AFC Offensive Rankings

#1 - Steelers I'm crowning the Pittsburgh Steelers the number 1 offense in the AFC. They have a Quarterback who has been there, seen it, done it and got a couple of rings to prove it. They then have arguably the league's best receiver in Antonio Brown and arguably the best running back in the league in Le’Veon Bell (for how long, remains to be seen). To go along with the three Killer B’s, Pittsburgh also has a premier offensive line which fields three Pro Bowl calibre players, in David DeCastro, Maurkice Pouncey and Alejandro Villanueva. Filling out the skill positions are Jesse James and Vance McDonald at Tight End and young talents such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington and James Conner at receiver and running back, all of which are very useful players. Expect thus offence to be explosive again in 2018.

#2 - Patriots Whilst Brady, Belichick and Gronk all reside in New England, the Patriots are going to have one of the top offenses in the AFC, that's just how it works. Josh McDaniels also stayed in town too, which means that there's a continuation of system on the offensive side of the ball, which is a real boon considering how close he was to becoming the Head Coach of the Colts. New England have a deep stable of running backs which McDaniels can roll out depending on the down and distance. Flexibility really is the key for the Patriots, as they have a similar situation when it comes to their wide receivers; there's no real single outstanding player but almost everyone who will make the final 53 man roster has a different skill set. Brady’s ultra quick release also masks the fact that the Patriots never have a great offensive line. They're going to be major players in a weak division, yet again. #3 - Chargers

