Who will be the biggest surprise / biggest disappointment in 2017?

[JLambert58]

Biggest surprise:  TJ Watt.  He's going to have his struggles but he's going to keep getting better all season and will be a force by seasons' end.

Biggest disappointment:  Martavis Bryant.  A year out of football and he just can't get it going again at an elite level.  (definitely not rooting for it)

[Magnus-Viktor]

Hmm, that's tough.  

Surprise:  hopefully you're right on Watt.  I think he's lacking the pass rushing moves, and is too reliant on bull rush/power and motor right now.  But I wanted him big time because I liked how he looked in college.  

Disappointment:  Bryant disappointing wouldn't surprise me.  He always had iffy hands and was fairly one-dimensional.  

 

 

my guesses:

Surprise:  Vance McDonald - he's pretty athletic and can stretch the field

Disappointment:  Bryant is the logical one here.  Everyone hypes him up as the missing piece to a dynamic offense, but he's had iffy hands and has been out of football a long time.  Bell after skipping everything prior to regular season is another logical choice.  

[Chieferific]

Surprise: Heyward. After missing most of last year he comes out with his hair on fire and records a career high 10 sacks. Have we ever had a 3-4 DE get 10? I don't know but Heyward can do it.

Disappointment: Haden. I think most of us are hopeful (and cautiously optimistic) he can regain his former Pro Bowl form. He was signed to be the starter and the former was let go because of his suckiness. Haden is supposed to be a significant upgrade. While I'm not betting on it, it wouldn't surprise me if his nagging injuries and age as caught up to him and he isn't the huge upgrade we had all hoped. I couldn't think of anything much more disappointing. 

[JLambert58]

4 hours ago, Chieferific said:

Surprise: Heyward. After missing most of last year he comes out with his hair on fire and records a career high 10 sacks. Have we ever had a 3-4 DE get 10? I don't know but Heyward can do it.

Disappointment: Haden. I think most of us are hopeful (and cautiously optimistic) he can regain his former Pro Bowl form. He was signed to be the starter and the former was let go because of his suckiness. Haden is supposed to be a significant upgrade. While I'm not betting on it, it wouldn't surprise me if his nagging injuries and age as caught up to him and he isn't the huge upgrade we had all hoped. I couldn't think of anything much more disappointing. 

Yeah, that would suck if Haden turned out to be a big disappointment.  Imagine if he has a bad year and Cockrell tears it up in the NFC East.  

[43M]

9 hours ago, Magnus-Viktor said:

Disappointment:  Bryant is the logical one here.  Everyone hypes him up as the missing piece to a dynamic offense, but he's had iffy hands and has been out of football a long time. 

People dont hype him up that way....thats just exactly what he is and its not even arguable.

You focus way too much on "iffy" hands and seemingly ignore everything deep threats like him and Coates bring to the table.   Our offense suffered last year after Coates went down and not having Bryant.    Now, Im not downplaying the importance of good hands, but sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad.    Bryant could definitely be a disappointment, but I dont think so.    He will almost definitely have some frustrating dropped passes that make me cuss his name, but Ill take that 10 times out of 10 over not having him at all simply based on what he brings to the offense.  His presence alone opens up the running game and the short passing game in a major way.   Ill easily take Bryant over another sure handed possession receiver, because even if another WR might have better hands, they dont offer what Bryant does to this offense.  

[43M]

Haden IMO will be majorly disappointing to those believing he will be elite or even great for us.     Haden was never elite.  He was never even notably great IMO.   He was really good at times, but Ive never been a huge fan of his.    However, if healthy, I believe he will offer us the best CB play we have had since 2011 Ike Taylor.   Haden is easily an upgrade over guys like Cockrell and Gay, so as long as people arent expecting him to be something he never really was to begin with (shutdown corner), and just be content with solid starter play from Haden, I dont think people will be too upset.  

Disappointing....Im going with Sean Davis.     I wasnt impressed with him last year, and while he was a rookie and can get better, Im just not high on him.    No part of his game excites me.  If he is even solid, I will be happy.

[August4th]

can see rogers being a surprise production wise(could reach 70 rec with 700-800 yards)... his job should be easier with Bryant/brown taking away attention from the defense

[warfelg]

Surprise: Mike Mitchell. Best corner duo he's played with here, and when he had something like that in Carolina he was good. 

Dissapointment: Heyward. I think we're thinking way too much of him. He's good/great and all, but coming back from injury he'll take some time to get all the way back. 

[MOSteelers56]

1 hour ago, FourThreeMafia said:

Disappointing....Im going with Sean Davis.     I wasnt impressed with him last year, and while he was a rookie and can get better, Im just not high on him.    No part of his game excites me.  If he is even solid, I will be happy

I agree with this. I think Davis' ceiling is just an average starter. He doesn't excel at any one thing. He's not much of a man cover guy, average ballhawk centerfielder, decent run stopper, average tackler. People were overhyping him big time by the end of last year like he was the next great safety. He just seems pretty unimpressive to me. I guess he could be the new Mitchell type and we could get a center fielder style FS. 

