When the playoffs start, we hear the same lines. Defense wins championships, and the teams with the best rushing game will do great in the cold weather. The former is definitely true, but does having a great rushing game really mean you're going to be great? Let's take a look...
To prove this I'm going to break down the rankings of every playoff team in the last decade.
2000-2001 Season
Wild Card Teams
Tampa Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-Warrick Dunn-1133 Yards
St. Louis (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-17th
Top Rusher-Marshall Faulk-1359 Yards
New Orleans (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-8th
Top Rusher-Ricky Williams-1000 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-16th
Top Rusher-Donovan McNabb-624 Yards
Minnesota (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-6th
Top Rusher-Robert Smith-1521 Yards
New York (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Tiki Barber 1006 Yards
Denver (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-Mike Anderson-1487 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-16th
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-1709 Yards
Miami (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Lamar Smith 1139 Yards
Baltimore-(Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-Jamal Lewis-1356 Yards
Oakland
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Tyrone Wheatley-1046 Yards
Tennessee
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Eddie George-1509 Yards
7 of 12 in the top 10
3 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 9.42
Super Bowl Champs: 5th
Super Bowl Runner Up: 11th
Average Rank Of Super Bowl Teams: 8th
This year the Super Bowl teams are above the Rushing average of the entire playoff bracket. Let's see how this changes over each year.
2001-2002
Tampa Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-30th
Top Rusher-Mike Alstot-680 Yards
Green Bay (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-21st
Top Rusher-Ahman Green-1387 Yards
San Francisco (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Garrison Hearst-1206 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Deuce Staley-604 Yards
St. Louis (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-Marshall Faulk 1382
Chicago (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-17th
Top Rusher-Anthony Thomas-1183 Yards
NY Jets (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-Curtis Martin-1513 Yards
Oakland (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-24th
Top Rusher-Charlie Garner-839 Yards
Miami (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-23rd
Top Rusher-Lamar Smith-968 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Terry Allen-658 Yards
Pittsburgh (Lost Championship Game)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Jerome Bettis-1072 Yards
New England (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-13th
Top Rusher-Antowain Smith-1157 Yards
5 of 12 in the top 10
3 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 13.75
Super Bowl Winner: 13th
Super Bowl Loser: 5th
Average Rank of SB Teams: 9th
Once again, the Super Bowl teams outperformed the whole bracket.
2002-2003
New York Jets (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-22nd
Top Rusher-Curtis Martin-1094 Yards
Pittsburgh (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-Amos Zeroue-762 Yards
Cleveland (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank 23rd
Top Rusher-William Green-887 Yards
Tennessee (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Eddie George-1165 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-26th
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-989 Yards
Oakland (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-18th
Top Rusher-Charlie Garner-962 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Deuce Staley-1029 Yards
New York Giants (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Tiki Barber-1387 Yards
Green Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Ahman Green-1240 Yards
Tampa Bay (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-27th
Top Rusher-Michael Pittman-718 Yards
Atlanta (Lost Divisional
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-Warrick Dunn-927 Yards
San Francisco (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-6th
Top Rusher-Garrison Hearst-972 Yards
8 of 12 teams not in the top 10
1 Team in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 14.92
Super Bowl Winner: 27th
Super Bowl Loser: 18th
Average: 22.5
This year, the Super Bowl teams were significantly worse than the average rank.
2003-2004
New England (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-27th
Top Rusher-Antowain Smith-642 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Jamal Lewis-2066 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-19th
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-1259 Yards
Tennessee (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-26th
Top Rusher-Eddie George-1031 Yards
Kansas City (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-15th
Top Rusher-Priest Holmes-1420 Yards
Denver (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Cilnton Portis-1591 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-Brian Westbrook-613 Yards
Dallas (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Troy Hambrick-972 Yard
Green Bay (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-Ahman Green-1883 Yards
Carolina (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Stephen Davis-1444 Yards
St. Louis (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-30th
Top Rusher-Marshall Faulk-818 Yards
Seattle (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-10th
Top Rusher-Shaun Alexander-1435 Yards
6 of 12 in the top 10
3 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 13.42
Super Bowl Winner: 27th
Super Bowl Loser: 7th
Average Rank: 17th
For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl teams are below average.
