Who Are the NFL's Unsung Heros in 2008?

By Derek Lofland

Every season, we hear about the NFL's stars. The Patriots will win the AFC East because Tom Brady leads them.

The Colts' offense is unstoppable with Peyton Manning leading the charge.

The Chargers will dominate the AFC West behind the breathtaking talents of LaDainian Tomlinson.

The NFL, like any other professional league, is a Star's League. The rare players that make plays that no one else can draw many of us to our TVs.

People want to see Brett Favre with the ball in his hands and 2:00 minutes left on the clock in a close game. People want to see L.T. juke his way to the end zone. People want to see Randy Moss make the spectacular leaping catch to win the game.

However, there are a couple things to remember

1) There are 32 teams in the NFL and not enough star players to go around. Not every team that makes the playoffs has star players with the name recognition of Brady, Favre, Manning, or L.T.

2) Those players were once unsung heroes. In Manning's and Tomlinsons' cases, it was top picks that were expected to star but had to prove they were worthy of their high selection.

In Brady and Favre's case, they were people not expected to star right away that snuck up on us.

2008 is a year of transition

The Colts have won the AFC South every season since 2003.
The Patriots have won the AFC East every season since 2003.
The Chargers  won the AFC West in 2004, 2006, and 2007.
The Seahawks have won the NFC West every season since 2004.

We have come to expect these franchises to contend year in and year out. This year none of those four teams leads their division at this point. The Seahawks are awful and the other three teams have been average at best.

Furthermore, many star players that we are used to see doing well are in either new places or taking a back seat.

Tom Brady injured his knee in the opener and...

is out for the season.

Manning had two knee surgeries in the preseason. While he has not missed a game, he is not the Peyton Manning we expect to see each Sunday.

Tomlinson has been slowed with a toe injury. Consequently, he has only 446 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns through his first seven games. At this pace he would he would finish with career-lows in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

Finally, even though Brett Favre has shown flashes of brilliance, it still doesn't seem right to see him in that shade of green.

Instead, players and teams that are not household names are defining 2008. It is a changing of the guard in the NFL. To list all of them would be an impossible task.

However, here are four players on three teams that have been dominating the NFL in terms of solid statistics and helping their team win games. These are players that we wouldn't have necessarily expected to dominate at the start of the season.

They are my Unsung Heroes of 2008.

1) Kyle Orton - Who has more touchdown passes, Kyle Orton or Peyton Manning?

Who has a higher QB rating? Who has more passing yards? Whose team has won more games?

Granted, Kyle Orton has played seven games to Peyton Manning's six. However, at the start of the season, no one would have thought that the answer to any of those questions would be Kyle Orton, much less all of them.

Compare their numbers:

Kyle Orton: 7 games, 143 completions, 230 attempts, 62.2 completion percentage, 1,669 yards, 10 touchdowns, 4 picks, 91.4 QB rating.

Peyton Manning: 6 games, 136 completions, 224 attempts, 60.7 completion percentage, 1,531 yards, 8 touchdowns, 7 picks, 80.0. QB rating.

I was as critical as anyone, this offseason, of the Bears' failure to pick up a quarterback in either free agency or the draft. I thought Kyle Orton was a bad NFL quarterback and that Rex Grossman was a terrible NFL quarterback. I was terribly mistaken. Orton is passing the ball well and making a lot of plays to help the Bears win.

Some of Orton's failures have been his own fault and some have been caused by a bad situation.

The Bears always thought Rex Grossman would be their guy. They drafted him in the first round back in the 2003 draft. He was going to be the franchise quarterback the Bears have been looking for since Sid Luckman retired after the 1950 season.

However, injuries prevented Rex from seeing much of the field in his first three seasons. The result was eight starts from 2003-2005.

Kyle Orton was drafted in the fourth round of the 2005 draft. He was expected to be nothing more than a backup for Grossman. Grossman was hurt in preseason and Orton became the starter for 15 games that season, compiling a 10-5 record. With nine touchdowns, 13 picks, and a 59.7 QB rating, many thought the Bears were winning in spite of him, not because of him.

Orton was benched at the end of the season and Rex Grossman started in the playoff loss that year and helped lead the Bears to their Super Bowl appearance in 2006.
Orton soon became an afterthought. It was not the best situation for the young quarterback to be put into.

The young Orton handled that badly. Reports in the Chicago media focused on his partying and not his preparation. In three starts last year, the Bears went 2-1 with Orton throwing three touchdowns, two picks, and compiling a 73.9 QB rating. Therefore, no one saw this resurgence coming.

However, Orton worked very hard to prepare for the 2008 season, believed in himself, and beat Rex Grossman out for the starting job. He has been an offensive star for the 4-3 Bears and his solid play has helped the defense not have to shoulder the entire burden.

Brian Urlacher and the defense are still the heart and soul of the team. However, without Orton managing the offense, the Bears would not be in first place in the NFC North.

What makes this even more impressive is that Kyle Orton was given no help on offense. The line was getting old and had to replace a couple starters. Their first-round pick, OT Chris Williams has a herniated disc and will probably not play until later this season, if at all.

Cedric Benson was let go, leaving rookie Matt Forte and veterans Adrian Peterson and Kevin Jones to split time. He lost his two best receivers—Bernard Berrian signed a big deal in Minnesota, and Muhsin Muhammad signed with Carolina.

Let’s put this in perspective.

Aaron Rodgers has had a great start to the NFL season. He has had the pressure of replacing a legendary player. However, he has had a lot of help.
The Packers returned key playmakers on offense such as Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, James Jones, Donald Lee, and Ryan Grant. They tallied a combined 4,324 rushing and receiving yards and scored a combined 30 rushing and receiving touchdowns in 2007.

Compare that to the Bears.

Matt Forte was playing for Tulane in 2007. Brandon Lloyd and Marty Booker were not on the roster. Marty Booker, Desmond Clark, Rashied Davis, Devin Hester, Brandon Lloyd, and Greg Olsen combined for 1,972 rushing and receiving yards and scored nine rushing and receiving touchdowns in 2007.

Despite that discrepancy in supporting cast, Orton has played almost as well as Rodgers. Orton has one more yard passing than Rodgers, only two less touchdowns, same amount of picks, and similar completion percentage and quarterback rating.

Kyle Orton has come out having a big year and has carried this offense when no one expected him to be able to do that. He is an unsung hero for the Bears that people are quickly rediscovering.

If he can keep up his solid play, the Bears will be in the thick of the NFC North race competing for the division title or a wild-card spot.

2) Jason Campbell - This is another quarterback that faced great adversity in 2007. Jason Campbell didn't exactly set the world on fire last year.

In his 13 starts, the Redskins went 6-7. His best game was a 34-3 victory over Detroit, where he went 23 for 29 and threw two touchdowns and zero picks.

However, there was too many bad games like the one against the Patriots where he went only 21 for 36 with 197 yards, one touchdown, and one pick. The Redskins lost that contest 52-7.

Overall, the Redskins struggled to involve their receivers. The Redskins didn't get their first touchdown throw to a wide receiver until Week 10 against the Eagles. Santana Moss had a below-average season and the entire offense looked lost.

Then Head Coach Joe Gibbs had to replace Campbell with...

READ MORE >>>