#1

to max our group out." A few hours after Peters form

in News & Regeln 12.08.2019 10:22
von smith bonnie • 565 Beiträge

TSN football analyst Chris Schultz breaks down all the teams and each division in the NFL leading up to the regular season. Next up, the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cleveland Browns in the AFC North. Baltimore Ravens In 2014, the 8-8 season that the Baltimore Ravens experienced was to be expected. Coming off the 2013 Super Bowl, the absence of Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and others, a quarterback that now receives a about a million dollars a game, it was just football logical that a regression of success would happen. The good news is that was then, this is now. In the AFC North there are three teams that could finish anywhere between first and third. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Baltimore are all very similar but with head coach John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome now in his 19th year as a key decision maker, it is difficult to think this will be anything but a first place division winning team. Especially coming off a playoff-absent year with a younger and hungrier team. Joe Flacco did not have a good year last year. Ray Rice had a terrible off-season. Both players will bounce back by mid-season. In free agency, by acquiring Steve Smith the Ravens acquired emotional leadership. In the draft, by taking CJ Mosley they found a "ready to play" linebacker. And Torrey Smith as a receiver and Jimmy Smith as a cornerback are as good as any in the league. There is just too much football talent on an individual basis not to be optimistic about this season. An absolute key will be Week 1, 2 and 3: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and at Cleveland. If Baltimore is 3-0 everyone in the division will be chasing them. If they go 0-3 they will be chasing everybody. Baltimore can make or break their season in September. Someone has to step in and replace Michael Oher at right tackle and they may need a fullback as both Shaun Chapas and Kyle Juszczyk are only second year players and not proven over a 16-game schedule. But if you believe in the trickledown effect, that if the strength of an organization is at the very top and because it is so strong everything else trickles down, Steve Bisciotti, Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh are just too good at their chosen profession not to have the Ravens bounce back in a big way here in 2014. Ravens will finish first in the AFC North. Cincinnati Bengals The Bengals have been a remarkably successful team during the regular season. In 2011 they went 9-7. In 2012, they finished 10-6. And last year, they had their best season of the three, finishing 11-5. But the Bengals have been a remarkably unsuccessful team in the playoffs. Under Marvin Lewis, who is a proven NFL coach, they are 0-5 in the postseason. And in those games they have not scored more than 17 points and have been outscored 132 to 64. Are the Bengals due this year to turn it around after the 16 games of the regular season? We wont know until January of 2015. This year they are off to a good start by wrapping up QB Andy Dalton and signing him for a lot of years and a lot of money. Dalton has his critics but who else is out there? Nobody. I think Cincinnati will finish second or third in the AFC North. They lost a very good defensive coordinator in Mike Zimmer and a very good offensive coordinator in Jay Gruden. Both received head coaching opportunities in Minnesota and Washington, respectively, and that says a lot. It is one thing to go from coordinator to coordinator from one team to another but to both receive head coaching positions means their value is in the extreme. Cincinnati has some great young talent. Giovani Bernard on offence and Vontaze Burfict on defence. And they do have a top-5 receiver in AJ Green who has caught more passes in his first three seasons than any receiver in NFL history with 260. But can they win the division again? The most important two games in the schedule happen in the last month of the season. First there is December 7 at Pittsburgh, and then in Week 17, December 28 at Pittsburgh. With a very balanced roster those two dates could be for first, second, or even third place in the AFC North. I think it will be for second. Bengals to finish second in the AFC North. Pittsburgh Steelers Just like the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals the Pittsburgh Steelers could finish first in the AFC North or third. It comes down to the head-to-head divisional games. Last year they split games with the Ravens and Bengals, and beat the Browns twice. On the plus side Pittsburgh finished strong last year, going 6-2 over the last eight games and 8-4 over the last 12. On the "wait-and-see" side of things the Steelers are all of a sudden a much younger team on defence. Only Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu are over age 30. It will be interesting to see how Dick LeBeau educates and manages his youth and inexperience. Sometimes the toughest aspect of winning football to create is to go from 8-8, as the Steelers did for the last two years, to 10-6 which can get you into the playoffs. At 32 it may be up to Ben Roethlisberger to get it done by himself. The player who was the biggest surprise to me was left tackle Kelvin Beachum, number 68. He is going into his third year and was a seventh-round draft pick out of SMU. Not many seventh-round draft picks become starters in their second year and I would not say dominant but he played like an eighth-year starter. The offensive line for Pittsburgh could be a genuine strength by the end of the year. The Steelers were an old team last year but not this time around as they went through the painful process of getting younger. Now, believe it or not their oldest player is their best player in Polamalu at 33. How many years he has left is unknown - or maybe how many years he has left playing the style of football he plays - which I call "dangerous". Dangerous for himself and his opponent. Pittsburgh does have impact players on offence with Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell but their impact player on defence is still Troy Polamalu. If the Steelers do not make the playoffs this year it will be the first time since 1998 to 2000 that there were three consecutive "down years" for that franchise. The competition in the