UFFL 2018 Season Predictions
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Team |
2017 Record |
Key Addition |
Pros |
Cons |
Prediction |
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AFC East: |
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7-9 |
HB Timothy Hightower |
Receivers; led by Braylon
Edwards, the receivers and improved rushing game should help increase scoring from
last year. |
Defense; the Bills’ defense
was mediocre at best last year and not many changes were made to this aging
group. |
AFC East: 3rd |
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11-5 |
WR Ted Ginn Jr. |
Quarterbacks; Eli Manning
still here plus the addition of Kyle Boller in FA could turn this offense
into the best in the league. |
Defensive End; there’s no
clear starter at DE2 for the Colts but otherwise it’s hard to find a flaw on
this team mixed with young talent and quality vets. |
AFC East: 1st Playoffs: Division champ |
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12-4 |
DE Vernon Gholston |
Scoring ability; This team
put up 400 points last season, 4th overall. With solid depth at all the skill positions
they may put up 400 more this season. |
Defensive backfield: there
are some concerns at DB as they have some youth there and will rely on
franchise player Fabian Washington to teach the others. |
AFC East: 2nd Playoffs: Wildcard |
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7-9 |
G Jeremy Zuttah |
DL: the Pats have some
strength and youth at DL and should improve from being one of the worst
rushing defenses last year. |
Scoring; the Pats averaged
only 17 points per game scoring last season and didn’t do much to spark their
offense during the offseason. |
AFC East: 5th Playoffs: Maybe next year |
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NY Jets |
7-9 |
QB Philip Rivers |
Passing game; releasing QB
Alex Smith and signing QB Philip Rivers may turn out to be a smart move, if
Rivers has a big season. |
Defensive stars; with no
standouts on the defensive side of the ball, the Jets may find themselves
underperforming again this season. |
AFC East: 4th Playoffs: Just missed |
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AFC Central: |
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11-5 |
T Ryan Clady |
Receivers; led by the
Williams’, Reggie and Demetrius, the Ravens offense is high-powered and hard
to stop. They scored 410 points last
year (2nd overall) and the dual QB system of Matt Cassel and Brett
Basanez seems to be working well. |
D-coordinator; for whatever
reason, their pass defense plummeted the past 2 seasons and is now one of the
worst in the league. The Ravens let up almost as many as they scored last
year, and will have to rely on scoring in the 30s to guarantee a victory. |
AFC Central: 3rd Playoffs: Just missed |
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11-5 |
WR Charles Frederick |
Rushing game; the Bengals
have 2 starting calibur HBs in Maroney and Derrick Ward, and a solid #3 as
well. The rushing game has been
driving their offense lately and should be their strength again this year. |
Relying on the run; Cincy’s
strength can also be a weakness as they tend to rely a lot on a good rushing
game. If they get behind early, they
will be forced to let Brady Quinn and Jim Sorgi air it out which gets away
from their gameplan. |
AFC Central: 1st (tie) Playoffs: Should be a lock |
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3-13 |
LB Keith Rivers |
Fast Willie; HB Willie
Parker is the key to their offense as they kept him for another season. He is one of the fastest running backs in
the league and made up for their dismal passing game last season. |
Pass defense; while the Jags
beefed up their LBs and DBs with skilled young players, they need time to
develop before they can become a dominant defense. Rookie Keith Rivers needs
to have a great start to his career. |
AFC Central: 5th Playoffs: not this year |
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10-6 |
WR Reggie Brown |
Defensive talent; the
Steelers are living up to the Steel Curtain Defense name as they continue to
be solid at every position on defense. Their linebackers are especially
looking fierce and strong this year. |
Offensive performance; the
Steelers offense last year was, well, horrendous. They were ranked 25th in the
league in total yards and without them they struggled to make the playoffs to
defend their 2016 championship. |
AFC Central: 1st
(tie) Playoffs: Should be a lock |
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9-7 |
WR Skyler Green |
Pass Defense; the Titans’
pass defense has been ranked in the top 5 the past three seasons, last year 2nd
in the league. The return of CB Jason David means trouble for opposing
quarterbacks. |
Rushing game; losing WR Ted
Ginn Jr. was tough but too hard to pass up.
