The Carolina Panthers finished the 2018 season with a record of 7-9 and missed the playoffs. The Panthers were looking to improve on an 11-5 season in 2017 and started off strong in 2018 with a 6-2 record. The Panthers then went on a seven-game losing streak, ending their playoff hopes.
The 2018 Chicago Bears finished with the league’s number one overall defense, an insane amount of takeaways, and cruised to their first NFC North Division crown since 2010. In the first round of the playoffs, a “double doink” heard around the world, brought the Bears season to a screeching halt. This season, the Bears will be starting with a new kicker and a whole lot of motivation following their early exit. Will they be able to bounce back from the rough ending to an otherwise incredible season? Take a walk with me as I attempt to crack their 53-man roster and what to expect from them this season.
The 2018 NFL season for the New England Patriots ended with their second Super Bowl victory in three years as they defeated the Los Angles Rams 13-3 in one of the most boring Super Bowls in league history. However, the Patriots will take it, pretty, ugly, or otherwise. This team has a true one game at a time mentality and it showed early on in the season. The Patriots started off the season slow, going just 1-2 in their first three games, with loses to Jacksonville and Detroit on the road. However, the team finished strong, winning 10 of their final 13 games.
The San Francisco 49ers had a rough season in 2018, going 4-12 and being the second-worst team in the NFL. Their season was marred by injuries, with Jimmy Garoppolo getting hurt early, Jerick McKinnon not playing at all, and Matt Breida getting hurt after dominating in the run game.
The Tennessee Titans would overcome early struggles on offense and several injuries to make a late push. It would come down to the final week of the season, for a win or go home playoff opportunity against the rival Indianapolis Colts. They ended up losing out to the Colts and would finish the year with a respectable record of 9-7.
The team made a number of well-thought-out moves over the course of the offseason, that should help strengthen the team on both sides of the ball. Most notable was the signing of highly sought after guard Rodger Saffold, to bolster that leaky offensive line. The unit, in fact, showed quite a bit of decline they allowed 12 more sacks in 2018, as opposed to the season previous. Saffold has managed to stay healthy, only missing two games in the last three seasons.
The Ravens had a rollercoaster of a year in 2018. They started the year 4-2 but quickly lost three games in a row heading into their Week 10 bye week. It was at this point where the Ravens decided to bench their former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco. Little did they know that the young rookie Lamar Jackson would step in and use his legs and occasional arm talent to lead the team back to a 10-6 record and a Wild Card berth in the playoffs. It also helped that the Ravens boasted one of the best defenses in 2018. While the joy was short-lived after a first-round loss in the playoffs to the Los Angeles Chargers 23-17, it was clear that the Ravens were ready to begin a new era, the Lamar Jackson Era.
After taking the New England Patriots to the wire, in the AFC title game two seasons ago expectations were high going into last season, however, after an encouraging 3-1 start it would all end up going completely south. Losing seven straight games, it wasn’t until December that they were able to win another one. Inevitably they would finish 5-11 and in the basement of the division.
In those final 5 games, they were kept under 20 points. Things do seem to be trending in the right direction, however. It began in January when they hired John De Filippo as offensive coordinator, and only two months later Blake Bortles was sent packing after 5 seasons in Jacksonville.
The 2018 season for the Los Angeles Chargers and Head Coach Anthony Lynn was a pleasant surprise for Charger fans. Despite missing the playoffs and finishing the 2017 season 9-7, expectations were high for the Chargers and they certainly met them. In 2018, the offense and defense both clicked which culminated in a 12-4 finish and seven Pro Bowlers. Despite losing in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and the ongoing contract saga of Melvin Gordon (more on that later) expectations for 2019 in Los Angeles are now even higher with talk of possibly even reaching the Franchise’s first Super Bowl since 1994.
The Pittsburgh Steelers came out of the gate relatively fast (if you ignore that Browns tie), starting with a 7-2-1 record, despite the holdout of Le’Veon Bell. They exerted some pure dominance against Carolina at home and wore down a tough Jacksonville defense. After a few head-scratchers against the AFC West, they managed to beat back New England to stay on track for a playoff run. A close loss to a very good New Orleans team coupled with Antonio Brown giving up on the team going into Week 17 buried them, and they limped to a 9-6-1 final record, missing the playoffs.
The 2018 season was a substantial disappointment in Jon Gruden’s return to the Silver & Black. They stumbled to a 4-12 mark with a few brights spots in an otherwise dismal campaign. Now the calendar has turned and 2019 is a chance to make up for all the wrongs made at the beginning of Gruden’s second tenure as the head man. It also appears to be the final goodbye in Oakland with the move to Las Vegas looming in 2020.
The 2018 Dolphins started the season great with a 3-0 record. They then went on to have an up and down season the rest of the season with their biggest highlight coming on the final play against the New England Patriots on December 9th, now known as the “Miracle in Miami”. Ryan Tannehill got injured yet again and the team had to rely on Brock Osweiler for a majority of the season. The Dolphins finished the season 7-9, enough to place second in the AFC East, but not without a price. Adam Gase was fired and replaced by former Patriots de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
Coming off a mediocre 7-9 record, where they missed out on the playoffs. The injuries hit the Falcons defense hard in 2018, names that included Keanu Neal, Grady Jarrett, and Ricardo Allen. In all Eight players would finish on the IR by seasons end. The team made some big shakeups on the coaching side of things. Letting go of three members of their coaching staff, among them offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
Sarkisian never ended up paying off as the replacement to Kyle Shannahan. The Falcons brought back a familiar face in Dirk Koetter to fill the role, Koetter should adapt well into an offense he helped lead to the NFC Championship Game in 2012. Devonta Freeman was a rookie starting behind Steven Jackson the last season, he was in Atlanta. How will they jell together?
