This summer, NFL Nation reporters are answering the biggest questions for every team in divisional roundtables.
Monday’s question: Who will be the best newcomer?
Tuesday’s question: Who’s the rising star in each division?
Wednesday’s question: Who is on the hottest seat in the division?
New York Jets coach Todd Bowles is the unanimous winner here. Bowles has lost all momentum since winning 10 games in his first season. Bowles was 5-11 last year and has zero playoff appearances. Read more
A couple of coaches come to mind in this division. Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is in the final year of his contract. He’s coming off a 6-9-1 season. And he hasn’t won a playoff game in his 14 years in Cincinnati. Hue Jackson also may be in trouble with the Cleveland Browns. Read more
It comes down to a coach and a quarterback. Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano has a 49-31 regular-season record in five seasons, but the Colts failed to make the playoffs the past two years. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles also enters a make-or-break season. Read more
Alex Smith (11) remains the starter, but first-round pick Patrick Mahomes II (15) is looming over his shoulder. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
There are a variety of choices in this division, from quarterbacks Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins to coaches Jay Gruden of the Redskins and Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles. Read more
Chicago Bears coach John Fox is one of a few coaches in the division who may be in trouble. Fox is 9-23 after two seasons in Chicago, and he has finished last in the division both years. Read more
Sean Payton helped the Saints win a Super Bowl eight seasons ago; now he’s on the hot seat. Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports
The answer here has to be Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead. The Rams have finished no better than 7-8-1 and as bad as 4-12 during his tenure. He’s in Los Angeles. He has a new coach. He has a top pick as his quarterback. Do the math and it adds up to a very hot seat. Read more
ASHBURN, Va. — Shortly after receiving his new dumbbell set, Washington Redskins running back Samaje Perine, then around 12-years-old, realized it wasn’t enough. He needed more weight. But rather than ask his mom for a new set, he found bricks, duct-taped them to the dumbbells and proceeded with his workouts.
And a legend was born. Sort of. His ingenuity, and love of working out, placed him on a path to the NFL. It helped him top Adrian Peterson in one area, lifting a car and becoming an almost mythical figure in the Oklahoma Sooners weight room. One story toppled another.
Even now, his mother shrugs her shoulders at the memory of his first dumbbell set.
“All he had to do was ask for a new set, and we would have gotten him more,” his mother, Gloria Perine said.
That strength is one reason why he was good enough that Washington drafted him in the fourth round. It helped him rush for an NCAA-record 427 yards in one game as a freshman. It broke the spirit of defenders throughout his college tenure.
“I remember defensive backs checking out of the game like, ‘I’m done tackling this guy,'” said Oklahoma’s Jerry Schmidt, the Sooners’ strength coach whose official title is director of sports enhancement.
Here are tales about Perine’s feats of strength:
Lifting cars: Late one night in the summer of 2015, Perine noticed a woman with a flat tire in the parking lot of the Bud Wilkinson House on Oklahoma’s campus. She didn’t have a car jack.
“So I just helped her out,” he said.
By lifting the car so the back left tire could be changed. Perine’s mom said he would only laugh when she asked him about it, not knowing if it was myth or real. But it was real. Perine sort of shrugged it off by pointing out it was “a pretty small car. A Smart Car.” They weigh 1,500 pounds.
“If you lift one side, the whole side is coming up,” he said. “It was kind of heavy … I mean, I wouldn’t say it was easy. It’s still a car.”
Perine said he was alone, but Oklahoma running back Daniel Brooks once told Soonersports.com that he saw what happened. Brooks added to the myth when he told the website, “He was curling the car, too, I think.”
Perine laughs.
“That part is made up,” he said.
Balcony pull-ups: At their two-story house in Pflugerville, Texas, Perine, sometime around his freshman year of high school, found another way to work out. He did pull-ups on their second-floor balcony.
“Which freaked me out,” Gloria Perine said. “He would hang up there and do pull-ups, which was pretty scary.”
