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2015 Opponent Power rankings

panther4life

By panther4life,
in Carolina Panthers

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panther4life Community Regular

panther4life

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Heres my take on the power rankings of our 2015 opponents. In parentheses you will see their 14 regular season records.

 

1.Packers (12-4 in)  

The packers rarely add any outside talent via free agency, opting to keep their own homegrown talent instead. This offseason was no different. They did lose their best Corner in Tramon Williams to the Browns. Other notable departures were A.J Hawk to the Bengals and corner Devon House to the Jaguars.  They immediately turned to the draft to replenish their corner depth selecting 2 corners with their first 2 picks. Damorius Randall 30th overall and and Quinten Rollins 62nd overall. 

2. Colts (11-5)

Andre Johnson, T.Y Hilton, Donte Moncrief and rookie Phillip Dorsett give Luck one of the best overall receiving corps in the league, plus he has tight ends Colby Fleener and Dwayne Allen .In addition the offense gained a new back in Frank Gore.They also poached the Eagles for 2 longtime starters. DE Trent Cole  so that should boost their pass rush and keeping their D good enough to win combined with their explosive offense that also added former Eagles guard Todd Herramans. 

3.Seahawks(12-4) 

Other than giving up their pro bowl center and 1st round pick for Jimmy Graham the Seahawks had a pretty quiet offseason. Graham no doubt is a huge weapon added to the arsenal for Wilson, one must wonder who's going to pave the way up the middle for Beast mode next year.  The only other newsworthy transaction was losing corner Byron Maxwell to the Eagles who paid him all the money and while they were at it they decided to sign away another former Seahawks corner Walter Thurmond III(spent last year with the Giants). One other thing to keep in mind is they have lost their 2nd defensive coordinator to a head coaching position in the last 3 years. They promoted their secondary coach but this will be his first year calling plays. 

4.Cowboys (12-4)

The biggest question surrounding the Cowboys performance on the field this year is how much impact will losing Demarco Murray have? League wide consensus is they have one of the elite offensive lines in the NFL and were able to add to it by snagging La'el Collins late in the draft as well. So losing Murray will have an impact but having the nice o-line along with the addition of Mcfadden should lessen the blow some. There Defense was never very scary to begin with but losing Mcclain for the first 4 games and not knowing when Hardy will be available only adds to the questions about how this unit. That being said I believe they are still the top dogs in the NFC East with Philly possibly taking over this year. 

5. Eagles (10-6)

I am still puzzled by the Foles for Bradford trade but Chip Kelly likely has something up his sleeve. Losing Mccoy was a wash after Acquring Demarco Murray in free agency. They actually have one of the best backfields now with Murray, Ryan Matthews and Sproles. Kiko Alonso also looked like a damn good MLB before getting hurt last year so if he comes back and plays like he did his rookie year that will have been a solid move. I do wonder how long it will take for their new look offense to come together and how successful it will be.Gone is top receiver Jeremy Maclin (over 1300 yards and 10 TD's last year). So that means new QB, new RB, and new # 1 WR. They have Jordan Matthews who will be a 2nd year player, Riley Cooper and they invested their first round pick in Nelson Agohlar.  Their offensive line is the only thing that remains fairly intact minus Evan Mathis and Todd Heremmans who lost is starting spot in the 2nd half of the season. On Defense they went all in paying from Seahawks corner Byron Maxwell to a 6 year 63/milion deal with 25 of it guaranteed. Other notable turnover was as mentioned Earlier Trent Cole being released and signing with the Colts.

6. Falcons (6-10)

The Falcons quietly improved themselves quite a bit this offseason. Starting with the new Coach Dan Quinn. Followed by an excellent draft. They added a nice pash rusher in Beasley, got a very good running back to replace Stephen Jackson in Telvin Coleman and also picked up what should be an instant starter at Corner (Jalen Collins) opposite of Desmond Trufant. The best free agent addition was likely DE Adrian Clayborn from the Bucs. They likely found another D starter in LB Brooks Reed from the Texans.Their offensive line saw some new additions. They released 2 lineman in  Tackle Sam Baker and Guard Justin Blalock. They replace them with 2 vets in T Tyler Polumbus and G Chris Chester. They will also get their Center Joe Hawley back who went on injured reserve early in the season and if they are lucky last years first round pick Jake Matthews will start to show signs of being a franchise LT this year.

7. Saints (7-9) 

Trading away Jimmy Graham was music to the ears every Panther, Falcon and Bucs fan. They still have his backup Benjamin Watson who has been a starter before but the drop off in talent is huge. This wasn't the only blow to the saints offense either. Kenny Stills who caught 85 catches for 931 yards and 3 TD's was traded to the Dolphins for LB Darnell Ellerbe and a 3rd round pick. They also decided to let RB Pierre Thomas go as well but found a nice upgrade in C.J spiller via free agency.  They did do a lot of work to improve their offensive line a good bit by adding Andrus Peat and acquiring Center Max Unger in the Graham trade. They have a brand new LB Corps with Ellerbe, Anthony Spencer(from the Cowboys) and David Hawthorne from the Seahawks. Additionally they added more in the 1st and 2nd round of the draft as well. Gallette remains as the only starter from last season in their 3-4 scheme. The D should also see improvement as Vaccaro has another year under his belt,last years big ticket free agent addition Jairus Byrd may actually stay healthy this year and Brandon Browner comes on board at CB. 

