The NFL season has come to a close with an exciting end to Super Bowl XLVI. The New York Giants ended the thriller on top defeating the New England Patriots 21-17. This was the second time that Eli Manning led his team to defeat to Patriots in the Super Bowl in the last minutes of the game.
“That was quite a drive that he was able to put together,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “He deserves all the credit in the world, because he really has put his team on his shoulders all year.”
Now we are in the offseason, a lot teams will be looking to improve their team by trading players, hiring new coaches, and practicing for the season to come. The upcoming NFL Draft should be very exciting as well because there are many great players available. One of them, the potential first overall pick, is Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. Luck has accumulated a total of 10, 387 offensive yards and has thrown for 82 touchdowns is his college career. The next top quarterback available is Baylor QB Robert Griffin III, who is also the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner, has thrown for a total and 12,294 yards and 77 touchdowns.
“This is unbelievably believable,” he said. “It’s unbelievable because in the moment we’re all amazed when great things happen. But it’s believable because great things don’t happen without hard work.” Robert Griffin III stated after receiving the Heisman Trophy.
There are many teams that should surprise us NFL fans with their unexpected success. The top 5 sleepers for next season are the Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers, Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins, and the Denver Broncos.
The Chicago Bears has a great first half to their season going 7-3 and bound for the playoffs until a devastating injury to their starting QB Jay Cutler who broke his thumb, sidelining him for the rest of the season. Without Cutler the Bears lost 5 of their last 6 games and missed the playoffs.
The San Diego Chargers are a good football team who only finished the season with an 8-8 record. The main downfall of the Chargers was the struggles of their QB Phillip Rivers, who threw for a career-high 20 interceptions. If Rivers can pick up his game next season, The Chargers will be a tough team to beat next year.
The Carolina Panthers went an unimpressive 6-10 last season. But the emergence of their rookie QB Cam Newton as an elite player coupled with their star receiver Steve Smith has the Panthers looking good for the next year.
The Miami Dolphins are also expected to perform much better than their recent 6-10 season. The Dolphins acquired running back Reggie Bush who played exceptionally well for them, eclipsing the 1000 yard mark for the first time in his career. The QB Matt Moore is also becoming more of a threat as he is performing much better as well.
The Denver Broncos, the most highlighted team in the NFL, are set to perform well with their QB sensation Tim Tebow. Tebow led his team to the second round of the playoffs after a mediocre beginning of the season, where he was not the starting QB. The Broncos have an extremely effective rushing attack with Tebow leading the charge, even though he is a quarterback.
All we can do is sit and wait for the NFL Draft and NFL season to come. The 2012/2013 season should be very exciting to watch because there will be a shift in power the usually dominant teams and the teams in the rebuilding process.
