posted February 25, 2008 at 21:06 EST in Other Articles

Arizona Rattlers (4-12 in 2007, missed playoffs)

Once upon a time, the Arizona Rattlers were one of the proudest franchises in the Arena Football League. However, 2007 wasn’t kind to Arizona as they finished just 4-12 SU on the campaign, missing the playoffs for only the third time in team history.

2007 Highlight: In Week 8, the Rattlers traveled to Utah to face the Blaze. In what proved to be one of the best games of his illustrious career, QB Sherdrick Bonner tossed 9 TD passes in just 19 attempts, leading Arizona to an 83-69 victory. The 83 points was the most points scored in franchise history.

2007 Lowlight: The final game of the season for Arizona was a complete disaster. With Bonner sitting on the sidelines for what would be his last game as a Rattler, the rival San Jose Sabercats provided one of the most lopsided games in team history. Arizona was outscored by 39-points over the final three quarters, with the final tally being 66-26 in favor of the eventual champions.

Key acquisition: WR Siaha Burley (166 catches, 2129 yards, 49 TDs for Utah in 2007). Burley is widely known as one of the best receivers in the AFL. He returns to Arizona from his two years with the Blaze, and looks to add a 4th straight 40+ TD season for the Rattlers in 2008.

Key loss: QB Sherdrick Bonner (4033 yards, 63.3% completions, 83/13 TD/INT ratio in 2007). Bonner has been the face of the Rattlers for well over a decade. His final game with the team was in Week 14 last season. Replacing a legend is a tough task for anyone, but with some combination of Jeff Smoker and Lang Campbell stepping into the mix, the situation is even stickier.

2008 Preview: Arizona absolutely has to be an improved team from a year ago. There’s no way that a team with Siaha Burley and Kevin Nickerson as their receivers is going to only win four games. Former Sabercats defensive coordinator, Kevin Guy, has replaced Head Coach Gene Nudo.

2008 will be a success if… the Rattlers make the playoffs. In the American Conference, only two teams fail to make the second season. There’s some added pressure to this task though, as if the Rattlers do not make the playoffs, the team has guaranteed that they will fully refund all of their season ticket holders.

Though the Rattlers are improved from a season ago, they don’t have Las Vegas in their division any longer to kick around. The schedule is harder this year, and despite being an improved team, a winning season is still nowhere in sight. The saving grace for the organization is that the American Conference is weak, so the Rattlers should find their way to the playoffs, but will likely be forced into a quick exit.

Prediction: 6-10, 4th place Western Division

Utah Blaze (8-8 in 2007, lost in 1st round to Los Angeles)

At points in the 2007 season, it looked like legendary AFL Head Coach Danny White was set to take his Utah Blaze from expansion into a real contender in just two seasons. At other points, there were harsh reminders that the Blaze are just in their second season in the AFL. Regardless, this franchise appears to be headed in the right direction.

2007 Highlight: Week 13 of the 2007 season produced arguably the greatest game in the short history of the Blaze. The team traveled to Orlando, one of the most difficult places in the AFL to play. The turning point in the game was following a Preds touchdown with 1:52 remaining in the game. DL Chris Janek raced what would’ve been the tying PAT back for two points to give Utah a three point lead that they would never relinquish. Then OS Siaha Burley had 191 yards and 4 TDs in the winning effort, which basically assured the Blaze a spot in the playoffs.

2007 Lowlight: Just the week before the trip to Orlando, the Blaze hosted the lowly Las Vegas Gladiators. Utah ran out to a 21-0 lead and appeared to be cruising, but a Glads TD with 3:44 left in the 3rd quarter started a string of 16 straight points for Vegas to propel them back in the game. Steve Videtich kicked a FG with 36 seconds left to put Utah ahead by two, but Steve Azar kicked the winner at the buzzer for Las Vegas’ second and final win of the season.

Key acquisitions: DE’s EJ Burt (15 tackles, 6 sacks for Chicago in 2007) and Dwayne Missouri (14 tackles, 6 sacks for Philadelphia in 2007). For a team that has lacked a pass rush in their history, adding Burt and Missouri should provide the Blaze with a nice set of bookend rushers.

Key loss: WR Siaha Burley (166 catches, 2129 yards, 49 TDs in 2007). There’s just no replacing one of the best receivers in the AFL. Burley represented almost 40% of the total offensive yards for the Blaze last season and caught almost half of the touchdowns thrown by QB Joe Germaine.

2008 Preview: Replacing Burley is going to be the biggest problem this team faces in 2008. Utah has had one of the best offenses in the AFL the past two seasons, averaging 57.1 PPG in their history. WR JJ McKelvey may pick up some of the slack, but between losing Burley to free agency and Orshawnte Bryant to a season ending injury in training camp, an offense that looked to be the strength of the team could struggle at times if Germaine doesn’t find a new favorite target in a hurry.

2008 will be a success if… the Blaze can figure out how to stop anybody… for as good as the offense has been, the defense has been just as bad. The Blaze gave up an average of 57.4 PPG the past two seasons, and is the reason the team has never advanced past the first round of the playoffs.

The Blaze could struggle at times this season if the defense doesn’t step it up. However, if there’s a coach out there that can will a team to the postseason by himself, it’s Danny White. Despite all the defensive problems, if the Blaze aren’t playing in the playoffs, it will be quite the surprise.

