NFL Football: 2006 NFC North Preview
1. CHICAGO BEARS
Offense: The Bears run-first attack will once again be led by running backs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. The duo shared carries last season and this season will most likely start the same way. Look for Benson to become the featured back at some point this season. The Bears didn’t use a high first-round pick on Benson just to have him share carries. The QB in this offense, whether it be Rex Grossman (most likely), Kyle Orton or Brian Griese, will again be just a caretaker thanks to a ball-control offense and a suffocating defense. Chicago has a young group of wide receivers to go with Muhsin Muhammad. Justin Gage, Mark Bradley and Bernard Berrian will challenge for the #2 WR spot. Chicago averaged just 256.3 yards and 16.3 points per game last season. Don’t expect much more in 2006.
Defense: Chicago’s unquestioned strength is their defense. This unit allowed only 12.6 points per game last season – tops in the league. Only CB Jerry Azumah (retired) and S Mike Green (trade) are gone from last year’s group. CB Ricky Manning was brought in via trade (Panthers) to fill the void left by Azumah’s absence. In 2005, the Bears D ranked second in yards allowed, tied for second in INTs, sixth in total takeaways and tied for eighth in sacks. The Bears do a great job of rushing the passer, led by ends Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye. DT Tommie Harris also returns to stuff the middle. MLB Brian Urlacher leads a talented LB corps. The secondary features Mike Brown, Charles Tillman and Nathan Vasher. This group had 16 INTs and returned three of those for TDs last season.
Special Teams: This unit needs an upgrade. Kicker Robbie Gould connected on only 3 of 8 FG tries from outside 40 yards. The return teams left a lot to be desired as well. Speedy Bernard Berrian showed some promise and may give this unit a boost.
Prediction: The Bears, thanks to a suffocating defense and successful running game, should run away with this division again in 2006.
2. MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Offense: New head coach Brad Childress will install his version of the West Coast offense. That suits QB Brad Johnson just fine. Johnson doesn’t have a strong arm, but he does have an accurate arm for those short-to-intermediate throws. Receivers Koren Robinson, Travis Taylor and Troy Williamson should thrive in this system. Look for TE Jermaine Wiggins to have another solid season as well. The key to this offense is whether RB Chester Taylor can carry the load. Taylor did well in spot situations while with the Ravens and will have the luxury of playing behind a solid offensive line led by guard Steve Hutchinson. Taylor, who is also a solid receiving threat, will also benefit from having FB Tony Richardson opening the running lanes for him. No Culpepper and no Moss, but this offense still has plenty of potential.
Defense: Like many others, Minnesota is switching to the ever-popular Cover 2 scheme. The switch should bode well for this unit. The Vikes have two speedy ends in Kenechi Udeze and Erasmus James who can create all kinds of havoc. Look for rookie OLB Chad Greenway to start from the get-go and make an immediate impact. The strength of this unit looks to be the secondary, led by corners Fred Smoot and Antoine Winfield. This is a fast defense that should make a bunch of big plays this season. Normally, switching to a new scheme takes time before improvement is seen. In this case, however, Minnesota has the talent to make it work right from the beginning.
Special Teams: Mewelde Moore proved to be a solid punt returner, averaging 11.7 yards per return (third best in the league) and had one return TD. Koren Robinson ranked fifth in the league with a 26 yard average per kickoff return and also took one to the house. The Vikings upgraded this unit by adding kicker Ryan Longwell. Longwell has an 81.6 career FG percentage and should find the Metrodome a much easier place to kick than Lambeau Field.
Prediction: An improving defense, solid special teams play and an offense with much potential puts Minnesota second in the NFC North.
3. DETROIT LIONS
Offense: No offense is more intriguing than this one. The arrival of offensive guru Mike Martz as Detroit’s offensive coordinator provides plenty of optimism. The Lions offense features several former first-round draft picks, including Kevin Jones, Roy Williams, Mike Williams and Charles Rogers. One thing Martz has here that he didn’t have in St. Louis is big receivers. Williams, Williams and Rogers are all tall red zone targets. Two questions exist. First, can Jon Kitna or Josh McCown run this offense efficiently? And secondly, can this offensive line protect whoever is under center? I have my doubts about question one and even more doubts about question two.
Defense: The Lions are yet another team converting to the Cover 2 defense. New head coach Rod Marinelli is a defensive-minded coach who will look for improvement in this group. New defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson is known for being aggressive in blitzing and coverages. He’ll want to see more pressure from his front four than this group generated in 2005. First-round pick Ernie Sims teams up with Boss Bailey and Teddy Lehman to form the starting LB trio. This defense forced 31 turnovers and had 3 defensive TDs last season, so the talent is there. Expect to see the sack total rise. They’ll need to improve on the 127.5 rushing yards allowed per game in 2005.
