Every NFL Team's Biggest Potential Distraction for 2017
Distraction is a dirty word in the NFL.
It's the last thing any team wants. Teams are incredibly careful about crafting their own narratives. Those narratives, on a good day, are all essentially the same—take a basket of cliches about hard work, respect for opponents and "taking things one game at a time" and mix well.
It's all very boring and predictable. Just how the NFL likes it.
However, not every day is a good day. No team wants its narrative to be hijacked—for the questions of the day to change from "how was practice" to "who's the quarterback" or from "tell us about this week's game plan" to "tell us about reports you're being fired."
NFL players and coaches are creatures of routine. Curveballs in narrative shatter that routine and cause (in theory) disruption in the team's quest to win a Super Bowl.
Of course, the reality is these distractions are a fact of life in the NFL. With 32 teams and 53 players per team, it's inevitable things will happen that rock the boat.
Sometimes they strike suddenly from out of left field.
That's a baseball metaphor. Weird game they play in the summer with a little white ball and funny mittens. Google it.
However, many times these problems slowly bubble to the surface over time.
Either way, teams from Arizona to Washington will be doing their best this year to ensure that these potential distractions stay just that...
Potential distractions.
Arizona Cardinals
1 of 32
The Curse of 370
Back in 2015, after DeMarco Murray carried the ball 392 times for the Dallas Cowboys, I wrote here at Bleacher Report about "The Curse of 370."
Simply put, backs who carry the ball 370 or more times in a season almost always experience a significant downturn in production the following year.
However, as John Georgopoulos pointed out at Fantasy Sharks, the "curse" also extends to ball-carriers who rack up 370 or more touches in a season. Of the 16 backs who have done that in the past decade, only two met or exceeded their yardage total the following year.
Now, head coach Bruce Arians certainly doesn't appear to be worried abut David Johnson, who piled up 373 total touches for the Cardinals in 2016.
"He's still too young to overuse," Arians said, via Conor Orr of NFL.com. "I want to have 30 touches out of him, if possible, because that's going to be a lot of offense."
History shows that Arians should be worried, though. Riding Johnson even harder in 2017 wouldn't just be tempting fate. It would be double-dog daring it.
And if the Cardinals lose their best offensive player, it would be much more than just a distraction.
It would be a disaster.
Atlanta Falcons
2 of 32
Worst...Hangover...Ever
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan told 680 The Fan in Atlanta (via ESPN.com) that he hasn't shied away from watching video of the team's historic collapse in Super Bowl LI.
"I watched it the day after. I watched it two days after. And then I watched it three days after," Ryan said. "For me, it was one of those things, I think; you kind of want to be able to deal with it appropriately. Maybe that's different for everybody. Some people bury it away. ... For me it was, 'All right, let's watch.'"
It's an admirable attitude. Ryan and the Falcons might as well face what happened head-on. Because questions about it aren't going to stop coming anytime soon.
Every preview of the 2017 Falcons that airs on television, every article about them in print and online, every segment about them on talk radio—all are going to include some permutation of the following sentence...
"Can the Falcons rebound from the worst choke job in Super Bowl history?"
The "Super Bowl hangover" ranks right up there with the "Madden curse" on the list of things some people put great stock in while others dismiss entirely.
But the Carolina Panthers just went from 15-1 to 6-10 following their loss in Super Bowl 50, and the team that lost the Super Bowl hasn't gone on to win football's biggest game the following year since the Miami Dolphins in 1972.
History isn't on the Falcons' side, and if they come out of the gate slow, plenty of folks are going to remind them of that.
Baltimore Ravens
3 of 32
Offensive Offense
The pressure is ratcheting up in Baltimore. The Ravens are coming off back-to-back seasons of not making the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. They haven't missed the postseason three years in a row since the franchise's first four years of existence.
If the Ravens are going to break the dry spell in 2017, it's going to have to be by getting back to their roots—by rolling out a team similar to the one that won Super Bowl XXXV.
A stout defense and an offense that hopefully won't drag them down with it.
The Baltimore receiving corps is...let's go with unimpressive. Veteran Steve Smith retired. Slot receiver Kamar Aiken left in free agency. That leaves Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman, a pair of vertical threats who as often as not catch the ball like they're wearing a pair of oven mitts.
Lead tailback Kenneth Dixon has talent, but it will be Week 5 before he gets to show it thanks to a four-game suspension to open the season.
Veteran tight ends Benjamin Watson and Dennis Pitta and scatback Danny Woodhead have all shown the ability to contribute while on the field—and an inability to stay on said field.
Oh, and the Ravens lost their best offensive lineman in free agency for the second year in a row.
Baltimore's defense is good. Maybe not "Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs in their prime terrorize the NFL" good, but good.
What they aren't is stout enough to carry a nonexistent offense.
And one unit holding up its end while the other flounders on a weekly basis isn't exactly the key to locker room harmony.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Buffalo Bills
4 of 32
The Neverending Cold Snap
The Buffalo Bills are starting over—again.
As long-time beat writer Vic Carucci wrote for the Buffalo News, the arrival of new head coach Sean McDermott isn't like the man who came before him. There aren't going to be any Super Bowl proclamations anytime soon.
"It has more of a feel of a rebuild and hitting of the reset button than anything else," he said. "McDermott is instituting an all-out systemic and cultural upheaval, and the desired results tend not to show themselves all that quickly. There's a cleansing out of what was left behind by the previous regime that will happen over the course of at least a couple of seasons, with newer pieces being put in place. In other words, they're asking you to be patient."
Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that "an all-out systemic and cultural upheaval" wasn't needed in Buffalo. For the past several years, it's been the same old story—September hope that this would finally be the year the NFL's longest playoff drought ended followed by annual winter despair as fans realize by December that the Bills just aren't very good.