Tony Romo is solid at QB but the rushing game was almost non-existant
last season. Also, the division schedule is unforgiving. |
AFC Central: 4th Playoffs: Need some luck |
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AFC West: |
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4-12 |
CB Dominique Rodgers |
OL; the Broncos have a solid
OL, although aging a bit. They should be able to protect J.P. Losman and also
help the rushing attack. Adding Ray Rice in the draft was a solid move to secure
a future HB. |
Pass defense; |
AFC West: 2nd Playoffs: Wildcard |
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10-6 |
LB Bo Ruud |
Pass D; the Chiefs were ranked number 1 in
pass defense last year thanks to, well, it’s hard to say. They may not have
any big-name stars on defense but they played well together last year and
helped them to 10-6. |
Young offense; they are
inexperienced on the offensive side of the ball, but QB Matt Ryan and HB
Steve Slaton are sure to be stars soon. If they can avoid turnovers and hold
on to the ball they could repeat last year’s surprising season. |
AFC West: 3rd Playoffs: Just missed |
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4-12 |
DE Derrick Harvey |
Passing game; the Raiders
passed the ball well last year as Byron Leftwich and Mike Williams
connected a lot, 87 catches for Williams in fact. Adding QB Joe Flacco is a
good move to replace the aging Leftwich. |
Defense; still a lot of
holes on defense, especially at safety and LB. And it showed as they were ranked 2nd
to last in total defense and allowed the most points in the league at 442.
Need to beef up the D in order to get a drastic improvement. |
AFC West: 4th Playoffs: Not quite yet |
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12-4 |
DB Dunta Robinson |
Passing game; the Chargers
have Brodie Croyle and JaMarcus Russell to throw the ball to WR Craphonso
Thorpe among others and were ranked highly in the pass game last year. |
OL; pass protection is solid
but the Chargers O-line is not strong enough to pound the rock. They also
struggled to defend the pass last year but traded a rookie WR for DB Robinson
to shore up the defensive backfield unit. |
AFC West: 1st Playoffs: Division champ |
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4-12 |
HB Jamaal Charles |
Rushing game; led by Reggie
Bush, the Seahawks are certainly able to rush the ball and the addition of HB
Jamaal Charles at HB gives them 3 solid running
backs to held pound the rock. |
Age; this team is getting
old quickly and is in need of re-tooling.
While they search for a new GM, the Seahawks will likely struggle
again this season and until some of their large contracts come off the books. |
AFC West: 5th Playoffs: Not in contention |
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NFC East: |
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14-2 |
LB Jordan Dizon |
Talent; not much changes from year-to-year for the Cardinals. They have great players are every position
and continue to add youth to their roster via the draft. |
TE; if we had to find a
weakness on their roster, the Cardinals are very
inexperienced at tight end. This will
not stop them from winning their 12th straight division title,
though. |
NFC East: 1st |
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G Mike Wahle |
Offensive; if the Cowboys
can find a quality QB out of their trio in camp, the Cowboys COULD challenge
for a playoff spot. The acquisition of
HB Rashard Mendenhall and 2 great WRs, along with a stout offensive line make
this team the clear cut #2 team in the NFC East. |
Defensive Ends; who will
rush the passer on this undersized – AND OLD – defensive line? |
NFC East: 2nd |
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WR; the Giants have two
GREAT wide receivers, but I fear that they won’t have anyone to get them the
ball. |
Salary Cap; the Giants did
not make any free agent signings to better their team this offseason and only
got older with one pick in the first 2 rounds of the draft. |
NFC East: 5th |
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10-6 |
S Christopher Horton |
Coach; Fred Shing turned
around the Baltimore Ravens in a only a few years
and he can do the same here with the Redskins. |
OL; the big hogs up front
don’t go very deep, with 4 drafted rookies making the squad out of camp. They should develop into a nice unit in a
few seasons, but this is definitely a soft spot for the Redskins right now. |
NFC East: 4th |
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6-10 |
DT Glenn Dorsey |
HBs; the Eagles have 3 very
capable HBs on their roster and should be a very strong in the running
department. Unfortunately, the UFFL is
a passing league right now… |
WRs; …and unfortunately the
Eagles don’t have the WRs to stack up with the rest of the AFC East. QB Andrew Hall might be able to make the
wideouts better than they should be, but not enough to make the playoffs. |
NFC East: 3rd |
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NFC Central: |
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7-9 |
CB Terrell Thomas |
CB; the Lions have one of
the strongest CB units in the league and adding Terrell Thomas only helps
that. It wasn’t really a need for
them, but definitely helps them in the passing game. |
Everywhere else; |
NFC Central: 4th |
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7-9 |
WR Donnie Avery |
Coach; the team probably
won’t contend for a playoff spot this year, but if there is one “wildcard” in
the UFFL, it is Coach Jake Madfis’ coaching ability. One of the best coaches in UFFL history
will coach these guys up. |
Age; we checked with the
AARP and even they thought this team was old.