The Chargers are another team who, on paper, have a pretty complete offense. Veteran QB? Check. Elite wide receiver? Check. 1,000 yard Running Back? Check. Had Hunter Henry not torn an ACL, it could have been a full house for top players at each of the skill positions on this side of the ball. Mike and Tyrell Williams, along with Travis Benjamin, should be able to pick up the slack in Henry’s absence, nonetheless. Outside of the skill positions, the offensive line has a really good blend of youth and experience. Mike Pouncey’s arrival to play at the pivot will be a big boost for young guards, Dan Feeney and Forrest Lamp and the trio should form a formidable group on the interior of the line. Russell Okung is a Pro Bowl blindside protector, too; a valuable commodity which many teams cannot boast. #4 - Chiefs Can Patrick Mahomes hit the ground running in his first full season as starter? That's the biggest question hanging over the Kansas City offense. If he does, then I would expect this Chiefs to tick over and score points on a regular basis. They had Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt and they've added Sammy Watkins and also have Spencer Ware coming back from injury. Travis Kelce will once again be one of the best tight ends in the NFL - he hates being called, “Baby Gronk” but since Kelce has only missed 1 game in 4 years, when do we start to ask if he's a better option than Gronk? There's no question who sees the field more often. The offensive line isn't fantastic but it's also not a group that will let you down. The X-factor is also that they have one of the best regular season coaches of all time steering the ship in Andy Reid, that's worth a few wins alone. #5 - Titans A few years ago, most fans would have struggled to name five players on the Titans roster but in the last few years General Manager, Jon Robinson has gone about building a young and exciting offence. Marcus Mariota needs to take a step forward after a generally disappointing year but now that Ex-Rams OC, Matt LaFleur is running the offense, I fully expect him to make a leap. The same should ring true for second year wideout, Corey Davis, who needs to show everyone why he was drafted 5th overall. Rounding out the skill positions are Derrick Henry, who will be the early down back, joined by Dion Lewis in the back field and one of the league's most underrated tight ends and maybe players in general, Delanie Walker. Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin are a brilliant pair of young, bookend tackles who, like most of the pieces on the offense, are coming into their primes either now or in the next year or two. I expect this offense to be fun to watch in 2018 and I think the Titans will be back in the postseason and looking to progress further than the divisional round. #6 - Browns I suspect some people will be reading this and thinking that I'm crazy and that this is way too high. My reply to anyone who thinks that is look at the Browns depth chart; now forget that it says, “Cleveland Browns” and ask yourself if this is too high again. Everyone loves to put the Browns down but John Dorsey has made some great moves since coming into his role and this offense is ready to go. Baker Mayfield will appear at some point and Tyrod Taylor is a solid option until then. Carlos Hyde, Nick Chubb and Duke Johnson offer a diverse range of skills out of the backfield. David Njoku could grow into one of the better tight ends in the league. To cap it all off Josh Gordon, Corey Coleman and Jarvis Landry is better than most WR trios throughout the league. Todd Haley comes over from Pittsburgh to call the plays too… I think that the Factory of Sadness is going to have to be renamed, folks. #7 - Texans From this point onwards the offenses become a little rocky. The Texans have what looks like a really up and down group. The line is bad, like really bad, to start with, then out wide Houston has one of the NFL’s premier pass catchers in DeAndre Hopkins. Throwing the ball to him is one of the league's most exciting young quarterbacks, DeShaun Watson. The other starting receiver, Will Fuller, typifies the inconsistent nature of the offense; fantastic one play, terrible the next. Lamar Miller and D’onta Foreman offer a serviceable tandem but then there isn't much to speak of at tight end. Weird group overall. They could be really great if they add a player here or there or Watson could crumble having to play behind that line, it could really go either way. #8 - Jaguars So the Jags formula is pretty plain for all to see; play amazing defense and hand the ball off to Leonard Fournette. Blake Bortles isn't going to beat many teams through the air but he can be a reasonable “point guard” kind of quarterback, as long as you're not asking too much of him in the passing game and just needs to do enough to keep a defense honest. Fournette is going to be the star of the show, especially since the wide receiver corp isn't as good as last year due to the departures off Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns. The problem lies in that this is the same formula that the Jags tried to use last year, although coming one or two plays away from a Super Bowl, who am I to argue? However, Fournette faced a lot of loaded boxes and minus a few big runs, had a below average yards per carry total. Same opposition game plan, I'd imagine. So, what have the Jags done about it? Signed Andrew Norwell to a big ‘ole contract to give Fournette a few more running lanes… get him in your fantasy teams people, he is the offense. #9 - Broncos Which Case Keenum are Denver going to get? After the Broncos missed out on Kirk Cousins, they landed Keenum, who was excellent last season in Minnesota. Prior to that however, he's been a journeyman, unable to hold down a starting gig for any length of time. Keenum will have an average line protecting him and no stand out tight end but the wide receiver group is 5 deep and pretty talented. Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders are a tried and tested duo, then behind them are second year pro, Carlos Henderson will be hoping to make an impact after injury curtailed his rookie year. Rounding out the group are Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton, this year's second and fourth round picks. They will be looking to develop behind the two veterans and eventually take their jobs. Rookie running back, Royce Freeman will be looking to win the starting job his first year now that it's up for grabs after C.J. Anderson left town. Freeman has chosen to west #37, so let's see of he can overcome that choice first... #10 - Dolphins After a year of Jay Cutler, Ryan Tennehill returns for the Dolphins but in the time he's been out with injury, lots has changed on offense in South Beach. Whilst Laremy Tunsil and Ja’Wuan James are on the offensive line, Daniel Kilgore, Josh Sitton and Jesse Davis are all new faces, even Tunsil is in a new position. Even so, on paper this looks like an above average line to protect the returning QB. Hoping to line the gaps are ageless wonder, Frank Gore, rookie Kalen Ballage and the returning Kenyan Drake. No real standout player, but not terrible either. Mike Gesicki adds an athletic dimension to Clyde Christiansen’s offence that we haven't seen before and it'll be interesting to see how he's used. However it would be bucking the trend to see big production out of a rookie tight end. With regards to the other pass catchers, DeVante Parker is still looking to get his career off the ground, Danny Amendola will be trying to show he can do it without Tom Brady throwing it to him and Kenny Stills will be trying to catch the deep balls. Again, like a lot of this Miami offense, not terrible… but not great either. #11 - Raiders Looking at the recruitment in Oakland, I'd guess that Jon Gruden must have won the fantasy league he had with his buddies in 2015 and now he's going about recreating his winning roster. Doug Martin, Jordy Nelson and Marshawn Lynch are all in Oakland nowadays, but does that translate into wins in 2018? That remains to be seen. Amari Cooper had a down year and will be hoping to bounce back and hit the heights of 2016 and start to live up to his draft position in the long term. The offensive line is good for the Silver & Black with a very solid interior. They will also be hoping that their investment in drafting Kolton Miller as highly as they did will pay off and elevate the Raiders to have one of the best lines in the league.