But it's much easier to talk about patience than to actually practice it. It's a trap bad teams fall into all the time. They wind up blowing up the franchise every 2-3 years because the wins don't come as quickly as they would like.
For the sake of the team's long-suffering fans, I hope that isn't the case this time.
But if the Bills struggle their way through a three- or four-win season, by Christmas that patience is going to be put to the test.
Carolina Panthers
5 of 32
Hold the Line
After a disappointing 2016 season, the Carolina Panthers looked to add some pop to the offense in the 2017 NFL draft. With their first pick, the Panthers selected Stanford Swiss army knife Christian McCaffrey. They then added a similar talent in Ohio State's Curtis Samuel in Round 2.
However, whether it's the new-look run game or quarterback Cam Newton, success on offense hinges on improvement from an offensive line that ranked 25th in run blocking and 19th in pass protection last year, per Football Outsiders.
It's a line that could feature new starters at both tackle spots. Newton's blind side will be protected by Matt Kalil, who joined the Panthers after five disappointing seasons in Minnesota. The hope is that Kalil can recapture some of the promise that made him a top-five pick back in 2012 playing down the line from brother Ryan, the Panthers' center.
Right tackle could be unsettled as well. Michael Oher still has not been cleared for contact after a concussion suffered all the way back in September. As Joseph Person reported for the Charlotte Observer, Oher missed the first round of OTAs while attending to "personal matters" that include a run-in with the law for allegedly assaulting an Uber driver.
Person also wrote that Oher's out of shape, and at this point we're past the point where the Panthers could in any way reasonably expect he'll be part of the team this season. That opens a spot for competition between rookie second-round pick Taylor Moton and third-year pro Daryl Williams.
The Panthers with Newton have long been built around their ability to run the ball both between the tackles and off the edge. Whether it's zone-read looks with McCaffrey or short passes to Samuel, much of what the Panthers want to do this year hinges on winning at the point of attack.
If Carolina can't do that, the new additions on offense this season won't fare any better than last year's squad, and their bounce-back in 2017 will likely fall flat.
Chicago Bears
6 of 32
Dead Staff Walking
Back in 2015, veteran head coach John Fox was brought in to turn around the floundering Chicago Bears. Fresh off a Super Bowl trip with the Denver Broncos, Fox and new general manager Ryan Pace were going to return a once-proud franchise to contention in the NFC North.
Or not.
Frankly, since Fox and Pace's arrival, if anything the Bears have gotten worse. And after the Bears traded up to select North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in the 2017 draft, one personnel executive told Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports that perception around the NFL is that the Bears are a ship without a rudder.
"We don't know what the hell they were doing," said an executive from one team that is routinely in the postseason. "It's all anyone is talking about. It's really bad between Pace and Fox. Fox is fuming about being left in the dark on the trade (for Trubisky). I don't know anyone who likes their draft. From the first pick on, we can't figure out what they were doing. Go back and look at how many small-school kids they took. People around the league are shocked. It's really bad between Pace and Fox."
In fairness, a report from Chris Mortensen of ESPN refuted the notion Fox had no involvement in the selection of Trubisky. But even if he and Pace are the best of buddies, it doesn't change the fact that Pace has looked the part of a man who knows he's about to be fired this offseason.
Paying Mike Glennon $18.5 million in 2017 and then moving up to draft his replacement before Glennon so much as takes a snap for the team is a panic move, pure and simple.
The Bears won three games in 2016. I don't know many pundits who expect them to be any better in 2017.
It's an even-money bet that Fox will even make it through the season. And Pace isn't going to be far behind him.
Cincinnati Bengals
7 of 32
End of an Era
Among NFL head coaches, only Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots has been at his current post longer than Marvin Lewis has been the coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Lewis has won 118 games as the franchise's head coach—the most in Bengals history. Seven times Lewis has guided the Bengals to the playoffs.
His record in those seven playoff games? Oh-fer. The big goose egg. The worst head coach in NFL playoff history.
Last year, the Bengals missed the postseason altogether for the first time since 2010. Lewis allowed to the Cincinnati Enquirer that the bottom line needs to improve as he enters the final year of his contract.
"It's kind of all-encompassing," Lewis explained. "It means you've got to do a better job of our guys understanding the situation, everything about situational football, just the competitiveness of practice, the execution of the things in practice, pushing young players to pull more out of them. As coaches we've got to pull more out of these players all the time. The response of this is how we've done it is not quite good enough. It's not good enough. Everything has got to be better. We've got to pull more out of each guy."
The causes of the Bengals missing the playoffs last year are still there. In fact, the biggest issue (offensive line play) is probably worse.
If the losses start mounting and it looks like the Bengals won't make the playoffs again, an annual rite in the Queen City that usually doesn't happen until January—the wondering aloud whether it's time for the team to move on from the most successful coach (in the regular season) it's ever had—will get a head start.
Cleveland Browns
8 of 32
Shiny New Toys
By most estimations, the Cleveland Browns had a very successful offseason. They took big steps to bolster the offensive line in free agency, added three potential starters in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft and even pulled off an NBA-style "salary dump" trade that netted them a quarterback and a second-round pick.
There's an odd new emotion wafting around the shores of Lake Erie.
Hope.
I hate to throw a bucket of cold water on the good times. I really do. I'm a Browns fan myself. I understand the desperate desire to not be a laughingstock.
But while the Browns may be better, they still aren't good.
The next sack Myles Garrett gets in the NFL will be his first, and pass-rushers have been known to struggle in acclimating to the NFL. The last one to go No. 1 overall (Jadaveon Clowney) only just began to come into his own.
Jabrill Peppers is a wildly athletic talent learning an entirely new position. And Cleveland's situation at quarterback remains unsettled, even after the addition of veteran Brock Osweiler and second-round pick DeShone Kizer.
The Browns will be an improved team in 2017. After winning just one game last year, there's nowhere to go but up. But expectations of a .500 season just aren't realistic.
