Best Offensive Players in the NFL- NFC North and NFC South

On Derby's behalf, here's a continuation of his series looking at the best offensive players for each NFL team:

Best Offensive Players In The NFL- NFC North and South
In this series of articles, I will be looking at who I believe to be the best Offensive players for each team in the NFL.

This time it’s a look at the NFC North and NFC South, both of which have a pretty good chance that at least two of their teams will reach the post season..

NFC North
Chicago Bears- Matt Forte, RB
Forte has started for the Bears since being taken in 2008, he has established himself as their main offensive threat even with a poor Offensive line Forte has rushed for 1,000+ yards twice, falling just 3 yards short in 2011 and 71 yards short in 2009. Forte is also a threat in the passing game averaging just under 500 yards a season, but arguably he doesn’t get enough touchdowns with 21 rushing and 8 receiving touchdowns.

Detroit Lions- Calvin Johnson, WR
Since being taken 2nd overall in 2007 Johnson has gone on to make himself known as one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. With 3 1,000+ yards season and falling just short in 2009, where he probably would have reached 1,000 yards with a full season, and 3 seasons with double digit touchdowns. Even though Johnson has to be planned for specifically by opposing defences, it’s hard to stop him as due to his height he can always challenge for the ball, even sometimes beating triple coverage. With Stafford finally healthy in 2011 Johnson set the league alight with a league leading 1,681 yards and 16 touchdowns. His value for the franchise is shown in the massive $132 million 7-year contract extension he recently signed.

Article continues here: http://www.v2journal.com/best-offensive-players-in-the-nfl--nfc-north-and-south.html

Couldn't agree more with the choice for the Bucs. Nicks will be an absolute gamechanger

Nicks is built like a brick house. Absolute bull. Certainly the best, but not the most important. Buc Nation need J5 and Vjax to step it up

Was there not an issue recently with Forte's knees? Or did I imagine that...

only real disagreement is with Roddy White and you could maybe even argue Steve Smith... not really against either though

For the Falcons i'm not sure who else, but with Julio Jones doing pretty well for a rookie I'm not sure White holds the importance that other #1 WRs do on other teams. However I would not be pitching Matt Ryan in as the top dog either!

Wonder if Steve Smith is already outdone by (sacrilege) Cam Newton... then again he was only a superhero because of having an intelligent receiver like Smith... Ryan Kalil anyone?

Skyforger wrote:Was there not an issue recently with Forte's knees? Or did I imagine that...

He did miss 4 games which I think may have been due to a torn ligament but I forgot about that.

crazy_dave23 wrote:only real disagreement is with Roddy White and you could maybe even argue Steve Smith... not really against either though

For the Falcons i'm not sure who else, but with Julio Jones doing pretty well for a rookie I'm not sure White holds the importance that other #1 WRs do on other teams. However I would not be pitching Matt Ryan in as the top dog either!

Wonder if Steve Smith is already outdone by (sacrilege) Cam Newton... then again he was only a superhero because of having an intelligent receiver like Smith... Ryan Kalil anyone?

Well technically its the best players so Jones' presence affecting his importance to the offense doesn't make him a worse player, but should really mean an improvement in his stats.

Well I didnt really want to put people with just a year in the league on the list (AJ Green is an excetion) so Steve Smith beat out Newton, as though Newton helped with a big improvement in Smiths play I dont believe Cams season would have been as good without Smith as like I mentioned in the article on a number of touchdowns he was able to come back to catch an underthrown ball due to how much separation he had gained. Ryan Kalil would have been a good shout but his name never came to mind so I didnt look for his stats before losing the internet.

Thomond wrote:Nicks is built like a brick house. Absolute bull. Certainly the best, but not the most important. Buc Nation need J5 and Vjax to step it up

'Fraid I'm going to disagree with you there, I think Nicks is the most important Bucs' offensive player this season. We are built in 2012 to be primarily a running team. We have four running backs who I believe will all get plenty of touches (Madu was looking to be the forgotten man, but Freeman has been singing his praises all offseason so I reckon he's due in for a lot of scatback duty), and Schiano's said right from day one that the outline for the team is to pound pound pound to set up the play-action. I've explained before my opinion of how much of a liability Penn is in the running game, and Zuttah is still a questionmark as a full-time center, so the entire left side of the line will rest on Nicks' more than capable shoulders. No Nicks, the run game dies very, very quickly. We all saw how Freeman responded to having no run game to support him in 2011 - Free will be fine in the long term, if he builds his confidence up. 2012 will be the season that, I reckon, will define his career. If he gets a run game to support him, his confidence will build, and from 2013 onwards, he could easily become the type of quarterback who will be able to put the whole team on his back without needing to rely on a run game. If he has a bad year this year, though, that might be the end of him as a starting QB, and he becomes a career backup, I'm afraid. Without the run game, Freeman is ruined for good. Without Nicks, there is no run game. So, yeah, I'd argue Nicks is the most important man on the Bucs' roster right now.

I actually think a lot of what Schiano has said about the running game is a smoke screen. I expectt the Bucs to pass and pass regularly. I doubt Madu gets much time, Freeman just trying to be a good PR guy in OTAs.

Thomond wrote:I actually think a lot of what Schiano has said about the running game is a smoke screen. I expectt the Bucs to pass and pass regularly. I doubt Madu gets much time, Freeman just trying to be a good PR guy in OTAs.

Doesn't seem like a very good smoke screen to me, as I'm pretty sure most teams would have been expecting the run first offense as wasn't that how he ran the Rutgers offense? Plus how many teams is it really going to fool the first few in preseason and maybe the first couple of regular season opponents at best. Have to agree with Gur on how important Nicks will be, though dont think you can really say that its Freemans last chance to be the starting quarterback.

Nicks is our best player no question, I said he isn't our most important, but he is a big deal. There's a difference. If Freeman can't win with the guys he has this year then he should go. 8-8 is what the Bucs are capable of.

Derbyblue wrote:

Thomond wrote:I actually think a lot of what Schiano has said about the running game is a smoke screen. I expectt the Bucs to pass and pass regularly. I doubt Madu gets much time, Freeman just trying to be a good PR guy in OTAs.

Doesn't seem like a very good smoke screen to me, as I'm pretty sure most teams would have been expecting the run first offense as wasn't that how he ran the Rutgers offense? Plus how many teams is it really going to fool the first few in preseason and maybe the first couple of regular season opponents at best. Have to agree with Gur on how important Nicks will be, though dont think you can really say that its Freemans last chance to be the starting quarterback.

Yeah, I might have overstated that a tad... but I do think that if he doesn't get it done, 2012 will be his last season as an uncontested starter - if he has a bad season this year, I fully expect the Bucs to sign a veteran QB and have a genuine, wide-open battle for the QB1 spot for 2013. Of course, if he gets it together in 2012, he'll have a contract extension by this time next year. Still, I think the run game will be the key to Freeman's success - at the Wembley game last year, you could see how lost Freeman became once Graham went down; it wasn't until I saw it with my own eyes that I realised that Freeman is not yet a quarterback who can win without a run-game to support him.

EDIT: I should mention that I 100% believe Freeman will be better this year even than he was in 2010 (in terms of decision making rather than statline - in 2010, he should have had quite a few more interceptions but he got lucky with drops by DBs), I'm just being realistic as to what will happen IF (and it's a huge if IMO) he has another bad season this year.

I should also add that, as much as Sullivan has a good resume behind him, remember that in his first season as Eli's QB coach, Eli did lead the league in picks that year...