The rails on the balcony did not go all the way down to the floor, leaving a gap so Perine could hang off the balcony with his hands on the floor and pull himself up.
The only thing between Perine and the ground: a flower bed.
Did he ever fall?
“Not that I know of,” she said.
Deck of card workouts: Before heading home for a break during his sophomore year, Perine asked an Oklahoma assistant strength coach for a strenuous workout he could do at home. So the assistant, Mahala Wiggins, suggested using a deck of cards.
Every card was assigned a point value. In Perine’s workouts, a king, for example, would be worth 25. Whatever card he pulled, that’s how many sit-ups or push-ups he’d do. In his numbering system, a deck would equate to 792 reps. He’d finish an entire deck — for both sit-ups and push-ups. Now that he’s away from the Redskins facility, Perine said he’d resume these workouts.
“I always work out when I go home,” he said. “I’m never the type to sit down and chill out too long. I have to keep moving do something else or I get bored. I eat too much just to be bored so I find a way to work out.”
Stronger than Adrian Peterson: The one-time Sooner great, and future NFL Hall of Famer, was known for his strength as well. Schmidt said Peterson’s bench was around 390 or 400 pounds. Schmidt said Perine’s max bench was 440 pounds. That’s like benching an average-sized piano — with a small child sitting on it.
Of course, the 217-pound Peterson ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds at the combine, broad-jumped 10 feet, seven inches and had a vertical leap of 38.5 inches. Perine ran a 4.65; had a vertical of 33 inches and a broad jump of 9-feet, eight inches. But at 238 pounds, those are still solid numbers.
“The way Samaje explodes and his low center of gravity … that’s what makes him,” Schmidt said. “His legs are the size of tree trunks. AD would run higher, but he’s faster.
“Samaje is so explosive, and Adrian was the same way. There’s a 20-pound weight difference, but the amount of explosion and the amount of power these guys have is ridiculous.”
But Perine said, “AP’s in a whole other league.”
Still, Schmidt said some linemen can bench what Perine does, but they can’t match his squat (540) or power clean (380). Perine said he once squatted 600 pounds in high school.
“No one was lifting more [at Oklahoma],” Schmidt said. “It wasn’t even close.”
Sometimes, when Perine would get in position to lift the amount of weights coaches had placed on the bar, he’d shoot a glance at the strength coaches.
“The main thing is just the look you get from him like, ‘Is this all you’ve got?'” said Schmidt, Oklahoma’s strength coach for the past 18 years. “It’s hard to explain as a coach when a guy looks at you like that. I thought I’d do something to him, and he’s laughing at this.”
Perine said now when he does squats, he’ll do five sets of eight repetitions squat between 315-345 pounds and two sets of 10 at 285 pounds. Instead of benching this spring, he’d bench dumbbells, with 115 pounds in each hand. At the combine, he benched 225 pounds 30 times — only four offensive linemen did more. And Perine said he once did 35 reps of 225 pounds in high school.
“I just see what I’m doing as being the norm for me,” he said. “I love the weight room, and I love to work out.”
Our NFC North reporters take a look at which of the new faces could make the biggest impact in the division.
Rob Demovsky, Green Bay Packers reporter: The Minnesota Vikings’ running back. Or I should say running backs. Latavius Murray proved in Oakland that he can be a workhorse with 461 carries over the past two seasons. Add second-round pick Dalvin Cook — one of the top running backs in the draft — and the Vikings might have replaced Adrian Peterson better than anyone could have expected. The Murray-Cook combination should take pressure off quarterback Sam Bradford, who badly needed help from the running game last season.
New Packers tight end Martellus Bennett gives QB Aaron Rodgers another proven playmaker to utilize. AP Photo/Matt Ludtke
Jeff Dickerson, Chicago Bears reporter: Martellus Bennett. The veteran tight end should be a huge weapon for Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. I covered Bennett for three (often unusual) years in Chicago. He’s the ultimate Sunday player. Bennett doesn’t do much at practice, but he shows up ready to play on game day. It sometimes takes two or three defenders to bring him down after the catch. I think Packers fans will appreciate that toughness, and so will Rodgers.