Don't create problems for a team that has enough already, especially if the young additions struggle out of the gate.
Dallas Cowboys
9 of 32
Win. Rinse. Repeat.
The Dallas Cowboys had a great 2016 season by most measurements. Their 13-win campaign was all the more impressive given that it was spearheaded by a pair of rookies in quarterback Dak Prescott and tailback Ezekiel Elliott.
Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones told ESPN's Todd Archer he expects the team's rookie revelation under center last year to be even better in 2017.
"He is relentless," Jones said. "It means a lot to him. It's a huge priority for him obviously to be great. I think it's all in front of him. Each year it's going to be better."
That's the problem. The idea that each year is going to be "better."
Elliott led the NFL in rushing as a rookie, topping 1,600 yards on the ground and averaging over five yards a carry.
But he also touched the ball over 370 times (there's that number again) including the playoffs, his third straight year with a heavy workload.
There's also the cloud of the NFL's long-running investigation into allegations of domestic violence against Elliott. The 21-year-old hasn't been arrested or charged with any crime, but the league's investigation is still open.
Prescott was essentially flawless as a rookie, completing over two-thirds of his passes and posting a passer rating of almost 105 while throwing only four interceptions. But he also benefited from the league's best ground game and offensive line.
If Elliott takes a step backward in Year 2 of his NFL career that would shift more pressure onto Prescott. That shift could cause a backslide of its own.
Sky-high expectations go with being a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Tony Romo can tell you all about that. The performance of Elliott and Prescott in 2016 just raised the bar that much higher.
But to expect perfection is to beg for disappointment, and it isn't hard to imagine a scenario where everyone asks what's "wrong" with the Cowboys just because their two young stars aren't standing on their heads every week.
Denver Broncos
10 of 32
Mile High QB Controversy
As Mike Klis reported for KUSA-TV, new Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph indicated that 2016 starter Trevor Siemian and second-year pro Paxton Lynch will have an open competition at quarterback this summer in training camp.
"The competition is going to be in the fall," Joseph said. "It won’t be in the spring. The spring is going to be a learning tool to learn Mike (McCoy's) system."
Per Klis, the early edge in that battle, at least where learning the system is concerned, is going to the incumbent. "So far, Siemian seems to be picking up the new offense a little quicker than Lynch," he said. "Siemian is a little more advanced in the decision-making aspect of the passing game."
Klis then went so far as to tweet that he'd be "surprised" if it wasn't Siemian under center when the Broncos host the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1.
That can hardly be called an upset. Siemian made 14 starts for the team last year and has an extra season in the NFL under his belt. The argument can also be made that he's a more cerebral quarterback than Lynch, at least at this stage in their careers.
Siemian's also an average arm talent at best. He's never going to be more than a serviceable NFL starter.
Lynch, on the other hand, is the gunslinger with a cannon for a right arm. The best arm talent in the 2016 NFL draft. The player who Elway moved up in the first round to draft a year ago.
If Siemian and the Broncos struggle even a little early in the year, the calls for a change under center are going to rain down from a mile high.
And Joseph's going to kick off his first season as a head coach with a good old-fashioned quarterback controversy.
Detroit Lions
11 of 32
Another Pile of Money for Matt Stafford
Despite the fact that Matthew Stafford has been in the NFL for 37 years, the Detroit Lions quarterback is still only 29 years old.
Wild, huh?
He's also about to get paid. Again.
By virtue of joining the NFL before the new CBA was signed, Stafford is on the verge of his third fat contract. It's entirely possible that Stafford will have earned more money playing football than any player in history when all is said and done.
Especially since, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Stafford's new deal could command a record $25 million-plus in annual salary.
Stafford also didn't sound like a player willing to offer a substantial "hometown discount" to the Lions.
"I think [the salary cap is] something for those guys to talk about and understand probably more than me," Stafford said. "I know every year teams find good ways to put good teams around good quarterbacks, you see it every year, so I'm not too worried about that. I know that the salary caps and all that kind of stuff is as malleable as you want it to be so I think you just go and try and make a good decision for not only the player but the team and go from there."
He then made a statement that curled the toes of Lions fans.
"I would love to (get a new deal done)," Stafford said. "I've had a really good time playing here, would like to be here long term. But that's yet to be seen."
Stafford isn't hitting free agency in 2018. He'd break it. The Lions could always tag him as a last resort, although that would be an expensive proposition.
But a Lions team that made the playoffs last year only because Stafford stood on his head for most of the season doesn't need even the possibility he might hanging over them all season long.
Get the deal done.
Green Bay Packers
12 of 32
Twin Cities or Bust
It's hard to imagine a distraction that would really make waves in Titletown. The Green Bay Packers are a veteran team led by an even-keeled quarterback.
After all, it was Aaron Rodgers who told fans to "R-E-L-A-X" after a 1-2 start in 2014. Rodgers who proclaimed last November that the team could win out and make the playoffs.
The Pack proceeded to do that very thing, peeling off an eight-game winning streak that came up just short of the Super Bowl.
However, that last part will hang over the team all season long.
It just isn't enough for the Packers to win 10 games. Or 12. Or even 13. Or to win the NFC North. There's one way and only one way that Green Bay's season can satisfy expectations in 2017.
That's if they hoist the Lombardi Trophy as the champions of Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis.
Remember, it wasn't all that long ago that some folks were calling for head coach Mike McCarthy to be fired.
"Let's say the Packers finish 10-6, make the playoffs and lose before the conference championship," Chris Chase of Fox Sports wrote last October. "Is it really possible to fire a coach who's gotten you to the postseason eight straight years and brought Titletown U.S.A. its fourth Super Bowl win? Yes, and it's the same reason the New York Giants got rid of Tom Coughlin, the Eagles cut ties with Andy Reid and Les Miles is out of work after 12 years at LSU. Sometimes a team, even a great one, needs a change of scenery."