2004-2005
New England (Won SB)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Corey Dillon-1635 Yards
New York Jets (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-Curtis Martin-1697 Yards
Pittsburgh (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Jerome Bettis-941 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Divsional)
Rushing Ranl-15th
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-1548 Yards
San Diego (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-6th
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-1335 Yards
Denver (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-Ruben Droughns-1240 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-24th
Top Rusher-Brian Westbrook-812 Yards
Green Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-10th
Top Rusher-Ahman Green-1163 Yards
Minnesota (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-18th
Top Rusher-Ontereo Smith-544 Yards
Atlanta (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Warrick Dunn-1106 Yards
Seatle (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-8th
Top Rusher-Shaun Alexander-1696 Yards
St. Louis (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-25th
Top Rusher-Marshall Faulk-774 Yards
7 of 12 teams in the top 10
4 of 12 teams in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 10.25
Super Bowl Champ: 7th
Super Bowl Loser: 24th
Average Rank: 15.5
In a season where the top teams were more run heavy, the Super Bowl teams were below average for the 3rd straight year.
2005-2006
New England (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-24th
Top Rusher-Corey Dillon-773 Yards
Cincinnati (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Rudi Johnson-1458 Yards
Pittsburgh (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-Willie Parker-1202 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-16th
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-1506 Yards
Jacksonville (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-10th
Top Rusher-Fred Taylor-787 Yards
Denver (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Mike Anderson-1014 Yards
New York Giants (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-6th
Top Rusher-Tiki Barber-1860 Yards
Washington (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Clinton Portis-1516 Yards
Chicago (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-8th
Top Rusher-Thomas Jones-1335 Yards
Tampa Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Cadillac Williams-1178 Yards
Carolina (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-19th
Top Rusher-DeShaun Foster-879 Yards
Seattle (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-Shaun Alexander-1880 Yards
8 of 12 teams in the top 10
3 of 5 teams in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 10.42
Super Bowl Champs: 5th
Super Bowl Loser: 3rd
Average Rank: 4th
This year the trend is bucked. 2 Top rushing teams make it to the big game.
2006-2007
New England (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Corey Dillon-812 Yards
New York Jets (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-20th
Top Rusher-Leon Washington-650 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-25th
Top Rusher-Jamal Lewis-1132 Yards
Indianapolis (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-18th
Top Rusher-Joseph Addai-1081 Yards
San Diego (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-1815 Yards
Kansas City (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-Larry Johnson-1789 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Brian Westbrook-1217 Yards
Dallas (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-13th
Top Rusher-Julius Jones-1089 Yards
New York Giants (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Tiki Barber-1662 Yards
Chicago (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-15th
Top Rusher-Thomas Jones-1210 Yards
New Orleans (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-19th
Top Rusher-Deuce McCallister-1057 Yards
Seattle (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Shaun Alexander-896 Yards
3 of 12 in the top 10
1 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 13.75
Super Bowl Champ: 18th
Super Bowl Loser: 15th
Average Rank: 16.5
Another year where the top playoff teams were better than the SB teams.
2007-2008
New England (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-13th
Top Rusher-Lawrence Maroney-835 Yards
Pittsburgh (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-Willie Parker-1316 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-18th
Top Rusher-Joseph Addai-1072 Yards
Jacksonville (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Fred Taylor-1202 Yards
Tennessee (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-LenDale White-1110 Yards
San Diego (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-1474 Yards
Dallas (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-17th
Top Rusher-Marion Barber-975 Yards
Washington (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Clinton Portis-1262 Yards
New York Giants (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-Brandon Jacobs-1009 Yards
Green Bay (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-21st
Top Rusher-Ryan Grant-956 Yards
Tampa Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Earnest Graham-848 Yards
Seattle (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-20th
Top Rusher-Shaun Alexander-716 Yards
5 of 12 in the top 10
3 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 11.08
Super Bowl Champ: 4th
Super Bowl Loser: 13th
Average Rank: 8.5
The SB teams outperformed the aggregate.
