I imagine the home of Skip Bayless isn't really a home. I imagine it has approximately 500 mirrors and mostly serves as a shrine to Skip's favorite person, himself. Every article he writes at ESPN.com is really just about Skip's opinion and the opinion of others regarding Skip's opinion. There's no substance to any of Skip's writing, instead it is mostly "Here is my opinion and what others thought about my opinion and do you mind if we talk about me a little bit more?" So under the guise of figuring out why quarterbacks taken in the first round of the NFL Draft miss the mark in the NFL, Skip reviews the quarterbacks who he believed would succeed and discusses how sometimes he's right and sometimes he is wrong, but mostly it's just another shrine to Skip Bayless and his opinions. The use of the words "I," "I'm," and "I've" in this article is so prevalent only the most noble and bored of adventurers would take on the expedition of counting how many times Skip uses these words.
I'll admit it's getting a little eerie. Six times before NFL drafts,
I've taken a stand for quarterbacks doubted by many. For a while,
they've all made me look like a genius.
It's eerie that Skip really doesn't know what the fuck he is talking about. Weird, isn't it?
Then ...
Things have gone wrong.
They have gone wrong for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Skip was never right and NFL defensive coordinators found a way to game plan around stopping the strengths of these quarterbacks. It's much in the same way that Skip would build a bridge and claim "for a while" it was a work of genius until one day the entire bridge fell and killed dozens of people and hundreds of innocent water creatures. Skip will still insist "for a while" that bridge worked really well, while ignoring that isn't the mark of success at all.
In each case I wound up publicly pilloried as a madman, a football fool,
a quarterback hack who is daft when it comes to the draft. I still
believe I deserve credit for always being so initially right. You
decide.
It's all about Skip and the reaction of the public to the idiotic words he speaks because ESPN inexplicably gives him a forum to speak these words. And no, there is no credit being given for being initially right, because being initially right where a quarterback plays well for a season or two isn't correctly predicting that quarterback will succeed in the NFL. Success isn't determined over a short span of time. There's really no debate that can be had on this. Skip isn't right because Tim Tebow fooled defensive coordinators for almost an entire season, at least until they caught on to how to game plan around him.
But as we go case by case, you'll see a common cause of eventual failure -- one I can't account for pre-draft.
Skip tries to blame outside forces for the reason each quarterback didn't succeed in the NFL, in order to cover up for the fact "He isn't a good quarterback" could not have been accounted for prior to the draft. Skip can try and talk around it all he wants, and I will admit it's a guessing game whether some of these quarterbacks will succeed in the NFL, but the bottom line is that Skip went hard all-in on some of these quarterbacks and has ended up being wrong. He can talk around it, but that's the bottom line.
Most of these quarterbacks wound up with franchises whose executives and
coaches were dangerously split on them. I was all-in. The team that
drafted them was not.
Of course, it is the franchise's fault for not being all-in on these quarterbacks. Naturally. It's not that those executives and coaches who argued against the drafting of these quarterbacks were right, it's just they were only right because they argued against drafting these quarterbacks based on legitimate reasons that ended up being correct. But the reasons wouldn't have been correct if they had just been all-in on the quarterback. It all makes sense if you turn your brain off.
You'll also see a common flaw: Several of "my guys" failed to handle
their success and/or failure in unstable and uneasy situations.
And really, who could have seen that coming? Johnny Manziel partied a lot in college and was drafted by an organization that seems somewhat dysfunctional? Who could have seen that he wouldn't succeed?
You can argue I've been much more long-term accurate on which
quarterbacks are being dangerously overrated. I said on air JaMarcus
Russell and Sam Bradford were very bad ideas for No.1 overall picks, that Alex Smith would never live up to being taken No. 1 and that Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder were not first-round picks.
You could argue that, but it wouldn't mean Skip wasn't wrong about these other six quarterbacks.
Those weren't popular stances.
Skip is a rebel and takes unpopular stances, based on the fact Stephen A. Smith disagrees with him. As is well known, Stephen A. Smith speaks for the majority opinion of the sports-loving world.
Neither were these ...
2006: I said on air the Houston Texans should take Vince Young No. 1 overall, in part because he grew up in Houston and had just led the University of Texas to the national championship with the greatest individual performance in title-game history.
Does Skip remember how popular Vince Young was coming out of Texas? It was not popular to say he would be successful in the NFL? I do disagree. Also, you can see from the start this isn't a column about WHY NFL quarterbacks taken early in the draft fail, as promised in the column title, but is about Skip Bayless and what he has said on the air. One other thing, to indicate the Texans should have taken Young simply because he grew up in Houston and led the University of Texas to a national championship is very bad reasoning for taking Young #1 overall.
Houston shockingly opted for defensive end Mario Williams, leaving Reggie Bush for the New Orleans Saints and Young for the Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese and Titans owner Bud Adams,
It was shocking in that Mario Williams really worked out well for the Texans and Bush never really was the running back he promised himself to be in college. So it's almost like the Texans knew what they were doing.
One big problem: coach Jeff Fisher was against drafting Young.
Jeff Fisher is never wrong and you take it back right now.
Still, Young often made me look pretty good. He was offensive rookie of
the year. He made two Pro Bowls. He went 30-17 as Tennessee's starter.
And that's really what this is all about isn't it? Which quarterbacks made Skip look good and which quarterbacks didn't make Skip look good. Vince Young did have success for a while, but this doesn't mean Skip was right about him. I think Mario Williams was the right pick for the Texans.
But predictably, he often clashed with Fisher. It appeared Fisher helped
turn some in the local and national media against Young. His skin grew
thin.
IT WASN'T YOUNG'S FAULT HE FAILED IN THE NFL! IF HE HAD JUST GOTTEN ANOTHER SHOT WITH ANOTHER NFL TEAM HE WOULD HAVE SUCCEE---
Incredibly, after a season in Philadelphia and a camp with the Buffalo Bills and another with the Green Bay Packers, the league rejected Young at age 30.
This is shocking that Skip blames Young's failures on the environment in Tennessee and Young goes to another NFL team and continues to not be a good quarterbacks. It's almost like, and I almost dare not say it, Vince Young wasn't really a great quarterback and Skip was wrong about Young. But no, I'm sure the issues Jeff Fisher had with Young followed him to Philadelphia, Buffalo and to Green Bay. That makes more sense than Skip just outright being wrong.
What if Fisher had wanted to draft Young, had publicly invested his
pride in him, had supported him through the growing pains? Young was too
good for it to go so wrong.
What if Vince Young had success early in his career and this pretty much rejects the idea the biggest issue with Young's progress in the NFL is that he wasn't supported enough, because it doesn't make sense for him to play well at the beginning of his career and suddenly need more nurturing as he played more NFL games? I'm sure the Titans could have done something to help Young more, but three other teams took a look at Young and rejected him.
Another quarterback taken in that 2006 draft made the Pro Bowl in his second full season of starting. When Jay Cutler was a junior at Vanderbilt (my
alma mater) I began raving about him on air, predicting he'd be a
"franchise quarterback." Of course, that proclamation was met with
chuckles. A Vandy quarterback?
As always, it is about Skip Bayless. Sense a trend that permeates Skip's entire writing style?
"Here's a quarterback. Here's what I thought about that quarterback. Here's what others thought about my thoughts about this quarterback. Here's an excuse for why I was wrong, but this doesn't mean I was wrong and others were right."
Cutler was the "lucky" one of the six debatable quarterbacks I loved
before their drafts. (He's also the most prototypical pocket passer who
least relied on his legs.) Shanahan really wanted him. So did the Bears.
I certainly wasn't wrong about Cutler's ability. He's no bust. But he
is what he was at Vandy: a little more interested in pulling off the
occasional "wow" throw than winning.
Skip wasn't wrong about Cutler's ability? Is Cutler a franchise quarterback? No? Skip said Cutler was a franchise quarterback and he isn't, so that leads me to the conclusion Skip was wrong.
2009: I said on air that Mark Sanchez was being overrated. He went fifth to the Jets. I also raved about Josh Freeman and said the Tampa Bay Bucs stole him at No. 17.
Ah yes, the inconsistencies of Skip come to the forefront. He uses "games won" to make a case for why Vince Young could have been a great quarterback if it weren't for that meddling Jeff Fisher. All of a sudden he skips over that Mark Sanchez went to two AFC Championship Games as the starter for the Jets. Sure, I wouldn't give Sanchez credit for that, but in his eagerness to show how right he was about Sanchez, Skip changes the metric he uses for quarterback success. All of a sudden "games won" doesn't hold as much meaning to Skip when he's talking about a quarterback he thought wouldn't succeed in the NFL. Weird how that works.
I'd watched Kansas State's 6-6, 240-pound Freeman play big in his biggest games against Texas and Oklahoma.
No one else saw this. Only Skip saw Freeman play big in his biggest games against Texas and Oklahoma. (By the way, notice how Skip's love for the University of Texas seems to play a part in his evaluations?)
In his first full season as Tampa Bay's starter, he made me look
pretty great by throwing 25 touchdown passes to only six interceptions
and leading the Bucs to a 10-6 record. He was a Pro Bowl alternate.
Then
... it all fell apart in 2011. Rumors swirled. Maybe Freeman let
success go to his head (or stomach). Maybe Raheem Morris lost control of
the team as it went from 3-1 to 4-12. Morris was fired.
Freeman played pretty well in coach Greg Schiano's first season -- 27
touchdown passes, 17 interceptions -- but the team went 7-9.
Welp, it seems using team performance to evaluate a quarterback means something important again.
After three starts in 2013, the Bucs tried to trade Freeman, couldn't
and released him. After one horrendous Monday night start for the Minnesota Vikings, a 23-7 loss at the New York Giants, Freeman was out of football at age 25.
You still hear speculation Freeman will get another shot. But how could he go from 2010 to this? Again: so right, so wrong.
Probably the same reason a rookie baseball player can have a fantastic rookie year and then fail to improve on or reach those heights for the rest of his career. Opponents adjust to the rookie's tendencies, and when the player's true talent comes to light after opponents have adjusted, it turns out he isn't the star people thought he could end up being.
2010: I said on air I would take Tim Tebow late in the first round. "If you let him run the read option he ran at Florida," I said, "he'll win games in the NFL. He'll never make a Pro Bowl, but he can win games as a starting quarterback."
He'll "win games," which is exactly the type of thing you want your first round pick quarterback to do. Just don't suck and win a few games.
Under John Fox, the Broncos began the next season 1-4, and a new
Broncos regime (led by John Elway) that clearly didn't believe in Tebow
threw him into the fire, at Miami, out of desperation. I was asked on
air what I thought Tebow's record would be the rest of the season. I
said 7-4. Chuckles.
Tebow went 7-4, led Denver to the AFC West
title, led the NFL in QBR in the last five minutes of games and turned
the Broncos into the NFL's No. 1 rushing attack.
And let's be clear that the Broncos HAD to become the NFL's No. 1 rushing attack with Tebow as the quarterback, because he wasn't going to win games by throwing the football. Regardless of whether the Elway regime believed in Tebow or not, it doesn't mean they stunted his growth. Tebow failed in New York, where Rex Ryan took Mark Sanchez (the same Sanchez that Skip didn't like as an NFL QB) to two AFC Championship Games and he flamed out in New England. I would think if Belichick could have used Tebow in any productive way then he would have.
That offseason the Broncos replaced Tebow with ... Peyton Manning! No shame there. Tebow was traded to the Jets, with whom he was never even given a shot at starting.
That's funny. Tebow was in New York the season that Mark Sanchez was horrible and the Jets needed someone, anyone, to come in and play well at the quarterback position. Even going up against the quarterback that Skip thinks sucks, Mark Sanchez, Tebow couldn't win the starting job on a team desperate for a starting quarterback. So yeah, he was never given a shot. That's the lie that Skip will go with.
Tebow began to doubt himself and drifted from one throwing guru to another.
Maybe he started doubting himself because he's really not that good at throwing the football?
It's still possible the Philadelphia Eagles' Chip Kelly will sign Tebow, but again, I was so sensationally right ... and ultimately condemned as so dead wrong.
No, not at all. You were so sensationally wrong. Tim Tebow is now a co-worker of Skip's at ESPN. Tebow is not in the NFL anymore, so Skip was right for a brief period of time, but in the longer span of time he was absolutely wrong about Tebow. Again, simply because a bridge holds up for a brief span of time before it collapses does not mean it was a safe bridge to cross for that brief span of time.
I do really like how Skip talks about how he was right about Tebow winning games as an NFL quarterback, while also ignoring that Tebow couldn't beat out the quarterback Skip proudly beats his chest in this article for correctly stating wouldn't be successful (Mark Sanchez). Ignore that which makes Skip look dumb. That's A LOT of ignoring.
2012: On air long before the draft, I said Robert Griffin III would prove to be an even better pro than Andrew Luck. The Washington Redskins traded three first-rounders and a second to move up from No. 6 to No. 2 to take RG III. Way too much? Not to me.
It's hard for Skip to talk his way out of this one. He'll try to do so by ignoring the issue he himself brought up when arguing for Griffin. The issue Skip presented was that Griffin will be a better quarterback than Andrew Luck. He's not and he won't ever be. Skip was wrong.
Still, In RG III's rookie season, at age 22, he went superstar on the
NFL. Offensive rookie of the year, 20 touchdown passes to just five
interceptions, led the league in yards per pass attempt and per rush,
led his team to the NFC East crown, had a better QBR than Luck -- 71.4
to 65.2.
FOR ONE YEAR! ONE SOLITARY SEASON!
RG III sprained his knee late in the season, then tweaked it just before his team jumped out 14-0 on the Seattle Seahawks in
a home playoff game, then wrecked it late in that eventual loss. And he
has spent the past two seasons looking like a sad shell of a guy who no
longer trusts his legs or eyes or arm.
I like how Skip always blames outside forces for the failure of these quarterbacks. It's never, "Griffin got injured and his lack of mobility revealed him as a one-read quarterback who just couldn't grasp the passing concepts required to be an NFL quarterback." Skip reasons that Griffin no longer trusted his leg or arm after his injury. Of course, because Skip could never be wrong with his evaluation of Griffin's abilities.
He clashed with Shanahan and failed to click with new coach Jay Gruden.
Now ESPN's John Clayton is reporting new GM Scot McCloughan will take
Mariota if he's there at No. 5.
Now it feels like RG III's best bet is to start over with another team in another town.
Where when/if Griffin fails there, then Skip will conveniently ignore that Griffin was away from the Redskins' toxic environment and he still couldn't succeed.
2014: I said on air the Texans would forever regret not taking Texas native Johnny Manziel, the Heisman winner from Texas A&M, with the No. 1 overall pick.
And so far, the Texans have been correct twice when Skip has claimed they would regret not taking a quarterback that Skip suggests they draft.
I was told the Texans were considering Manziel until they asked him to
lay low and behave himself in the month leading up to the draft. Manziel
attended the Masters, had too much to drink and -- the Texans were told
-- made a spectacle of himself. They were out.
Again and again I said before the draft: If alcohol proves to be an ongoing issue for Manziel, I'm out.
Skip is blaming alcohol for Manziel's poor rookie season, while acknowledging that he thought alcohol could be an issue for Manziel prior to his being drafted. This sort of contradicts what Skip said earlier in this column:
But as we go case by case, you'll see a common cause of eventual failure -- one I can't account for pre-draft.
Oh, except Skip did account for Manziel's alcohol use pre-draft. I wouldn't expect Skip to stay consistent.
Loggains showed the text to owner Jimmy Haslam, who encouraged GM Ray
Farmer, coach Mike Pettine and coordinator Kyle Shanahan to trade up to
take Manziel. The Browns did, from 26 to 22.
But the GM, coach and coordinator were not sold on Manziel. I said on
air the next morning this was the wrong place for a quarterback whose
coaches and execs must be united in their belief in him and his
crazy-competitive playmaking genius. This, I said, will not work.
Me, me, me, me. Skip said this or that "on air." I wonder if Skip could write a column without once referencing his own opinion or in any way trying to bring the subject of the column back around to himself? Most definitely not. Remember, Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for Robert Griffin when he had his great rookie season. I'm not entirely sure what this means, so forget I brought it up.
The Browns lost last year's starter, Brian Hoyer, a Pettine favorite, to free agency but have signed Josh McCown and Thad Lewis and
recently (according to an ESPN report) tried to trade for Bradford.
Manziel no longer appears to be in the Browns' plans -- and shouldn't
have been in the first place.
Manziel needs a second chance with a GM and coach who completely buy in.
Maybe he'll prove to be nothing but a bust. The other five did not.