That pressure's hardly a rarity in Green Bay. And on a veteran team like the Packers, calling it a "distraction" is a stretch. The Pack won't let it get there.
But those expectations leave McCarthy, Rodgers and company very little room for error.
And the weight of that pressure is very real.
Houston Texans
13 of 32
No One Likes the Merry-Go-Round
Back in 2015, the Houston Texans didn't get through their first game of the season without head coach Bill O'Brien making a switch at quarterback. Brian Hoyer gave way to Ryan Mallett, who gave way to Hoyer, who gave way to T.J. Yates and then Brandon Weeden, who gave way to Hoyer again.
After Hoyer was absolutely destroyed by the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs, the Texans turned to free agent Brock Osweiler, handing the lanky quarterback $37 million in guarantees to lead the team.
O'Brien cheered the signing at the time. By the end of the 2016 regular season, O'Brien had swapped out quarterbacks again, replacing Osweiler with Tom Savage.
According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Savage's grip on the starting job is safe, despite the fact Houston dealt a pair of first-round picks to move up and select Clemson's Deshaun Watson.
"I guarantee you that barring injury, Tom Savage is the opening day starter against Jacksonville at NRG Stadium," McClain told PFT Live. "Deshaun Watson will watch and learn. And there are only two ways he will get on the field anytime soon. And that is like Dak Prescott. If the first two go down for the season. Or if the first two play really really bad. He will not be rushed into Bill O'Brien's system."
I get where McClain is coming from. And I can understand why O'Brien would be reticent to use a quick hook again given how poorly it worked out last time.
But Savage is hardly an entrenched veteran. He has two NFL starts in his career and exactly as many touchdown passes as a pro as Watson. Zero.
Those Dak Prescott comparisons aren't going to stop coming. If Watson outplays Savage in the preseason, there will be calls for him to start. If the Texans start the year 1-2 with Savage at the wheel, there will be calls for Watson to start.
O'Brien and the Texans are under more than a little pressure to do better than one-and-done in 2017. Watson's acquisition was supposed to be a step in that direction.
A step that many will want to see taken sooner as opposed to later.
Indianapolis Colts
14 of 32
Gotta Blame SOMEONE
It wasn't that long ago that Andrew Luck appeared on a collision course with the Super Bowl. Sure, the Colts were blasted by the New England Patriots in the 2014 AFC title game, but Luck was an ascending superstar.
It wasn't a matter of if he'd play in a Super Bowl. Just how many and when.
We're still waiting.
It isn't Luck's fault even a little that the Colts have missed the playoffs in each of the last two years. Two years ago, he got hurt. Last year, he had a good season in which he set a career best in completion percentage, but he did so behind a patchwork line playing catch-up far too often because Indy's defense was awful.
As general manager Chris Ballard told Peter King of the MMQB, the priority in the offseason was building around their franchise quarterback.
"Everybody knows how hard that position is to find," Ballard said. "When you have a guy with special talent at the position and he's got special character on top of it, that's a pretty good thing. But the one big thing I've made a point of here, it's not just Andrew. We've got to have the best 53-man roster, and that includes Andrew. That's how we’ll help him, by making the roster around him better both offensively and defensively. That's what we're gonna do. It can't be just about Andrew."
I won't argue that the Colts should be better in 2017. But for years this was a team that was unquestionably the best in the AFC South. Now I don't know that you can call them even second-best.
Those expectations of fulfilling his destiny are still there for the NFL's highest-paid player.
So, whether it's Luck's fault or not, if the Colts struggle early in 2017, it will be his fault.
Jacksonville Jaguars
15 of 32
Games Aren't Played on Paper
For the second straight season, the Jacksonville Jaguars have been very aggressive in re-making the defense.
In 2016, it was a big free-agent deal for defensive end Malik Jackson and high draft picks spent on cornerback Jalen Ramsey and linebacker Myles Jack.
The Jaguars went one better in 2017. Both sides of the ball got upgrades. On defense, defensive end Calais Campbell, cornerback A.J. Bouye and safety Barry Church all got big deals in free agency.
The makeover continued on offense. Jacksonville brought in a pair of offensive tackles in veteran Branden Albert and second-round rookie Cam Robinson. Not to mention a shiny new bell-cow tailback behind them in No. 4 overall pick Leonard Fournette.
On paper, the Jaguars are significantly better.
We said the same thing last year.
Last year's defensive upgrades resulted in a team that ranked sixth in total defense—and 25th in scoring defense.
Fournette is a wildly talented young back, but he's not a miracle worker. The Jaguars ranked 27th in Football Outsiders' adjusted line yards, which measures the true impact of an offensive line, last season.
And even if they do, if quarterback Blake Bortles plays in 2017 like he did in 2016, it won't matter.
The Jags had plenty of buzz at this time last year too.
We'll see if history repeats itself and the buzz quickly turns to grumbles.
Kansas City Chiefs
16 of 32
We Want the New Guy!
Alex Smith needs a hug.
Despite leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a 12-win season, the AFC West title and the No. 2 seed in the AFC last year, Smith watched the team move up in the 2017 NFL draft to select his successor in Texas Tech's Pat Mahomes.
To his credit, Smith was a pro's pro while discussing his future with Robert Klemko of The MMQB.
"If you're not good enough and didn't get it done, you're not going to be around long," Smith said. "That's just our culture. I know it. That's the nature of the position."
It's not that Smith isn't good enough. It's that he just isn't great. And this also isn't the first time this has happened to him.
Back in 2012, after suffering a concussion, Smith watched a young second-year quarterback named Colin Kaepernick take the field for the San Francisco 49ers.
Smith, who had led the Niners to the playoffs the year before, never started another game for the team.
The reality is that Smith's job is two-fold in 2017. Lead the Chiefs deep into the postseason and audition for other teams.
