During the off-season, fans of every team like to claim they got so much better. Even though teams have Minicamp and OTAs, we really don’t get a good look on how good teams are until training camp. Let’s look at the top 5 teams who have improvedd so far during training camp!
5. Chicago Bears
Mitch Trubisky did alright last year. In camp this year, he’s already shown how much he’s improved. Last year, the Bears weapons were dreadful. They signed Allen Robson and Taylor Gabriel, and drafted Anthony Miller to fix that. In camp, you can tell how much this offense has improved. With Trubisky getting new weapons, this offense is on the come up. Jordan Howard-who’s completely underrated-has been doing really good as well. Bears might not be “there” yet, but they are going in the right direction.
4. Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens went 9-7 last year, and had one of, if not , the WORST targets on offense. It was bad. Their wide receivers were Mike Wallace, Jeremy Maclin, and Bershad Perriman. None of them could get the job done. Thank God they had Alex Collins, or else their offense would of just been the worst. Ravens made sure to fix their wide receiver issue by signing Michael Crabtree, Josh Brown, and Willie Snead. While none of them are great targets, they are much improved from what they had last year. Ravens drafted 2 rookie tight ends, and it’s important to note that Flacco likes his tight ends. The Ravens offense has already shown tremendous growth during camp. It’ll be interesting to see what Flacco can do with half decent wide receiver core this year.
3: New York Jets
The Jets are far from being where they need to be, but they’re heading in the right direction. Sam Darnold has been playing great. He’s shown off his Accuracy, timing, and knowledge. He might even start week 1. 4th round tight end Chris Henderson has been a camp MVP. He’s been making plays all over the field. If he can stay on the field, he’ll be a great tight end one day. 6th round running back Trenton Cannon has also been showing out. He’s been a “do it all back” so far. While the Jets still need a couple years to get to an elite level, this training camp, they have shown that they are on the right track.
2: Cincinnati Bengals
Bengals is a team that is a bit under the radar. There offense was dead last in the NFL last year. Well, in the off-season they revamped their line, and it’s obvious of how much the line has improved. Cordy Glenn has already shown he’s much better than last years starting left tackle Cedric Ogbuehi. They got a new center in round 1 of the NFL draft with Billy Price, and he’s already been an upgrade of former center Russell Bodine. Heck, Bobby Hart is their new starting right tackle, and that’s an improvement from last year. Also there targets have improved. Throughout training camp, there’s been multiple reports that young receivers such as John Ross and Josh Malone have improve tremendously. So when the Bengals released Brandon LaFell, that showed that the Bengals have faith in them.
1: Indianapolis Colts
After a long, long, wait, the Colts finally got their golden QB back. While Luck is yet to get back to his prime status, the Colts offense has already improved. They also revamped their line, which won’t only help Luck, but will also help dynamic back Marlon Mack. TY Hilton will also have an even bigger role with Luck back. So even though the Colts are still a ways off, they have improved the offense tremendously.