Ty Ranks the 2017 NFL Teams: The "Return of the Jedi" Edition

Day 4 of my 2017 NFL countdown has some teams that have been great recently and playoff teams as recent as last year. The reason they fall here on my list is either due to the age of their stars, how far I feel they will fall off due to departures and, honestly, I just don't see in them what I may have seen a year or 2 ago. All 4 of these teams could make me look very dumb, they all could win 10 plus games, but I think they will all fall right around .500 or lower. Lets go.

Coming in at number 20, I have the Baltimore Ravens. Right off the bat, why did they not sign Colin Kapernick? If you all are sick of me talking about Kaerpernick, get used to it until he is rightfully on an NFL roster. With the injury to the highly overrated Joe Flacco, this team needs a backup. Pardon me, a reliable backup QB. Ryan Mallett is not reliable. He hasn't been good since college. And Flacco, I feel like he is a worse version of Phillip Rivers. You may say, "he won a Super Bowl Ty", so did Trent Dilfer. They were both the benefit of a great Ravens defense. Joe Flacco has done nothing to prove to me that he deserves to be paid what he is currently getting paid. Their starting receivers are guys that are better suited as backups, second or third options, or guys that had one good season and cashed in. Mike Williams, Breshad Perriman and Jeremy Maclin all fall into one of those categories. At running back, they have Danny Woodhead, Kenneth Dixon and Terrance West. Very blah. Also, why is Danny Woodhead still in the league and Kaepernick can't get a job? That is a shame. As far as their O-Line, who cares. They are middle of the road and will continue to be with the guys they have. The Ravens defense has always been their strength, but they are getting old. I love Terrell Suggs, but his best days are far behind him. He is still good, but he was great at one point. Jimmy Smith is a fine corner, but he is not a lock down corner. Eric Weddle is a hard hitting safety, but he can't really cover. CJ Mosley is one of the younger guys, but he is inconsistent. Brandon Williams is an okay defensive lineman, but just okay. They don't really have anyone that jumps off the paper to me. I think John Harbaugh is a good NFL head coach, but he has done all he can do with this Ravens team. They may fight their way to 7 or 8 wins, but that's it.

At number 19 I have the Detroit Lions. Matthew Stafford is about to become the highest paid NFL player ever. Does he really deserve it? Do Lions fans even think he deserves it? This team walked ass backwards in the playoffs last year, and an undermanned, super injured Seahawks team crushed them. They were not prepared at all. A lot of that has to do with the staff, although I do think Jim Caldwell gets an unfair shake sometimes, but some of that is on their franchise QB. Stafford is a fine starter, but he will never lead any team far in the playoffs. While I think Theo Riddick and Ameer Abdullah are okay running backs, they each has glaring weaknesses. Riddick is a decent fantasy player, but he is not worthy of starter status. Abdullah has blazing speed and decent hands out of the backfield, but he fumbles way, way too much. Eric Ebron is an okay tight end, but he doesn't strike fear like some other tight ends do. Golden Tate is a worse version of T.Y. Hilton. He should not be the number one option on any team. Marvin Jones was the third guy in Cincinnati, and now he is the second guy in Detroit. Yeesh. The O-Line is fine. Their defense is mediocre. Ezekial Ansah finally showed flashes of his potential last year, and I think bigger things will be coming from him. A'Shawn Robinson has potential on the D-Line. I love Haloti Ngata, but his best days were with the Ravens. Their secondary is going to be relying on Teez Tabor, and he is a rookie. That is frightening. The Lions had their magical run last year, but I feel like they will come crashing back to Earth this season. Sorry to my family that are Lions fans, but this team is going to take a step back this season.

At number 18 I have the Arizona Cardinals. I struggled mightily with where to put the Cardinals. Two years ago they were the talk of the NFC, and someone around here thought they were going to the Super Bowl. Then last season happened. Carson Palmer reverted back to his Oakland days, either playing very average, or getting hurt. I don't know which Palmer we will get this year, but I tend to lean towards the one we saw last year. He is only getting older and older. Larry Fitzgerald is still there though, and he is still producing. I feel like he may be my generation's Jerry Rice. He is reliable, usually healthy and produces every year. He is an all timer. Other outside guys they have, John Brown, JJ Nelson and Jermaine Gresham, I like, but they don't really move the needle either way for the Cardinals. Their O-Line does their job. They keep Palmer up, and open up holes for their best player, and one of the best players in the NFL, David Johnson. Johnson is the modern day Marshall Faulk. That is not a hot take, that is truth. This guy does anything and everything for this team. He is a great running back, going for 1,000 plus yards the past 2 years. He puts the ball in the end zone too. He is also exceptional at catching passes out of the backfield. David Johnson does it all, and he could single handidly win games for the Cardinals this year. The Cardinals defense is good too, but not great. Chandler Jones, Tyrann Mathieu, the best corner in the league Patrick Patterson, Robert Nkemdiche, Karlos Dansby and their first round pick Hasson Reddick are all very good. They should, and could, be better. Mathieu always gets hurt, Dansby has bounced around a bit too much and Reddick is a rookie, Nkemdiche is in only his second season and Chandler Jones is wildly inconsistent. Patterson, in my opinion, is the best corner in the league right now, and he is the most consistent guy they have on defense. As I said, I could be very wrong on Arizona, but I feel like they may rely a bit too heavily on Johnson, and I think Palmer is in the twilight of his inconsistent career. Prove me wrong Arizona.

My final team for the day, coming in at number 17, I have RD's team, the Minnesota Vikings. Their defense is awesome. One of the best in the league without question. They are incredibly talented on that side of the ball. Xavier Rhodes, Harrison Smith, Shariff Floyd, Erick Kendricks, Everson Griffen, Andrew Sendejo and Marcus Sherels are some of the most underrated players in the league. This unit produces and does their job every week. They are awesome. What holds this team back is their extremely inept offense. The O-Line does the best they can, but when they have to protect for Sam Bradford, nothing is ever enough. I remember last year when they started 5-0 and people thought it was due to Bradford's "resurgence", I laughed. It was due to the defense, and after that 5-0 start, they crumbled because of the lack of any type of offensive production. Bradford is the king of the check down pass, and he is most definitely a bust in my opinion. They lost Adrian Peterson, no big deal, but the backups and new guys aren't world beaters at all. Bishop Sankey, Latavius Murray and rookie Dalvin Cook are next in line. Cook is, by far, the best option. He may be the only threat they have on offense this year. Murray had his best days in Oakland, and he got replaced, and Sankey, he hasn't been good since day one in the NFL. Their receivers are average due to talent and Sam Bradford. Laquon Treadwell was a beast in college, in his rookie year, he was hardly heard from. Kyle Rudolph is Bradford's favorite target, but he is an average tight end. They signed Michael Floyd, but I would be more worried about his ability to stay on the field, what with all the drunk driving. Stefon Diggs is fine, but he is a third option at best. The Vikings have an incredible defense, but it is not like the Broncos of recent, the Ravens of the early 2000's or the 85 Bears. Not even close. And their offense, oof, it is rough. This team should win 10 or 11 games, but with Bradford at QB, they will be .500 at best.

Come back next week when we get to the cream of the crop.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is once again mistaken on his picks today. The Minnesota Vikings will be the darlings of the NFL. 19-0. Nothing is impossible.

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