Serving two masters can be tricky. If this situation takes a toll on Smith and his level of play drops even a little, fans are going to clamor for Mahomes.
The whole thing has to be the worst kind of deja vu for Smith, who well and truly is the Rodney Dangerfield of NFL signal-callers.
Los Angeles Chargers
17 of 32
Playing Second Fiddle
The StubHub Center is the home of the L.A. Galaxy.
That's a soccer team, in case you were wondering. Soccer, you know...round ball, rather boring, everyone else calls it "Futbol?"
The StubHub Center seats 30,000 people...maybe.
And thanks to the construction delays on the mega-stadium in Los Angeles that the Chargers and Rams will share, the StubHub Center is now the Chargers' home for the next three years.
No, really. The Chargers bolted (see what I did there? Bolted? HA! I kill me!) San Diego after over half a century to play games in a soccer stadium that's smaller than most college football stadiums.
Much smaller.
In their defense, like the Rams and the Coliseum, the Chargers tried to set up shop in the Rose Bowl, only to be rebuffed. As a matter of fact the Rose Bowl doesn't ever want an NFL game played there ever. They want it to be illegal.
But still....this is just not a good look.
It's not just the matter of crowd size. Although if the Chargers can't even fill this thimble of a stadium it will be pretty humiliating.
This isn't a facility that was built with two 53-man football teams in mind. I don't know if you've noticed, but football has a bit more equipment than futbol.
And with all due respect to MLS, I'm guessing their medical facilities aren't exactly what NFL teams have come to expect.
It's three years of hammering home that the Chargers are second fiddle in a town that lost two teams not that many years ago because no one cared about either of them.
Apathy as distraction.
Welcome to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Rams
18 of 32
Goff, Goof, Gaffe...Whatever
Despite the fact that 2016 No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff struggled as a rookie, it's still too early to say definitively that the Los Angeles Rams goofed by trading up to obtain his services.
Actually, "struggled" is being kind. He was Gofful.
As ESPN's Aiden Gonzalez reported, new Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur has seen marked improvement from Goff this offseason.
"He wants to be great," LaFleur said. "He's doing everything that we’ve asked him to do, and then some. He’s working hard every day. I think he’s getting better every day."
That might be a "nowhere to go but up" situation, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
I might, but it doesn't appear that new head coach Sean McVay necessarily will. Per Bleacher Report's Jason Cole, if Jared Goff circa 2017 plays like Jared Goff circa 2016, McVay is prepared to switch to Sean Mannion as the starter at quarterback.
"One person who knows both players well said he wouldn't be surprised to see the Rams go to Mannion if Goff struggles during the regular season," Cole said.
It's worth pointing out that McVay had no part in drafting Goff. He's not invested in the quarterback yet. And if Goff isn't the guy then an argument can be made that the wise choice is to just rip the band-aid off and get it over with.
But when the quarterback a team mortgaged its future to obtain can't even get to training camp without there being rumbles that he could lose his job to Sean Mannion, it's not an especially good look.
Lotta that going around in L.A. right now.
Miami Dolphins
19 of 32
Playing In a LONG Shadow
The Miami Dolphins were a surprise playoff team in 2016. They won 10 games and have built a nice young core on offense. Head coach Adam Gase was a Coach of the Year candidate in his first year with the team, and he's pledged (via Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports) that the Dolphins won't rest on their laurels in 2017.
"I want our team to just understand that we're starting over, we're 0-0," Gase said. "The last thing we can do is just rest on last year. It's basically dead and gone and we're moving forward. And our job is to get better every day. Don't be complacent on what has happened in the past. Because at the end of the day, we're being evaluated on this season."
Were the Dolphins anywhere else, they would be a "buzz" team in 2017. One of those clubs that folks talk about taking the hypothetical "next step."
But they're in the AFC East, so no one cares.
The Dolphins are loaded with offensive talent. They have a solid young quarterback in Ryan Tannehill. The team added a number of pieces on defense in free agency and in the draft. In a weaker division they'd be a candidate to win 11 or 12 games and earn a first-round bye.
But they're in the AFC East, so before the season even starts they're already playing for a wild card. Maybe they'll get one home game if they make the postseason.
It isn't just that the New England Patriots have won the division in each of the last eight years. Or 13 of the last 14.
That same Patriots team—the defending world champions—is markedly better this year after an offseason that inspired nausea everywhere but Boston.
Fans will light me up for saying this—and you'd never get the players to admit it—but the reality is, in the AFC East, there are the Pats and then three teams vying for second place.
Minnesota Vikings
20 of 32
Hometown History
I considered including Minnesota's revamped offensive line here, but people are always telling me that I'm too negative. So I'll glass-half-full it and assume Riley Reiff and Co. will be an improved unit in 2017.
You're welcome.
If that line does play better, then the Vikings should be able to avoid another second-half collapse a la a year ago. And if the Vikings enter the month of November in playoff contention we're going to start seeing a certain type of story.
There have been 51 Super Bowls. Exactly none of them have featured the "host" team, although the 49ers came close when they played Super Bowl XIX in Palo Alto.
Is the earth going to stop spinning if players have to answer a question every week about playing in the biggest game in sports in front of their own boisterous fans? No.
It might draw a couple Mike Zimmer death-stares and maybe a terse answer though.
But it's the kind of trivial distraction that would drive a no-nonsense coach like Zimmer absolutely bonkers. Make no mistake, if things do reach that point any player who so much as mentions a "home" Super Bowl in the Vikings locker room will be quickly and summarily flogged.
Or fined. OK, probably fined.
To be fair, I'd wager Zimmer would prefer answering silly questions about the Super Bowl venue than more serious ones about how the line is still awful and Sam Bradford was flattened.
New England Patriots
21 of 32
Brady's Beautiful Bucket
The New England Patriots aren't strangers to distractions.
