The Super Bowl winners have a lot to live up to while the Bills face another year of struggles.
Baltimore Ravens:
Last season: Doesn't get any better than winning the Super Bowl, right? The Ravens lost four of their last five regular season games before beating the Colts, the Broncos, the Patriots and the 49ers to win the Vince Lombardi. They had some luck along the way, and some frankly unbelievable injury recoveries too, but their win over San Fran was as dramatic as it gets.
This season: It is now eight years since a team managed to win back-to-back Super Bowls (the 2005 Patriots) and it is going to be very tricky for the Ravens to pull that off. Ray Lewis has retired, and even with his diminishing performances, he was a presence in that locker room in every sense of the word. Also gone are veterans like Anquan Boldin and Ed Reed, while tight end Dennis Pitta is out for the year with injury.
The Ravens have added the likes of Dallas Clark and Brandon Stokley to bring some experience in but their roster just looks odd without those familiar names.
Joe Flacco, on the the back of his Super Bowl winning season, got a massive new deal in the off season but we still don't rank him with the very best in the game. As always, trying to beat the Steelers will be key to how they fare.
Verdict: They should have enough to make the play-offs if all goes well, but we can't see them going much further. And if injuries start to stack up, and the old deer antler spray runs out, their final run of games (Steelers, Vikings, Lions, Patriots, Bengals) could be enough to bump them out of the post season.
Buffalo Bills
Last Season: A disappointing season for the Bills ended with a 6-10 record and was added to by the fact that they broke the bank on getting Mario Williams in, who had a similarly poor year at first. He came good in the second half, but their tough division and a difficult schedule made for a year to forget for the boys from Buffalo.
This Season: They've got a new head coach in Doug Marrone, and Ryan Fitzpatrick isn't there anymore after he refused a new (reduced) contract with the franchise. It will be interesting to watch rookie E.J. Manuel at QB this year, as he might offer a threat with his rushing yards as well as from passing.
However, it looks like there are already problems there, with Manuel pulling out of the third preseason game with a knee injury and significant swelling, with it being revealed later that he'd need surgery. All of that means Kevin Kolb will more than likely be in for the first games of the real season, and it would certainly not be the Bills preferred line up, considering Kolb lost the starting slot to John Skelton at Arizona.
In terms of the weapons at the disposal of whoever the QB ends up being, Stevie Johnson is still a solid receiver and will be a great outlet for passes. He should probably still get at least 1000 yards this year, and maybe even come close to ten touchdowns, but we're not predicting a record breaking season.
CJ Spiller will be getting a lot of the the ball, and the majority of the time we think. For fantasy heads he's a pretty certain first round draft pick. They also have a great weapon in Fred Jackson too, so they'll look to relieve pressure on the rookie QB Manuel (the clear number one when healthy) by running the ball quite a bit.
On the other side of the ball, linebacker Kiko Alonso is going to be a big player even though he's only a rookie, they snapped him up in the second round of the draft and have high hopes for him. He will play most of the snaps we imagine. Mario Williams will also be hoping for a much improved season now that he's no longer bothered by a wrist injury.
In preseason so far though, they have been good, and beat the Indianapolis Colts 44-20 in an impressive display. That said, you can't read too much into preseason results, but it was certainly a great start, and was followed up by another win against the Vikings. Their next game against the Redskins on August 24th may well be a more telling test.
Verdict: This season it just seems so unlikely that they can improve on last year's 6-10 with so many new faces all over the field. Their schedule is also pretty ghastly, having to face the Pats, Ravens and Panthers in the first four weeks. If you're a Bills fan, maybe write this season off as a learning curve, and focus on building for the future.