The other five quarterbacks that Skip caped up for weren't busts, but neither were quarterbacks that Skip proudly tells his readers he never liked and look at how right he was about that. Mark Sanchez wasn't a bust if Tim Tebow wasn't a bust, Sam Bradford hasn't been a bust, and Alex Smith is a lot of things, but he's also been a better quarterback than the six Skip has listed here as QB's he was temporarily right about.
I can't predict injury or addiction or sorry situations. But I must
admit, if I were a hotly debated draftee, I wouldn't want me pushing for
me.
It's not like Skip is a well-known personnel genius or anything like that. He's just a guy with a hot take who likes to take guesses and then make excuses if he is wrong. But yes, I wouldn't want you speaking about me at all if I were a draftee. I would prefer you just disappear or try to write a column that isn't simply about you.
Showing posts with label mark sanchez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mark sanchez. Show all posts
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
12 comments MMQB Review: Rex Ryan Ruins the Jets Season Even Though It Was Already Ruined Edition
Peter King tried to help Chuck Pagano search for motivation through tragedy in last week's MMQB. Peter also slightly bemoaned the Ravens trading Anquan Boldin, yet again, and told us what a productive awesome offense the Rams will have this season. Unfortunately, the running back and offensive line positions aren't exactly a sure-thing to be even above average, but---
(Peter King breaks in yelling) "Look! Something shiny!"
What was I writing about again? I can't remember. Anyway, Peter gave us a rundown of the NFL camps he visited and talked about how Jon Gruden (gasps in surprise) still wants to be an NFL head coach. This week Peter asks if Arian Foster's (I always accidentally spell it "Fister" everytime I write his name...what's wrong with me? Don't answer that) workload is catching up to him, talks about ESPN and Frontline (isn't Frontline a type of anti-tick cream-ish thing for cats?), and offers us an exclusive chance to be in his daughter's Fantasy Football league, which sounds like a weird prize to me.
Battle of the heavyweights here Sunday. When it was mostly first-teamers versus first-teamers through the first half, the score was the rejuvenated Saints (with some frisky new pups on defense) 17, Texans (minus J.J. Watt and Arian Foster) 16. If the Saints can play defense, they have a chance to play deep into January.
Fortunately the Saints have Rob Ryan as their defensive coordinator. He has turned so many defenses around, but only in his head, I can't see how the Saints aren't a top-5 defense this year.
If the Texans can get 16 games out of the idled Foster, they can win the Super Bowl.
The Texans have gotten 16 games out of Foster twice in his career and neither time did they win the Super Bowl. The Texans "could" win the Super Bowl if they get 16 games out of him, so I guess this statement isn't exactly Peter going too far out on a limb.
The bizarrely undrafted Foster, of course, has been an incredibly productive back over the past three years,
It's been discussed widely why Arian Foster wasn't drafted of course, so I'm not sure why Peter is still confused. Very few people immediately after the 2009 draft were saying it is odd Foster wasn't drafted, but now it is "bizarre" Foster wasn't drafted...or at least is bizarre to those like Peter who won't do any research as to why Foster wasn't drafted. Here are the reasons why Foster wasn't drafted:
1. Running backs are being devalued. It's just the simple fact of the matter the NFL is a passing league now. Foster was around the 20th rated running back in the 2009 NFL Draft. 22 running backs were chosen in the draft.
2. Foster was a part of a running back by committee in his senior year at Tennessee which resulted in him only putting up 570 yards on 131 carries with one touchdown. Those aren't numbers that really entices the NFL to draft you.
3. To add into Foster's sub-par senior year, there were also issues with Foster fumbling (but only in key times, which makes the fumbles stick out more) and pass-protecting. Add into the fact the Phillip Fulmer Tennessee coaching staff did not give rave reviews about Foster to NFL scouts and it made it hard for the NFL to justify drafting him.
4. When it came time for the Combine, Foster had a pulled hamstring so he couldn't run. That's not enticing for NFL scouts either. If you are a running back who had a sub-par senior year performing well at the Combine is a good way to catch an NFL scout's eye.
5. Then at Foster's Pro Day he ran a 4.71 40-yard dash. That's not exactly fast for a running back.
So Foster was a non-productive running back who had a college coaching staff that clearly didn't believe in him and found him hard to coach. To make matters worse, Foster was injured at the Combine and didn't put up good numbers on his Pro Day. The only thing "bizarre" in this situation is that Peter King thinks it was bizarre for Foster to go undrafted. It doesn't make sense in retrospect, but it made sense at the time.
He returned to practice last week amid concern he might be ready for the start of the season but not ready for a 325-carry grind. (Plus, of course, however many times he’d have to carry the ball in the playoffs.)
Foster had 650 carries in college. He's a workhorse when healthy.
“I’m fine,’” said Foster. “My body feels great. I actually think all this time [off] might help.”
“Why?” I said.
Why would time off from playing football help a football player's body feel better? Really, Peter? You don't understand why rest might make a person's body feel better?
Foster was treated with injections to relieve pain in his back, and he said he’s pain-free now. His doctors cleared him to resume all football activity, and he said, “They think it’s over, but you never know.”
If Arian Foster was Robert Griffin he would call a weekly press conference to update everyone on how his back is feeling and then do as many interviews as possible updating us on how his back is feeling. Foster would also make sure there was a camera on him at all times in order to let everyone know exactly how his rehab is going in order to make sure his name stays in the news.
“My body feels great,” he said. “It’s because I haven’t had the grind of camp.
Think about it: During the season, you never play football six days in a row. You get your body tired and worn down during training camp. When you don’t have that on you, you feel fresh.
I think this is basic common sense, but what do I know? I'm not sure why Peter's reaction to learning Foster feels fresher was "why?"
Let the debate between old and new school begin. Don’t tell Mike Tomlin this; he thinks you have to toughen up your players in camp in order to play tough during the season. But all of you out there prepping for your drafts—you’ll have to ask yourself if you’ve got the third or fourth pick and are thinking seriously of Foster, “Do I feel lucky?”
Great fantasy football advice from Peter. When I join his daughter's fantasy football league I will consider this advice very seriously.
The Eagles could run 1,200 plays.
If Andy Reid were still the head coach of the Eagles, then 200 of these would be screen passes.
Now, Vick threw two brainlock passes during the game—one an interception, one while he was going down for a sack that was the classic careless Vick we’ve seen at times in his star-crossed career. And this was probably his worst offensive performance of the three preseason games, though his numbers were good. “The thing I’m most proud of is I didn’t approach this preseason the way I approached the last three or four years. I came to play,” Vick said.
I'm not a big Mike Vick fan. I have never have been and probably never will be, but the current Eagles offense seems perfect for him. Still, didn't we hear that Vick didn't always practice hard while he was with the Falcons, he was the last person there and the first to leave and that sometimes he didn't seem motivated to improve? Then when he re-joined the NFL after doing his stint in jail I remember him stating that was going to change and he was a new type of player with a new work ethic. Now it appears over the past couple of seasons Vick really hasn't had anyone pushing him for the starting job that hard and he apparently wasn't "coming to play" during the preseason. Once Foles pushed him for the job, he started "coming to play" and working hard again. I guess my question is what will happen once Vick has locked up the starting quarterback job again? Will he again not entirely be dedicated to improving himself as the Eagles starting quarterback?
Two impressive things about the Saints. One: their rookie class. Kenny Stills, the fifth-round receiver from Oklahoma, made a great catch against the Texans down the left sideline on a bomb,
A Saints receiver caught a really long pass in a preseason game! Clearly this is proof the team is going places. Peter thinks this Saints offense is going to be one to watch.
Two: defensive end Cameron Jordan, who had a sack and was buzzing around Matt Schaub for much of the first quarter.
Jordan wasn't actually trying to sack Schaub, but as he was buzzing around Schaub he accidentally tripped him and got rewarded with a sack. Otherwise, Jordan prefers to just run around the quarterback creating a sort of invisible barrier to where the quarterback knows there is pressure around him, but Jordan prefers not to sack the quarterback. He prefers just buzzing around the quarterback in circles.
Jordan and J.J. Watt were the best big ends in the 2011 draft, and he looked to have some of Watt’s quickness, spin moves and strength Sunday.
Because it seems all defensive line comparisons automatically go back to J.J. Watt. Is the defensive lineman like J.J. Watt or not? That's all that Peter cares about.
Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan plans to move Jordan—son of former NFL tight end Steve Jordan—around on the defense.
How can you not trust Rob Ryan's decision-making give his record as a defensive coordinator? So clearly this is a brilliant decision.
“I was a Swiss Army knife last year,” he said after the game.
I think it's fair to say Cameron Jordan buzzed around many spots on the Saints defense last year.
The head coach of the Jets, Rex Ryan, committed career suicide Saturday night in New Jersey. On the 52nd play of a preseason game, with 11:21 left in the fourth quarter (a point of the game when no starting player plays in August), behind an offensive line full of backups, when his opening-day quarterback appeared to have no idea he was going to play, with undrafted free agents Joseph Collins from Weber State and Ryan Spadola from Lehigh running down passes, Ryan inserted Mark Sanchez into the game.
I think it's obvious why Rex Ryan did this. He hates Mark Sanchez and wanted to watch Sanchez get hurt. Maybe he wanted to pay back Sanchez for playing so poorly last year. His plan worked. But...the Jets are Ryan's team and as the head coach he can insert whichever players into the game that he wants to. Of course there are ramifications and repercussions for injuring Sanchez, but Ryan was going to be fired after this season anyway if the Jets failed to play well, so he probably just expedited the process.
“Why compete, period?” Ryan explained after Sanchez, leveled by Giants defensive tackle Marvin Austin on his ninth play in the game, went out with a shoulder injury. “We put him out there with guys. We’re there to win.”
You play to win the game! Though I guess if Rex Ryan was trying to win the game that still doesn't explain why he put Mark Sanchez in the game. Because see, Sanchez isn't very good and the best way to win is to not have Sanchez on the field. Well, that is unless the backup quarterback for your team is a rookie who isn't ready to start in the NFL.
The fourth quarter of a preseason game is no place to strut his manly stuff and repeat the silly mantra, “We’re there to win.”
I am sure Peter thinks if the Jets had just kept Darrelle Revis this never would have happened. You trade Revis, you invite franchise destruction.
Next year, Ryan’s either going to be on a network set doing some pregame show, or coordinating some defense somewhere. The Adam Sandler movie star-turn? A souvenir of a time long past.
Just like Adam Sandler is a souvenir of the past! In fact, the only way Adam Sandler could further ruin his movie career is if he cast Mark Sanchez in his next painfully unfunny film. So I would say Rex Ryan appearing in an Adam Sandler movie sounds about right.
Can the Jets do some ticket deal like six-for-the-price-of-one? Six: in honor of their needlessly fallen quarterback’s number, of course.
I realize this is a big story because it deals with the Jets, but is Sanchez being injured really that big of a deal to the Jets chances this season? It's not like he is even an average quarterback. It's not like he was even a slightly below average quarterback last season. He was awful. So Peter trying to squeeze some more mileage out of this story by acting as if the Jets are going 4-12 because of their fallen quarterback's injury is silly. Sanchez was going to win the starting quarterback job backing into it. He didn't suck as badly as Geno Smith sucked, so that's how he was going to get the starting quarterback job. Let's not act like this injury took the Jets out of playoff contention. This took them from a 5-11 team to a 3-13 team.
Observations from a third preseason game in Jacksonville:
1. There is a team in Jacksonville? Peter didn't know that.
2. Why didn't the Jets sign Tim Tebow? Didn't Tebow go to Florida State? It makes sense for Tebow to play in Jacksonville in that case.
3. Brett Favre always liked Jacksonville.
4. The Jaguars should have drafted Tavon Austin.
1. Jacksonville’s optimistic about Blaine Gabbert being ready to play against Kansas City in the season opener, and maybe he can play 22 days after cracking a bone at the base of his thumb against the Jets last week. But I shook hands with Gabbert on the field before the game, and his right thumb is casted, with the cast due off, tentatively, four days before the opener.
Imagine being a Jaguars season ticket seller or ticket holder. Can they offer some kind of six-for-the-price-of-one deal? Six of course in honor of Gabbert's yards per attempt in 2012. This injury takes the Jaguars from having a 4-12 season to probably not changing that record at all.
2. The Jags are serious about wedging Denard Robinson into the game in as many as five spots—wide receiver, slot receiver, running back, quarterback and kick returner.
Gregg Easterbrook is still confused as to why the Jaguars just didn't sign Tim Tebow. After all, Tebow can play zero positions as effectively as Denard Robinson plays five positions.
On Caldwell’s magnetic team depth chart board, right next to the quarterbacks and running backs, was a category labeled “OW.” For “offensive weapon.” That’s the label Robinson gave himself after Jacksonville picked him in the fifth round last April.
But Gregg Easterbrook wants to know why you would spend a fifth round choice on Robinson when you have Tebow's ability to play zero positions available to you? He's vexed.
I wouldn’t trust Blackmon after his track record of alcohol abuse.
Peter doesn't trust anyone who has a history of alcohol abuse since he heard Bernie Kosar make negative comments about the Rams. That was a betrayal that cut very deep.
And to hear the Jaguars insiders talk glowingly about opening-day starters Cecil Shorts III and Ace Sanders—the Pedroia-sized Jag version of Tavon Austin
Who had $500 in the "Peter King will make a Dustin Pedroia comparison in the same sentence where he mentions Tavon Austin" pool? No one? There should have been a pool for this.
5. I have no idea who’s going to rush the passer.
Denard Robinson?
I have no idea who’s going to cover Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne or Kenny Britt.
Denard Robinson?
Gus Bradley’s always been good at figuring ways to invent pressure, and he’d better be this year. This sets up to be one of the worst pass defenses in football this year.
I hate to break it to Peter, but there are limits to inventing pressure. A coach can't invent defensive pressure if there aren't guys on the team who can pressure the other team. Bradley had two really good corners to play with in Seattle so that made things a little easier for him in inventing pressure.
Bray learned a hard lesson in the realities of the relationship between the NFL and Big TV on Thursday, a few days after commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Network president Steve Bornstein and two ESPN executives clashed over the reporting of the issue by ESPN and Frontline. The league believes the reporting of the story has been one-sided, showing team doctors often ignoring players’ best interests to return them to games when they weren’t physically fit to do so.
It's almost like the NFL has a vested interest in these types of reports and won't allow their partners to participate if they don't like the type of reporting that will be shown on the program.
The project both sides were working on, a two-part documentary called “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” will still air on Oct. 8 and 15, just not without the ESPN imprimatur. But much of the reporting on the show was done by ESPN reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, who have a book coming out about the league’s failings as a watchdog for scores of former players suffering from head trauma.
This is sort of like how ESPN all of a sudden decided they didn't want Bruce Feldman to publish a book even though they knew what the book was about beforehand.
Did ESPN have to do anything? No. The network holds rights to NFL games through 2021, and the NFL had no leverage here. The only thing the NFL might have been able to do here is fudge with future ESPN schedules, though that’s not in anyone’s best interests, because the NFL wants the TV ratings to be as good as the networks want them to be.
So basically ESPN just pulled out because they wanted to support the NFL, fully knowing if they didn't support the NFL there wasn't a ton of leverage to where the NFL could punish ESPN for not complying with their wishes. This almost makes it worse that ESPN pulled out since they didn't have to be afraid of what the NFL could do to them.
But look what’s happened here. Now that the story has broken that the league leaned hard on ESPN, the public has lashed back hard at the NFL for trying to curtail the network’s reporting—whether that’s exactly what happened or not. (And surely the league wanted the ESPN reporting to take a different tack.) So the result is going to be that the two Frontline stories will have far bigger ratings now. Think about it. You’re a football fan. You see the headlines about the NFL reportedly pressuring ESPN to report the concussions story differently, or not at all. You had no idea before this happened that any such documentary was even in the works. But now, admit it: You’re now might actually watch this two-part show. I would have anyway, but now it’s an urgent watch.
I hate to agree with Peter on this, but I tend to 100% agree. I didn't even know there was a documentary that would have been shown on this issue and there was no chance I was watching it. Now, I may DVR it just to see what is reported and what the NFL had such an issue with being reported.
It’s unrealistic to think that if the NFL was so strident about its objections to the reporting, ESPN at a corporate level wasn’t going to do something to smooth things over.
It's not unrealistic, especially given the fact ESPN is in the business of entertainment and hard-hitting journalism when possible, but they are certainly aren't going to risk billion dollar relationships for the sake of hard-hitting reporting.
“You listen to our strength and conditioning guys. I asked them the other day from top to bottom if you can rank our guys, and Michael was our number one in terms of his attitude, work ethic, helping other players, everything in terms of weight room, off‑the‑field things.
—Eagles coach Chip Kelly on Michael Vick, two days after naming him the Eagles’ starting quarterback.