But where some teams wilt, the Pats thrive when facing them. This is a team that won a Super Bowl last year amid whispers about "Deflategate." Back in the "Spygate" days all they did was lay waste to every team in the NFL not quarterbacked by Eli Manning while coming a hair's width from running the table.
The Patriots have already faced just about every distraction a team can. Injured superstar quarterback? Done it. Accused of cheating (twice)? Done and done. Player accused (and then convicted) of murder? Sadly, did that too.
However, when Tom Brady's wife told CBS This Morning (via USA Today's Scott Gleeson) recently that he had a concussion last year, it's a safe bet that Bill Belichick neither smiled nor nodded—especially since no such concussion was ever reported.
"I just have to say, as a wife, as you know (the NFL) is not the most, let's say, unaggressive sport. Football, he had a concussion last year," she said in the interview. "He has concussions pretty much every…I mean we don't talk about it. But he has concussions and I don't really think it’s a healthy thing for your body to go through. You know, that kind of aggression all the time, that cannot be healthy for you. I'm planning on having him be healthy and do a lot of fun things when we're like 100 I hope."
Both Brady's agent—to ESPN's Adam Schefter—and the NFL quickly denied that Brady was diagnosed with a concussion, either last year or ever.
It's possible that Gisele Bundchen misspoke. It's also possible she didn't, and she knows something the league or Brady's agent don't. Brady would hardly be the first player to keep quiet about an injury.
Retired wide receiver Calvin Johnson confessed just this week he did it more than once.
Given that "dirty little secret" and the perception by some of the Patriots as "cheaters," this kind of story feeds into a couple of narratives the Patriots don't need swirling around them...again.
Not that it would really make a difference if it did.
New Orleans Saints
22 of 32
Big Easy Brees-y
I thought about mentioning the crowded backfield in New Orleans as a potential distraction for the team. But I couldn't really come up with a way that wouldn't be a good problem to have. Adrian Peterson knew what he was getting into. Mark Ingram knows better than to cross Sean Payton. And I don't think Alvin Kamara is likely to grouse about not getting carries.
The other big potential distraction the Saints might have faced was remedied a while back. Brandin Cooks made it clear he wasn't happy about how he was being used in the passing game, and then the Saints made it clear how they felt about that.
But there's one other problem that could arise.
Actually, it's more of an Apocalypse. The worst of worst-case scenarios.
Drew Brees is entering a contract year, and he made it clear to Josh Katzenstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he intends to play that year out before discussing an extension.
"Listen, so I signed a one-year extension, so that was this year and then next year," Brees said. "And so I plan on playing that out and just allowing things to take form and take shape here for next year and putting forth my absolute best effort to help us win a division championship and then a world championship. And then, again, just one year at a time, and that's not a lack of commitment or anything like that. It's just, I just want to focus on what's right in front of me."
Now, if Brees comes out and throws for 4,500-plus yards again and the Saints have even a decent season, this will take care of itself next year. Brees will get another short-term deal for a big bowl of gumbo, and everyone will be happy.
But what if he doesn't? What if he starts to show his age? What if the Saints struggle to win six games and finish in last place in the NFC South? What if (heaven forbid) he were to get hurt?
Drew Brees is the face of the Saints. It's unthinkable for fans of the team to even consider him ever playing anywhere else.
But life after No. 9 is coming whether they want it to or not.
And the specter of that is the absolute last thing the Saints want looming over the team.
New York Giants
23 of 32
Big Apple, Big Pressure
The New York Giants made it back to the playoffs last year, in large part because of a re-tooled defense that went from one of the NFL's worst in 2015 to one of the league's best in 2016.
NFL Network analyst Willie McGinest said (via Dan Benton of Giants Wire) that defense plus New York's new faces on offense equal a Super Bowl contender.
"It's too early for me to talk about Super Bowl, but if there's any team that's built to play in the Super Bowl the way they put this team together, the Giants have an opportunity," McGinest said. "You look at the offensive weapons they added this year, Brandon Marshall and Evan Engram, those are two players that will open this offense [up]...That for Eli takes it to another level. But the way they've been winning their championships is through the defense. The front seven, hard [and] tough football, stopping the run, getting after the quarterback and good football on the back end."
McGinest's job is to make predictions just like that, and it's not a huge reach. The Giants were 11-5 in 2016, and there isn't a team in the NFC who's a runaway favorite like the Patriots are in the AFC.
But this is far from a flawless team. Yes, the Giants added receivers on offense, but the line is still a question mark. Eli's going to need those receivers, too—the Giants are about half a step this side of holding running back tryouts in the parking lot outside Met Life Stadium.
Like most of the contenders in this article, the biggest distraction facing the Giants is one they deal with every year. They are expected to be good. Expected to not only advance to the playoffs but also make noise once they get there.
That could make for some uncomfortable questions if the team starts 2-3 again.
New York Jets
24 of 32
Tomato Can Blues
As Brian Costello of the New York Post reported, the most senior member of the Jets has a message for all the naysayers who think the Jets are going to stink in 2017.
"I think we’re going to surprise some people," linebacker David Harris said.
You know what? He's absolutely right.
The Jets may actually be worse than people think.
This is a bad football team. I don't blame Mike Maccagnan for blowing the roster up and starting over. It was overdue. But with the exception of the defensive line, there isn't a single position group where the Jets are even average.
The offense is especially offensive. Does it really matter if it's Josh McCown, Bryce Petty, or Christian Hackenberg taking snaps behind a bad line? Tailback Matt Forte is toast. Wideout Eric Decker's all but surely in his last year with the team.
This is a team primed for a run at the No. 1 overall pick in 2018.
That pick may give fans hope, but getting there will wear on everyone.
It's going to wear on Todd Bowles and a coaching staff who know they're probably going to be fired before the rebuild is complete. It's going to wear on players who have to endure loss after loss in America's biggest media market.
