Which player had the biggest breakout for each team last season?
Denver Broncos OLB Danny Trevathan
Chris Clark and Malik Jackson made this one a difficult choice, but I decided to select the player whom I believe to be the best overall among the breakout players on the Broncos in 2013. Danny Trevathan had just 33 tackles and three passes defended as a rookie coming out of Kentucky, but he turned that into 128 tackles and ten passes defended last season. Stout in run defense, Trevathan is one of the most athletic linebackers in the NFL and certainly fits the profile of the type of new-age linebacker teams are looking for, as he does his best work in pass coverage. Trevathan has the speed and instincts to stick with TEs and RBs in coverage, and he has the ball skills to make plays on his own.
Kansas City Chiefs NT Dontari Poe
I admittedly wasn’t a fan of Dontari Poe when he came into the draft and viewed him as an overhyped workout warrior, but he was anything but overhyped in his second season in the league. Poe was an absolute monster last season in Bob Sutton’s defense, and he isn’t your traditional nose tackle due to his incredible pass rushing ability. This guy consistently dialed up the heat at the heart of the Chiefs defense, and he helped free up one of the best edge rushing tandems in the NFL in Justin Houston and Tamba Hali. He also made plenty of hits on the quarterback of his own with a nifty 4.5 sacks.
San Diego Chargers LT King Dunlap
You can pretty much chalk up Ladarius Green as next season’s breakout guy for the Chargers, but it was King Dunlap who came out of nowhere last season to lead a much-improved Chargers offensive line that managed to prevent Philip Rivers from getting shelled every snap. Rivers struggled mightily in the past couple of seasons because of subpar coaching and woeful blocking (the worst blocking I’ve seen over the span of multiple seasons since David Carr‘s band of incompetents on the Houston Texans), but great coaching and adequate blocking led him to an impeccable 2013 season in which only Peyton Manning was better among QBs.
Dunlap was a big part of that blocking effort after being a so-so swing tackle-type player with the Philadelphia Eagles, and he shed his journeyman status by toppling fools last year on the left side of the Chargers line. A big upgrade for Rivers, Dunlap was an even bigger upgrade for Ryan Mathews, who rode the improved blocking- and improved health, as it was his first 16-game season- to a career-high in rushing yards. Let’s just hope that Dunlap can avoid the concussions next year.
Oakland Raiders DT Pat Sims
I was torn between Rashad Jennings and Rod Streater at one point, but I am a sucker for picking the player who isn’t as well-known. That player is definitely veteran defensive tackle Pat Sims, who recorded a whopping 53 tackles last season and broke out in his sixth season in the league after five years with the Cincinnati Bengals. His first year in Oakland allowed him to shine at the heart of one of the NFL’s least talented defenses, as he had a clear career-high in tackles and also added two sacks.
At times Sims was dominant, and he earned a “Player of the Week” award from us in Week 16 for his terrific work against the rival San Diego Chargers. In that game, Sims recorded a monstrous 15 tackles, which is simply unheard of for a DT. Sims is one of the best run-defending DTs in the league, and he’s pretty much a nose in the Raiders 4-3 scheme. Big offseason addition Antonio Smith will star next to Sims, who will have to come off in passing situations for intriguing youngster Stacy McGee. Sims is not someone to take lightly going forward, and there’s a big reason why the Raiders re-signed him.