Again, being jaded like I am, I can't help but believe Vick is great off-the-field, but on-the-field is my issue with him. It's Vick's motivation in terms of work ethic that seems to show up only when he is competing for a spot, but his motivation seems to wane as he gets closer to being named the starting quarterback or already knows the position is his for the taking. Good for Chip Kelly to motivate Vick this offseason. It was a smart move to force Vick to compete for the starting quarterback position.
“You know what the greatest honor I’ve ever received as a player is? In my fourth year and my fifth year, I was named team captain. That is to this day the single greatest achievement of my career as a football player, because the men in this room chose me to lead them.”
—New England quarterback Tom Brady, speaking to the Michigan football team in Ann Arbor Thursday morning at the invitation of coach Brady Hoke.
Just as a side note, one of the criticisms heard from Panthers fans in regard to Cam Newton is that the team hasn't elected him a team captain yet and that's why he isn't a leader. It took Tom Brady until he had won a Super Bowl to be named a team captain, so it doesn't always happen overnight. This is important to know when judging any player who hasn't been named team captain yet. Sometimes it takes time.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Delta to Jacksonville, Saturday morning. Front door closes. You know the drill. Cell phones off. Female flight attendant to me, firmly: “Sir, please power down your cell phone.” Which I did. Flight attendant to white-haired man in the seat behind me, “Sir, please power down your cell phone.”
Notice how Peter says "You know the drill," yet HE HAD NOT TURNED OFF HIS CELL PHONE YET EITHER. He had to be told by the flight attendant to turn off his phone. So yes, we know the drill, but do you know the drill Peter? This story isn't about Peter, but I can't help but laugh at how he had to be firmly asked by the flight attendant to power down his phone.
The man, maybe 67, says, “I have it in airplane mode. It’s okay.”
Flight attendant: “Sir, it has to be powered off for takeoff. Completely off.”
The man turns into Dr. Evil,
He started telling a long story about his odd upbringing and then began rapping "It's a Hard Knock Life" with his midget sidekick?
spewing about his dog dying of cirrhosis of the liver, and how can she do this to him, and the phone takes a long time to power off, and, well, he was spewing so fast I missed some of it. But lots of verbal bile spews.
This guy was basically doing the same thing Peter does to a cab driver who doesn't know his way around the city or when the coffee at the hotel isn't ready at 6am.
Also, I can't believe that Peter really missed part of the verbal bile spews. He writes down the conversation of complete strangers who are across the room on the phone but he couldn't get the transcript of an argument on a plane? Peter must be out of practice in writing down people's conversations. Look for a long, transcribed conversation in next week's MMQB.
2. I think, after this weekend, the Jadaveon Clowney Draft Sweepstakes has three leading contenders: the Raiders, the Jets, the Jaguars.
What's going to be hilarious is that all three of these teams could need quarterbacks after this season as well. So when a college quarterback blows up this year I think it will be hilarious if one of these teams overthinks the draft and takes one of the quarterbacks over Clowney. Obviously a lot can change in the next eight months, but at this point Clowney looks like the #1 overall pick. Defensive end isn't as sexy of a position to draft #1 overall as quarterback would be though.
3. I think if E.J. Manuel can’t play in Week 1 against New England, I vote for Matt Leinart. Always thought he deserved one more shot.
I did too and then I stopped thinking he deserved one more shot because Peter King thought Leinart deserved one more shot.
4. I think the toughest thing about making my picks this year—you’ll see them in Sports Illustrated this week—is how I simply couldn’t find that worst-to-first team that happens every year. I just couldn’t find one. I hate the fact that my picks are mostly predictable, but this was just one of those preseasons.
It's a good thing the point of preseason predictions isn't to be shocking, but to attempt to correctly pick the records of each NFL team.
6. I think I’m just not feeling Hard Knocks: Return to Bengaldom this year. No buzz. No real excitement. I do like the inside stuff, and the control I see Marvin Lewis showing over his team, but there’s not a story that tugs at me.
What "Hard Knocks" needs in Peter's opinion is more Meryl Streep. She is such a gem.
8. I think the best play I saw all weekend was Ben Tate’s terrific block on the onrushing Will Smith, taking him out before he could clobber Matt Schaub. That’s the kind of play coaches notice more than great runs.
Great play by the Texans backup running back here. This coming from Peter in the same MMQB where he basically said the Texans Super Bowl hopes ride on Arian Foster being healthy for 16 games. Maybe if Ben Tate can block and run with the football the Texans won't be in such bad shape for a few games without Foster. Either way, Peter is wrong. The Texans Super Bowl hopes ride on Matt Schaub more than anyone else on the Texans roster.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
c. Larry David, for once, did a clunker with Clear History. To me, it plodded. Got through about 50 minutes and said, “Enough.”
It definitely could have used some more Meryl Streep. What a gem. She is a national treasure who deserves to be in an Adam Sandler movie at least once.
f. Happy 30th birthday, Laura King! Many more! Like, 70 of them!
I'm sure Peter's daughter will be thrilled this takes the place of a card for her birthday.
g. All I know is, after the Jake Peavy performance Sunday night at Dodger Stadium—he threw a complete game against a good lineup—I want him to be on my team in pickup anything.
Peter had never heard of this Jake Peavy fellow before he joined the Red Sox. It's amazing to Peter how many good baseball players are out there that he just hasn't heard of before.
h. Hey! pay attention to my Twitter feed this week. You’ll have a chance to win a spot in my daughter Mary Beth’s fantasy football league up in Seattle. I’m in it. So there’s ninth place to battle for—with me.
This probably has to be the weirdest award that could be given out by Peter. A spot in his daughter's fantasy league? I know people play public leagues all the time with strangers, but for Peter to be giving away a spot in his daughter's league is a little weird. Maybe a spot in one of Peter's fantasy leagues, but why would I want to be in a league with his daughter?
The Adieu Haiku
Rex Ryan. Hot seat.
Jon Gruden studies Geno
down there in Tampa.
Because sportswriters are contractually obligated to tie Jon Gruden's name to any potential head coaching job in the NFL. I'm starting to believe part of the reason Gruden will be so highly sought after is because sportswriters keep telling us that he is going to be highly sought after by constantly mentioning his name for open (or not open) head coaching vacancies.
(Peter King breaks in yelling) "Look! Something shiny!"
What was I writing about again? I can't remember. Anyway, Peter gave us a rundown of the NFL camps he visited and talked about how Jon Gruden (gasps in surprise) still wants to be an NFL head coach. This week Peter asks if Arian Foster's (I always accidentally spell it "Fister" everytime I write his name...what's wrong with me? Don't answer that) workload is catching up to him, talks about ESPN and Frontline (isn't Frontline a type of anti-tick cream-ish thing for cats?), and offers us an exclusive chance to be in his daughter's Fantasy Football league, which sounds like a weird prize to me.
Battle of the heavyweights here Sunday. When it was mostly first-teamers versus first-teamers through the first half, the score was the rejuvenated Saints (with some frisky new pups on defense) 17, Texans (minus J.J. Watt and Arian Foster) 16. If the Saints can play defense, they have a chance to play deep into January.
Fortunately the Saints have Rob Ryan as their defensive coordinator. He has turned so many defenses around, but only in his head, I can't see how the Saints aren't a top-5 defense this year.
If the Texans can get 16 games out of the idled Foster, they can win the Super Bowl.
The Texans have gotten 16 games out of Foster twice in his career and neither time did they win the Super Bowl. The Texans "could" win the Super Bowl if they get 16 games out of him, so I guess this statement isn't exactly Peter going too far out on a limb.
The bizarrely undrafted Foster, of course, has been an incredibly productive back over the past three years,
It's been discussed widely why Arian Foster wasn't drafted of course, so I'm not sure why Peter is still confused. Very few people immediately after the 2009 draft were saying it is odd Foster wasn't drafted, but now it is "bizarre" Foster wasn't drafted...or at least is bizarre to those like Peter who won't do any research as to why Foster wasn't drafted. Here are the reasons why Foster wasn't drafted:
1. Running backs are being devalued. It's just the simple fact of the matter the NFL is a passing league now. Foster was around the 20th rated running back in the 2009 NFL Draft. 22 running backs were chosen in the draft.
2. Foster was a part of a running back by committee in his senior year at Tennessee which resulted in him only putting up 570 yards on 131 carries with one touchdown. Those aren't numbers that really entices the NFL to draft you.
3. To add into Foster's sub-par senior year, there were also issues with Foster fumbling (but only in key times, which makes the fumbles stick out more) and pass-protecting. Add into the fact the Phillip Fulmer Tennessee coaching staff did not give rave reviews about Foster to NFL scouts and it made it hard for the NFL to justify drafting him.
4. When it came time for the Combine, Foster had a pulled hamstring so he couldn't run. That's not enticing for NFL scouts either. If you are a running back who had a sub-par senior year performing well at the Combine is a good way to catch an NFL scout's eye.
5. Then at Foster's Pro Day he ran a 4.71 40-yard dash. That's not exactly fast for a running back.
So Foster was a non-productive running back who had a college coaching staff that clearly didn't believe in him and found him hard to coach. To make matters worse, Foster was injured at the Combine and didn't put up good numbers on his Pro Day. The only thing "bizarre" in this situation is that Peter King thinks it was bizarre for Foster to go undrafted. It doesn't make sense in retrospect, but it made sense at the time.
He returned to practice last week amid concern he might be ready for the start of the season but not ready for a 325-carry grind. (Plus, of course, however many times he’d have to carry the ball in the playoffs.)
Foster had 650 carries in college. He's a workhorse when healthy.
“I’m fine,’” said Foster. “My body feels great. I actually think all this time [off] might help.”
“Why?” I said.
Why would time off from playing football help a football player's body feel better? Really, Peter? You don't understand why rest might make a person's body feel better?
Foster was treated with injections to relieve pain in his back, and he said he’s pain-free now. His doctors cleared him to resume all football activity, and he said, “They think it’s over, but you never know.”
If Arian Foster was Robert Griffin he would call a weekly press conference to update everyone on how his back is feeling and then do as many interviews as possible updating us on how his back is feeling. Foster would also make sure there was a camera on him at all times in order to let everyone know exactly how his rehab is going in order to make sure his name stays in the news.
“My body feels great,” he said. “It’s because I haven’t had the grind of camp.
Think about it: During the season, you never play football six days in a row. You get your body tired and worn down during training camp. When you don’t have that on you, you feel fresh.
I think this is basic common sense, but what do I know? I'm not sure why Peter's reaction to learning Foster feels fresher was "why?"
Let the debate between old and new school begin. Don’t tell Mike Tomlin this; he thinks you have to toughen up your players in camp in order to play tough during the season. But all of you out there prepping for your drafts—you’ll have to ask yourself if you’ve got the third or fourth pick and are thinking seriously of Foster, “Do I feel lucky?”
Great fantasy football advice from Peter. When I join his daughter's fantasy football league I will consider this advice very seriously.
The Eagles could run 1,200 plays.
If Andy Reid were still the head coach of the Eagles, then 200 of these would be screen passes.
Now, Vick threw two brainlock passes during the game—one an interception, one while he was going down for a sack that was the classic careless Vick we’ve seen at times in his star-crossed career. And this was probably his worst offensive performance of the three preseason games, though his numbers were good. “The thing I’m most proud of is I didn’t approach this preseason the way I approached the last three or four years. I came to play,” Vick said.
I'm not a big Mike Vick fan. I have never have been and probably never will be, but the current Eagles offense seems perfect for him. Still, didn't we hear that Vick didn't always practice hard while he was with the Falcons, he was the last person there and the first to leave and that sometimes he didn't seem motivated to improve? Then when he re-joined the NFL after doing his stint in jail I remember him stating that was going to change and he was a new type of player with a new work ethic. Now it appears over the past couple of seasons Vick really hasn't had anyone pushing him for the starting job that hard and he apparently wasn't "coming to play" during the preseason. Once Foles pushed him for the job, he started "coming to play" and working hard again. I guess my question is what will happen once Vick has locked up the starting quarterback job again? Will he again not entirely be dedicated to improving himself as the Eagles starting quarterback?
Two impressive things about the Saints. One: their rookie class. Kenny Stills, the fifth-round receiver from Oklahoma, made a great catch against the Texans down the left sideline on a bomb,
A Saints receiver caught a really long pass in a preseason game! Clearly this is proof the team is going places. Peter thinks this Saints offense is going to be one to watch.
Two: defensive end Cameron Jordan, who had a sack and was buzzing around Matt Schaub for much of the first quarter.
Jordan wasn't actually trying to sack Schaub, but as he was buzzing around Schaub he accidentally tripped him and got rewarded with a sack. Otherwise, Jordan prefers to just run around the quarterback creating a sort of invisible barrier to where the quarterback knows there is pressure around him, but Jordan prefers not to sack the quarterback. He prefers just buzzing around the quarterback in circles.
Jordan and J.J. Watt were the best big ends in the 2011 draft, and he looked to have some of Watt’s quickness, spin moves and strength Sunday.
Because it seems all defensive line comparisons automatically go back to J.J. Watt. Is the defensive lineman like J.J. Watt or not? That's all that Peter cares about.
Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan plans to move Jordan—son of former NFL tight end Steve Jordan—around on the defense.
How can you not trust Rob Ryan's decision-making give his record as a defensive coordinator? So clearly this is a brilliant decision.
“I was a Swiss Army knife last year,” he said after the game.
I think it's fair to say Cameron Jordan buzzed around many spots on the Saints defense last year.
The head coach of the Jets, Rex Ryan, committed career suicide Saturday night in New Jersey. On the 52nd play of a preseason game, with 11:21 left in the fourth quarter (a point of the game when no starting player plays in August), behind an offensive line full of backups, when his opening-day quarterback appeared to have no idea he was going to play, with undrafted free agents Joseph Collins from Weber State and Ryan Spadola from Lehigh running down passes, Ryan inserted Mark Sanchez into the game.
I think it's obvious why Rex Ryan did this. He hates Mark Sanchez and wanted to watch Sanchez get hurt. Maybe he wanted to pay back Sanchez for playing so poorly last year. His plan worked. But...the Jets are Ryan's team and as the head coach he can insert whichever players into the game that he wants to. Of course there are ramifications and repercussions for injuring Sanchez, but Ryan was going to be fired after this season anyway if the Jets failed to play well, so he probably just expedited the process.
“Why compete, period?” Ryan explained after Sanchez, leveled by Giants defensive tackle Marvin Austin on his ninth play in the game, went out with a shoulder injury. “We put him out there with guys. We’re there to win.”
You play to win the game! Though I guess if Rex Ryan was trying to win the game that still doesn't explain why he put Mark Sanchez in the game. Because see, Sanchez isn't very good and the best way to win is to not have Sanchez on the field. Well, that is unless the backup quarterback for your team is a rookie who isn't ready to start in the NFL.
The fourth quarter of a preseason game is no place to strut his manly stuff and repeat the silly mantra, “We’re there to win.”
I am sure Peter thinks if the Jets had just kept Darrelle Revis this never would have happened. You trade Revis, you invite franchise destruction.
Next year, Ryan’s either going to be on a network set doing some pregame show, or coordinating some defense somewhere. The Adam Sandler movie star-turn? A souvenir of a time long past.
Just like Adam Sandler is a souvenir of the past! In fact, the only way Adam Sandler could further ruin his movie career is if he cast Mark Sanchez in his next painfully unfunny film. So I would say Rex Ryan appearing in an Adam Sandler movie sounds about right.
Can the Jets do some ticket deal like six-for-the-price-of-one? Six: in honor of their needlessly fallen quarterback’s number, of course.
I realize this is a big story because it deals with the Jets, but is Sanchez being injured really that big of a deal to the Jets chances this season? It's not like he is even an average quarterback. It's not like he was even a slightly below average quarterback last season. He was awful. So Peter trying to squeeze some more mileage out of this story by acting as if the Jets are going 4-12 because of their fallen quarterback's injury is silly. Sanchez was going to win the starting quarterback job backing into it. He didn't suck as badly as Geno Smith sucked, so that's how he was going to get the starting quarterback job. Let's not act like this injury took the Jets out of playoff contention. This took them from a 5-11 team to a 3-13 team.
Observations from a third preseason game in Jacksonville:
1. There is a team in Jacksonville? Peter didn't know that.
2. Why didn't the Jets sign Tim Tebow? Didn't Tebow go to Florida State? It makes sense for Tebow to play in Jacksonville in that case.
3. Brett Favre always liked Jacksonville.
4. The Jaguars should have drafted Tavon Austin.
1. Jacksonville’s optimistic about Blaine Gabbert being ready to play against Kansas City in the season opener, and maybe he can play 22 days after cracking a bone at the base of his thumb against the Jets last week. But I shook hands with Gabbert on the field before the game, and his right thumb is casted, with the cast due off, tentatively, four days before the opener.