Prediction: 7-9, 3rd place Western Division

Los Angeles Avengers (9-7 in 2007, lost in 2nd round to Chicago)

With his Avengers sitting with just three wins with two games to play in the 2006 season, Head Coach Ed Hodgkiss appeared to be on the fast road to getting fired. His team responded in two essentially meaningless games with two victories, perhaps saving his job and giving his team momentum heading into 2007. LA made a huge jump from that 5-11 season to finish 9-7 last year with several very impressive victories along the way.

2007 Highlight: LA wasn’t supposed to be a speed bump in the road for the one-loss Georgia Force in their Week 12 encounter. What the Force got was the best game the Avengers played all season. Without star WR Kevin Ingram, QB Sonny Cumbie led LA to four unanswered TD drives in just over 10 minutes to give the underdog Avengers a seemingly insurmountable 57-30 lead. The Force scored three unanswered TDs of their own to close the game, but the Avengers held on to win by a 57-51 final count.

2007 Lowlight: Coming off of the team’s first playoff win in franchise history, the Avengers headed into the Windy City to take on the Chicago Rush on national television for a birth in the American Conference title game. Rush QB Matt D’Orazio was battling a back injury, and many figured that this was LA’s chance to burst onto the scene. Instead, the Avengers offense was putrid, only scoring 20 points, none of which were in the 2nd half against the stout Chicago defense. LA crashed out of the playoffs 52-20.

Key acquisition: WR Timon Marshall (3057 all-purpose yards, 36 TDs for Grand Rapids in 2007). This was one of the biggest hits in free agency this season. Marshall left the Rampage in the middle of the year to join the Chicago Bears. When his NFL opportunity didn’t pan out, the Avengers snatched him off the free agent market to add to an already stacked group of wide outs.

Key loss: K Remy Hamilton (16/30 FGs, 101/114 PAT's in 2007). Hamilton is widely accepted as one of the best kickers in AFL history. PAT’s aren’t “gimme's” in this league, and there hasn’t been much better than Hamilton in recent history. Replacing him will be rookie David Davis.

2008 Preview: The Avengers return a solid core of their starters from the 2007 season, which surprised many. With a healthy Kevin Ingram, adding Marshall should vastly improve an Avengers offense that churned out a shade under 53 PPG last season. New defensive coordinator, Michael Church is expected to improve the defense as well.

2008 will be a success if… QB Sonny Cumbie can take another huge step forward in his development as an AFL QB. After throwing 59 TDs in his rookie season, Cumbie threw 83 more in his sophomore season. If he can avoid mental mistakes, Cumbie should approach the 100 TD mark with relative ease this season.

This is one of the more promising teams in the AFL this season. Even though they aren’t quite up to San Jose standards at this point, it wouldn’t be overly surprising to see this team make a deep run into the playoffs competing within the weak American Conference.

Prediction: 12-4, 2nd place Western Division

San Jose Sabercats (13-3 in 2007, ArenaBowl XXI Champions)

“Dynasty” was the word that overwhelmingly was used following the Sabercats victory over the Columbus Destroyers in last year’s ArenaBowl. It was the franchises 3rd championship in six years for the perennial Western Division powerhouse. San Jose closed out last season with 13 straight victories, the longest such streak in franchise history.

2007 Highlight: It wasn’t the prettiest game of the season for San Jose, but any time you win the championship, it has to be your highlight. QB Mark Grieb had another typical efficient day through the air, completing 24-of-29 passes without throwing an interception. The defense was the story though, as they held a Columbus team, which had scored 66 points in its previous two playoff games, to just 33.

2007 Lowlight: You have to go back to the April 13th (also Friday the 13th) to find the last poor game San Jose played. Grieb had his worst game of the season, throwing 3 INTs, and the defense surrendered a whopping 67 points against a rookie QB in their 13 point setback to the VooDoo. The loss dropped San Jose to 3-3, though the suddenly mortal looking Sabercats became untouchable following that loss.

Key acquisition: FB/LB Frank Carter (22 tackles, 1.5 sacks for Utah in 2007). When you’re the champs, you don’t need to add much to your team. The Sabercats, for the most part, held their same team together from last year, but Carter will replace the departed FB/LB Matt Kinsinger.

Key loss: Defensive coordinator Kevin Guy. Sure, losing WR Ben Nelson (1240 yards, 25 TDs in 2007) is going to be difficult, but Guy was the man behind one of the best defenses in the AFL last year. The Sabercats allowed just 47.6 PPG last season, which was 2nd best in the entire league. Head Coach Darren Arbet has always done a great job allowing his coordinators to do their job, and losing Coach Guy will leave a huge hole in the defensive scheme for San Jose.

2008 Preview: When you’re on top of the mountain and basically kept your championship team intact, there’s no reason to believe you won’t still be at least near the top of that mountain the following season. The Sabercats are chalk full of talent at the receiver position, so someone will replace Nelson’s 25 TDs. The biggest problem may be an aging secondary, but DS’s Clevan Thomas and Omarr Smith have been together for many years and should be able to man the fort just fine.

2008 will be a success if… San Jose repeats as champions. There’s simply no other result in the 2008 season that will be acceptable.

Mark Grieb should continue to add to his illustrious career with another strong season, and the Sabercat dynasty should continue to grow, possibly with another trip to the ArenaBowl.

Prediction: 13-3, 1st place Western Division

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