free agency has put pressure on a lot of teams to perform, to live up to the absurd sums of cash they doled out. The Portland Trail Blazers spent $106 million on C.J. McCollum's extension alone. The Boston Celtics spent $113 million to get Al Horford. Pressure on pressure.
But the New York Knicks edge those teams out in the pressure department just a smidge because of the NYC factor.
The Knicks, coming off their third consecutive season without a postseason berth—made huge offseason moves with the additions of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Brandon Jennings and Courtney Lee (not to mention new coach Jeff Hornacek).
If Phil Jackson's Knicks are going to succeed, 2016-17 is big.
In July, Rose called the Knicks a "superteam." Jack Winter of Uproxx pointed out the ridiculousness of such a statement but did write, "New York City is indeed a pressure cooker, and anything less than a postseason berth in 2016-17 would definitely be disappointing for the rebuilt Knicks."
Oakland Raiders
3 of 11
Sometimes pressure is less about past success and more about what a team has assembled on paper.
The Oakland Raiders finished 7-9 in 2015, which doesn't look too flashy, but it was their best finish since an 8-8 campaign in 2011. They look like a team on the rise.
Quarterback Derek Carr threw for 3,987 yards and 32 touchdowns in 2015 en route to a Pro Bowl selection. In addition, the Raiders added several key pieces in the offseason, including cornerback Sean Smith, linebacker Bruce Irvin and guard Kelechi Osemele.
Defensive end Khalil Mack—who recorded 15 sacks in 2015—said, "I feel like we're in the midst of a great turnaround," per the Associated Press (via Fox Sports).
For his part, Carr acknowledged the hype but added, "I put so much pressure on myself I don't get caught up in 'we expect this, we expect that.' I already expect greatness and perfection," per the AP.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Toronto Blue Jays
4 of 11
The Toronto Blue Jays won 93 games and made it to the American League Championship Series in 2015. AL MVP Josh Donaldson and sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion returned for 2016, and preseason expectations were high.
Well into the second half of 2016, the Jays are in the hunt for their second AL East crown in as many years—just one game behind the Baltimore Orioles as of August 7.
And yet Bautista and Encarnacion will become free agents after the season. The Jays are under a lot of pressure not only to make it to hte playoffs, but to ultimately improve upon last year's result.
Will Leitch of Sports on Earth wrote, "The Blue Jays ended their postseason drought last year but didn't get a World Series to show for it. This has been a resurgent few years, but it's an era that, one way or another, is coming to an end. Now's the time."
Unlike teams with high preseason expectations that have faltered—Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, New York Mets—the Jays are right in the thick of it, but the pressure's on.
Arizona Cardinals
5 of 11
The Arizona Cardinals went all the way to January's NFC Championship Game, and they look poised for another solid campaign, but their title window could be closing.
Key players are back in 2016—the Cards doled out one-year extensions to quarterback Carson Palmer and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, both of whom were major factors in the team's 2015 success. (Palmer threw for 4,671 yards in 2015 and Fitzgerald caught for 1,215.)
Then again, Palmer is 36, and Fitz is 32. How much time does each realistically have left?
The Cards also added to an already impressive defense—a unit that ranked fifth in total yards allowed in 2015—with the offseason acquisition of linebacker Chandler Jones.
Head coach Bruce Arians addressed the hype in July and said: "It helps solidify what you're telling them: 'You've obviously earned the right now to be considered a good football team, somebody they're picking in the top five or six. Now, it's your job to show up and do it,'" per Kent Somers of azcentral.com.
Michigan Football
6 of 11
For better or worse, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh certainly hasn't been quiet in the offseason.
From the satellite camp drama to a deal with Jordan Brand and his own rap video, the Harbaugh has succeeded in drawing big-time attention to his program (probably for the better—the Wolverines 2016 recruiting class ranked anywhere from No. 6 and No. 4 nationally, according to Nick Baumgardner of MLive.com).
Generally, new coaches are allowed a few years (unofficially) to get their own players on board and resurrect the program. Harbaugh, however, led his team to a 10-3 record in his first season, a vast improvement upon the Brady Hoke's 5-7 campaign in 2014.
It's probably fair to say the pressure is on for 2016.