Derek Carr is another guy on the offense who will be hoping for an uptick in play after a down year. As you can tell there's a lot of ifs surrounding the Raiders offense… and they have a coach who has been out of the league for 10 years. #12 - Bengals The Bengals are another team who have a few nice pieces but they are having trouble putting it all together due to limitations that they have a certain positions. The offensive line has had big issues for a while but they're hoping that the acquisitions of Billy Price and Cordy Glenn will sure that area up. Another position with a question mark hanging over it for the Bengals is quarterback. A pretty important area. Andy Dalton is surely on his last chance in Cincinnati? If Dalton fails again this season, the Bengals risk wasting the career of one of the game's premier wide receivers in A.J. Green. Speaking of wide receivers, the Bengals will be hoping that Tyler Boyd can take a leap forward and John Ross can stay healthy and get out of the dog house in 2018 and to take some attention away from Green. Speaking of staying healthy, can Tyler Eifert play 16 games? If he can then he's a top 5 tight end. However, the talent in the running back stable is a real positive for the Bengals. Joe Mixon is really talented, Gio Bernard is a good receiving back and I really like Mark Walton out of Miami. #13 - Ravens The Ravens are beginning a huge transition on offense. They traded up to grab Lamar Jackson at the back of the first round who is the future under center in Baltimore. The issue is that the team's loyalty to Joe Flacco means that the won't start Jackson immediately which will slow the process down. The signing of Robert Griffin III cemented that thinking in the sense that he's similar in style to Jackson opposed to Flacco. Alex Collins will be hoping to lock down his position as the premier back and I feel he has a good chance of doing so. When we look at Baltimore's wide receivers, I'm not a huge fan, it's a little bit of a patchwork quilt. Willie Snead, Michael Crabtree and John Brown all came over this off season so have to build chemistry with Flacco and Jackson from the ground up. Can Breshad Perriman get healthy? Another question is, can either of the rookie tight ends have an impact in year 1? On a positive note, the line looks good. Yep, that's all I've got. #14 - Colts Is Andrew Luck going to start week 1? How healthy is his shoulder? If not, can Jacoby Brissett step in again and play better than he did last year? All big questions hanging over the quarterback position for the Colts. If Andrew Luck is back to his best, then great! He will elevate the play of those around him and Indy may have a chance to be semi-competitive. The problem comes when we look at the talent around a healthy Andrew Luck. Outside of T.Y. Hilton, the pass catching group has a lot to prove; Ryan Grant would be WR3 or WR4 for other teams and the other receivers are guys most would never have heard of. Eric Ebron comes in from Detroit with a lot to prove too but he's a player who could be a great pick up for Indy if he plays up to his potential. Quenton Nelson is a big boost for an offensive line which has been poor for a while and they'll be hoping Jack Mewhort can stay healthy at the other guard position, ditto Ryan Kelly. A lot of ifs again for this team.

#15 - Jets We're really starting to scrape the barrel now. At QB, it is Teddy Bridgewater who is hoping to rebuild his career after his devastating knee injury or promising rookie, Sam Darnold, who has lots of potential but also needs to work on his ball security issues that troubled him in this college career. The Jets best wide receiver is Robby Anderson, who whilst talented, has trouble with the law. Quincy Enunwa is ok but a little bit like Ryan Grant with the Colts, wouldn't be WR2 on most other teams. The line has problems from a talent stand point, which isn't ideal when you'll be fielding either a QB coming back from a major injury or a guy who fumbled a lot in college. The running back pairing of Isaiah Crowell and Bilal Powell is the biggest positive to speak of for the Jets and they're still not guys who knock your socks off when looking at them from a talent prospective. Says a lot that this team isn't ranked 16th in the conference. (Sorry Bills fans). #16 - Bills The Bills have Shady McCoy! Now the good stuff is out of the way, here's the bad news. Their QB stable is made up of rookie Josh Allen, A.J. McCarron and Nathan Peterman and reports are stating that it's actually Peterman who looked the best in mini camp. That Nathan Peterman..? Yes. The one who threw..? Yes. That guy. At wide receiver it's Zay Jones, who will be looking to overcome the case of the dropsies that plagued his rookie year and Kelvin Benjamin, who will be looking to turn his career round after being overweight and traded out of Carolina. Charles Clay is reliable at tight end but isn't the kind of player to build a passing attack around. The offensive line three starters from last season in Eric Wood, Richie Incognito and Cordy Glenn, so the Bills need to have some people step up and play to a high level. McCoy is already going to be facing loaded boxes so if the line can't open up many running lanes it's going to be slow going in Western New York.