To get a sense of where it’s at in pro football today, one merely has to go to the people – more specifically, the shirts on their backs. There are Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez, LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates. If you look carefully, you can even spot Rod Smith and, in a blast from the past, Clinton Portis.
And of course, there’s Randy Moss. Somehow, some way, there’s always Randy Moss.
The common thread? They’re all offensive players, like the top 15 best-selling NFL jerseys, paced by the Oakland Raiders’ new wide receiver. The numerous 19s and 21s and 80s confirm what the league’s competition committee, television executives and the most casual fan have known for a while now: Everybody – boys, girls and Joe Six-pack, too – digs the big play.
“Offense is what puts people in the stands – take a peek outside, look how many offensive jerseys all the fans are wearing,” San Diego Chargers linebacker Donnie Edwards said. “It’s all offense, unless you’re somewhere where they don’t have any good offensive players.
“It’s all about offense – offense, offense, offense. Fantasy football is all about offense. That’s the way the league is. So be it. I’m happy to be a part of it. No problem. We’re just here to stop it.”
Which brings us to the AFC West. It’s a division that has led the NFL in scoring two of the past three seasons, with more points than any other over that span. Its four teams consistently have set the pace in team and individual offensive categories, and now it somehow has gotten better.
Heading into this season, the record of 522 points, set by the Indianapolis Colts just a year ago, may be in danger – from each member of the wild, wild, West.
“It could be lights out, throwing the ball all around the field and running all over the place,” Chargers quarterback Drew Brees said. “You look around, and as an offense you say, ‘Hey, we’re trying to score 30-plus points a game.’ That’s your attitude. That’s what we think. We know Kansas City is thinking that, we know Denver is thinking that when it steps on the field. We know Oakland is thinking that.”
A buzz in the air
It is something of a minor miracle, that the Chargers, coached by defensive curmudgeon Marty Schottenheimer, are partial to that type of thinking. Until he went conservative in the waning stages of the postseason, possibly costing San Diego a victory over the Jets in an AFC wild-card game, one of the more enduring story lines of the 2004 season was the Chargers’ conversion from Martyball, a plodding, Woody Hayes-like 3-yards-and-cloud-of-dust approach, to a high- tech attack featuring Brees, Tomlinson and Gates.
“I think there’s some truth to that,” Schotten- heimer said of his newfound love of offense. “It’s still a game of giveaway/takeaway, but you have to be able to adapt to things. You have to be able to change.”
Clearly, if Schottenheimer can do it, anyone can – and has. And despite Edwards’ whistling in the dark, there may be very little to stop them.
“I’m sure there must be other divisions that could justifiably say that every team had a great offense, but I don’t know who,” San Diego offensive lineman Roman Oben said.
Of course, much of the offseason buzz was generated by Moss, who certainly has the numbers to fit in this or any other offensive-minded group. In seven NFL seasons, only once has Moss gained fewer than 1,200 receiving yards or scored fewer than 10 touchdowns.
Moss will be paired on the outside with holdover Jerry Porter – who has scored only 19 touchdowns in the past three seasons. Another newcomer, running back LaMont Jordan, is expected to give Oakland the sort of balance that may result in defenders flinching at the slightest movement and mumbling to themselves in darkened corners.
“A lot of changes have been made that we have to get used to,” Raiders defensive back Nnamdi Asomugha said. “But we really made some changes everyone else has to get used to. It just seems like every game is going to be a shootout.”
As the offensive coordinator with Dallas during the early 1990s, Raiders coach Norv Turner directed an attack that featured all-time greats Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin. But in trying to find a comparison to this year’s Raiders team, he chooses to go back to his first job as a head coach, with the 1999 Washington Redskins.
That team, he points out, had two 1,000-yard receivers (former University of Colorado star Michael Westbrook and Albert Connell), a 1,400-yard rusher (Stephen Davis) and a 4,000-yard passer (Brad Johnson). The Redskins were second in the NFL in scoring, won the NFC East title and advanced to the conference semifinals.
After 4-12 and 5-11 finishes the past two seasons, Oakland probably would be happy with those results, not to mention the two Super Bowls Turner won with the Cowboys. Given the Raiders’ recent records, some fans are wondering what can go wrong this year. An early indication could be whether there are enough footballs to keep everyone involved and happy.
But Turner chuckles at the idea.
“We have a system that allows everyone to be involved,” he said. “We’ve proven in the past that we can run the football when we have a good runner, and I think we’ve shown that we can be explosive in the pass. We just have to keep getting better in all the things we’re doing.”
Countering the attacks
There are forces at work conspiring to repel the division’s offensive onslaught. The Chiefs spent their offseason concentrating on defense, just as the Broncos used their first three choices in last spring’s draft on cornerbacks. The Chargers used two first-round picks on defenders.
In the wake of Moss and Jordan, few may have noticed that Oakland also picked up defensive end Derrick Burgess from the Philadelphia Eagles. After making six sacks in his 2001 rookie season, Burgess had fallen to just 2.5 last year. If that figure doesn’t rise this year, it certainly won’t be for lack of chances.
“All those high-powered offenses just means more opportunities to get sacks,” he said. “That’s just how I look at it – more opportunities to get after the quarterback.”
Of course, as Kansas City has famously discovered in recent years, having a great offense doesn’t mean anything unless you win – which may be a problem for each of the division’s teams. Besides the West’s best beating each other up twice a year, the league’s schedule makers have thrown them a decidedly wicked twist. Each AFC West team also must face the two-time defending champion New England Patriots as well as the Eagles, the defending NFC champions.
“Our first four games, we’re playing three playoff teams, two in prime time, nationally televised away games. That’s a lot to ask,” Chiefs president and general manager Carl Peterson said of an opening slate that includes the Jets, Raiders, Broncos and Eagles. “The league called and asked if we were OK with it. I said I wasn’t, but I knew they weren’t going to do anything about it anyway.”
Besides, in the NFL, the only thing that matters is the bottom line. And so, despite a year in which quantum physicists could work overtime with all the numbers that may be produced, others worry that, after all the interdivision battles are waged, the season will come down to the loneliest digit of all.
“You just hope,” Oben says, “that it’s not one of those situations where everybody’s 9-7 at the end of the year and only one team goes to the playoffs.”
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