Special Teams: Eddie Drummond will need to return to his 2004 form (4 return TDs). He was mediocre at best last season. Jason Hanson is a consistent kicker who should see his scoring chances increase in 2006.
Prediction: Detroit is a team on the rise and could be dangerous if the new offensive and defensive schemes are successful sooner rather than later. I look for a slow start, but a strong second half of the season for the Lions.
4. GREEN BAY PACKERS
Offense: Injuries absolutely decimated this group in 2005. The pack lost their #1 WR, Javon Walker, in the first game of the season. They lost his replacement (Robert Ferguson), too. They played their fourth and fifth-string RBs at various points in the season as well as their third-string TE. Brett Favre isn’t the QB he once was, but he’s also not as bad as he looked last season. Protecting Favre is a concern. Green Bay also needs a WR to step up and draw coverage away from him. With Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport injury prone, look for Samkon Gado to once again step up and take over the RB duties. With questions at literally every position, this unit may not fair much better than the injury-riddled 2005 version.
Defense: There are quite a few changes to this unit. Ryan Pickett takes over at tackle. First-round pick A.J. Hawk moves into a starting LB spot. CB Charles Woodson and S Marquand Manuel were brought in to upgrade the secondary. Another rookie, LB Abdul Hodge, could find his way into the starting lineup. The Pack have added some playmakers and still have book ends Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and Aaron Kampman to pressure opposing QBs. Improvement may come in 2006, but it usually takes some time when a lot of changes are involved. This group should gel in the second half of the season.
Special Teams: Nothing to write home about here. The Pack’s kickoff-return team ranked last in the league in 2006 and the punt-return unit was average at best. Kicker Ryan Longwell, the Packers’ all-time leading scorer, took the money and ran to division-rival Minnesota. They’re left with Cowboys cast-off Billy Cundiff or Colts 2005 sixth-round pick, Dave Rayner. Ouch.
Prediction: Favre’s last hurrah will not be a good one. A new coaching staff, questions aplenty on offense, too many changes on defense and the loss of a solid kicker will leave Green Bay at the bottom of this division once again.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The Bears are the class of this division. Each of their division rivals must go through the transition associated with a new coaching staff. Chicago should be able to separate themselves from the pack early on, but look for Minnesota and Detroit to have solid second halves of the season. Dwayne Bryant is the owner and sports handicapper of Bullseye Sports Handicapping Service. Dwayne has been handicapping since the mid-1980s. Online since 2000, Bullseye Sports provides sports picks, including NFL and college football picks, NBA & NCAA basketball picks, MLB baseball picks and NHL hockey picks. Please visit http://www.bullseye-sports.com for more information. |
Other Football System Articles
Slot Machines On average, one third of the casino's total revenue is generated by Slot machines. Compared to other casino games such as Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps and Roulette, Slot machines have a number of advantages which explain their popularity among casino players. Some of these advantages include the following:Easy to understand:The Slot ...Top 5 Pro Craps Tips There can be little doubt that craps is one of the most consistently entertaining games you will find in just about any casino on Earth (or in cyberspace, for that matter). There’s just something undeniably thrilling about watching those dice bounce all over the felt, clatter against the rail and come tumbling to a stop. It doesn’t matter if you ...College Football: Auburn Rising Do you believe in Auburn?Do you believe that in the rugged Southeastern Conference, a team can actually go undefeated in 2006, then win the SEC title game in Atlanta, to play in the BCS championship game? Can a team vanquish LSU, Florida and Georgia in the same year, and then struggle through a possible rematch (or a date with Tennessee) ...College Football Top 10 (Part 1) This week I’ll run down ten college football teams that could be in the running for the national title, based on returning starters, talent and schedule.10. Georgia: The quiet football factory at Georgia continues to impress under Head Coach Mark Richt. The defense allowed 16 ppg last season and will lead the way again, led by All-America ...The Secrets of Chuck-A-Luck Pssst...! Wanna know a secret?How about the secrets of the dice game Chuck-A-Luck?Chuck-A-Luck (also called Bird Cage) is becoming popular once again, and several casinos have a chuck-a-luck game, but it is usually found in the slot machine area rather than with the table games. Long ago, along with Hazard, it was the forerunner of ...Gambling Equipment 101 The excitement and popularity of the gambling games entices few players to own their own gaming equipments. Mini blackjack tables and poker tables are quite famous among the buyers.The most common and perhaps inexpensive of the gambling equipments is the dice. Dice games are so ancient that their inventor is unknown by the historians. How ...Vegas News and Notes Promises are made to be broken.That appears to be the stance of 2006 World Series of Poker champion Jamie Gold, who is