2008-2009
Miami (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Ronnie Brown-916 Yards
Pittsburgh (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-23rd
Top Rusher-Willie Parker-791 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-Le'Ron McClain-902 Yards
Tennessee (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Chris Johnson-1228 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-31st
Top Rusher-Joseph Addai-544 Yards
San Diego (Lost Divisional
Rushing Rank-20th
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-1110
New York Giants (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Brandon Jacobs-1089 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-22nd
Top Rusher-Brian Westbrook-936 Yards
Minnesota (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-Adrian Peterson-1760 Yards
Carolina (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-3rd
Top Rusher-DeAngelo Williams-1515 Yards
Atlanta (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-2nd
Top Rusher-Michael Turner-1699 Yards
Arizona (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-32nd
Top Rusher-Edgerrin James-514 Yards
7 of 12 in the top 10
5 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 13.42
Super Bowl Champ: 23rd
Super Bowl Loser: 32nd
Average Rank: 27.5
The SB teams were markedly worse than the average. 2 of the leagues WORST rushing teams faced off in the Super Bowl.
2009-2010
New England (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Lawrence Maroney-757 Yards
New York Jets (Lost Championship Game)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Thomas Jones-1402 Yards
Cincinatti (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-Cedric Benson-1251 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-Ray Rice-1339 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-32nd
Top Rusher-Joseph Addai-828 Yards
San Diego (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-31st
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-730 Yards
Dallas (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-7th
Top Rusher-Marion Barber-932 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-22nd
Top Rusher-LeSean McCoy-637 Yards
Minnesota (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-13th
Top Rusher-Adrian Peterson-1383 Yards
Green Bay (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Ryan Grant-1253 Yards
New Orleans (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-6th
Top Rusher-Pierre Thomas-793 Yards
Arizona (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-28th
Top Rusher-Chris "Beanie" Wells-793 Yards
5 of 12 in the top 10
2 of 12 in the top 5
Average Total Rank: 15th
Super Bowl Winner-6th
Super Bowl Loser-32nd
Average Rank: 19th
The SB teams, once again, were below average.
2010-2011
New England (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-9th
Top Rusher-BenJarvis Green-Ellis-1008 Yards
New York Jets (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-4th
Top Rusher-LaDannian Tomlinson-914 Yards
Pittsburgh (Lost Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-11th
Top Rusher-Rashard Mendenhal-1273 Yards
Baltimore (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-14th
Top Rusher-Ray Rice-1220 Yards
Indianapolis (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-29th
Top Rusher-Donald Brown-497 Yards
Kansas City (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-1st
Top Rusher-Jamaal Charles-1467 Yards
Philadelphia (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-5th
Top Rusher-LeSean McCoy-1080 Yards
Chicago (Lost Championship)
Rushing Rank-22nd
Top Rusher-Matt Forte-1069 Yards
Green Bay (Won Super Bowl)
Rushing Rank-24th
Top Rusher-Brandon Jackson-703 Yards
Atlanta (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-12th
Top Rusher-Michael Turner-1371 Yards
New Orleans (Lost Wild Card)
Rushing Rank-28th
Top Rusher-Chris Ivory-716 Yards
Seattle (Lost Divisional)
Rushing Rank-31st
Top Rusher-Marshawn Lynch-573 Yards
4 of 12 in the top 10
3 of 12 in the top 10
Average Total Rank: 15.83
Super Bowl Champ: 24th
Super Bowl Loser: 11th
Average Rank: 17.5
To finish it off, this year the SB teams were worse than the average.
Lets break this down.
Average rank from ALL playoff teams from 2000-2011: 12.84
There you have it folks. 12.84. To make the playoffs, the average team needs to have a rank of 12.84.
Lets look at the Super Bowl now.
Average rank from ALL Super Bowl Winners: 14.45
Average rank from ALL Super Bowl Losers; 15.55
Average rushing rank needed to make the Super Bowl: 15th
NEAR AVERAGE. That's the rushing attack you need to make the Super Bowl. Near average.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
What is a better way to build your team? Draft/Undrafted Free Agents or Free Agency/Trades?
Building a team is the hardest part for the front office of a football team. You can have the best system in the league as far as coaching but if you don't have the players, you won't be successful. So what is the best way to go? Should you draft your team and have a bunch of young guys and work to get them to gel? Or do you give up those picks in exchange for big name free agents and blockbuster trades? Let's take a look at the last 3 years. We'll compare the Super Bowl Champions with the worst team in the league and see who has what. All numbers include IR players.
