Cincinatti Bengals Preview

The Bengals come off a good 10-5 record. Making the playoffs 4 years in a row, each time the Bengals have lost in the wild card every year. Will this be the year they finally get over that hump? Let's see if they have the roster to do so.

QB: Andy Dalton is the starter for the Bengals. Dalton is exactly a middle of the road quarterback in many's minds. Although he has potential to get better, he has to avoid the sting of inconsistency that has been allaying his career thus far.

HB: Coming off of a 1,000 yard year , Jeremy Hill provides a running game that make the Bengals balanced. His running ability will help with the passing game, as teams try to lock down on AJ Green.  Although more attention will come towards him this season, as long as the offensive line blocks well, Hill should be just fine.

WR: AJ Green is a top five receiver in the NFL. In just 4 years, Green has a total of 4, 874 yards and 35 touchdowns. The more Green touches the ball, the better the offense will be. Opposite of AJ Green is Marvin Jones. He will get some touches and looks due to teams being extremely focused on Green. If the Bengals can capitalize on that , they will be successful.

AJ Green

Offense: The Bengals have a solid offense. When clicking on all cylinders , the Bengals can put up points fast and in a hurry. If they can consistently come up with a formula to put up points, they are dangerous.

DL: Led by Carlos Dunlap , the defense runs a 4-3 scheme. Ranked 25th in rushing yards allowed , the defense must find a way to slow down the run. If they are successful in doing so, they can force an offense to play towards their strength.

LB: Led by Emmanuel Lamur , the linebacking core returns all of their starters. With Vontaze Burfict back healthy, the Bengals run defense should improve in the run game.

DB: An overall experienced secondary, they remain one of the tougher secondaries in the league. With Adam Jones and Leon Hall at corner, the Bengals give opposing receivers a tough time.

Defense: With the return of most starters , the Bengals should improve on the defensive end.  The chemistry is there, the experience is there, the only thing that needs to be worked on is finishing games. If the Bengals can do that, they may put themselves in a better position to win and not have to play in the wild card.

Dominance Continued in the AFC South: Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts led the AFC South last year under Andrew Luck, who was a front-runner for MVP. He’s an amazing quarterback and has brought great success to the Colts after Peyton Manning. This year, the Colts added Andre Johnson to replace Reggie Wayne. The Texans took a huge loss with this one. Although Johnson will probably not see as much action as he did with the Texans, he will serve as a veteran mentor for other players.

Reciever TY Hilton at FIU

The running back is Frank Gore who can outscore most opponents and adds to the potent offense. On defense, Vontae Davis is an elite corner who works well with Robert Mathis and Trent Cole.

Accordingly, the Colts have TY Hilton as a great receiver. He recently signed a 5-year contract extension with the Colts and will work well with the other receivers. Along with Hilton, the Colts drafted speedster Phillip Dorsett. Between these two, the Colts will have a lot of speed on their side. 

The Colts are in a great position for the upcoming season. It’ll be interesting to see how veteran player Andre Johnson works with Andrew Luck. I foresee the team having another successful season in the AFC South and making it back to the Playoffs.

Piecing Together the Houston Texans

Last season, everything that could possibly go wrong for a team did for the Houston Texans. Although JJ Watt was defensive player of the year, the team was far from successful. Houston missed the playoffs for the second year in a row, which really got the fans worried. The team has struggled with the quarterback position as no man could keep the starting position.

The team recently lost star receiver Andre Johnson to the Indianapolis Colts, Jadeveon Clowney is still recovering from his knee injury last year, and RB Arian Foster is out recovering from surgery. How will the Texans match up this season?

JJ Watt

How will offense look?

The Texans center, Chris Myers retired from the NFL after 10 seasons.  Also, Danieal Manning announced his retirement from the Texans in July. He was a safety. Recently, Brian Hoyer was named starting quarterback after battling it out with Ryan Mallet. Slowly, the Texans are forming a team as the regular season approaches.  Hopefully Hoyer will be able to pull the new offense together and bring home some wins. Though Hoyer and Mallet were reasonably the same in consistency, Hoyer has more experience and knows the offensive system a little better. With Arian Foster in recovery, Alfred Blue will have to step up as the new running back.

I’m a big Texans fan, largely due to JJ Watt and Arian Foster. Although Foster is out, I cannot wait to see what Watt has in store for the season. He’s won Defensive Player of the Year for two years and honestly deserves MVP of the NFL.

Fantasy Draft Time Sleeper of the Day: Cam Newton

While Cam Newton is considered by many as one of the better players in the league, he is a mid-level quarterback in the fantasy draft. There are at least 5 quarterbacks that are going before Cam in a draft:    Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Arron Rodgers, Andrew Luck. Even with these five gone, that still leaves Jay Cutler, Matthew Stafford, Colin Kaepernick, and Nick Fowles.

There is a lot of uncertainty as the recievers have no true expierence with Cam Newton. With that being said, he will rack up points running TD's as well as the passing TD's.  

One thing that will help Cam is the fact that the Panthers is great. The Panthers finished 2nd in both points and yards. Their defense can provide Cam with at least decent field position a decent amount of times in which Cam will have the opportunity to capitalize on. With the addition of Kelvin Benjamin, look for a lot of red zone scores.   

Rating Jadeveon Clowney: Madden NFL 15

This guy is simply a FREAK OF NATURE. Standing at 6'6 270lbs, he runs just as fast as the average running back. In college , Jadeveon had 24 sacks in three years at South Carolina, where he made a name for himself.

Jadeveon Clowney is projected to be the number 1 draft pick by the Houston Texans. Funny thing is Clowney would not be the Texans number 1 need. The Texans are in need of  a quarterback, in which there are 3 projected to go in the first round (Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, and Blake Bortles).

STRENGHTS
Jadeveon has the potential to be everything that an NFL Team would and more from a defensive end. Jadeveon possesses the ability to drive through offensive linemen with his strength. With his large frame and long wing span, Clowney can also deflect alot of passes that quarterbacks throw along the line of scrimmage. When one-on-one with an offensive linemen, he has the speed to run right around offensive linemen.

WEAKNESS
The major concern that teams have with Clowney is his "work ethic". In the past he has shown signs of possibliy not going the extra mile, which is something that every great player must do. In college, he did not play the last few regular season games in his college career to aviod aggrevating an injury even more. While working out for South Carolina , he initially stated that he was only working out there and not for any teams. Examples such as these do raise questions as to whether or not he would do the same in the NFL.

Overall, this guy has the potentail to become one of the greatest defensive ends ever. Guys with his size and athletic ability just don't come around that often. My Madden rating for Jadeveon Clowney is: 79.