Imagine being a Jaguars season ticket seller or ticket holder. Can they offer some kind of six-for-the-price-of-one deal? Six of course in honor of Gabbert's yards per attempt in 2012. This injury takes the Jaguars from having a 4-12 season to probably not changing that record at all.
2. The Jags are serious about wedging Denard Robinson into the game in as many as five spots—wide receiver, slot receiver, running back, quarterback and kick returner.
Gregg Easterbrook is still confused as to why the Jaguars just didn't sign Tim Tebow. After all, Tebow can play zero positions as effectively as Denard Robinson plays five positions.
On Caldwell’s magnetic team depth chart board, right next to the quarterbacks and running backs, was a category labeled “OW.” For “offensive weapon.” That’s the label Robinson gave himself after Jacksonville picked him in the fifth round last April.
But Gregg Easterbrook wants to know why you would spend a fifth round choice on Robinson when you have Tebow's ability to play zero positions available to you? He's vexed.
I wouldn’t trust Blackmon after his track record of alcohol abuse.
Peter doesn't trust anyone who has a history of alcohol abuse since he heard Bernie Kosar make negative comments about the Rams. That was a betrayal that cut very deep.
And to hear the Jaguars insiders talk glowingly about opening-day starters Cecil Shorts III and Ace Sanders—the Pedroia-sized Jag version of Tavon Austin
Who had $500 in the "Peter King will make a Dustin Pedroia comparison in the same sentence where he mentions Tavon Austin" pool? No one? There should have been a pool for this.
5. I have no idea who’s going to rush the passer.
Denard Robinson?
I have no idea who’s going to cover Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne or Kenny Britt.
Denard Robinson?
Gus Bradley’s always been good at figuring ways to invent pressure, and he’d better be this year. This sets up to be one of the worst pass defenses in football this year.
I hate to break it to Peter, but there are limits to inventing pressure. A coach can't invent defensive pressure if there aren't guys on the team who can pressure the other team. Bradley had two really good corners to play with in Seattle so that made things a little easier for him in inventing pressure.
Bray learned a hard lesson in the realities of the relationship between the NFL and Big TV on Thursday, a few days after commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Network president Steve Bornstein and two ESPN executives clashed over the reporting of the issue by ESPN and Frontline. The league believes the reporting of the story has been one-sided, showing team doctors often ignoring players’ best interests to return them to games when they weren’t physically fit to do so.
It's almost like the NFL has a vested interest in these types of reports and won't allow their partners to participate if they don't like the type of reporting that will be shown on the program.
The project both sides were working on, a two-part documentary called “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” will still air on Oct. 8 and 15, just not without the ESPN imprimatur. But much of the reporting on the show was done by ESPN reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, who have a book coming out about the league’s failings as a watchdog for scores of former players suffering from head trauma.
This is sort of like how ESPN all of a sudden decided they didn't want Bruce Feldman to publish a book even though they knew what the book was about beforehand.
Did ESPN have to do anything? No. The network holds rights to NFL games through 2021, and the NFL had no leverage here. The only thing the NFL might have been able to do here is fudge with future ESPN schedules, though that’s not in anyone’s best interests, because the NFL wants the TV ratings to be as good as the networks want them to be.
So basically ESPN just pulled out because they wanted to support the NFL, fully knowing if they didn't support the NFL there wasn't a ton of leverage to where the NFL could punish ESPN for not complying with their wishes. This almost makes it worse that ESPN pulled out since they didn't have to be afraid of what the NFL could do to them.
But look what’s happened here. Now that the story has broken that the league leaned hard on ESPN, the public has lashed back hard at the NFL for trying to curtail the network’s reporting—whether that’s exactly what happened or not. (And surely the league wanted the ESPN reporting to take a different tack.) So the result is going to be that the two Frontline stories will have far bigger ratings now. Think about it. You’re a football fan. You see the headlines about the NFL reportedly pressuring ESPN to report the concussions story differently, or not at all. You had no idea before this happened that any such documentary was even in the works. But now, admit it: You’re now might actually watch this two-part show. I would have anyway, but now it’s an urgent watch.
I hate to agree with Peter on this, but I tend to 100% agree. I didn't even know there was a documentary that would have been shown on this issue and there was no chance I was watching it. Now, I may DVR it just to see what is reported and what the NFL had such an issue with being reported.
It’s unrealistic to think that if the NFL was so strident about its objections to the reporting, ESPN at a corporate level wasn’t going to do something to smooth things over.
It's not unrealistic, especially given the fact ESPN is in the business of entertainment and hard-hitting journalism when possible, but they are certainly aren't going to risk billion dollar relationships for the sake of hard-hitting reporting.
“You listen to our strength and conditioning guys. I asked them the other day from top to bottom if you can rank our guys, and Michael was our number one in terms of his attitude, work ethic, helping other players, everything in terms of weight room, off‑the‑field things.
—Eagles coach Chip Kelly on Michael Vick, two days after naming him the Eagles’ starting quarterback.
Again, being jaded like I am, I can't help but believe Vick is great off-the-field, but on-the-field is my issue with him. It's Vick's motivation in terms of work ethic that seems to show up only when he is competing for a spot, but his motivation seems to wane as he gets closer to being named the starting quarterback or already knows the position is his for the taking. Good for Chip Kelly to motivate Vick this offseason. It was a smart move to force Vick to compete for the starting quarterback position.
“You know what the greatest honor I’ve ever received as a player is? In my fourth year and my fifth year, I was named team captain. That is to this day the single greatest achievement of my career as a football player, because the men in this room chose me to lead them.”
—New England quarterback Tom Brady, speaking to the Michigan football team in Ann Arbor Thursday morning at the invitation of coach Brady Hoke.
Just as a side note, one of the criticisms heard from Panthers fans in regard to Cam Newton is that the team hasn't elected him a team captain yet and that's why he isn't a leader. It took Tom Brady until he had won a Super Bowl to be named a team captain, so it doesn't always happen overnight. This is important to know when judging any player who hasn't been named team captain yet. Sometimes it takes time.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Delta to Jacksonville, Saturday morning. Front door closes. You know the drill. Cell phones off. Female flight attendant to me, firmly: “Sir, please power down your cell phone.” Which I did. Flight attendant to white-haired man in the seat behind me, “Sir, please power down your cell phone.”
Notice how Peter says "You know the drill," yet HE HAD NOT TURNED OFF HIS CELL PHONE YET EITHER. He had to be told by the flight attendant to turn off his phone. So yes, we know the drill, but do you know the drill Peter? This story isn't about Peter, but I can't help but laugh at how he had to be firmly asked by the flight attendant to power down his phone.
The man, maybe 67, says, “I have it in airplane mode. It’s okay.”
Flight attendant: “Sir, it has to be powered off for takeoff. Completely off.”
The man turns into Dr. Evil,
He started telling a long story about his odd upbringing and then began rapping "It's a Hard Knock Life" with his midget sidekick?
spewing about his dog dying of cirrhosis of the liver, and how can she do this to him, and the phone takes a long time to power off, and, well, he was spewing so fast I missed some of it. But lots of verbal bile spews.
This guy was basically doing the same thing Peter does to a cab driver who doesn't know his way around the city or when the coffee at the hotel isn't ready at 6am.
Also, I can't believe that Peter really missed part of the verbal bile spews. He writes down the conversation of complete strangers who are across the room on the phone but he couldn't get the transcript of an argument on a plane? Peter must be out of practice in writing down people's conversations. Look for a long, transcribed conversation in next week's MMQB.
2. I think, after this weekend, the Jadaveon Clowney Draft Sweepstakes has three leading contenders: the Raiders, the Jets, the Jaguars.
What's going to be hilarious is that all three of these teams could need quarterbacks after this season as well. So when a college quarterback blows up this year I think it will be hilarious if one of these teams overthinks the draft and takes one of the quarterbacks over Clowney. Obviously a lot can change in the next eight months, but at this point Clowney looks like the #1 overall pick. Defensive end isn't as sexy of a position to draft #1 overall as quarterback would be though.
3. I think if E.J. Manuel can’t play in Week 1 against New England, I vote for Matt Leinart. Always thought he deserved one more shot.
I did too and then I stopped thinking he deserved one more shot because Peter King thought Leinart deserved one more shot.
4. I think the toughest thing about making my picks this year—you’ll see them in Sports Illustrated this week—is how I simply couldn’t find that worst-to-first team that happens every year. I just couldn’t find one. I hate the fact that my picks are mostly predictable, but this was just one of those preseasons.
It's a good thing the point of preseason predictions isn't to be shocking, but to attempt to correctly pick the records of each NFL team.
6. I think I’m just not feeling Hard Knocks: Return to Bengaldom this year. No buzz. No real excitement. I do like the inside stuff, and the control I see Marvin Lewis showing over his team, but there’s not a story that tugs at me.
What "Hard Knocks" needs in Peter's opinion is more Meryl Streep. She is such a gem.
8. I think the best play I saw all weekend was Ben Tate’s terrific block on the onrushing Will Smith, taking him out before he could clobber Matt Schaub. That’s the kind of play coaches notice more than great runs.
Great play by the Texans backup running back here. This coming from Peter in the same MMQB where he basically said the Texans Super Bowl hopes ride on Arian Foster being healthy for 16 games. Maybe if Ben Tate can block and run with the football the Texans won't be in such bad shape for a few games without Foster. Either way, Peter is wrong. The Texans Super Bowl hopes ride on Matt Schaub more than anyone else on the Texans roster.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
c. Larry David, for once, did a clunker with Clear History. To me, it plodded. Got through about 50 minutes and said, “Enough.”
It definitely could have used some more Meryl Streep. What a gem. She is a national treasure who deserves to be in an Adam Sandler movie at least once.
f. Happy 30th birthday, Laura King! Many more! Like, 70 of them!
I'm sure Peter's daughter will be thrilled this takes the place of a card for her birthday.
g. All I know is, after the Jake Peavy performance Sunday night at Dodger Stadium—he threw a complete game against a good lineup—I want him to be on my team in pickup anything.
Peter had never heard of this Jake Peavy fellow before he joined the Red Sox. It's amazing to Peter how many good baseball players are out there that he just hasn't heard of before.
h. Hey! pay attention to my Twitter feed this week. You’ll have a chance to win a spot in my daughter Mary Beth’s fantasy football league up in Seattle. I’m in it. So there’s ninth place to battle for—with me.
This probably has to be the weirdest award that could be given out by Peter. A spot in his daughter's fantasy league? I know people play public leagues all the time with strangers, but for Peter to be giving away a spot in his daughter's league is a little weird. Maybe a spot in one of Peter's fantasy leagues, but why would I want to be in a league with his daughter?
The Adieu Haiku
Rex Ryan. Hot seat.
Jon Gruden studies Geno
down there in Tampa.
Because sportswriters are contractually obligated to tie Jon Gruden's name to any potential head coaching job in the NFL. I'm starting to believe part of the reason Gruden will be so highly sought after is because sportswriters keep telling us that he is going to be highly sought after by constantly mentioning his name for open (or not open) head coaching vacancies.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
5 comments Filip Bondy Thinks the Jets Should Have Signed Peyton Manning Against Manning's Will
(Rex Ryan to Peyton Manning) "Peyton, it's either your brains or your signature that is going to be on this contract."
(Peyton Manning walks out of the room, rather risking death than playing for the Jets)
Sports columnists love to second-guess. It's one of their favorite pasttimes. When things go wrong for a professional or college team certain sports columnists know EXACTLY what that team should have done five months ago to make sure things didn't go wrong. If any professional or college team needs advice on what personnel moves they should make, simply wait three months and a sports columnist will be glad to say what that team should have done. Hindsight is wonderful. Filip Bondy does that today (okay, not "today" because this article is a little older) and he is actually correct in what he writes. He writes the Jets should have signed Peyton Manning this past offseason and that would have been nice. Every NFL team should have signed Peyton Manning. Unfortunately, life is not a fantasy draft, so the Jets couldn't just force Manning to play for them, instead Manning would have had to choose to play for the Jets. In fact, Manning took the Jets out of the running for his services early in his free agency. I'm not entirely sure he would have done that. These are just small details to Filip that his solution to the Jets' woes may not have been feasible. If the Jets had just thrown a bunch of money at Manning, he would be in a Jets uniform right now.
Soft-focus your brain, if that is still possible in the age of high-definition television. Imagine for a moment that Peyton Manning is the Jet quarterback, having signed a five-year deal with Mike Tannenbaum back in March.
I'm imagining this...and not really seeing this as something that would have occurred. Peyton may not have wanted to compete with his brother in New York, Peyton didn't want to play for the Jets, and I don't know why if given the opportunity he would have chosen the Jets over the 49ers or the Broncos, who were both playoff teams last year. Yes, money talks. I am not a mind-reader, but I'm betting Manning would have taken less money to play for a team with a more, ummmmm, stable dynamic even if the Jets had thrown a ton of money at Manning.
Now: The fans at MetLife Stadium are chanting nice things at the Jets as they walk triumphantly off the field, moving to 8-3 and a game ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East.
So the Patriots are 7-4 after losing to the Jets twice? Okay, this scenarios is getting more and more away from reality.
Bart Scott is high-fiving a supporter on his way through the tunnel, laughing and sharing stories. Rex Ryan is guaranteeing a Super Bowl, just like in the good old days.
All you need to know about Filip Bondy is he thinks "the good old days" were when Rex Ryan guaranteed Super Bowls that never happened. It's all about the hype.
The crowds are spelling out J-E-T-S,
S-T-U-P-I-D.
squarely behind Fireman Ed instead of forcing him out of the business.
Fireman Ed's business is spelling four letter words. It's a good gig if you can get it. I guess this is better than Jovan Belcher's "business" as described by Peter King of murdering his girlfriend and then himself.
Best of all, there is no Tim Tebow/Mark Sanchez debate. There isn't even a Tebow or Sanchez to be found on the roster.
I'm not 100% sure this is true. I stated repeatedly last fall that Peyton Manning under no circumstances would want to play with Tim Tebow since I am betting it was a distraction he didn't want. Still, I can see how the Jets would possibly keep Sanchez on the roster even if they had Manning. It's sounds silly to say and the cap numbers may be a bit high, but I would feel pretty good if the Jets signed Manning they would have restructured Sanchez's contract or kept him on the roster in some capacity.
It all might have happened, if only Manning had embarked on a New York adventure, which was really the last chance for the Jets to rescue their season and possibly this entire regime.
This is something that Filip only knows now. It was very hard to see back in March of last year that the Jets needed to sign Peyton Manning to salvage a season that had not even started yet. So it's too much second-guessing to claim now the Jets needed to sign Manning in order to salvage this season.
All the losing that followed is a predictable shortfall of offensive talent and unimaginative play-calling.
So why in the hell would Manning want to join a team that had a shortfall of offensive talent and unimaginative play-calling again? Say what you want about the Broncos receivers, but they had talent at the position last year with Thomas and Decker at wide receiver. The Jets don't have that kind of talent at two wide receiver positions.
You may remember: The Jets gave it a shot, approached Manning. They freed up an extra $7 million by restructuring DaBrickashaw Ferguson's contract.
AND WHAT HAPPENED FILIP? WHAT ON EARTH STOPPED THIS DONE DEAL OF MANNING-TO-THE-JETS FROM HAPPENING?
But Peyton quickly told the Jet contacts to forget it, never led them on.
Exactly. So why the hell does it make sense to write an article saying the Jets fucked up by not signing Peyton Manning this offseason? It doesn't make sense. Manning wanted no part of the Jets, so the Jets didn't screw up in not signing Manning, because they never even had the chance to sign Manning. The Jets can be blamed for a lot of things, but they made a brief run at Manning and he didn't want to play for the Jets. There's no November Quarterbacking that can make this an untrue statement nor is this something the Jets should be thrashed for failing to do.
Maybe that was because his brother was already in town or maybe it was because he didn't like what he saw in this organization.
The bottom line is Manning rejected the overtures to have him sign with the Jets. End of story. Filip Bondy may as well write a column saying the Jets should have drafted Andrew Luck this year. It would make as much sense as stating the Jets blew it by not signing Peyton Manning.
Ryan isn't exactly a perfect fit for an aggressive quarterback and the roster lacked breakout receivers.
Don't pardon my language, but why the fuck would it be a good idea if the Jets signed Peyton Manning if this is true? What kind of mental midget writes a column saying the Jets should have signed Peyton Manning this offseason and readily admits in this very column:
a. The Jets don't have an offensively talented roster.
b. Peyton Manning rejected the Jets when they tried to sign him.
c. The roster doesn't the receivers Manning would like nor does the coach fit Manning's offensive temperament.
