It’s early in the preseason, but already there are a some seriously disconcerting developments around the NFL.
It’s way too soon to start panicking, because starting cold doesn’t preclude teams from finishing strong. However, these upcoming concerns could prove season-long problems.
From porous offensive lines to quarterbacks who can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn with a handful of rice, we present the most disturbing trends from the first two weeks around the league.
Robert Griffin III starting to develop David Carr syndrome
RG3 is a broken shell of the budding superstar who stormed the NFL as a rookie in 2012. It’s no secret he took as brutal a preseason beating as anyone can remember on Thursday night against the Detroit Lions. However, even when Griffin did have time to throw he panicked and ran out of the pocket.
The play in which he was concussed occurred this way, and he actually had quite a bit of protection when he “escaped” the pocket—never mind there were at least two receivers WIDE open with nobody around them.
In discussing this with fellow Sportsnaut writer Vincent Frank, he touched on something quite apt, saying RG3 is “suffering from David Carr syndrome.”
Carr had all the talent to suceed when he entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick to the Houston Texans in the first-ever draft by the franchise. However, he quickly turned into a guy who was afraid of his own shadow on the field because he was getting hit all the time—like what we’re starting to see with Griffin.
The young quarterback is in trouble, and at this point, if something doesn’t change soon, he may become completely broken from a psychological standpoint.
A couple of playoff contenders with broken offensive lines
When thinking about potential Super Bowl contenders, the Seattle Seahawks immediately spring to mind. The Kansas City Chiefs also have reasonable playoff aspirations. Both of these potential playoff teams are faced with the prospect of entering the regular season with broken offensive lines.
Russell Wilson was sacked twice in his first four drop-backs of the season before coming out in Week 1. He wasn’t sacked during Week 2’s game against Kansas City but was running for his life on most passing downs.
Alex Smith took some seriously big risks escaping from his pocket the same evening, and he ended up getting sacked twice.
It’s not surprising that Seattle’s offensive line has received the second-worst grade in pass-blocking, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), or that Kansas City was graded as the third-worst. Worse still for the Seahawks is the fact that the running game has suffered just as badly.
Marshawn Lynch is going to have to lead the league in broken tackles again in 2015 if the Seahawks have any hope of featuring the same dominant rushing attack that has carried the team the past few years.
For Kansas City, Smith is going to suffer a concussion—or worse—very soon unless the coaching staff can conjure up some magical potions to fix their abhorrent offensive line.
What’s Wrong with Todd Bowles’ defense?
When we heard the news that Bowles was headed to New York to coach the Jets it seemed a given that this team’s defense was going to dominate. Fast forward to now and we’re scratching our heads wondering what in the world has happened.
It’s only been two games, but so far the Jets defense looks pathetic. It has allowed 687 total yards, 45 first downs and 42 points in these contests, and the starting unit has been abused.
Known for his aggressive tendencies, Bowles hasn’t changed, despite the recent frustrations: “We want to be an offensive defensive team,” he said on Sunday (h/t New York Daily News).
Unfortunately, at this time the defense is just downright offensive.
The Blair Walsh Project
So, what in the world is going on with Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh? His field-goal conversion rate (2 of 6) this preseason is as scary as The Blair Witch Project.
After missing all three attempts in his last game, Walsh spoke about his recent struggles.
“It didn’t feel real good with how I hit the ball obviously, and the results showed that,” Walsh said (per Ben Goessling of ESPN.com). “I have to do better. Preseason or regular season, that cannot happen, and I know that.”
The Vikings better hope he turns things around quickly after making him one of the five highest-paid kickers in the NFL this past offseason.
The injury epidemic
Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on regarding whether or not preseason games should be cut out or the schedule reduced, everybody can agree the injuries suffered this summer have been numerous and costly.
Here’s a list of some of the top players who have been knocked out of action for a significant amount of time already: Arian Foster (RB, Houston Texans), Kevin White (WR, Chicago Bears), Julius Thomas (TE, Jacksonville Jaguars), Michael Floyd (WR, Arizona Cardinals), Geno Smith (QB, New York Jets), Phil Loadholt (OT, Minnesota Vikings), Breshad Perriman (WR, Baltimore Ravens), Kelvin Benjamin (WR, Carolina Panthers), Jordy Nelson (WR, Green Bay Packers) and Maurkice Pouncey (C, Pittsburgh Steelers).
There have been many more injuries to players not so famous, and every single one of them takes a toll on the players themselves as well as their respective teams.
Many have argued that these games are meaningless. Aaron Rodgers was vocal about his bitter feelings regarding these scrimmages after Nelson’s season-ending injury, saying “It’s hard to lose a guy over a meaningless game.”
At the same time, while the games do seem worthless sometimes, the truth of the matter is there are players on every team’s roster at the end of camp who wouldn’t be there if not for the valuable playing time they receive in these “meaningless” games.