[AFF]

Surprise:Hargraves...becomes our best DL.

Disappointment: Harrison...Father Time finally catches up.

[JLambert58]

2 hours ago, FourThreeMafia said:

People dont hype him up that way....thats just exactly what he is and its not even arguable.

You focus way too much on "iffy" hands and seemingly ignore everything deep threats like him and Coates bring to the table.   Our offense suffered last year after Coates went down and not having Bryant.    Now, Im not downplaying the importance of good hands, but sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad.    Bryant could definitely be a disappointment, but I dont think so.    He will almost definitely have some frustrating dropped passes that make me cuss his name, but Ill take that 10 times out of 10 over not having him at all simply based on what he brings to the offense.  His presence alone opens up the running game and the short passing game in a major way.   Ill easily take Bryant over another sure handed possession receiver, because even if another WR might have better hands, they dont offer what Bryant does to this offense.  

Very good point.  What he represents as a weapon is almost more important than what he actually does.  

I'm not so much worried about his hands, (though maybe I should be) as his feel for the game, route running, blocking, the details that make the difference between a average receiver and a great one.  His new approach mentally seems solid, but I question the rust factor.  Hopefully that's not an issue.  

[3rivers]

hoping I am wrong of course, but

 

Surprise would be Butler changes scheme  enough that the DL step up to another level. Hargrave could be a force in the right scheme.

Disappointment is Bell getting hurt and missing many games 

 

If everyone is healthy though:

Surprise would be Watt since I don't think he will be quite what some expect.

Disappointment  would be Mitchell if we go to a cover scheme, could be liability there waiting to happen

[Magnus-Viktor]

On 9/9/2017 at 9:14 AM, FourThreeMafia said:

People dont hype him up that way....thats just exactly what he is and its not even arguable.

You focus way too much on "iffy" hands and seemingly ignore everything deep threats like him and Coates bring to the table.   Our offense suffered last year after Coates went down and not having Bryant.    Now, Im not downplaying the importance of good hands, but sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad.    Bryant could definitely be a disappointment, but I dont think so.    He will almost definitely have some frustrating dropped passes that make me cuss his name, but Ill take that 10 times out of 10 over not having him at all simply based on what he brings to the offense.  His presence alone opens up the running game and the short passing game in a major way.   Ill easily take Bryant over another sure handed possession receiver, because even if another WR might have better hands, they dont offer what Bryant does to this offense.  

 

Lots of people hype him up.  You'd swear he's the 2nd coming of Randy Moss with some things you hear.  He's a dynamic talent and I like him, but he's not THAT great.  His hands are iffy.  I didn't say bad.  Coates had bad hands.  Bryant's are iffy.  Big difference.

I also don't downplay the need for someone to stretch the field, and assuming he's going to be productive I'd also take him over a possession receiver with better hands.  He's clearly going to be the 2nd best WR on the team if he bounces back to his old form.  I'm simply saying he's my pick because of the variables working against him.  Not natural hands being one, but the most important is being out of football so long.  I did just read an article on him that said he was never concerned with working out before, and this is the first year he ever really has, and his 4.42 40 at the combine is now supposedly a 4.27 even though he put on muscle and weight.  So we'll see.  I HOPE he turns into a complete monster of course.  I love the deep ball.  

[43M]

8 minutes ago, Magnus-Viktor said:

 

Lots of people hype him up.  You'd swear he's the 2nd coming of Randy Moss with some things you hear.  He's a dynamic talent and I like him, but he's not THAT great.  His hands are iffy.  I didn't say bad.  Coates had bad hands.  Bryant's are iffy.  Big difference.

I also don't downplay the need for someone to stretch the field, and assuming he's going to be productive I'd also take him over a possession receiver with better hands.  He's clearly going to be the 2nd best WR on the team if he bounces back to his old form.  I'm simply saying he's my pick because of the variables working against him.  Not natural hands being one, but the most important is being out of football so long.  I did just read an article on him that said he was never concerned with working out before, and this is the first year he ever really has, and his 4.42 40 at the combine is now supposedly a 4.27 even though he put on muscle and weight.  So we'll see.  I HOPE he turns into a complete monster of course.  I love the deep ball.  

Fair enough with the 2nd part....but again, you continue to disregard that, before Coates busted up his hand in 2016, he was doing similar things as Bryant with a a similar or better catch % IIRC.   Coates was the best deep threat in the league the first 5-6 weeks of last year.    So, unless you just completely ignore he was injured, Coates hands werent any worse than Bryant's.    

[JLambert58]

2 minutes ago, FourThreeMafia said:

Fair enough with the 2nd part....but again, you continue to disregard that, before Coates busted up his hand in 2016, he was doing similar things as Bryant with a a similar or better catch % IIRC.   Coates was the best deep threat in the league the first 5-6 weeks of last year.    So, unless you just completely ignore he was injured, Coates hands werent any worse than Bryant's.    

On paper, I agree, but being honest, do you think Bryant would have dropped that pass at the beginning of the AFCCG?  Hurt or not, that is a litmus test for a WR in this league imo.