The 2017 season is going to be a slog in New York.
And that shouldn't surprise anyone.
Oakland Raiders
25 of 32
Viva Las Vegas
We'll operate here under the assumption that quarterback Derek Carr's contract issues are resolved soon. Anthony Galaviz of the Fresno Bee reported recently that Carr is convinced they will be, and I'm equally confident that Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie has more sense than to leave Carr's deal hanging over the Silver and Black all season long.
The team's under a dark enough cloud as it is.
For the second time in team history, the Raiders have told the city of Oakland "see ya." As of the 2019 season, the team will be the Las Vegas Raiders.
If not sooner.
I will confess that I found it amusing when the Raiders said they were going to play two "lame duck" years in Oakland before relocating to Sin City. It was a statement that sounded very much like it came from people who had never actually been to a Raiders game.
The rabid fans in Oakland—the men and women who form the core of Raider Nation—are as um, animated as any fans in the NFL. They just sat through 15 years of terrible football. The team is finally, mercifully good again—Super Bowl contender good.
And they're moving.
This is not going to sit well with the denizens of The Black Hole.
Many of those fans will still cheer, especially if the team keeps winning. But with every loss, with every announcement about the status of their shiny new stadium, with every passing week that draws them closer to the day of reckoning, more of those fans are going to turn.
I believe in my heart of hearts that 2017 will be it for the Raiders in Oakland. They'll wind up playing in UNLV's stadium or something in 2018.
Because I think both the Raiders and the NFL are vastly underestimating how ugly this is going to get.
Philadelphia Eagles
26 of 32
Carts and Horses
One would think the Philadelphia Eagles would be able to avoid falling into the same trap for the second year in a row.
But hope makes us all crazy.
After the Eagles started last year 3-0, the narrative around the team changed from "rookie quarterback leads rebuild" to "can the Eagles make the playoffs?"
The answer to the latter lied in the former. In other words, no. The Eagles were frankly better than most should have expected, but that fast start skewed expectations for a 7-9 football team.
Well, here we are a year later. Carson Wentz is a year older. The Eagles were very active in adding weapons around him.
And as beat writer Nick Fierro wrote in the Allentown Morning Call, expectations are ratcheting up again.
"Barring an unreasonable rash of injuries," he said, "anything short of a playoff berth in 2017 would have to be considered a failure for the Eagles."
Wait, what?
Yes, the Eagles added Alshon Jeffery—who hasn't stayed healthy since 2014.
Yes, they added LeGarrette Blount—who is the wrong side of 30 and coming off a career year that isn't going to be repeated.
Never mind a young quarterback still finding his way in the NFL and a shaky secondary.
Are the Eagles better? Yes. Are they capable of making some noise in the NFC East? Yes.
Is it way too early though to be making plans for playoff tickets? Most definitely yes.
Pittsburgh Steelers
27 of 32
For What the Bell Toils
Normally, for a contract impasse to cast a pall over an entire team, said impasse has to involve a quarterback.
But Le'Veon Bell's status in Pittsburgh threatens to do that very thing...
Probably because he's no normal running back.
In 2017, Bell will play under a franchise tag that will pay him just over $12 million. It's good work if you can get it. But after this year, Bell's future with the Steelers is murkier than the Monongahela River.
I'd been saving that one.
It's understandable that the Steelers went the route they did. Bell's had issues both with injuries and the NFL's substance abuse policy. He sat out the first three games of last season due to a suspension.
Add in that running back is easily the most fungible position in the league, and it's no surprise Pittsburgh isn't rushing to meet Bell's contract demands.
But Bell is also an incredibly valuable piece of the offense of a Super Bowl contender. The 25-year-old averaged an eye-popping 28 touches a game last year.
No running back averaged more. Not David Johnson. Not Ezekiel Elliott. No one.
Knowing the Steelers, they aren't going to cave and re-do his deal in-season. They do things their way. Always have. Probably always will.
But if Bell powers the Steelers to another AFC North title, it's fair to wonder if he's going to wonder where his reward for doing so is.
And make no mistake...between Bell and Antonio Brown, it's Bell who will determine how far Pittsburgh gets in the playoffs.
San Francisco 49ers
28 of 32
Optimism vs. Realism
So far, the reign of King John L in San Francisco has been greeted with much back-patting and attaboys.
Deservedly so, too. For the most part, John Lynch has done a fine job as the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers. The team enjoyed success in both free agency and the 2017 NFL draft.
The first-round trade with the Chicago Bears was pretty slick. Lynch pocketed a few extra picks he then used to move back into Round 1 and grab Reuben Foster, all while giving up exactly nothing.
Now comes the hard part, though.
Turning that offseason success into in-season success.
It's easier to be optimistic about the future when you're 0-0 in May than it is to do so when you're 2-5 in October.
And 2-5 may actually be on the optimistic side of things.
One offseason isn't going to come close to fixing all the problems for a two-win 49ers team. With all due respect to Brian Hoyer, San Francisco still doesn't have a quarterback. The roster has fewer holes now than it did, but it's still pretty easy to see through.
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes the hardest part about getting better is having the patience to be bad, to resist the urge for quick fixes that will get you to 7-9 in lieu of the slow and steady route that leads to sustainable success.
Since Lynch and Kyle Shanahan just signed on, they aren't facing much pressure yet to show results.
But that isn't to say that pressure won't mount once the losses start to.
Seattle Seahawks
29 of 32
A Legion No More
Nothing is forever in the NFL. The Seattle Seahawks have already watched the heart of their offense during their back-to-back Super Bowl trips (tailback Marshawn Lynch) call it a career, even if he's since un-retired to join the Oakland Raiders.
Now it's the face of the defense who could be living on borrowed time.
