Which NFL Team Is Set to Make the Biggest Leap in 2016?

It’s late August, when every fan is optimistic about how their team may shakeout. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, only 12 of the NFL’s 32 franchises are awarded the opportunity to compete in the playoffs.

If you’re scanning the league for teams who can go from the bottom half of that group of 20 to making a postseason appearance, some names clearly stick out. We won’t count the Dallas Cowboys, who went 3-1 last year, coming off of a 12-4 season, when Tony Romo was starting at quarterback for the team, as it’s too easy an argument to make.

Everyone on Earth expects the Cowboys to contend for a playoff spot this season, while other teams in the top five still have questionable projections. Of those four other top-five teams—franchises that have the opportunity to do a complete flip in record in one season like the Washington Redskins did last year—the Jacksonville Jaguars have to have the lead on paper.

You can go unit-by-unit explaining how and why the squad may take the right steps in 2016.

Share Tweet

At quarterback, 24-year-old Blake Bortles, is ready for his third year in the season after improving from a 69.5 passer rating in his rookie year to an 88.2 passer rating in 2015, about middle of the pack for an NFL starter. Elsewhere in the backfield, T.J. Yeldon gets a partner in the running back committee as Chris Ivory, who finished fifth in the NFL in rushing last year, signed with the team as a free agent.

Receiver Allen Robinson, who just turned 23 years old this summer, led the NFL in touchdown receptions last season while averaging the most yards per reception of any target with more than 50 catches in 2015. It’s hard to pin down exactly how offensive lines will shake out in-season, but former second-overall pick Luke Joeckel will at least have an ongoing competition with Kelvin Beachum, as the former Pittsburgh Steeler is playing left-tackle reps in the preseason, too.

If Beachum starts as their blindside bookend, expect Joeckel to start at guard, theoretically an improvement, as Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley stated that as fact on Friday. On every level of the offense, there’s hope for progress.

With all of that being said, it’s the defensive side of the ball that looks different on the depth chart. First and foremost, the former third-overall pick, Dante Fowler, is back playing in the preseason after missing his entire rookie year due …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com