2010-2011 Green Bay Packers
Drafted-38
Trades-3
Undrafted Free Agents-20
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-3
2009-2010 New Orleans Saints
Drafted-24
Trades-5
Undrafted Free Agents-6
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-34
2008-2009 Pittsburgh Steelers
Drafted-30
Trades-1
Undrafted Free Agents-12
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-20
Avg Drafted-30.67
Avg Traded-3
Avg Undrafted-12.67
Avg Free Agent-19
2010-2011 Carolina Panthers
Drafted-39
Trades-2
Undrafted Free Agents-6
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-25
2009-2010 St. Louis Rams
Drafted-26
Trades-4
Undrafted Free Agents-5
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-31
2008-2009 Detroit Lions
Drafted-29
Trades-2
Undrafted Free Agents-5
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-35
Avg Drafted-31.33
Avg Traded-2.67
Avg Undrafted-5
Avg Free Agent-30.33
So comparing the last 3 years, both the best and the worst teams drafted relatively the same amounts of players and had relatively the same amount of trades. But what separates the boys from the men seems to be undrafted free agent signings. 7.67 more undrafted players per team for the champs over the chumps. The chumps also relied heavily on free agents in general, signing 11.33 more per team than the champs. So from this very limited sample, we see a trend towards the teams that scour through the undrafted guys as the guys who come out on top.
2010-2011 Green Bay Packers
Drafted-38
Trades-3
Undrafted Free Agents-20
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-3
2009-2010 New Orleans Saints
Drafted-24
Trades-5
Undrafted Free Agents-6
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-34
2008-2009 Pittsburgh Steelers
Drafted-30
Trades-1
Undrafted Free Agents-12
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-20
Avg Drafted-30.67
Avg Traded-3
Avg Undrafted-12.67
Avg Free Agent-19
2010-2011 Carolina Panthers
Drafted-39
Trades-2
Undrafted Free Agents-6
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-25
2009-2010 St. Louis Rams
Drafted-26
Trades-4
Undrafted Free Agents-5
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-31
2008-2009 Detroit Lions
Drafted-29
Trades-2
Undrafted Free Agents-5
Restricted/Unrestricted Free Agents-35
Avg Drafted-31.33
Avg Traded-2.67
Avg Undrafted-5
Avg Free Agent-30.33
So comparing the last 3 years, both the best and the worst teams drafted relatively the same amounts of players and had relatively the same amount of trades. But what separates the boys from the men seems to be undrafted free agent signings. 7.67 more undrafted players per team for the champs over the chumps. The chumps also relied heavily on free agents in general, signing 11.33 more per team than the champs. So from this very limited sample, we see a trend towards the teams that scour through the undrafted guys as the guys who come out on top.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Breaking Down the 2008 NFL Draft
I have always been in love with the NFL draft and I find it fascinating how some players flourish while others flop. Today I want to look into the 2008 NFL Draft and what teams did well and what teams didn't. I'm using 2008 because it's a nice place to start. 2009 or 2010 would be too soon and before 2007 would be too easy. I'm going to rank each player for each team and give each team an overall grade. This grade will be based on overall contributions to the team. If a player was drafted to a team and went on to be successful on another team, he will receive a grade that reflects his time with the team that drafted him. So if player A gets drafted to Team A and he sits the bench for a year and gets cut without recording any stats and then gets cut and performs well for another team, player A will receive 0.0.