The Carolina Panthers finished the 2018 season with a record of 7-9 and missed the playoffs. The Panthers were looking to improve on an 11-5 season in 2017 and started off strong in 2018 with a 6-2 record. The Panthers then went on a seven-game losing streak, ending their playoff hopes.
The 2018 Chicago Bears finished with the league’s number one overall defense, an insane amount of takeaways, and cruised to their first NFC North Division crown since 2010. In the first round of the playoffs, a “double doink” heard around the world, brought the Bears season to a screeching halt. This season, the Bears will be starting with a new kicker and a whole lot of motivation following their early exit. Will they be able to bounce back from the rough ending to an otherwise incredible season? Take a walk with me as I attempt to crack their 53-man roster and what to expect from them this season.
The 2018 NFL season for the New England Patriots ended with their second Super Bowl victory in three years as they defeated the Los Angles Rams 13-3 in one of the most boring Super Bowls in league history. However, the Patriots will take it, pretty, ugly, or otherwise. This team has a true one game at a time mentality and it showed early on in the season. The Patriots started off the season slow, going just 1-2 in their first three games, with loses to Jacksonville and Detroit on the road. However, the team finished strong, winning 10 of their final 13 games.
The San Francisco 49ers had a rough season in 2018, going 4-12 and being the second-worst team in the NFL. Their season was marred by injuries, with Jimmy Garoppolo getting hurt early, Jerick McKinnon not playing at all, and Matt Breida getting hurt after dominating in the run game.
The Tennessee Titans would overcome early struggles on offense and several injuries to make a late push. It would come down to the final week of the season, for a win or go home playoff opportunity against the rival Indianapolis Colts. They ended up losing out to the Colts and would finish the year with a respectable record of 9-7.
The team made a number of well-thought-out moves over the course of the offseason, that should help strengthen the team on both sides of the ball. Most notable was the signing of highly sought after guard Rodger Saffold, to bolster that leaky offensive line. The unit, in fact, showed quite a bit of decline they allowed 12 more sacks in 2018, as opposed to the season previous. Saffold has managed to stay healthy, only missing two games in the last three seasons.
The Ravens had a rollercoaster of a year in 2018. They started the year 4-2 but quickly lost three games in a row heading into their Week 10 bye week. It was at this point where the Ravens decided to bench their former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco. Little did they know that the young rookie Lamar Jackson would step in and use his legs and occasional arm talent to lead the team back to a 10-6 record and a Wild Card berth in the playoffs. It also helped that the Ravens boasted one of the best defenses in 2018. While the joy was short-lived after a first-round loss in the playoffs to the Los Angeles Chargers 23-17, it was clear that the Ravens were ready to begin a new era, the Lamar Jackson Era.
After taking the New England Patriots to the wire, in the AFC title game two seasons ago expectations were high going into last season, however, after an encouraging 3-1 start it would all end up going completely south. Losing seven straight games, it wasn’t until December that they were able to win another one. Inevitably they would finish 5-11 and in the basement of the division.
In those final 5 games, they were kept under 20 points. Things do seem to be trending in the right direction, however. It began in January when they hired John De Filippo as offensive coordinator, and only two months later Blake Bortles was sent packing after 5 seasons in Jacksonville.
The 2018 season for the Los Angeles Chargers and Head Coach Anthony Lynn was a pleasant surprise for Charger fans. Despite missing the playoffs and finishing the 2017 season 9-7, expectations were high for the Chargers and they certainly met them. In 2018, the offense and defense both clicked which culminated in a 12-4 finish and seven Pro Bowlers. Despite losing in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and the ongoing contract saga of Melvin Gordon (more on that later) expectations for 2019 in Los Angeles are now even higher with talk of possibly even reaching the Franchise’s first Super Bowl since 1994.
The Pittsburgh Steelers came out of the gate relatively fast (if you ignore that Browns tie), starting with a 7-2-1 record, despite the holdout of Le’Veon Bell. They exerted some pure dominance against Carolina at home and wore down a tough Jacksonville defense. After a few head-scratchers against the AFC West, they managed to beat back New England to stay on track for a playoff run. A close loss to a very good New Orleans team coupled with Antonio Brown giving up on the team going into Week 17 buried them, and they limped to a 9-6-1 final record, missing the playoffs.
The 2018 season was a substantial disappointment in Jon Gruden’s return to the Silver & Black. They stumbled to a 4-12 mark with a few brights spots in an otherwise dismal campaign. Now the calendar has turned and 2019 is a chance to make up for all the wrongs made at the beginning of Gruden’s second tenure as the head man. It also appears to be the final goodbye in Oakland with the move to Las Vegas looming in 2020.
The 2018 Dolphins started the season great with a 3-0 record. They then went on to have an up and down season the rest of the season with their biggest highlight coming on the final play against the New England Patriots on December 9th, now known as the “Miracle in Miami”. Ryan Tannehill got injured yet again and the team had to rely on Brock Osweiler for a majority of the season. The Dolphins finished the season 7-9, enough to place second in the AFC East, but not without a price. Adam Gase was fired and replaced by former Patriots de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
Coming off a mediocre 7-9 record, where they missed out on the playoffs. The injuries hit the Falcons defense hard in 2018, names that included Keanu Neal, Grady Jarrett, and Ricardo Allen. In all Eight players would finish on the IR by seasons end. The team made some big shakeups on the coaching side of things. Letting go of three members of their coaching staff, among them offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
Sarkisian never ended up paying off as the replacement to Kyle Shannahan. The Falcons brought back a familiar face in Dirk Koetter to fill the role, Koetter should adapt well into an offense he helped lead to the NFC Championship Game in 2012. Devonta Freeman was a rookie starting behind Steven Jackson the last season, he was in Atlanta. How will they jell together?
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