The challenged |
NFC Central: 3rd |
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3-13 |
QB Brian Brohm and HB
Rashard Mendenhall |
Potential; with rookies
starting at both QB and HB, this could be a struggle in 2018 for the
Vikings. But the future is bright for
whoever decides to take over this team. |
Inexperience; its kind of
cheap to make both the strengths and the weaknesses the same thing, but this
team truly is young and has some good contracts with
a ton of cap room. With a quality
coach in place, this team could contend in a few short years. |
NFC Central: 5th |
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9-7 |
S Thomas Davis |
Defense; overall, |
DE; the one weak spot on the
defense is possibly the DE spots. When
I first looked at their roster, I thought Haynes and Pace were the Dline
coaches! The Packers do have some cap
room so I definitely look for them to pick up a top DE mid-season from
another team rebuilding. |
NFC Central: 2nd |
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13-3 |
LB Robert James |
Depth; the Bucs used their
first round draft pick on the 5th best LB in the draft, and
promptly placed him deep on the depth chart.
Not because he can’t play… just because the have so much depth at LB
(as well as every other position). |
Defending champs stigma;
there have only been 3 back-to-back champs in league history, so |
NFC Central: 1st |
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NFC West: |
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10-6 |
HB Kevin Smith |
Offense; the Niners have
always been a great rushing team with HB Eric Shelton usually among the
league leaders in rushing. The
addition of HB Kevin Smith out of college ensures this tradition to continue. But they also have 2016 UFFL MVP QB Kyle
Orton back along with arguably the best REC corp. in the league. This offense should shine. |
OL; the one question mark on
this team is the offensive line? It’s
young but extremely talented. Can it
hold up its end of the bargin for a 16-game season for the rest of its
offense? Time will tell. |
NFC West: 1st |
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9-7 |
WR Marques Colston |
QB/WR combo; the “greatest
show on turf” in back in |
Schedule; the Rams have a
very tough schedule including games @ |
NFC West: 3rd |
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2-14 |
HB Darren McFadden |
HB; Darren McFadden joins
his former college teammates Felix Jones in New Orleans, and the Saints have
really put together a great 1-2 combo at HB for many, many years to come. |
DB; unfortunately for new
coach Bill Howard, the UFFL is a passing league and the majority of his DBs
are bench players at best. This could
be a long season on the defensive side of the ball. |
NFC West: 4th |
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5-11 |
LB Jerrod Mayo |
QB; Vince Young is a star in
the making and will need to lift this team on his back this year. He’s got WR Sinorice Moss and that’s about
it as far as weapons on the field for |
HB; the running game of |
NFC West: 5th |
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9-7 |
10 future first rounders |
Draft picks; the Falcons
picked up 10 more first round draft picks over the next 3 seasons via trades
so the stockpiling on talent continues.
If only Coach Bolt could get these players to play together… |
Coach?;
the team really doesn’t have a weakness, and I don’t really think it’s Coach
Bolt’s fault. But for whatever reason,
the team with the most talent year after year just can’t seem to get on the
same page? Will 2018 be the year? |
NFC West: 2nd |
Playoff Predictions:
AFC:
NFC:
UFFL Bowl: The Colts’ offense is too much for the Bucs defense as Indy gets their first UFFL title!