How do the talking heads rank a Manning-led Titan team?

How do we not pass the Texans as the favorite? Peyton, CJ, Britt, DWilliams and company on offense.. uh.. yeah. If we have a slightly competent defense we should take the division with ease if he signs and everyone's healthy.

 

Playing the devils advocate...

Because our TEAM could barely beat Houstons backups last year

 

I agree here. I think many will still pick the Texans as the favorites coming out of the South. To my knowledge they haven't lost much of anyone (Meyers would hurt)..so their team is pretty much all coming back. And I think most "experts" believe had Schaub been healthy they could have went further...

They'll be some who will think Peyton propels us to the forefront..but we still have issues so its hard to tell right now. As good as we were in pass protection our run protection s*cked. So we need to sure that up..we still have DLine issues..which if we dont get squared away will no doubt kill us in pass coverage again. So we still have several question marks (as it stands right now).

I think if anything we'll have to "win over" the people..by winning games

 

Tejans have lost Williams, cut their own tackle, will lose another Olineman, maybe to us. They will come down to earth.

 

We'd definately be a contender in the weakish AFC.

Can you imagine all the play-actions, checks and whatnot that the Peyton and CJ show can torment defenses with?

CJ sprinting out on that stretch play the Colts ran, Peyton performs his peerless play fake, and burns an out of position safety for six to cook.

You will see that more than once this season.

Let's look at the AFC...

Pitt - Getting old. Hope they lose Wallace.
NE - Still the class of the conference, but very flawed.
Hou - Good team. We beat em once last year without manning though. We can win the division.
Bal - We beat em like a rented mule last year. They ain't that good.
Cin - up and comer. Could be quite good if their two first rounders pay out well.

I can easily see this offense being good enough to take us to the SB.

 

Williams isn't that big of a factor because he was gone most of the season and their defense did just fine without him...so I dont see that as a huge loss. I think they only person that could truly impact them is Meyers

 

Maybe there's a domino effect.
I'd like to think that maybe we sign Myers away from the Texans, which could maybe unsettle that great O-Line in Houston, which in turn would make Foster's job harder.
AND hopefully the Texans trade away Ben Tate to the Browns or someone, which eliminates that powerful one-two punch they have in the backfield. AND Mario is gone, and while they didn't seem to slow down without him, on the plus side, they won't have a healthy Mario to potentially make them that much better.
AND Their only great WRs are Andre and Owen Daniels - which I expect them to try to fix in the draft - and we can only hope that they get a WR that has a slow season start transitioning into the NFL.

A LOT of wishing, hoping, and speculation... but it could do some damage to the Texans and provide us with an edge. Who knows?

 

Played way over their heads, they will come back to earth. The rest of humanity thinks Williams is a huge loss for them.

 

Pitt - always getting old, always competative
NE - wish they would just fall off the face of the earth
Houston - we beat their backups THier starters destroyed us
Bal - Good enough to get into the game before the super bowl. Even good teams lose every now and then

 

Obviously, the road to the Super Bowl is never easy.

But a Manning-CJ-Britt-Cook offense could be the best in football.

I predict that early, it will be tough sledding, as everyone gets used to each other. We'll drop a game or two early.

Later in they year, that offense should be damn near unstoppable. Got six or seven in the box? Peyton checks, CJ gashes them. Inch a safety into the box? Peyton checks, burns the safety deep.

CJ has been limited his whole career by the fact that teams could gameplan him. That won't be the case with a healthy peyton. It could be special.