Ben Goessling, Minnesota Vikings reporter: Given what Jared Cook meant to the Packers’ offense during their late-season surge, it was puzzling that GM Ted Thompson didn’t try to re-sign the tight end — until Thompson brought in Bennett. He’s bigger than Cook, has been more productive in his career and came at a price (three years, $21 million) that didn’t require the Packers to overextend themselves. Bennett and Lance Kendricks will join an offense that’s stocked, as usual, with weapons for Rodgers. That’s not a bad idea, in light of how much the Packers are expecting to get from young defensive backs.
Michael Rothstein, Detroit Lions reporter: This is a tough question because there are a lot of players with similar levels of importance, but Minnesota adding Murray might end up being the best signing in the short term (with Cook helping in the long term). Murray is not Peterson, but he’s a durable running back who has averaged 4.2 yards per carry in his career and has 20 touchdowns. He can offer Minnesota stability and balance in the running game and might be an excellent pairing with Cook for the Vikings.
Today’s question: Is the New York Giants’ receiving corps of Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Sterling Shepard the best in the league?
Todd Archer, Dallas Cowboys reporter: I like what the Atlanta Falcons have with Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel. I like what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in adding DeSean Jackson to Mike Evans. I like what the Pittsburgh Steelers have with Antonio Brown and a good group that will be better if Martavis Bryant returns to form. But from Nos. 1-3, it’s hard to quibble with the Giants. Beckham might be the most dynamic receiver in the league. Having joined a new team — if not in a new stadium — Marshall will be motivated to show what he has left. Shepard had a productive rookie season and should be better. We know the Giants will throw the ball a lot, and the trio will get plenty of looks from Eli Manning. Quick aside: I’m surprised Dwayne Harris hasn’t done more as a receiver with New York. I thought he would have been better after seeing him with the Cowboys earlier in his career.
At age 33, and coming off a down year, Brandon Marshall is the X factor in the Giants’ receiving corps. AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Tim McManus, Philadelphia Eagles reporter: I’m a fan of Atlanta’s corps of Jones, Sanu and Gabriel, and have respect for the receivers in Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay as well, but the Giants’ receivers absolutely deserve to be in the conversation. It’s difficult to envision how the Eagles’ secondary will handle this group. Jalen Mills on Beckham? Patrick Robinson on Marshall? Ron Brooks, coming off a ruptured quad tendon, trying to keep up with Shepard in the slot? Could be trouble. More times than not, the Giants will enter a game holding a matchup advantage in that department, which is a beautiful thing to have going for you. Marshall is coming off a down year (788 yards, 3 TDs in 15 games). I’m curious to see whether at age 33, he can still reach lofty heights. That’s the X factor for me. If he can be the type of imposing presence we’ve become accustomed to, this just might be the best receiving corps in the NFL.
John Keim, Washington Redskins reporter: If we’re talking about the entire receiving corps, then no. If we’re talking just the trio of Beckham, Marshall and Shepard, it would be hard to top this group, though entering the season I’d put Green Bay ahead of the Giants. Beckham is clearly a top receiver, and Marshall is one year removed from a 109-catch season (the sixth time he reached triple digits). He’ll provide a major boost in the red zone in particular. But he’s 33. How much of last season’s dropoff was due to personal attrition versus the Jets’ quarterback situation? We’ll soon find out, though I have a strong hunch it was the latter. Shepard caught 65 passes, eight for touchdowns, as a rookie. So this trio should be strong and, by season’s end, possibly the best. But if we’re looking at overall depth for the top spot — and players beyond the top three — there are questions, and that could be a problem. I’m curious to see more of Tavarres King because of his speed.