So why the hell write a column about how the Jets could have fixed this entire season by signing Manning? It wasn't possible. Shut up and go back to writing columns about problems with the Jets they can actually solve.
The locker room is the Big Apple Circus, minus the big-play acrobats. The Jets were rebuffed, and there was probably nothing Ryan, Tannenbaum or Woody Johnson could have done about it.
Which is why this entire column is pointless. If Manning had signed with any number of teams they would have had a great chance to salvage their season. This isn't true just for the Jets. The Chiefs, Jaguars, Panthers, Cardinals and a number of other teams could have better records with Manning as their quarterback. So writing a column about Manning rebuffing the Jets is a pointless endeavor. There's nothing to be learned. If the Jets had drafted Tom Brady in 2000 they would be in really good shape at their quarterback position. It didn't happen.
So the Jets could not have salvaged their season by signing Manning because Manning wouldn't sign with the Jets. It's not fair to indict the Jets for failing to sign Manning.
Still, they might have groveled, perhaps offered even more money. They should have done so in retrospect. They should have done anything and everything.
Notice Manning rejected them immediately without a discussion of money at all. If the Jets had groveled to Peyton Manning then Filip Bondy would have written an article about how pathetic it is for the Jets to grovel in an effort to sign Manning, then Bondy would have made a derogatory comment about Mark Sanchez, combed his mustache and called it a day.
A little more in-person begging and an enormous signing bonus wouldn't have hurt.
It probably wouldn't have helped either.
Instead, the Jets gave up the hunt and finalized the deal with Sanchez, a contract that is now handcuffing the team to a young player who has stopped progressing.
When was Mark Sanchez progressing? It feels like he stopped progressing immediately after he was drafted.
The Manning fantasy is worth reviving,
No, it is not, because the Manning fantasy assumes the Jets could have done something to sign Manning, which is debatable.
With Peyton at quarterback, such mea culpas would no longer be part of the culture. It's all too tempting to extrapolate Manning's Jet season from his MVP performance with the Broncos.
With Tom Brady at quarterback, the Jets would have a couple of Super Bowls right now. If the Jets had found a way to cryogenically freeze Joe Montana in his prime they would have three Super Bowls right now. If the Jets had traded for Robert Griffin, then all things would be possible for them right now. "What if's" are pointless, especially when that "what if" situation was impossible to begin with.
Manning would ignore the disconnected agenda of Tony Sparano or any offensive coordinator, calling his own game from behind center. He would check down against all the pressure that has befuddled and sabotaged Sanchez, found the seams and the screens. Manning would give the Jets the leadership in the huddle and locker room that have been missing.
If only Manning had wanted to play for the Jets. That's the fly in Filip's ointment right now. This column is all one big useless "what if."
He would turn Jeremy Kerley into a Pro Bowl receiver and allow Shonn Greene to become a more effective running back with limited use.
Let's not get too carried away here. There's only so much Manning can do.
Plus, Filip Bondy is incorrect in that Shonn Greene would necessarily have more limited use. The Broncos are in the Top 10 in the NFL in rushing attempts, so they still run the ball a lot with Manning as the quarterback.
Remember: In 2011, with Kyle Orton and Tebow, Denver was 8-8, same record as the Jets, except the Broncos got lucky with the tiebreakers and made the playoffs. Denver that season was 25th in the league in points scored, 23rd in total offense, 31st in passing yards.
Except the difference is the Broncos had a talented defense, quality young receivers, and an excellent offensive line. The Jets don't have all of these things. So there are differences in the 2011 Jets and the 2011 Broncos that show the 2011 Broncos were probably more talented than the 2011 Jets, which is part of the reason Manning was open to playing in Denver.
In 2012 with Manning, the Broncos are third in points scored, fourth in total offense and sixth in passing yards. Meanwhile, the Jets sit 28th in the league in yards per game, 28th in passing yards, 22nd in points per game. We get the same, dysfunctional story, week after week.
(Hands Filip Bondy a tissue)
Close your eyes, you can see what might have been on Sunday: The Jets going for 9-3, and Rex apologizing to no one.
A sleepless fan base is allowed to dream.
Then close your eyes and imagine the Jets have an excellent offensive line, Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall at wide receiver with Tony Gonzalez at tight end with Matt Forte in the backfield. Keep dreaming about that, because it is about as realistic as the odds Peyton Manning would have played in New York for the Jets.
(Peyton Manning walks out of the room, rather risking death than playing for the Jets)
Sports columnists love to second-guess. It's one of their favorite pasttimes. When things go wrong for a professional or college team certain sports columnists know EXACTLY what that team should have done five months ago to make sure things didn't go wrong. If any professional or college team needs advice on what personnel moves they should make, simply wait three months and a sports columnist will be glad to say what that team should have done. Hindsight is wonderful. Filip Bondy does that today (okay, not "today" because this article is a little older) and he is actually correct in what he writes. He writes the Jets should have signed Peyton Manning this past offseason and that would have been nice. Every NFL team should have signed Peyton Manning. Unfortunately, life is not a fantasy draft, so the Jets couldn't just force Manning to play for them, instead Manning would have had to choose to play for the Jets. In fact, Manning took the Jets out of the running for his services early in his free agency. I'm not entirely sure he would have done that. These are just small details to Filip that his solution to the Jets' woes may not have been feasible. If the Jets had just thrown a bunch of money at Manning, he would be in a Jets uniform right now.
Soft-focus your brain, if that is still possible in the age of high-definition television. Imagine for a moment that Peyton Manning is the Jet quarterback, having signed a five-year deal with Mike Tannenbaum back in March.
I'm imagining this...and not really seeing this as something that would have occurred. Peyton may not have wanted to compete with his brother in New York, Peyton didn't want to play for the Jets, and I don't know why if given the opportunity he would have chosen the Jets over the 49ers or the Broncos, who were both playoff teams last year. Yes, money talks. I am not a mind-reader, but I'm betting Manning would have taken less money to play for a team with a more, ummmmm, stable dynamic even if the Jets had thrown a ton of money at Manning.
Now: The fans at MetLife Stadium are chanting nice things at the Jets as they walk triumphantly off the field, moving to 8-3 and a game ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East.
So the Patriots are 7-4 after losing to the Jets twice? Okay, this scenarios is getting more and more away from reality.
Bart Scott is high-fiving a supporter on his way through the tunnel, laughing and sharing stories. Rex Ryan is guaranteeing a Super Bowl, just like in the good old days.
All you need to know about Filip Bondy is he thinks "the good old days" were when Rex Ryan guaranteed Super Bowls that never happened. It's all about the hype.
The crowds are spelling out J-E-T-S,
S-T-U-P-I-D.
squarely behind Fireman Ed instead of forcing him out of the business.
Fireman Ed's business is spelling four letter words. It's a good gig if you can get it. I guess this is better than Jovan Belcher's "business" as described by Peter King of murdering his girlfriend and then himself.
Best of all, there is no Tim Tebow/Mark Sanchez debate. There isn't even a Tebow or Sanchez to be found on the roster.
I'm not 100% sure this is true. I stated repeatedly last fall that Peyton Manning under no circumstances would want to play with Tim Tebow since I am betting it was a distraction he didn't want. Still, I can see how the Jets would possibly keep Sanchez on the roster even if they had Manning. It's sounds silly to say and the cap numbers may be a bit high, but I would feel pretty good if the Jets signed Manning they would have restructured Sanchez's contract or kept him on the roster in some capacity.
It all might have happened, if only Manning had embarked on a New York adventure, which was really the last chance for the Jets to rescue their season and possibly this entire regime.
This is something that Filip only knows now. It was very hard to see back in March of last year that the Jets needed to sign Peyton Manning to salvage a season that had not even started yet. So it's too much second-guessing to claim now the Jets needed to sign Manning in order to salvage this season.
All the losing that followed is a predictable shortfall of offensive talent and unimaginative play-calling.
So why in the hell would Manning want to join a team that had a shortfall of offensive talent and unimaginative play-calling again? Say what you want about the Broncos receivers, but they had talent at the position last year with Thomas and Decker at wide receiver. The Jets don't have that kind of talent at two wide receiver positions.
You may remember: The Jets gave it a shot, approached Manning. They freed up an extra $7 million by restructuring DaBrickashaw Ferguson's contract.
AND WHAT HAPPENED FILIP? WHAT ON EARTH STOPPED THIS DONE DEAL OF MANNING-TO-THE-JETS FROM HAPPENING?
But Peyton quickly told the Jet contacts to forget it, never led them on.
Exactly. So why the hell does it make sense to write an article saying the Jets fucked up by not signing Peyton Manning this offseason? It doesn't make sense. Manning wanted no part of the Jets, so the Jets didn't screw up in not signing Manning, because they never even had the chance to sign Manning. The Jets can be blamed for a lot of things, but they made a brief run at Manning and he didn't want to play for the Jets. There's no November Quarterbacking that can make this an untrue statement nor is this something the Jets should be thrashed for failing to do.
Maybe that was because his brother was already in town or maybe it was because he didn't like what he saw in this organization.
The bottom line is Manning rejected the overtures to have him sign with the Jets. End of story. Filip Bondy may as well write a column saying the Jets should have drafted Andrew Luck this year. It would make as much sense as stating the Jets blew it by not signing Peyton Manning.
Ryan isn't exactly a perfect fit for an aggressive quarterback and the roster lacked breakout receivers.
Don't pardon my language, but why the fuck would it be a good idea if the Jets signed Peyton Manning if this is true? What kind of mental midget writes a column saying the Jets should have signed Peyton Manning this offseason and readily admits in this very column:
a. The Jets don't have an offensively talented roster.
b. Peyton Manning rejected the Jets when they tried to sign him.
c. The roster doesn't the receivers Manning would like nor does the coach fit Manning's offensive temperament.
So why the hell write a column about how the Jets could have fixed this entire season by signing Manning? It wasn't possible. Shut up and go back to writing columns about problems with the Jets they can actually solve.
The locker room is the Big Apple Circus, minus the big-play acrobats. The Jets were rebuffed, and there was probably nothing Ryan, Tannenbaum or Woody Johnson could have done about it.
Which is why this entire column is pointless. If Manning had signed with any number of teams they would have had a great chance to salvage their season. This isn't true just for the Jets. The Chiefs, Jaguars, Panthers, Cardinals and a number of other teams could have better records with Manning as their quarterback. So writing a column about Manning rebuffing the Jets is a pointless endeavor. There's nothing to be learned. If the Jets had drafted Tom Brady in 2000 they would be in really good shape at their quarterback position. It didn't happen.
So the Jets could not have salvaged their season by signing Manning because Manning wouldn't sign with the Jets. It's not fair to indict the Jets for failing to sign Manning.
Still, they might have groveled, perhaps offered even more money. They should have done so in retrospect. They should have done anything and everything.
Notice Manning rejected them immediately without a discussion of money at all. If the Jets had groveled to Peyton Manning then Filip Bondy would have written an article about how pathetic it is for the Jets to grovel in an effort to sign Manning, then Bondy would have made a derogatory comment about Mark Sanchez, combed his mustache and called it a day.
A little more in-person begging and an enormous signing bonus wouldn't have hurt.
It probably wouldn't have helped either.
Instead, the Jets gave up the hunt and finalized the deal with Sanchez, a contract that is now handcuffing the team to a young player who has stopped progressing.
When was Mark Sanchez progressing? It feels like he stopped progressing immediately after he was drafted.
The Manning fantasy is worth reviving,
No, it is not, because the Manning fantasy assumes the Jets could have done something to sign Manning, which is debatable.
With Peyton at quarterback, such mea culpas would no longer be part of the culture. It's all too tempting to extrapolate Manning's Jet season from his MVP performance with the Broncos.
With Tom Brady at quarterback, the Jets would have a couple of Super Bowls right now. If the Jets had found a way to cryogenically freeze Joe Montana in his prime they would have three Super Bowls right now. If the Jets had traded for Robert Griffin, then all things would be possible for them right now. "What if's" are pointless, especially when that "what if" situation was impossible to begin with.
Manning would ignore the disconnected agenda of Tony Sparano or any offensive coordinator, calling his own game from behind center. He would check down against all the pressure that has befuddled and sabotaged Sanchez, found the seams and the screens. Manning would give the Jets the leadership in the huddle and locker room that have been missing.
If only Manning had wanted to play for the Jets. That's the fly in Filip's ointment right now. This column is all one big useless "what if."
He would turn Jeremy Kerley into a Pro Bowl receiver and allow Shonn Greene to become a more effective running back with limited use.
Let's not get too carried away here. There's only so much Manning can do.
Plus, Filip Bondy is incorrect in that Shonn Greene would necessarily have more limited use. The Broncos are in the Top 10 in the NFL in rushing attempts, so they still run the ball a lot with Manning as the quarterback.
Remember: In 2011, with Kyle Orton and Tebow, Denver was 8-8, same record as the Jets, except the Broncos got lucky with the tiebreakers and made the playoffs. Denver that season was 25th in the league in points scored, 23rd in total offense, 31st in passing yards.
Except the difference is the Broncos had a talented defense, quality young receivers, and an excellent offensive line. The Jets don't have all of these things. So there are differences in the 2011 Jets and the 2011 Broncos that show the 2011 Broncos were probably more talented than the 2011 Jets, which is part of the reason Manning was open to playing in Denver.
In 2012 with Manning, the Broncos are third in points scored, fourth in total offense and sixth in passing yards. Meanwhile, the Jets sit 28th in the league in yards per game, 28th in passing yards, 22nd in points per game. We get the same, dysfunctional story, week after week.
(Hands Filip Bondy a tissue)
Close your eyes, you can see what might have been on Sunday: The Jets going for 9-3, and Rex apologizing to no one.
A sleepless fan base is allowed to dream.
Then close your eyes and imagine the Jets have an excellent offensive line, Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall at wide receiver with Tony Gonzalez at tight end with Matt Forte in the backfield. Keep dreaming about that, because it is about as realistic as the odds Peyton Manning would have played in New York for the Jets.
Monday, November 15, 2010
4 comments MMQB Review: Let's Overreact To Everything Edition
Peter King doesn't think there are any super teams in the NFL this year. He says this based on his usual overreacting to what happens during one given week in the NFL. Many of the best NFL teams lost this weekend, so there are no great teams now. Next week, when the best teams blow out who they play, there will be a clear pecking order for which teams are Super Bowl favorites. Either way, Peter is very confused as to which team is currently the best in the NFL. If only there were a playoff system that will ultimately help reveal the answer...maybe one that takes place in January between the top six teams in each division.
Week 10 headlines:
Brett Favre tells us how he badly his ankle hurts but it doesn't stop him from jumping all over the field and chest bumping his teammates when he throws for a touchdown pass? Brett Favre reveals his rib "injury" after the game even though he wasn't on the injury report for the game for this particular injury? Are these the headlines for this week?
1. Mark Sanchez takes his place with the big quarterbacking boys.
Haven't we heard this before? Mark Sanchez has a good game and the football media talks about how he has turned a corner and will be an elite quarterback...and then he has a few mediocre games in a row. Quit overreacting to what happens from week-to-week like you don't have any type of short term memory.
4. Bill Belichick does something better than Vince Lombardi did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse.
I wonder if Peter realizes this sounds completely sexual? I am sure he doesn't realize this, because as we know from reading this drivel every week, Peter King may be the least self-aware person currently residing on Earth.
I don't know how you measure such a thing, but I've got to think this has a chance -- a chance, nothing more, nothing less -- to be the most interesting last month we've ever seen in the NFL.
There are no super teams.
Thank you Joe Morgan.
The Falcons, Packers, Giants, Saints and Eagles are the best in the NFC, and there are things to like about each one, but are you taking any of them to the bank? Admit it: You wouldn't be surprised to see Oakland or San Diego (combined record: 9-9) play deep into January.
This is such a tiring storyline. The NFC's representative in the last three Super Bowls have been the Giants, the Cardinals and the Saints. Even during the month of December in each of those seasons it would have been surprising to see the Giants and the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Every year in the NFL is somewhat unpredictable. It's nothing new or exclusive to this particular NFL season.
A quarterback's job, above all, is to win, no matter how the game is won. Sanchez, in the past two weeks, has played two games the Jets should have won -- at Detroit, at Cleveland. Though each was excruciating -- both games were tied at 20 after four quarters -- Sanchez made enough plays when he had to for the Jets to win. His numbers over the two games are individually pedestrian (59-percent accuracy, three touchdowns, two picks), but think how much he played: 138 minutes, 161 snaps, with his offense generating 893 yards.
Sure Mark Sanchez may have average numbers over the last few games, but he has been given a ton of opportunities to be on the field with his offense...which doesn't really explain at all why Mark Sanchez has average numbers or how he has taken his place with the big quarterbacking boys.