8.  Giants (6-10)

Well they have a franchise QB in Eli. They've got a trio nice weapons at receiver in Beckham Jr, Victor Cruz and Reubin Randle.  They have some young talent on the o-line. On defense they had a good pass rusher in JPP but who knows when he will return. Of course they have Beason manning the middle with Jonathan Hankins in front of him at DT and were able to acquire Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in free agency and picked the best safety prospect in the draft (Landon Collins).They have no major threats at running back and the rest of the team seems to be a big question mark.  These guys aren't the threat they once were and quite frankly I heard on NFL radio today they've only made the playoffs once in the last 6 years (last appearance was in 2011 where they dethroned the undefeated patriots after only amassing 9 regular season wins themselves that year)

9. Redskins (4-12)

At this point its hard to pick who deserves to be next. I am going with the Skins. RG 3 has something to prove. Is he a bust or can he regain some of his magic from his rookie season before suffering the injury. He's got a decent supporting cast with Desean Jackson and Pierre Garcon  on the outside and Alfred Morris toting the rock( been a 1k yard rusher all 3 years in the league)and okay T.E in Jordan Reed.  He has one of the best LT's in the game in Trent Williams. They also finally had a 1st round pick again and took Brandon Scherff 5th overall to help solidify their offensive line. Their defense quietly saw a major overhaul this offseason but that doesn't look like it will guarantee much positive results. Added were d-line vets Stephen Pea(Bears),Terrence Knighton(Broncos),Jason Hatcher (Cowboys), Safties Duke Ihenaco(Broncos), Dashon Goldson(Bucs) and corner Chris Culliver(Niners).

10. Bucs (2-14) Some may ask how I can rank the league's worst team last year as our 10th next opponent, but the Bucs do have some talent in place and potentially a franchise QB now. Plus look at the rest of the list and that'll add some justification. They have their own pair of productive twin towers in V-Jax and Mike Evans. A young TE with some potential in Austin Sefari-Jenkins and a very talented running back in Doug Martin. They have some solid defensive pieces in place in Gerald Mccoy,Lavante David and Jonathan Banks. They also picked up DE George Johnson from the lions to try and fill the void left by Adrian Clayborn( who was injured pretty much the whole year anyway). Also should be noted they hope to have found a Tackle to protect Jameis in 2nd round pick Donnvan Smith.

11. Texans (9-7) 

The Texans don't have an established QB (Hoyer or Mallett will end up being the guy in that order of likelines). Andre Johnson is getting older and wanted out so they let him go. They do have Deandre Hopkins, rookie Jalen Strong and Arian Foster returning at running back.From what I can tell just an okay offensive line if that. No TE worth a damn. Now for the positives.  J.J Watt, newly acquired man eater Vince Wilfork, Clowney, Cushing and Jonthan Joseph. Theres a few other names such as Whitney Mercilus, Kareem Jackson and Rahim Moore(from the broncos) that round out to a pretty decent D on paper.  I just don't believe that D is enough to balance out the lack of weapons on offense to make this team a feared opponent. 

Yes they went 9-7 last year but lets see who they Beat. 4 wins thanks the 2 poo teams ranked right below them here. The Skins, Raiders, Browns (with their new QB Hoyer starting for the browns). The 2 teams they beat with winning records were the Bills and Ravens. Also lets not forget they were 2-14 the year before with a very similar roster. I just think last year was an aberration but we shall see.

12. Jaguars (3-13) 

Bortles is a work in progress. Hopefully for Jag''s fans the progress will continue vs going the other direction. He has some young weapons to grow with him in Alan Hurns, Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson at receiver. They front office also did him a solid in acquiring former Bronco T.E Julius Thomas to pair with Marcedes Lewis. He's got his blindside protector in Jockel, they picked up a couple of other vets to go on the o-line in  G Zane Beadles(Bronco's) and T Jeremy Parnell (Cowboys) The defense needs a lot work and to their credit they tried in free agency. Picking Odrick(Dolphins)Sen'derick Marks(Titans) and Davion House(Packers). As any football fan can tell this isn't likely to be enough.

13. Titans (2-14)

Not much to talk about here. Hopefully for them Mariota can develop into a franchise QB, however this team needs a lot of upgrades before they going anywhere.

 

 

 

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Lilsmitty09 Newbie

Lilsmitty09

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I'm sorry but the Texans are WAY to low on this list...They are a good team missing only a qb and maybe on big play WR..but with a rb like foster you may be okay and especially with that Defense.

But with that being said I did enjoy the read. Well done

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panther4life Community Regular

panther4life

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Very nice but the one thing I noticed was that the Giants beat NE in the SB twice once in 07 where they beat the 16-0 pats and then again in 2011 when they beat the 13-3 Pats. Other then that pie for a solid write up.

Thanks. Heard the little tidbit about them on the radio and didn't think to fact check it. Odds are I just heard them wrong.
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