division is as good maybe as the NFC West. And because of that, the Steelers will finish third in the AFC North. Cleveland Browns In the last five seasons the Browns have won either five or four games, depending on the year. Overall the argument can be made that Cleveland is the most dysfunctional team in all of NFL football. The reasons are simple. Too many owners, too many head coaches and too many quarterbacks. Continuity has been a challenge but maybe, just maybe, it changes this year. All the attention is on Johnny Manziel but there are other aspects of Browns football that are more than respectable. The loss of Josh Gordon is the same for the Browns as if Detroit lost Calvin Johnson. Gordon changes games. But Miles Austin, Nate Burleson, Andrew Hawkins and Earl Bennett are all proven receivers. And that is the frustration with the Browns, they have talent. They have two good cornerbacks in Justin Gilbert and Joe Haden, and Joe Thomas and Alex Mack at tackle and centre. Jordan Cameron is a Pro Bowl player at tight end. But for whatever the reason it never comes together for more than five wins. With that, Mike Pettine has his challenge. The newest head coach does have a defensive system that is proven and has an offensive coordinator in Kyle Shanahan who is experienced. But somehow it all has to come together beginning on September 7 in Pittsburgh. Who will be at quarterback? I am betting on Brian Hoyer. He only played in three games last year but it forced Brandon Weeden to Dallas and he played well. Manziels time is coming but Hoyers time is now. Its all new again for the Browns: head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators and general manager in Ray Farmer. Its all new again, except for one thing - they will finish fourth again in the AFC North. Justin Tucker Womens Jersey . Louis Cardinals won the World Series last season, but after losing first baseman Albert Pujols to free agency and manager Tony LaRussa to retirement, they opened the 2012 season in 12th spot in the TSN. Miles Boykin Womens Jersey . 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RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes hope they now have the leadership tandem in place to turn the franchise around. Bill Peters was introduced Friday as the Hurricanes new coach, the first big hire made by new Carolina general manager Ron Francis. Now its up to Peters to prove it was a shrewd move. Carolina has made three coaching changes since 2006 and has only one playoff appearance to show for it. "When I did my due diligence and went to look at rosters ... were not far off," Peters said. "I think theres lots of pieces here and its up to us and our coaching staff ... to max our group out." A few hours after Peters formal introduction, the Hurricanes made another addition to their management team, hiring 44-year-old Ricky Olczyk -- the younger brother of former NHL coach and current NBC Sports analyst Ed Olczyk -- as an assistant general manager. The younger Olczyk spent six years as Edmontons assistant GM and was the Oilers NHL liaison for all collective bargaining agreement matters. Peters replaces Kirk Muller, who was fired last month -- a week into Francis tenure as GM -- and went 80-80-27 in three seasons with no playoff berths. Instead of an established NHL head coach or a popular ex-player, Francis went with Peters -- a 48-year-old Detroit Red Wings assistant who has never been an NHL head coach but was in demand this off-season. Peters said he interviewed for two other jobs and Francis says he spoke to 10 candidates during "a pretty extensive search," narrowing that to a three-man short list before deciding on Peters and giving him a three-year contract. "You have to take the time to go through it and make sure you get the right guy," Francis said, "and thats what we did." What dazzled Francis was Peters attention to detail: He penned a booklet breaking down the team and brought it to his first interview with them, and his second one included a PowerPoint presentation, Francis said. "Hes extremely, extremely detailed," Francis said. "Hes going to communicate with our players. Our players are going to know where he stands, and theres no little detail that (will) be overloooked.dddddddddddd" From the outside, his challenge looks daunting: Making the Hurricanes a consistent playoff team. Muller couldnt do it in three years. Neither could Paul Maurice, at least during his second stint with the team. Even Peter Laviolette -- the only Carolina coach to hoist the Stanley Cup -- couldnt get the Hurricanes back to the post-season. Now Peters gets his chance to try to revive a club that has missed the playoffs in seven of the eight years since the Hurricanes won their only Stanley Cup in 2006. The lone post-season berth since that Cup run came in 2009, when the Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference final in the first year of Maurices second term as coach. Peters plan is to address three glaring problems from last season: Starting games strong, producing more on the power play and winning more often at PNC Arena. Carolina was the leagues third-worst team with the man advantage and was just 18-17-6 at home. "Weve got to become a harder team to play against here in Raleigh," Peters said. His hiring caps about two months of turbulence in the Hurricanes organization. Francis, a Hall of Fame player who has been both an assistant coach and an assistant GM with Carolina, was moved up a rung on the organizations ladder and his mentor, Jim Rutherford, stepped aside after two decades -- and eventually wound up bolting to Pittsburgh to take over as the Penguins GM. Francis first big move came a week later when he fired Muller and put the players on notice that the responsibility for turning the team around is on them, too. After a 46-day search in which some recognizable names were floated, Francis plucked Peters from Mike Babcocks staff with the Red Wings. He spent the past three years working primarily with the Red Wings defencemen and penalty killers. Before joining the Red Wings staff, he coached Rockford of the AHL from 2008-11 and guiding that team to consecutive 40-win seasons. Eight of his Rockford players helped Chicago win the Cup in either 2010 or 2013, and he also coached Spokane (Washington) of the Western Hockey League for three seasons. "This is a guy that knows coaching," Francis said. ' ' '

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