Before going out for the last series, beginning at the Cleveland 37 with 24 seconds left in overtime, the assignment was clear: get the Jets into close range for another shot for Nick Folk to win the game. (God knows why. Folk had already missed three makeable field goals, any of which would have given the Jets the win long before this.)
The smart thing to do at this point would be to risk committing a turnover by showing no faith in your field goal kicker in an overtime game that AT WORST would end up tied if the field goal was missed?
Warts and all, Holmes was acquired to make game-winning plays like this, and you get the feeling Sanchez-to-Holmes has a chance to be a New York institution if both stay healthy and on the field.
A New York institution? This based on the 64.2 yards per game Sanchez and Holmes are averaging together. They will be just like Jeter, Rivera, and Posada in New York at that rate. An institution in New York. Together. Forever.
Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago Peter King was wondering why Santonio Holmes wasn't getting the ball more?
Some holes you just don't dig out of. Phillips might be the guy you want running your defense, but he's the good cop, and Dallas needed a bad cop.
I'm stunned to say they might have found him in one of the nicest guys I've covered in my years in this job.
It was one game. It was a good win for the Cowboys, but it was also just one game. I don't want to take anything away from Jason Garrett and the Cowboys may rebound to make the playoffs, but he won one game. Let's not say he is the guy to take the Cowboys job quite yet.
The Vikings can't bench Favre. Yet. The Vikings are 3-6, and logic says after the most tumultuous year in their history, they ought to be playing for 2011, because they can't run the table. Probably not. But you didn't go get Brett Favre out of the Mississippi retirement home to raise the white flag when you're three games out of first with seven to play.
Isn't Favre injured? We hear about this every single week after every single football game. Favre's injured. If he is injured and not winning games, which is what Peter said above on how a quarterback is judged (in reference to Mark Sanchez), why should he still be the Vikings quarterback? Is an injured and ineffective quarterback really that much better than Tarvaris Jackson? It's entirely possible Jackson presents the best chance to win games now. Of course if Jackson was named the starter then Favre would absolutely poison the locker room and make an incredible scene...so that's probably really why Childress doesn't bench Favre.
What we learned last night won't be good news for Steeler Nation. Jonathan Scott, subbing for Max Starks at left tackle, and Ramon Foster, playing for right guard Chris Kemoeatu, were porous against the Patriots, and caused Ben Roethlisberger to be sacked five times and hit hard at least four more times. Along with the loss of defensive end Aaron Smith, Pittsburgh might have taken too many hits to be super this year.
Injuries happen. I even have a tag that says something like this. There's a reason a team has backups. Good teams try to get through injuries to key players and don't use them as an excuse. This is the third or fourth time Peter has mentioned Aaron Smith is injured as if other contenders don't have injuries themselves.
Nearly lost in the Broncos' 49-29 rout of the Chiefs: the emergence of Tim Tebow as a passer and runner.
Tebow completed a pass. He attempted and completed that one pass. He's perfect...as usual.
Tebow's not going to replace Kyle Orton anytime soon, and he probably doesn't have a chance to do so, rightfully, until 2012; that's how good Orton has been.
Can Peter please send a memo to Woody Paige about this please? He doesn't seem to grasp this concept very well...or doesn't want to grasp the concept very well.
The Fine Fifteen
1. VACANT. Sorry. I watched every good team in football last Thursday and over the weekend, and there isn't a number one. I guess if there were one, I'd take the team that beat Detroit and Cleveland, both in overtime, over the last eight days.
It's your list. You can put whoever you want in spot #1.
2. New York Jets (7-2). Mark Sanchez one day will draft a line of demarcation on his career, and the line will come before Sunday's game in Cleveland. That was a powerfully strong performance against many odds and one very bad calf.
It may be the line of demarcation. We have heard this before though.
5. Green Bay (6-3). Now we find out if the Pack's for real: Starting Sunday, three of their games within the next month are at Minnesota (in their last meeting, presumably, with Brett Favre),
I want to stab a pillow repeatedly. It doesn't matter if it is the last meeting between the Packers and Brett Favre. Really, no one cares.
Quote of the Week IV
4. Bill Belichick does something better than Vince Lombardi did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse.
Let's throw two different words in there. Let's say a guy used to date a girl named "Andrea" and he now dates a girl named "Erin" and this guy says the following sentence only substituting out the names Bill Belichick and Vince Lombardi for the names Andrea and Erin.
"Erin does something better than Andrea did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse."
Slightly different wording being necessary pertains to sentences even when talking about two males.
Quote of the Week V
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
I set out to look into how Bill Belichick's teams performed after a loss, which, since 2003, has been fairly remarkable. After the bad loss at Cleveland last week, I thought it merited a look, particularly since a treacherous road game lay ahead last night at Pittsburgh. So I decided to look at two-game losing streaks by the great coaches of our time. I picked out five: Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Bill Walsh and Belichick. And I compared their greatest eight-year runs as NFL coaches with Belichick's current eight-year run.
Did we really expect Peter to have a statistic or fact for the week that didn't involve the Patriots in some way? Why go against tradition?
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
and when I heard Aiello was Tweeting with the Skyliners, I told him they just had to eat at Skyline. "Food of the gods!'' I said.
g. Chad Pennington's big comeback lasted two plays.
I can't help but laugh at Pennington having not thrown a pass in over a year during an NFL game and then hurting his arm when he throws one. It is not like he zings the ball in there either.
3. I think I still don't understand why Kansas City coach Todd Haley wagged a finger at Denver coach Josh McDaniels Sunday after Denver's 49-29 rout of the Chiefs. SI colleague Jim Trotter tweeted last night that "Haley was not happy with broncos max protecting, throwing deep & blitzing regularly with a 32-point 4th-Q lead." According to Trotter, last year against the Broncos Jamaal Charles had the chance to break the single-game rushing record but Haley pulled him with 2:43 to play, needing just 38 yards. From my perspective, I see nothing that rises to the level of a team making a big stink about getting their noses rubbed in it.
It's called a rivalry and the Broncos and the Chiefs have one. If Todd Haley was really concerned about his team getting thrown deep on perhaps he could do something about the Broncos being able to do so. Haley was just frustrated with getting his ass kicked by the Broncos. It's fine for the Chiefs to be a little bit angry over this, but it's not a huge deal in my mind either.
a. The Terrell Suggs facemask call with 13:11 left. Atlanta led 13-7 and had a third-and-10 at the Baltimore 33. Matt Ryan completed a seven-yard pass to Jason Snelling to the Raven 26. Suggs was called for a facemask violation. What happened is that Suggs and the offending Falcon grabbed each other's mask; but only Suggs was called. Instead of replaying the down and again trying to convert a third-and-10, Atlanta got a down and continued a touchdown drive.
Along with pass interference calls when both the defender and the offensive player are making legal plays to get the ball, this annoys me as well. A Buccaneers player got called for a facemask yesterday and the Panthers player was stiff-arming him by grabbing his facemask. The penalty was called on the defensive player of course, but the offensive player was grabbing the defensive player's facemask as well. It is much like the perception that offensive players don't lead with their head while running the ball. They do, which is fine but still dangerous.
9. I think, by the way, if you're going to claim Mike Shanahan is a racist over this Donovan McNabb benching issue, you'd better have some proof. Playing the race card here is dangerous, obviously, and pretty cavalier. Play the performance card.
How about playing the Idiot card. Mike Shanahan as I have detailed here a few times is a good coach, not a great coach in my opinion. His personnel moves have become generally very hit-or-miss. He has a history of pissing off his quarterbacks at some point. He did it to Bubby Brister after John Elway retired and he did it to Jake Plummer when he drafted Jay Cutler. Shanahan likes to piss off his quarterbacks and feels he has the right to do so because he won two Super Bowls with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
But the same way I'm not going to make a big deal of black men being 1-2-4 (Mike Vick, Vince Young, David Garrard) in the QB-rating standings entering this weekend because I don't think the success or failure of a quarterback has anything to do with what color he is, I'm not going to think Mike Shanahan benched McNabb for racial reasons unless I have some proof other than something incidental.
When there is a race issue present, it should be called out. I don't see that here. Now if you ask me about Tarvaris Jackson or about some of McNabb's time in Philadelphia...that may be different.
c. Glad I don't have a vote for the Heisman. What if Cam Newton wins and he's found to be Reggie Bush II a month from now?
It would be an absolute disaster to award a meaningless award to a football player who was found out to have gotten paid or may be ineligible! How dare college football try to award the Heisman to the best player in college football and not try to predict the future and what will happen with that player! Combine this with Brian Cushing still winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year award last year after the re-vote and I'm not sure I like the direction meaningless postseason awards are headed.
How is giving the Heisman to Cam Newton and finding out he took money to go to Auburn different from giving the award to Jason White, Eric Crouch and finding out he is a terrible quarterback? Does giving the award to the best player who took money taint the award more than giving the award to a player who ends up never being heard from again?
e. Dice-K for Kosuke Fukudome. That rumor surfaced the other day. And let me say on behalf of Red Sox followers everywhere: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.''
h. Coffeenerdness: Not really high on the Starbucks experience in Manhattan. I've tried eight or 10 of them this season, looking for a comfy spot to write on some Saturdays and all Sunday mornings, and I've come up mostly disappointed. The music is too loud, the panhandlers too prevalent at a couple of the midtown ones,
THESE POOR PEOPLE KEEP MESSING UP PETER'S JOY OF DRINKING $5 COFFEE AND WRITING BEING ABLE TO WRITE ON HIS EXPENSIVE LAPTOP IN A CAFE! ISN'T THERE SOMEWHERE THESE POOR PEOPLE CAN GO WHERE THEY DON'T BOTHER PETER WHILE HE IS COMFY?
m. Hey, Mary Pat Mercuro and your Montclair High field hockey team! Congrats on winning the sectional field hockey championship. Great to see the Mounties keeping up the Jersey field hockey tradition. I miss those games, coach.
I hope Peter knows he can still attend these games. He would be that creepy guy in the stands who just watches high school girls play sports, but he could still show up.
I hear the new Monclair High field hockey team does something better than the field hockey team Peter's daughter played on, and I am not talking about playing field hockey.
Week 10 headlines:
Brett Favre tells us how he badly his ankle hurts but it doesn't stop him from jumping all over the field and chest bumping his teammates when he throws for a touchdown pass? Brett Favre reveals his rib "injury" after the game even though he wasn't on the injury report for the game for this particular injury? Are these the headlines for this week?
1. Mark Sanchez takes his place with the big quarterbacking boys.
Haven't we heard this before? Mark Sanchez has a good game and the football media talks about how he has turned a corner and will be an elite quarterback...and then he has a few mediocre games in a row. Quit overreacting to what happens from week-to-week like you don't have any type of short term memory.
4. Bill Belichick does something better than Vince Lombardi did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse.
I wonder if Peter realizes this sounds completely sexual? I am sure he doesn't realize this, because as we know from reading this drivel every week, Peter King may be the least self-aware person currently residing on Earth.
I don't know how you measure such a thing, but I've got to think this has a chance -- a chance, nothing more, nothing less -- to be the most interesting last month we've ever seen in the NFL.
There are no super teams.
Thank you Joe Morgan.
The Falcons, Packers, Giants, Saints and Eagles are the best in the NFC, and there are things to like about each one, but are you taking any of them to the bank? Admit it: You wouldn't be surprised to see Oakland or San Diego (combined record: 9-9) play deep into January.
This is such a tiring storyline. The NFC's representative in the last three Super Bowls have been the Giants, the Cardinals and the Saints. Even during the month of December in each of those seasons it would have been surprising to see the Giants and the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Every year in the NFL is somewhat unpredictable. It's nothing new or exclusive to this particular NFL season.
A quarterback's job, above all, is to win, no matter how the game is won. Sanchez, in the past two weeks, has played two games the Jets should have won -- at Detroit, at Cleveland. Though each was excruciating -- both games were tied at 20 after four quarters -- Sanchez made enough plays when he had to for the Jets to win. His numbers over the two games are individually pedestrian (59-percent accuracy, three touchdowns, two picks), but think how much he played: 138 minutes, 161 snaps, with his offense generating 893 yards.
Sure Mark Sanchez may have average numbers over the last few games, but he has been given a ton of opportunities to be on the field with his offense...which doesn't really explain at all why Mark Sanchez has average numbers or how he has taken his place with the big quarterbacking boys.
Before going out for the last series, beginning at the Cleveland 37 with 24 seconds left in overtime, the assignment was clear: get the Jets into close range for another shot for Nick Folk to win the game. (God knows why. Folk had already missed three makeable field goals, any of which would have given the Jets the win long before this.)
The smart thing to do at this point would be to risk committing a turnover by showing no faith in your field goal kicker in an overtime game that AT WORST would end up tied if the field goal was missed?
Warts and all, Holmes was acquired to make game-winning plays like this, and you get the feeling Sanchez-to-Holmes has a chance to be a New York institution if both stay healthy and on the field.
A New York institution? This based on the 64.2 yards per game Sanchez and Holmes are averaging together. They will be just like Jeter, Rivera, and Posada in New York at that rate. An institution in New York. Together. Forever.
Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago Peter King was wondering why Santonio Holmes wasn't getting the ball more?
Some holes you just don't dig out of. Phillips might be the guy you want running your defense, but he's the good cop, and Dallas needed a bad cop.
I'm stunned to say they might have found him in one of the nicest guys I've covered in my years in this job.
It was one game. It was a good win for the Cowboys, but it was also just one game. I don't want to take anything away from Jason Garrett and the Cowboys may rebound to make the playoffs, but he won one game. Let's not say he is the guy to take the Cowboys job quite yet.
The Vikings can't bench Favre. Yet. The Vikings are 3-6, and logic says after the most tumultuous year in their history, they ought to be playing for 2011, because they can't run the table. Probably not. But you didn't go get Brett Favre out of the Mississippi retirement home to raise the white flag when you're three games out of first with seven to play.
Isn't Favre injured? We hear about this every single week after every single football game. Favre's injured. If he is injured and not winning games, which is what Peter said above on how a quarterback is judged (in reference to Mark Sanchez), why should he still be the Vikings quarterback? Is an injured and ineffective quarterback really that much better than Tarvaris Jackson? It's entirely possible Jackson presents the best chance to win games now. Of course if Jackson was named the starter then Favre would absolutely poison the locker room and make an incredible scene...so that's probably really why Childress doesn't bench Favre.
What we learned last night won't be good news for Steeler Nation. Jonathan Scott, subbing for Max Starks at left tackle, and Ramon Foster, playing for right guard Chris Kemoeatu, were porous against the Patriots, and caused Ben Roethlisberger to be sacked five times and hit hard at least four more times. Along with the loss of defensive end Aaron Smith, Pittsburgh might have taken too many hits to be super this year.
Injuries happen. I even have a tag that says something like this. There's a reason a team has backups. Good teams try to get through injuries to key players and don't use them as an excuse. This is the third or fourth time Peter has mentioned Aaron Smith is injured as if other contenders don't have injuries themselves.
Nearly lost in the Broncos' 49-29 rout of the Chiefs: the emergence of Tim Tebow as a passer and runner.
Tebow completed a pass. He attempted and completed that one pass. He's perfect...as usual.
Tebow's not going to replace Kyle Orton anytime soon, and he probably doesn't have a chance to do so, rightfully, until 2012; that's how good Orton has been.
Can Peter please send a memo to Woody Paige about this please? He doesn't seem to grasp this concept very well...or doesn't want to grasp the concept very well.
The Fine Fifteen
1. VACANT. Sorry. I watched every good team in football last Thursday and over the weekend, and there isn't a number one. I guess if there were one, I'd take the team that beat Detroit and Cleveland, both in overtime, over the last eight days.
It's your list. You can put whoever you want in spot #1.
2. New York Jets (7-2). Mark Sanchez one day will draft a line of demarcation on his career, and the line will come before Sunday's game in Cleveland. That was a powerfully strong performance against many odds and one very bad calf.
It may be the line of demarcation. We have heard this before though.
5. Green Bay (6-3). Now we find out if the Pack's for real: Starting Sunday, three of their games within the next month are at Minnesota (in their last meeting, presumably, with Brett Favre),
I want to stab a pillow repeatedly. It doesn't matter if it is the last meeting between the Packers and Brett Favre. Really, no one cares.
Quote of the Week IV
"You share a very intimate relationship with Brett Favre.''
-- NFL Network host Stacey Dales, to Steve Mariucci, beginning an interview Saturday on-air.
Mariucci was Favre's quarterback coach at the Packers, and they are good friends. But perhaps slightly different wording would have been in order here.
Says the guy who wrote earlier in the column,4. Bill Belichick does something better than Vince Lombardi did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse.
