State of the AFC West: Jones-Drew an Option for the Chargers?
Happy hump day, Raider Nation!
The NFL regular season will kick off one week from today. In the meantime, we’ll have another week of preseason games to evaluate players as the teams continue to trim their rosters.
Let’s take a look around the rest of the AFC West and see what’s going on.
Broncos
-Peyton Manning had easily his best preseason performance so far against the 49ers, going 10 of 12 for 122 yards and two touchdowns. He looked like the Peyton Manning of old on Sunday. This is not good news for the rest of the NFL.
-Longtime NFL long-snapper Lonie Paxton was cut by Denver this past week in favor of rookie Aaron Brewer.
-After an impressive start to the preseason, running back Xavier Oman could not follow up his success and was let go by the Broncos.
-It looks like rookie Derek Wolfe, after a phenomenal camp, has earned a starting spot at defensive end. He’ll play on the the opposite side of Elvis Dumervil, bolstering what was already the strength of the Denver defense.
Chargers
-San Diego parted ways with veteran WR/KR Roscoe Parrish this past week. This took me by surprise, considering the loss of Vincent Brown to injury for the better part of the year. Expect Parrish to land on his feet elsewhere in 2012.
*UPDATE-Roscoe Parrish has landed with the Raiders.
-Larry English and Melvin Ingram looked to be in midseason form against the Vikings. I stand by my initial prediction that Ingram will become a household name in 2012. He is a game-changing defender.
-Charger fans cannot be thrilled with their backup quarterback situation. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with Charlie Whitehurst and Jarrett Lee as the options if Rivers goes down. Look for San Diego to make a play for a proven veteran backup before the start of the season.
-Still no sign of a formidable backup or replacement to Ryan Mathews at running back. In fact, I’m not even sure Mathews is the answer as the starter, given his tip-toeing at the line and lack of ability to stay healthy. Paging MJD…?
Chiefs
-Kansas City did not make any notable cuts to get to 75 players, with the biggest name being wide receiver Jeremy Horne.
-Matt Cassel continues to look like he has a solid handle on this offense and is poised for a big year.
-Regardless of it only being a preseason game, the Chiefs defense, which I have been touting all offseason as a potential elite unit, looked lost at times vs. the Seahawks. We’ll chalk it up to a fluke for now, but keep an eye on that situation.
-Even after Bowe reported, the Chiefs still look like they wanna feature Jonathan Baldwin as a No. 1 receiver. They may be planning for life without Bowe, but could find that they’ll need him and his play making ability down the stretch.
Next Wednesday, I’ll have previews and predictions of the Week 1 matchups involving AFC West teams.
//
Loading ...