being sued for half his $12 million winnings.While he admits to having a verbal agreement with Bruce Crispin Leyser to share his winnings, Gold seems to be backpedaling on certain aspects of it, although Leyser has ...Top 5 Pro Roulette Tips A certain part of every gambling aficionado’s brain is devoted to the fantasy of being a really accomplished roulette player. It’s a sexy mental image to cling to: strutting confidently into some swank casino on the French Riviera, placing obscenely dangerous bets on the spin of the wheel and coming up winners time and again. Who wouldn’t want t ...Football Betting Betting on football is today one of the major activities for football enthusiasts. Football betting has become an easy way to earn some money, have fun and enjoy games with a different touch. Easily, football betting could become an every game activity for most of the football fans.Football betting is definitely not for everyone. You need ...Soccer Gambling Tips It’s amazing to see how the majority of people never win any money on gambling yet there are those rare special people who seem to be able to make a living out of it. I have interviewed and chatted to quite a few of those people who seem to be able to make a good living out of gambling. It was definitely an eye-opener I'll tell you that.E ...Playing No Limit Single Table Poker Tournaments There are many types of poker and many types of poker tournaments. But the most popular one is definitely the no limit single table tournament, otherwise called a sit and go tournament. The buy-ins for these kinds of tournaments can vary from $5 to hundreds dollars.Let's focus on a particular single table tournament, the one that is playe ...Poker Tips One of the most played games of all times, Poker requires some element of skill and deception, and smartness in order to win. These combined skills are the only ways one can get ahead of the others and despite the fact of losing a few rounds will still come out on top.Poker can be played many ways and should there be smaller pots because ...Pacific Poker Bonus Guide I don’t want to show any regional bias here, because after all we are bound together as Americans. And even if you are not American, chances are you are still a human being. If not, you should really get off the computer right now and either dig up a bone, dive back into the aquarium or relieve yourself on some newspaper while incessantly parro ...Calculating the Overround - How to Calculate the House Margin The overround is the built in profit enjoyed by the bookie or casino, either in a game or in the prices offered on a horserace, for example. All that is required is to know the odds offered on all possible outcomes of a game or sporting event. In the case of the sporting event the prices are all published, for games such as roulette the odds on ...GPS Golf Balls Are Almost Here As GPS technology gets better and better and smaller and smaller it will be able to be used for many things? For instance at the World Series a baseball hit into the third level will be able to be recorded by GPS as to exactly how far it was hit and it’s trajectory to formulate where it would have actually landed had the stadium been flat. Thus ...The Dish: Boeheim's Nutty Is there anyone in sports you'd rather have a beer with than Jim Boeheim?After his Syracuse Orangemen dispatched Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East tournament, he let loose a post-game, profanity-laced tirade tailor-made for your local watering hole. He sounded like your buddy Earl after he's had a few too many, swinging wildly ...Church Into Bingo? When casino player David Edwards put down his $8, got his Powerball tickets and looked upon the god almighty, gosh, did that pay off!!! With $73.7 million in his pocket, Edwards couldn’t be filled with more gratitude towards lottery, bingo and the wonderful world of gambling!Believe it or not, to many evangelical Christians including Cath ...NL Holdem - Applying Pot Odds to Tournament Play I will make the assumption here that you all know how to calculate pot odds. If you are playing in a ring game then aside from advertising plays that is just about all you need to know when considering calling a bet that risks all your chips IF you know what the other player has got. This is of course assuming that you have plenty of money that ...Net-Centric Warfare Issues - Bandwidth and Security There are many concerned as I about the issues with Net-Centric Warfare, cryptonics, bandwidth issues and even as “we put our money where our mouth is” we wonder will it all work? It looks as if it is working and looks like it will work better than we expect. That is a good thing because it is not cheap. One of the biggest concerns with RF for c ...Wisconsin Casinos, The Top Three I have been gambling in Wisconsin since I was 16 years old! I snuck in for two years straight. After legally gambling at the age of 18 for a few months they moved the age limit up to 21. So I was forced to sneak in for a few more years. I only played blackjack. I hate slots and it would be my luck to hit a jackpot and not be able to claim it bec ...Poker Players: Smart Players and Suckers No one can really tell the way their game is, if it is good or not. But the streak of wins and losses can give a pretty good idea on that. To determine whether a play is perfect or not or to find out just how the perfect player would play poker, you must first look at the player itself.In a poker player's evolution there are three importa ...
|