Tight end Jake Butt said of Harbaugh: "He's not putting any more pressure on us than what's already there. … There's nothing wrong with pushing us to aim high and dream big," per Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press.
New York Rangers
7 of 11
Like many big-market teams, the New York Rangers are seemingly always under pressure to win. In December, head coach Alain Vigneault touted the importance of the phrase, "failure is not an option," according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
The 2015-16 season ended in a first-round playoff loss to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The disappointing result and aging roster—including 34-year-old franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist—left some wondering if the window has closed.
Steve Petrella of Sporting News wrote, "It's tough to say their window to win a Stanley Cup is completely shut, but it was closing two years ago, and now, it's just about there."
No one is giving up, though. So far in the offseason, the Rangers have added forwards Michael Grabner and Nathan Gerbe, and touted prospect Pavel Buchnevich is getting a fair amount of hype.
For a team that is Stanley Cup or bust, pressure is sky-high.
Carolina Panthers
8 of 11
Often, the closer a team gets to a title without taking it, the higher the expectations are the following season. Take the Carolina Panthers, for example.
The 2015 Panthers went 15-1 and all the way to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Denver Broncos. They had the No. 1 team offense in the NFL, per Pro Football Reference, and their quarterback, Cam Newton, ran away with the league MVP.
After such an impressive 2015 campaign, anything less than a Super Bowl title could be seen as a failure. Nick Carboni of WCNC wrote, "It's been a long time since expectations have been this high before a Carolina Panthers training camp."
Also, the team's decision to move on from All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman was a questionable one, and the secondary will be under pressure to prove it wasn't a mistake.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell argued both sides of the coin but also wrote, "And yet, it's just not realistic to think the defense is going to be just fine using a rookie to replace a guy who was playing at a truly dominant level."
Chicago Cubs
9 of 11
The road has been long for the Chicago Cubs—over 100 years, one might argue. At minimum, the current rebuild has been in motion since the arrival of team president Theo Epstein in 2011.
Since then, the Cubs have been busy building up a crop of young talent that finally looks poised to carry them to their first World Series title since 1908.
The Cubs won 97 games in 2015 and made it to the National League Championship Series. They added solid contributors the offseason (pitcher John Lackey, second baseman Ben Zobrist and outfielder Jason Heyward) and bolstered their bullpen with the July acquisition of closer Aroldis Chapman.
So it's World Series or bust, right?
ESPN's Buster Olney called the expectations in Chicago "Warriors-like," and manager Joe Maddon said before the season: "The target's going to be bigger, and I want us to embrace the target. The pressure is going to be possibly greater, and I want us to embrace the pressure," per Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.
Manchester United
10 of 11
Manchester United has won 13 Premier League titles since 1992—it is a club accustomed to winning. Yet, after a disappointing 2015-16 campaign that saw the Reds finish outside the top four, pressure is high to improve.
In accordance with such expectations, the club has made some serious offseason moves, starting with the hiring of Jose Mourinho to replace Louis van Gaal as manager.
The club also signed Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic and French midfielder Paul Pogba. The £89 million transfer fee Manchester United reportedly paid Juventus for Pogba is a world record, according to BBC Sport.
Mourinho acknowledged the pressure but insisted it's par for the course. He said in August, per Sacha Pisani of Goal.com: "It doesn't matter where I am, everyone expects big things. It's nothing new for me, I like to create that expectation. I like the players to feel it."
Golden State Warriors
11 of 11
Sometimes—often, even—it's the best teams that have the highest expectations placed upon them.
The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors won a record 73 games and came within a few minutes of a second NBA title in as many years. Stephen Curry—the first-ever unanimous NBA MVP and one of the league's most popular players—was just one of the team's three All-Stars in 2015-16.
Expectations would have already been high for 2016-17, but then the Dubs went and signed Kevin Durant in free agency. After the blockbuster deal went down on July 4, Bleacher Report's Michael Pina wrote, "The 2016-17 Golden State Warriors may go down as the greatest basketball team ever assembled."
And those expectations are not lost on the team.
Curry said, per James Herbert of CBS Sports: "Just because we have KD, because the guys we have on the roster—we do have one of the most talented rosters in the NBA—but that doesn't mean we're just going to blow everybody out. … We are going to be challenged."
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
