Bounce-back guys for 2016: The 6 NFL players ready to return to peak form
Andrew Luck, Eddie Lacy and Randall Cobb look primed for big seasons
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3 min read
The NFL is nothing if not a cyclical league.
Trends ebb and flow and players can peak and cascade with maddening frequency. Every year players who seem like sure-fire, can't miss picks in everyone's fantasy drafts end up being an albatross by Week 5, and all the while, players who whose stock seemed to be dropping end up stepping up and saving the season.
There's a fine line between progression and regression and veteran players throughout the league end up treading it each and every season. There will be players who bounce back and return to peak form, most often after getting fully healthy again after sustaining a significant injury. That is hardly the only mitigating factor, however. There will also be players who end up looking back on 2015 as the last impactful season of their NFL careers.
Here are the six bounce-back guys I have my eye on:
Andrew Luck
QB
There are plenty of candidates for this spot, and Tony Romo is an obvious candidate. But Romo's sustained body of work far surpasses Luck's, and Romo was down last year only because of an injury that essentially wiped out his entire season. Luck was playing brutal football even before injuries wiped out what remained of his season.
Luck will learn from watching all those games from the sidelines and he knows he has to better protect his body. He is also entering what could be a historic contract year given the riches that possibly await. He is too good and too smart not to take his many mistakes from 2015 and transfer them into teachable moments. He'll protect his body and protect the football and launch himself back into the conversation as one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. A full season with Rob Chudzinski as his coordinator will be just the boost he needs.
Lacy is lean and mean and ready to make defenders squirm again. Many a player has more or less gobbled himself out of the league and Lacy looks like he is ready to make the life changes necessary to put his career in the right direction again. The Green Bay offense has the potential to be elite this season and Packers coaches want him to be the focus.
Hill needs to step it up to get his first real pay day and prove that he can be a bell cow. The Bengals lost a ton of talent in the passing game this offseason andAndy Dalton needs a running game to alleviate some pressure and there is no excuse for Hill to run for 3.56 yards per carry again in 2016 given the strength of the Bengals' offensive line. Hill should be able to hold off Gio Bernard. He received nearly 75 more carries than Bernard a year ago and has to realize his production must increase to keep that the case in 2016.
A lot of this depends on how Jordy Nelson responds from his return from an injury that wiped out his 2015 season. But I wouldn't bet against Nelson coming back and being a beast again, and if 2015 showed anything it's that Cobb is much better at being the ultimate complementary guy and not the go-to target.
Having Nelson back on the outside will open up so much for Cobb. While his role may lessen it says here his actual production will greatly increase. This kid knows his role when he is able to operate within that comfort zone and there are many reasons to believe the Packers will be more robust and well-rounded on offense next season.
I was tempted to go with Jimmy Graham here but I still have a little concern about exactly how he finds his way in Seattle. The reality is he will never get fed the ball the way he became accustomed to in New Orleans. He will have a nice season -- but compared to the way the Saints offense operated around him, it will pale in comparison.
Thomas needs to shake his own injury woes, but I like the way he came on late for the Jags last season. He should become Blake Bortles' best friend in the red zone and Jacksonville should be a better all around football team this season. That'll take some pressure off this tight end to live up to his free agent contract, etc. It can take a year to get settled in a new locale -- especially given the kind of offense Thomas was coming from in Denver.