Let's throw two different words in there. Let's say a guy used to date a girl named "Andrea" and he now dates a girl named "Erin" and this guy says the following sentence only substituting out the names Bill Belichick and Vince Lombardi for the names Andrea and Erin.
"Erin does something better than Andrea did, and I'm not talking about playing lacrosse."
Slightly different wording being necessary pertains to sentences even when talking about two males.
Quote of the Week V
"No ... No.''
-- Favre, to Mariucci, when Mariucci asked if he would play football in 2011.
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
I set out to look into how Bill Belichick's teams performed after a loss, which, since 2003, has been fairly remarkable. After the bad loss at Cleveland last week, I thought it merited a look, particularly since a treacherous road game lay ahead last night at Pittsburgh. So I decided to look at two-game losing streaks by the great coaches of our time. I picked out five: Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Bill Walsh and Belichick. And I compared their greatest eight-year runs as NFL coaches with Belichick's current eight-year run.
Did we really expect Peter to have a statistic or fact for the week that didn't involve the Patriots in some way? Why go against tradition?
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
and when I heard Aiello was Tweeting with the Skyliners, I told him they just had to eat at Skyline. "Food of the gods!'' I said.
Glomming along with the crew, I suggested we stop at the Skyline at Seventh and Vine (which was my home-turf Skyline as a local reporter) and have a nice lunch. I had my standard -- the four-way with cheese, and coney with onion, no mustard -- washed down with a diet cola. A four-way is a bed of spaghetti with a few onions on top, and a crown of shredded cheese. I must have eaten three of those a week as a young reporter. Goodell had a three-way bean -- bed of spaghetti, chili, and onions on top.
This is what I mean about Peter having no self-awareness. It was two months ago he railed on the Cowboys for being pigs and spending a ton of money at a restaurant and gorging on food, while making the rookies pay for it. Most weeks Peter goes into great detail about what kind of wonderful food he has gorged on during the week with the celebrity or important football-related person he hung out with that week. There's a difference in gorging on food at a restaurant and telling everyone which famous person you ate with that week, but it's not a huge difference.g. Chad Pennington's big comeback lasted two plays.
I can't help but laugh at Pennington having not thrown a pass in over a year during an NFL game and then hurting his arm when he throws one. It is not like he zings the ball in there either.
3. I think I still don't understand why Kansas City coach Todd Haley wagged a finger at Denver coach Josh McDaniels Sunday after Denver's 49-29 rout of the Chiefs. SI colleague Jim Trotter tweeted last night that "Haley was not happy with broncos max protecting, throwing deep & blitzing regularly with a 32-point 4th-Q lead." According to Trotter, last year against the Broncos Jamaal Charles had the chance to break the single-game rushing record but Haley pulled him with 2:43 to play, needing just 38 yards. From my perspective, I see nothing that rises to the level of a team making a big stink about getting their noses rubbed in it.
It's called a rivalry and the Broncos and the Chiefs have one. If Todd Haley was really concerned about his team getting thrown deep on perhaps he could do something about the Broncos being able to do so. Haley was just frustrated with getting his ass kicked by the Broncos. It's fine for the Chiefs to be a little bit angry over this, but it's not a huge deal in my mind either.
a. The Terrell Suggs facemask call with 13:11 left. Atlanta led 13-7 and had a third-and-10 at the Baltimore 33. Matt Ryan completed a seven-yard pass to Jason Snelling to the Raven 26. Suggs was called for a facemask violation. What happened is that Suggs and the offending Falcon grabbed each other's mask; but only Suggs was called. Instead of replaying the down and again trying to convert a third-and-10, Atlanta got a down and continued a touchdown drive.
Along with pass interference calls when both the defender and the offensive player are making legal plays to get the ball, this annoys me as well. A Buccaneers player got called for a facemask yesterday and the Panthers player was stiff-arming him by grabbing his facemask. The penalty was called on the defensive player of course, but the offensive player was grabbing the defensive player's facemask as well. It is much like the perception that offensive players don't lead with their head while running the ball. They do, which is fine but still dangerous.
9. I think, by the way, if you're going to claim Mike Shanahan is a racist over this Donovan McNabb benching issue, you'd better have some proof. Playing the race card here is dangerous, obviously, and pretty cavalier. Play the performance card.
How about playing the Idiot card. Mike Shanahan as I have detailed here a few times is a good coach, not a great coach in my opinion. His personnel moves have become generally very hit-or-miss. He has a history of pissing off his quarterbacks at some point. He did it to Bubby Brister after John Elway retired and he did it to Jake Plummer when he drafted Jay Cutler. Shanahan likes to piss off his quarterbacks and feels he has the right to do so because he won two Super Bowls with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
But the same way I'm not going to make a big deal of black men being 1-2-4 (Mike Vick, Vince Young, David Garrard) in the QB-rating standings entering this weekend because I don't think the success or failure of a quarterback has anything to do with what color he is, I'm not going to think Mike Shanahan benched McNabb for racial reasons unless I have some proof other than something incidental.
When there is a race issue present, it should be called out. I don't see that here. Now if you ask me about Tarvaris Jackson or about some of McNabb's time in Philadelphia...that may be different.
c. Glad I don't have a vote for the Heisman. What if Cam Newton wins and he's found to be Reggie Bush II a month from now?
It would be an absolute disaster to award a meaningless award to a football player who was found out to have gotten paid or may be ineligible! How dare college football try to award the Heisman to the best player in college football and not try to predict the future and what will happen with that player! Combine this with Brian Cushing still winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year award last year after the re-vote and I'm not sure I like the direction meaningless postseason awards are headed.
How is giving the Heisman to Cam Newton and finding out he took money to go to Auburn different from giving the award to Jason White, Eric Crouch and finding out he is a terrible quarterback? Does giving the award to the best player who took money taint the award more than giving the award to a player who ends up never being heard from again?
e. Dice-K for Kosuke Fukudome. That rumor surfaced the other day. And let me say on behalf of Red Sox followers everywhere: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.''
f. How do you say, "Worst trade since Larry Anderson for Bagwell'' in Japanese?
g. Not saying Fukudome is useless, but a man who has played in a hitter's ballyard for three years and never hit .265 or driven in 60 runs (despite having 590 and 603 at-bats in two of his three years), and made $33.5 million in the process ... well, I'd call that 80 percent of J.D. Drew, and not exactly a solution for any team except the Toledo Mud Hens. Maybe.
Fukudome is a left handed pull hitter. Peter is telling me he wouldn't like the right field line in Fenway Park? Also, RBI's are a bad way to determine Fukudome's worth. I think Peter may be overrating Daisuke's worth on the market a bit. It's not like he is cheap and outperforming his contract.h. Coffeenerdness: Not really high on the Starbucks experience in Manhattan. I've tried eight or 10 of them this season, looking for a comfy spot to write on some Saturdays and all Sunday mornings, and I've come up mostly disappointed. The music is too loud, the panhandlers too prevalent at a couple of the midtown ones,
THESE POOR PEOPLE KEEP MESSING UP PETER'S JOY OF DRINKING $5 COFFEE AND WRITING BEING ABLE TO WRITE ON HIS EXPENSIVE LAPTOP IN A CAFE! ISN'T THERE SOMEWHERE THESE POOR PEOPLE CAN GO WHERE THEY DON'T BOTHER PETER WHILE HE IS COMFY?
m. Hey, Mary Pat Mercuro and your Montclair High field hockey team! Congrats on winning the sectional field hockey championship. Great to see the Mounties keeping up the Jersey field hockey tradition. I miss those games, coach.
I hope Peter knows he can still attend these games. He would be that creepy guy in the stands who just watches high school girls play sports, but he could still show up.
I hear the new Monclair High field hockey team does something better than the field hockey team Peter's daughter played on, and I am not talking about playing field hockey.
Monday, September 21, 2009
10 comments MMQB Review: A Love Affair Begins
It's Monday and the NFL was played yesterday, that means we get another edition of MMQB with Peter King. This week Peter has found his new white quarterback infatuation for when/if Brett Favre retires. First, I would like to bitch about the fact he brought up 4 times in his MMQB last week about how bad Jake Delhomme was against the Eagles in Week 1. As I complained at the time, Peter NEVER mentions any team that is not in his immediate or near vicinity that often unless something bad happens. Yesterday Delhomme went 25-41 for 308 yards with a touchdown and one interception (it was fourth down, he had no choice) and Peter says absolutely nothing about it. He doesn't even mention the game, except one reference about how the Falcons are quiet at 2-0 and when he talks about Matt Ryan being a budding star at quarterback. Of course the Falcons are quiet when you are too busy paying attention to other teams constantly.
This is just completely typical Peter King and the media in general. Absolutely blast a guy when he gets on their radar for screwing up but when he plays well the following week say nothing about it. I almost find it cowardly. After blasting a guy and questioning whether he can keep his job, the least you can do is acknowledge he held the job for one more week. Peter doesn't even do that. To say nothing about it is just doing a bad job of following up on last week's column.
Enough complaining, onto the King.
That's how Jets coach Rex Ryan greeted Mark Sanchez at the Jets' training complex in New Jersey the other day. It's not a rare thing. "That'd be taboo for a lot of coaches to say to a player, obviously,'' Sanchez said late Sunday afternoon, soaking in the biggest win of his, oh, eight-day pro playing career.
I have been doubting Sanchez since he announced he was going to make himself eligible for the draft. It's been two games into his career, you won't get an "I was wrong" from me quite yet. If Sanchez keeps playing like this, then yes, I will have been completely wrong...but first Mark Sanchez has to keep playing like this. I can't wait to see him go into Gillette Stadium when everyone is not cheering for him and have a good game.
I count six passers 25 or younger -- Ryan, Flacco, Sanchez, Stafford, Trent Edwards of Buffalo and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers -- as players with exceedingly bright futures.
And we know this based on their combined not-quite-yet 10 years experience playing the QB position? Stafford and Sanchez have played 4 total games in the NFL, let's calm down just a little bit. Shaun King looked like the answer in Tampa Bay for a while and there have been other quarterbacks who started their career out looking good only to flame out. Do I find it a coincidence four of these players have playoff caliber teams around them? No, I don't. I don't think it's a coincidence. These quarterbacks have played well but it is fortunate for these guys none of the teams, with the exception of Stafford, had a team rebuilding around him. I think that fact can be attributed to the early success they are having.
Last year, I'll never forget the scene at Baltimore training camp when Flacco, a rookie, went to the line to call signals and watched and listened for four or five seconds while several defensive players on the Ravens, most notably Ray Lewis, pointed and shouted out signals and defensive code words. Flacco waited, as if to say, "Are you finally finished?'' and then called his own play, completing a short pass.
Later in the locker room, Joe Flacco was shanked. The only evidence left was a piece of a #52 jersey that was used to wrap around the handle of the shank.
"Being at SC, in such a big program with such a good offensive attack, prepared me for this job well,'' Sanchez told me. "And just like SC prepared me for the football side of things, being in LA prepared me for the media side of it too. Here, on the field and off the field, everything is faster, but I feel like I'm ready for it.
Does this mean USC also helped prepare for Mark Sanchez to play poorly against the worst teams in the league? I am sure he learned a little bit of that from Pete Carroll as well. They can beat New England but will lose to the Chiefs, Raiders, and Lions. I have a theory about USC. Pete Carroll keeps his team very loose and that helps them in big games, but I also think it hurts them in games they should win because sometimes it seems like they don't take the team seriously and struggle to match the other team's intensity level on the road. That's just my theory that the Trojans may be TOO loose to amp up their intensity.
Why doesn't this pro style offense experience go for ex-USC receivers? They can't seem to make a difference in the NFL. Why is it different for the receivers from USC? More specifically why does my favorite team keep drafting the crappy USC receivers?
All young quarterbacks do, like the first play of the game, when a strip-sack resulted in a loss of 17 yards and put Sanchez back at his three-yard line. But time and again Sunday, he'd drop back, step nimbly out of any rush the Patriots threw at him (which wasn't much), and look very much like he belonged.
(The sounds of birds chirping can be heard just barely over the sound of "What a Wonderful World" playing in the background. Peter King is presenting his final rose to Mark Sanchez and pleading for him to accept. He's found his man. The man who can replace Favre. Peter is now complete for a few more years.)
Do you know how paranoid I am about Bill Belichick? I almost think he didn't throw everything he had at Sanchez because he wants to give him a false sense of security and then obliterate him for the rest of his career with the Jets. I really believe Belichick is a witch.
The odd thing -- especially considering the topic of this column -- is how well the older quarterbacks are playing.
Everybody's playing well this year according to Peter King! See what his new found love for Mark Sanchez does to him?
The three who have found the fountain of football youth:
If you don't know who #1 on this list is and you know Peter King is writing this column...please quit reading and find another post to read, do some research and then come back and make a guess. You shouldn't have to guess, the answer should come out automatically when you know he is going to list older QB's who are playing well this year.
•Brett Favre. "Every game I play at this point, I'm pretty grateful,'' he said after his record-setting 271st consecutive start, the most by a position player in NFL history. "I know how difficult it is.''
He has beaten the Browns and Lions. Kudos Brett to that tough early schedule you have. Let's over react to it shall we?
What was all the more admirable about the performance by Favre -- who turns 40 in three weeks -- is that he got sacked three times by the Lions and hit hard on four other occasions, and still had one of the most accurate days of his NFL career, completing 23 of 27 throws.
As I said last week when Peter mentioned how Favre can't get hit anymore or it may hurt him if he does get hit...if you can't get hit, retire (like a real retirement) or find another sport to play because getting hit is part of football. But no, every week we are going to get hear about how Brett Favre got hit a lot and bounced right back up. Who gives a crap? He's an NFL QB, that's part of the job, but Peter of course gives him credit for this.
•Drew Brees. The young kid of the Trifecta at 30, Brees is playing some sick football. He doesn't have a franchise running back, nor a franchise receiver (though Marques Colston is angular, tough and sure-handed)
I personally consider Marques Colston a franchise receiver. Of course I don't know if I can argue with the guy who thinks Derek Jeter is the best player he has seen in his lifetime, and only includes half of his lifetime as "his lifetime." He has set his own floor for common sense when he said that, to the point arguing with him just seems irrational on my part.
The Fine Fifteen
2. Minnesota (2-0).
Peter's Fine Fifteen is a joke in the first place but to put Minnesota at #2 when they beat Cleveland and Detroit is an even bigger joke. The only teams that may not be able to beat those two teams are....Detroit and Cleveland?
6. Pittsburgh (1-1).Willie Parker, 12 carries for 47 yards. What happened to the Steelers running game? Second straight game it hasn't been there.
I guess Peter has long term memory loss. The Steelers running game wasn't really there most of last year either. They still won the Super Bowl despite this.
11. Dallas (1-1). Cowboys have played the first two games of the season without sacking the quarterback or forcing a turnover.
Glad to see Jake "The Turnover Machine" Delhomme is playing them next week on Monday Night Football when they are hungry for turnovers and sacks. This is going to feel like a public execution.
Of course that number is not as frightening as JaMarcus Russell's completion percentage in his first two games of the season -- 35.2.
Reason #4,398 the Raiders don't know what they are doing: They cut Jeff Garcia to keep this guy.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
He names four offensive players of the week. Nearly one from half of the games played. Can't we just limit it to one or two? Is it that hard to do this?
Shameless MMQB Book Promotion of the Week
Here are my top 12 players of all time at the quarterback position.
5. Brett Favre. Most durable, most productive quarterback of all time. Marred by only one title.
Also marred by the fact he holds the NFL record for most interceptions in his career. #5 quarterback of all-time? Peter King has no semblance of neutrality in his writing when it comes to Favre. He just can't do it. I am not going to deny Favre is a Hall of Fame quarterback, but I will argue he is the #5 QB of all-time.
11. Bart Starr. All he did was win -- five NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowl titles, both ending with him being MVP.
I very well could be the only one, but I am amazed at the fact Bart Starr is #11. If Favre winning another title had gotten him further up the list, why doesn't Starr's 5 titles get him further than #11?
c. Julian Edelman: Wes Welker Jr.
Peter King: Patriots fan club member (not that there is anything wrong with that, but just admit it. I am a Panthers fan, it's obvious because I know more about them than any other team. Shouldn't this same theory be used for Peter? He knows the entire roster and substitution patterns for the team).
j. Not saying I can pick games or teams or anything, as my Detroit-over-Minnesota pick, and my 7-9 Saints prediction shows, but I did pick the Browns to go 2-14. And I'm not feeling too wrong about that right now.
Peter wants you to ignore all his wrong picks and focus on the one pick he got right for this year. I mentioned the Saints would win the NFC South this year and it wasn't a prediction, it just happens each team in the NFC South rotates the title every year and it was the Saints turn this year. I don't think I should get credit based on this fact. Peter, on the other hand, isn't exactly setting the world on fire with his predictions.
