2009 Sleeper Report

The Bronco Blog was started a year ago at this time. My first post talked about some of the sleepers for the upcoming NFL season. I figured this would be a good time to throw out the 2009 "Sleeper Teams" as we are about a month away from the start of training camps. There is a certain formula/criteria to follow when looking at possible sleepers. Here is the criteria:

1) The team must have finished with at least 10 losses the prior season. There can be some exceptions if a team finished at 7-9 or 8-8. For example, the Broncos could be in the sleeper category because they finished 8-8, but fired their legendary Head Coach, hired a first time, 34 year old HC, and traded their franchise, Pro Bowl QB. There's not a lot of hope right now in Denver for '09. Although they finished 8-8, the Texans fall into this category as well. Overall, a true sleeper usually comes from the group of teams that had 10 or more losses.

2) The team had a bad record the year before based on bad luck, injuries and close losses. Sometimes a team just gets decimated by injuries, and the season sprials out of control ('08 Seahawks). Sometimes a team just loses a bunch of heartwrenching games and their season can't be saved ('08 Packers). Sometimes a team's season get derailed by a lingering player controversy or off the field situations, and it hangs over the team like a dark cloud all year long ('07 Falcons). These teams can bounce back rather quickly and put together a successful next season.

3) The team gets a new QB, new Coach, or new Management. A team can become a sleeper if they all of sudden get great QB play, or a new coach that guides them to a few wins or if they make better management decisions in personell. The Falcons, Ravens, and Dolphins are all examples of this in 2008.

4) The team gets no respect from the media, analysts, and general football community. This might be one of the underrated aspects of the possible sleeper. The team that flys under the radar can turn into one of the season's biggest surprises. Nobody saw Miami going from 1-15 in'07 to 11-5 in '08. It happens everyyear, and one team always uses the no respect angle as their war cry throughout the season and it usually pays off for one sleeper team every year.

Next time we will take a look at all the 2009 Sleeper Candidates.