As Bleacher Report NFL National Lead Writer Mike Tanier wrote just after this year's draft, it looks like the Seahawks are preparing for life after the "Legion of Boom."
"For six years," Tanier said "through an entire Super Bowl cycle dominated by the play of their defensive backs, the Seahawks never felt the need to make serious investments in a new batch of defensive backs. Until now. Seattle is preparing for life after the Legion. And while the end still looks like it's a year away, all it could take to bring an era to a close is an injury or just the right trade offer."
It isn't just the matter of the new faces. Far from it.
This spring brought trade rumors involving cornerback Richard Sherman—rumors the Seahawks made absolutely no effort to deny. Whether it was meant to send a message to the outspoken corner or just a matter of Seattle seeing what they might be able to get in a deal, it's a big shift from a few years ago when Sherman would have been all but untouchable.
Free safety Earl Thomas is coming back from a broken leg after telling The Rich Eisen Show in December he considered retirement. Strong safety Kam Chancellor had surgery on both ankles this offseason. DeShawn Shead could start the season on the PUP list after tearing his ACL.
Chancellor, Sherman and Thomas aren't getting any younger. The Seahawks have a ton of salary cap resources tied up in the trio. And to be blunt, the Legion of Boom isn't quite as dominant as it once was.
This is a great group of football players who formed the backbone of one of the best secondaries in NFL history. They've also always freely expressed their opinions.
If they see the same writing on the wall that Tanier does and decide to speak out about it, that might be the only sort of distraction that could shake a locker room as tightly-knit as Seattle's.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
30 of 32
Great Expectations
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made big strides in 2016. The team went from 6-10 to 9-7 in Dirk Koetter's first year as coach, narrowly missing the playoffs.
Tampa kept that momentum going in the offseason as well. The theme appeared to be adding weapons around quarterback Jameis Winston, whether it was veteran wideout DeSean Jackson in free agency or rookie tight end O.J. Howard in the 2017 draft.
Add it all together, and the Buccaneers are a trendy pick among pundits like Adam Schein of NFL.com as a playoff team in 2017.
"The secret is out," Schein said. "After improving the win total by three and barely missing the playoffs in 2016, the Bucs are poised to break through this fall. With Jackson, Howard and Chris Godwin joining Pro Bowler Mike Evans and the underrated Cameron Brate in the passing game, Jameis Winston will emerge as a legit star in Year 3. Nick Folk giving Roberto Aguayo competition will help focus and straighten out the kicking game for close contests. The defense is solid, especially with Gerald McCoy as a man on a mission."
I'm on board the Tampa hype train. If they can cobble together any kind of ground game, the offense should be scary. In addition to McCoy on defense, the Bucs boast a great one-two punch at linebacker in Lavonte David and Kwon Alexander.
But while this is a talented team, it's also a young team—one that's going to hear a lot about how good they are thanks to their appearance on HBO's Hard Knocks.
Yes, that's a distraction too.
How the Bucs handle the bright lights is Koetter's first true test as coach.
After all, no one really expected anything a year ago.
Tennesee Titans
31 of 32
Is There An Echo In Here?
Just about everything I wrote about the Buccaneers also applies to the Tennessee Titans in 2017.
Except for the HBO thing.
Just like the Buccaneers, the Titans made a big jump last season. In fact, you could say it was YUUGE! After a 3-13 2015 season that got the Titans the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, the Titans improved all the way to 9-7.
Had Marcus Mariota not broken his leg late in the season, I honestly believe the Titans would have made the playoffs.
Just like the Buccaneers, the Titans spent much of the offseason adding weapons for quarterback Mariota. They added three in the first two days of the NFL draft alone, including No. 5 overall pick Corey Davis of Western Michigan.
Mariota's recovery is proceeding well. Assuming he's healthy, playing behind a stout line with a pair of talented backs and a cadre of new pass-catchers at his disposal, the Tennessee offense could be much more than just an "exotic smashmouth" attack in 2017.
But now comes the hard part.
The step from "OK" to "good" can be much steeper than the one from "bad" to "OK." There's much less margin for error. On both offense and defense, the Titans are going to have to learn how to close out games.
Because in 2017, for the first time in a good long while, the Titans will be going into quite a few games on their schedule that they are expected to win.
Washington Redskins
32 of 32
The Voyage of Captain Kirk
It's been a tumultuous offseason for quarterback Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins. There was a second straight franchise tag and reports of a disgruntled signal-caller who wanted out of the nation's capital.
Tempers have cooled and talks have warmed, however. As ESPN's John Keim reported, team president Bruce Allen remains hopeful a long-term extension will be worked out before the deadline in July.
"Kirk played well on a one-year contract the last two seasons," Allen said. "The reason we want to sign him to a long-term deal is that he's gotten better and better the last two years. He has a lot of good football in front of him. Coaches feel they can give him more and more each year, and the team has responded to him."
Getting a deal finalized with Cousins before July 15 wouldn't just be good for the Redskins. It would be great—the saving grace of what's otherwise been a bumpy offseason.
No one's going to confuse Cousins with Aaron Rodgers any time soon. But they also won't confuse him with Tom Savage. In each of the past two seasons, Cousins has set franchise records for passing yardage, including 4,917 yards in 2016.
If July 15 comes and goes with no deal, then Cousins is more likely than not a goner. A third consecutive franchise tag would cost the team upwards of $35 million in 2018, per the Washington Post. Even the transition tag would pay Cousins $28 million and change.
Teams will line up to take a run at Cousins if Washington doesn't want him, so if the deal can't be completed the Redskins would enter the 2017 campaign under a giant stopwatch as Cousins' tenure in DC wound down.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Post-June 1 Trade Candidates ☎️")
.JPG?w=600 "TO Talks Cowboys Relationship")
.jpg?w=600 "Taylor Heinicke Retiring")
.jpg?w=600 "49ers OC Hypes Mike Evans 🤩")