Of course I am tied with him in the Pick 'Em and Bill Simmons is currently beating me so I have no room to talk...so feel free to ignore me.
3. I think Brad Childress must be mad at me. He told me Sunday that my love for Jim Schwartz and Bill Belichick was "transparent.''
Even though he does look like a child molester, I have to say Childress is my hero for the next 10 seconds. And no, he is not mad at you, he just reads your MMQB every week. It's obvious to most people who read MMQB.
Gee, I thought I was doing a good job hiding it too. Next week, I'm going to keep all the coaches and all the teams happy. I'm going to pick every game exactly according to the spread. (Uh, not.)
"Uh, not." Wayne's World reference! Not outdated at all.
Somewhere in California a livid Bill Simmons is pacing around his living room wondering how Peter King could steal outdated references from him.
j. Loved how the Cincinnati offensive line made a shell around Carson Palmer.
Yes Peter, that's called blocking. In between the time you spend looking at pictures of Brett Favre and deciding which football player you are going to throw under the bus and suggest he will lose his starting job in your MMQB four times last week and then never mention him again, you should notice a few things about football...this being one of them.
b. Mark Sanchez did not "have too much juice'' on his throw in the end zone to Chansi Stuckey in the third quarter, as Dan Dierdorf said on TV. Stuckey slipped. Fell. Tripped. Come on.
Yes Dan Dierdorf, don't say anything negative about Mark Sanchez. Peter has his back for the next 15 years and no matter what Sanchez does will not say anything negative about him...you should do the same.
9. I think Marshawn Lynch must be getting very nervous about his job. I would be. Fred Jackson's been one of the Bills' five most important players in the first two weeks of the season. After the Patriots couldn't tackle him last week, Jackson had the best rushing day of his life (28 carries, 163 yards). Every team needs two good backs, and Buffalo has two.
So if every team needs to have two good backs and the Bills have two good backs with Lynch and Jackson, why should Lynch be getting nervous about his job? This would mean he still has a job, wouldn't it?
c. There is nothing like a beautiful Indian Summer Saturday in New York City, especially around Soho. The crowds are incredible. What recession?
Nice Peter. It's probably the recession where 10% of Americans are unemployed and people would take second jobs to pay the bills...if someone was hiring at this point. It must be nice to be in the 99% of all income earners in America and then be able to write something asshole-ish like "what recession" because you have a high paying job. I know the weather was beautiful and many people were out, but this doesn't seem to have too much to do with the recession so you shouldn't give the impression you are being insensitive. Does anyone edit this column?
d. My goal in life is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. I've never told anyone that, but it's true.
Is someone dropping a hint to the New York Times right now? This seems kind of pathetic.
h. Never, ever did I think I'd be saying this in midsummer, but I could see an Angels-Cards World Series. MVP: Scott Kazmir.
I am at the point I truly believe we could find a homeless man on the street who knows more about baseball than Peter King. I think it is going to be a Philadelphia-Boston World Series. I pride myself on knowing a little bit about baseball and know the Angels are doing to draw Boston in the first round and that the Angels always choke against the Red Sox in the playoffs. So I base my pick on the fact the Phillies are the best NL team and the Red Sox are easily going to win the 1st round and now have the pitching to beat the Yankees. Peter, despite being a Red Sox fan, can't seem to remember any of this stuff. So we get the prediction Scott Kazmir will be the World Series MVP.
i. Very good opening night for The Office, but I've been told by too many of you that I can't spoil the ending. Suffice it to say Stanley gets mad, and I don't blame him, and it is very funny.
Really? I don't know if I watched the same "The Office" season premiere as Peter. I don't remember Stanley getting mad at the end of the episode. Not even in the middle of the episode either. I wonder if Peter was privy to a different "Office" premiere because I don't even remember Stanley being mad as being funny.
Tonight the guy Peter has ranked behind Brett Favre in the top 12 QB's of all time, Peyton Manning, plays and Peter picks them to win. I predict Manning will be better than Favre by the end of his career, though I am sure Peter King would still rank the INT king over Manning.
This is just completely typical Peter King and the media in general. Absolutely blast a guy when he gets on their radar for screwing up but when he plays well the following week say nothing about it. I almost find it cowardly. After blasting a guy and questioning whether he can keep his job, the least you can do is acknowledge he held the job for one more week. Peter doesn't even do that. To say nothing about it is just doing a bad job of following up on last week's column.
Enough complaining, onto the King.
That's how Jets coach Rex Ryan greeted Mark Sanchez at the Jets' training complex in New Jersey the other day. It's not a rare thing. "That'd be taboo for a lot of coaches to say to a player, obviously,'' Sanchez said late Sunday afternoon, soaking in the biggest win of his, oh, eight-day pro playing career.
I have been doubting Sanchez since he announced he was going to make himself eligible for the draft. It's been two games into his career, you won't get an "I was wrong" from me quite yet. If Sanchez keeps playing like this, then yes, I will have been completely wrong...but first Mark Sanchez has to keep playing like this. I can't wait to see him go into Gillette Stadium when everyone is not cheering for him and have a good game.
I count six passers 25 or younger -- Ryan, Flacco, Sanchez, Stafford, Trent Edwards of Buffalo and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers -- as players with exceedingly bright futures.
And we know this based on their combined not-quite-yet 10 years experience playing the QB position? Stafford and Sanchez have played 4 total games in the NFL, let's calm down just a little bit. Shaun King looked like the answer in Tampa Bay for a while and there have been other quarterbacks who started their career out looking good only to flame out. Do I find it a coincidence four of these players have playoff caliber teams around them? No, I don't. I don't think it's a coincidence. These quarterbacks have played well but it is fortunate for these guys none of the teams, with the exception of Stafford, had a team rebuilding around him. I think that fact can be attributed to the early success they are having.
Last year, I'll never forget the scene at Baltimore training camp when Flacco, a rookie, went to the line to call signals and watched and listened for four or five seconds while several defensive players on the Ravens, most notably Ray Lewis, pointed and shouted out signals and defensive code words. Flacco waited, as if to say, "Are you finally finished?'' and then called his own play, completing a short pass.
Later in the locker room, Joe Flacco was shanked. The only evidence left was a piece of a #52 jersey that was used to wrap around the handle of the shank.
"Being at SC, in such a big program with such a good offensive attack, prepared me for this job well,'' Sanchez told me. "And just like SC prepared me for the football side of things, being in LA prepared me for the media side of it too. Here, on the field and off the field, everything is faster, but I feel like I'm ready for it.
Does this mean USC also helped prepare for Mark Sanchez to play poorly against the worst teams in the league? I am sure he learned a little bit of that from Pete Carroll as well. They can beat New England but will lose to the Chiefs, Raiders, and Lions. I have a theory about USC. Pete Carroll keeps his team very loose and that helps them in big games, but I also think it hurts them in games they should win because sometimes it seems like they don't take the team seriously and struggle to match the other team's intensity level on the road. That's just my theory that the Trojans may be TOO loose to amp up their intensity.
Why doesn't this pro style offense experience go for ex-USC receivers? They can't seem to make a difference in the NFL. Why is it different for the receivers from USC? More specifically why does my favorite team keep drafting the crappy USC receivers?
All young quarterbacks do, like the first play of the game, when a strip-sack resulted in a loss of 17 yards and put Sanchez back at his three-yard line. But time and again Sunday, he'd drop back, step nimbly out of any rush the Patriots threw at him (which wasn't much), and look very much like he belonged.
(The sounds of birds chirping can be heard just barely over the sound of "What a Wonderful World" playing in the background. Peter King is presenting his final rose to Mark Sanchez and pleading for him to accept. He's found his man. The man who can replace Favre. Peter is now complete for a few more years.)
Do you know how paranoid I am about Bill Belichick? I almost think he didn't throw everything he had at Sanchez because he wants to give him a false sense of security and then obliterate him for the rest of his career with the Jets. I really believe Belichick is a witch.
The odd thing -- especially considering the topic of this column -- is how well the older quarterbacks are playing.
Everybody's playing well this year according to Peter King! See what his new found love for Mark Sanchez does to him?
The three who have found the fountain of football youth:
If you don't know who #1 on this list is and you know Peter King is writing this column...please quit reading and find another post to read, do some research and then come back and make a guess. You shouldn't have to guess, the answer should come out automatically when you know he is going to list older QB's who are playing well this year.
•Brett Favre. "Every game I play at this point, I'm pretty grateful,'' he said after his record-setting 271st consecutive start, the most by a position player in NFL history. "I know how difficult it is.''
He has beaten the Browns and Lions. Kudos Brett to that tough early schedule you have. Let's over react to it shall we?
What was all the more admirable about the performance by Favre -- who turns 40 in three weeks -- is that he got sacked three times by the Lions and hit hard on four other occasions, and still had one of the most accurate days of his NFL career, completing 23 of 27 throws.
As I said last week when Peter mentioned how Favre can't get hit anymore or it may hurt him if he does get hit...if you can't get hit, retire (like a real retirement) or find another sport to play because getting hit is part of football. But no, every week we are going to get hear about how Brett Favre got hit a lot and bounced right back up. Who gives a crap? He's an NFL QB, that's part of the job, but Peter of course gives him credit for this.
•Drew Brees. The young kid of the Trifecta at 30, Brees is playing some sick football. He doesn't have a franchise running back, nor a franchise receiver (though Marques Colston is angular, tough and sure-handed)
I personally consider Marques Colston a franchise receiver. Of course I don't know if I can argue with the guy who thinks Derek Jeter is the best player he has seen in his lifetime, and only includes half of his lifetime as "his lifetime." He has set his own floor for common sense when he said that, to the point arguing with him just seems irrational on my part.
The Fine Fifteen
2. Minnesota (2-0).
Peter's Fine Fifteen is a joke in the first place but to put Minnesota at #2 when they beat Cleveland and Detroit is an even bigger joke. The only teams that may not be able to beat those two teams are....Detroit and Cleveland?
6. Pittsburgh (1-1).Willie Parker, 12 carries for 47 yards. What happened to the Steelers running game? Second straight game it hasn't been there.
I guess Peter has long term memory loss. The Steelers running game wasn't really there most of last year either. They still won the Super Bowl despite this.
11. Dallas (1-1). Cowboys have played the first two games of the season without sacking the quarterback or forcing a turnover.
Glad to see Jake "The Turnover Machine" Delhomme is playing them next week on Monday Night Football when they are hungry for turnovers and sacks. This is going to feel like a public execution.
Of course that number is not as frightening as JaMarcus Russell's completion percentage in his first two games of the season -- 35.2.
Reason #4,398 the Raiders don't know what they are doing: They cut Jeff Garcia to keep this guy.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
He names four offensive players of the week. Nearly one from half of the games played. Can't we just limit it to one or two? Is it that hard to do this?
Shameless MMQB Book Promotion of the Week
Yes, I've written a book. It's a combo platter of MMQB classic (there's an oxymoron) and new stuff -- lists, opinions, forecasting the future. It'll be out in October, and preorders are always welcome. For the next three or four weeks, I'll give you a nugget from the book based on what's topical in the football, online or Twitter universe.
So Bill Simmons and Peter King have books coming out nearly at the same time this year. Am I dead? Is this Hell?Here are my top 12 players of all time at the quarterback position.
5. Brett Favre. Most durable, most productive quarterback of all time. Marred by only one title.
Also marred by the fact he holds the NFL record for most interceptions in his career. #5 quarterback of all-time? Peter King has no semblance of neutrality in his writing when it comes to Favre. He just can't do it. I am not going to deny Favre is a Hall of Fame quarterback, but I will argue he is the #5 QB of all-time.
11. Bart Starr. All he did was win -- five NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowl titles, both ending with him being MVP.
I very well could be the only one, but I am amazed at the fact Bart Starr is #11. If Favre winning another title had gotten him further up the list, why doesn't Starr's 5 titles get him further than #11?
c. Julian Edelman: Wes Welker Jr.
Peter King: Patriots fan club member (not that there is anything wrong with that, but just admit it. I am a Panthers fan, it's obvious because I know more about them than any other team. Shouldn't this same theory be used for Peter? He knows the entire roster and substitution patterns for the team).
j. Not saying I can pick games or teams or anything, as my Detroit-over-Minnesota pick, and my 7-9 Saints prediction shows, but I did pick the Browns to go 2-14. And I'm not feeling too wrong about that right now.
Peter wants you to ignore all his wrong picks and focus on the one pick he got right for this year. I mentioned the Saints would win the NFC South this year and it wasn't a prediction, it just happens each team in the NFC South rotates the title every year and it was the Saints turn this year. I don't think I should get credit based on this fact. Peter, on the other hand, isn't exactly setting the world on fire with his predictions.
Of course I am tied with him in the Pick 'Em and Bill Simmons is currently beating me so I have no room to talk...so feel free to ignore me.
3. I think Brad Childress must be mad at me. He told me Sunday that my love for Jim Schwartz and Bill Belichick was "transparent.''
Even though he does look like a child molester, I have to say Childress is my hero for the next 10 seconds. And no, he is not mad at you, he just reads your MMQB every week. It's obvious to most people who read MMQB.
Gee, I thought I was doing a good job hiding it too. Next week, I'm going to keep all the coaches and all the teams happy. I'm going to pick every game exactly according to the spread. (Uh, not.)
"Uh, not." Wayne's World reference! Not outdated at all.
Somewhere in California a livid Bill Simmons is pacing around his living room wondering how Peter King could steal outdated references from him.
j. Loved how the Cincinnati offensive line made a shell around Carson Palmer.
Yes Peter, that's called blocking. In between the time you spend looking at pictures of Brett Favre and deciding which football player you are going to throw under the bus and suggest he will lose his starting job in your MMQB four times last week and then never mention him again, you should notice a few things about football...this being one of them.
b. Mark Sanchez did not "have too much juice'' on his throw in the end zone to Chansi Stuckey in the third quarter, as Dan Dierdorf said on TV. Stuckey slipped. Fell. Tripped. Come on.
Yes Dan Dierdorf, don't say anything negative about Mark Sanchez. Peter has his back for the next 15 years and no matter what Sanchez does will not say anything negative about him...you should do the same.
9. I think Marshawn Lynch must be getting very nervous about his job. I would be. Fred Jackson's been one of the Bills' five most important players in the first two weeks of the season. After the Patriots couldn't tackle him last week, Jackson had the best rushing day of his life (28 carries, 163 yards). Every team needs two good backs, and Buffalo has two.
So if every team needs to have two good backs and the Bills have two good backs with Lynch and Jackson, why should Lynch be getting nervous about his job? This would mean he still has a job, wouldn't it?
c. There is nothing like a beautiful Indian Summer Saturday in New York City, especially around Soho. The crowds are incredible. What recession?
Nice Peter. It's probably the recession where 10% of Americans are unemployed and people would take second jobs to pay the bills...if someone was hiring at this point. It must be nice to be in the 99% of all income earners in America and then be able to write something asshole-ish like "what recession" because you have a high paying job. I know the weather was beautiful and many people were out, but this doesn't seem to have too much to do with the recession so you shouldn't give the impression you are being insensitive. Does anyone edit this column?
d. My goal in life is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. I've never told anyone that, but it's true.
Is someone dropping a hint to the New York Times right now? This seems kind of pathetic.
h. Never, ever did I think I'd be saying this in midsummer, but I could see an Angels-Cards World Series. MVP: Scott Kazmir.
I am at the point I truly believe we could find a homeless man on the street who knows more about baseball than Peter King. I think it is going to be a Philadelphia-Boston World Series. I pride myself on knowing a little bit about baseball and know the Angels are doing to draw Boston in the first round and that the Angels always choke against the Red Sox in the playoffs. So I base my pick on the fact the Phillies are the best NL team and the Red Sox are easily going to win the 1st round and now have the pitching to beat the Yankees. Peter, despite being a Red Sox fan, can't seem to remember any of this stuff. So we get the prediction Scott Kazmir will be the World Series MVP.
i. Very good opening night for The Office, but I've been told by too many of you that I can't spoil the ending. Suffice it to say Stanley gets mad, and I don't blame him, and it is very funny.
Really? I don't know if I watched the same "The Office" season premiere as Peter. I don't remember Stanley getting mad at the end of the episode. Not even in the middle of the episode either. I wonder if Peter was privy to a different "Office" premiere because I don't even remember Stanley being mad as being funny.
Tonight the guy Peter has ranked behind Brett Favre in the top 12 QB's of all time, Peyton Manning, plays and Peter picks them to win. I predict Manning will be better than Favre by the end of his career, though I am sure Peter King would still rank the INT king over Manning.
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