5 Big Questions About The Upcoming NFL Season

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

It may seem hard to believe after the offseason that wasn’t due to the lockout, but the 2011 NFL season officially kicks off three weeks from Thursday when the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers host the New Orleans Saints.

With all of the player movement over the past few weeks and the fact that a quarter of the league’s 32 teams have new head coaches, it makes for a lot of questions heading into the upcoming season.

With that, we present to you some of the biggest questions from across the league with the start of the season just around the corner:

1.) Are the teams with new coaching staffs (Carolina, Dallas, Minnesota, San Francisco, Cleveland, Denver, Oakland, Tennessee) and new systems really at a disadvantage this year because of the fact that there were no organized team activities this past offseason?

The short answer to that question is: yes! But it’s not as much about these new coaches not having enough time to implement their new systems with their respective teams. Instead, it is much more about the fact that the teams they are taking over aren’t very good. Some might say that Dallas could be the exception to that rule but that’s debatable. The fact is, that teams change coaches because they haven’t been very good and that is certainly the case with all of the aforementioned organizations.

2.) Who’s the favorite?

The odds makers say that the Patriots and Packers rate the edge over the rest of the league but teams like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Diego, New Orleans and the Jets not too far behind. A lot can happen throughout the course of a season that can derail a team with injuries being at the top of that list. And for a team like the Patriots, an NFL-best 14-2 during the regular season is nice but they will ultimately be judged by how they fare in the postseason where they have lost their last 3 games.

3.) Can Rex Ryan’s Jets really walk the walk?

Say what you want about the loudmouthed Ryan, but he’s good for the league. He brings levity to the table on a weekly basis when most coaches bore us to tears with their drivel. The only problem for Ryan is that he may soon become the boy who cried wolf. There’s only so many times we can hear his Super Bowl predictions before we just dismiss everything that comes out of his mouth. Not that making back-to-back AFC Championship games isn’t impressive, it is. But Ryan has verbally set the bar so high that anything less than an appearance in Super Bowl 46 might be enough for a lot of people, including some of his own players, to start tuning him out.

4.) QB questions?

Will Michael Vick follow up his impressive 2010 performance with an encore performance in 2011? How about Tony Romo? Will he ever lead the Cowboys to great success? Is Ryan Sanchez ready to take his game to the next level to help Rex Ryan back up his words? Will Peyton Manning’s health be an issue this year? Will Dolphins’ fans give Chad Henne a chance in 2011? Does Vikings QB Donovan McNabb have any gas left in his tank? And the list goes on.

5.) Will any of the new rule changes have a positive or negative impact on the game?

One of the biggest rule changes this season will feature kickoffs being moved up 5 yards from the 30 to the 35-yard line. This will lead to many more touchbacks and fewer kick returns which are en exciting part of the game. However, kick returns are one of the plays in the sport where concussions occur frequently. If this can help reduce the number of serious concussions suffered by NFL players, the league will consider it a tremendous success.

The other major rule change has to do with automatic replay review of any close touchdowns. This was prevalent during the Patriots preseason-opener against Jacksonville. The problem with this rule is that it will take a lot of excitement out of stadiums throughout the league. Fans are whipped into a frenzy when their team scores. If they have to wait a few minutes for that score to be confirmed, it will take away from the atmosphere. Furthermore, it will lengthen games which are already long enough. The solution to the problem would be to have the replay official in the booth make a quick decision on such plays and not have the referee on the field have to review it. Or leave it as it was a year ago and allow opposing coaches to use one of their challenge flags if there is a questionable touchdown call.

Even with all of those questions, once thing is certain about the upcoming season: there is no question about the fact that fans are pumped to have the NFL back with no interruption to the 2011 season.