Grading Scale-
4.0-Elite NFL star
3.0-3.9-Top contributor
2.0-2.9-Solid
1.0-1.9-Situational player, limited contributions
0.1-0.9-Minimal contributions
0.0-No contributions
Arizona Cardinals
Rd 1 (16) Dominique Rodgers Cromartie 2.8
Rd 2 (50) Calais Campbell 3.0
Rd 3 (81) Early Doucet 1.5
Rd 4 (116) Kenny Iwebema 0.0
Rd 5 (149) Tim Hightower 2.8
Rd 6 (185) Chris Harrington 0.0
Rd 7 (225) Brandon Keith 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.44
Atlanta Falcons
Rd 1 (3) Matt Ryan 3.5
Rd 1 (21) Sam Baker 3.0
Rd 2 (37) Curtis Lofton 3.2
Rd 3 (68) Chevis Jackson 1.8
Rd 3 (84) Harry Douglass 1.0
Rd 3 (98) Thomas DeCloud 3.1
Rd 5 (138) Robert James 0.0
Rd 5 (154) Kory Biermann 3.2
Rd 6 (172) Thomas Brown 0.0
Rd 7 (212) Wilrey Fontenot 0.0
Rd 7 (232) Keith Zinger 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.71
Baltimore Ravens
Rd 1 (18) Joe Flacco 3.2
Rd 2 (55) Ray Rice 3.8
Rd 3 (71) Tavares Gooden 1.0
Rd 3 (86) Tom Zbikowski 1.0
Rd 3 (99) Oniel Cousins 1.0
Rd 4 (106) Marcus Smith 0.0
Rd 4 (133) David Hale 0.0
Rd 6 (206) Haruki Nakamura 0.8
Rd 7 (215) Justin Harper 0.0
Rd 7 (240) Allen Patrick 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.08
Buffalo Bills
Rd 1 (11) Leodis McKelvin 2.0
Rd 2 (41) James Hardy 0.6
Rd 3 (72) Chris Ellis 0.1
Rd 4 (114) Reggie Corner 1.8
Rd 4 (132) Derek Fine 0.4
Rd 5 (147) Alvin Bowen 0.0
Rd 6 (179) Xavier Omon 0.0
Rd 7 (219) Demetrius Bell 1.9
Rd 7 (224) Steve Johnson 3.3
Rd 7 (251) Kennard Cox 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.01
Carolina Panthers
Rd 1 (13) Jonathan Stewart 2.9
Rd 1 (19) Jeff Otah 3.0
Rd 3 (67) Charles Godfrey 2.9
Rd 3 (74) Dan Connor 2.1
Rd 6 (181) Nick Hayden 0.0
Rd 7 (221) Hilee Taylor 0.8
Rd 7 (241) Geoff Schwartz 1.8
Rd 7 (250) Mackenzie Bernadeau 1.8
TOTAL SCORE: 1.91
Chicago Bears
Rd 1 (14) Chris Williams 2.9
Rd 2 (44) Matt Forte 3.8
Rd 3 (70) Earl Bennett 1.8
Rd 3 (90) Marcus Harrison 0.8
Rd 4 (120) Craig Steltz 0.5
Rd 5 (142) Zackary Bowman 2.6
Rd 5 (158) Kellen Davis 0.5
Rd 7 (208) Ervin Baldwin 0.0
Rd 7 (222) Chester Adams 0.0
Rd 7 (243) Joe LaRocque 0.1
Rd 7 (247) Kirk Barton 0.0
Rd 7 (248) Marcus Monk 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.89
Cincinnati Bengals
Rd 1 (9) Keith Rivers 3.1
Rd 2 (46) Jerome Simpson 0.8
Rd 3 (77) Pat Sims 1.8
Rd 3 (97) Andre Caldwell 1.7
Rd 4 (112) Anthony Collins 1.0
Rd 5 (145) Jason Shirley 0.0
Rd 6 (177) Corey Lynch 0.0
Rd 6 (207) Matt Sherry 0.0
Rd 7 (244) Angelo Craig 0.0
Rd 7 (246) Mario Urrutia 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.84
Cleveland Browns
Rd 4 (104) Beau Bell 0.0
Rd 4 (111) Martin Rucker 0.0
Rd 6 (190) Ahtyba Rubin 2.6
Rd 6 (191) Paul Hubbard 0.0
Rd 7 (231) Alex Hall 0.6
TOTAL SCORE: 0.64
Dallas Cowboys
Rd 1 (22) Felix Jones 2.2
Rd 1 (25) Mike Jenkins 2.8
Rd 2 (61) Martellus Bennett 1.2
Rd 4 (122) Tashard Choice 1.9
Rd 5 (143) Orlando Scandrick 1.5
Rd 6 (167) Erik Walden 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.60
Denver Broncos
Rd 1 (12) Ryan Clady 3.2
Rd 2 (42) Eddie Royal 2.5
Rd 4 (108) Kory Lichtensteiger 0.0
Rd 4 (119) Jack Williams 0.2
Rd 5 (139) Ryan Torain 0.6
Rd 5 (148) Carlton Powell 0.0
Rd 6 (183) Spencer Larson 0.1
Rd 7 (220) Josh Barrett 0.2
Rd 7 (227) Peyton Hillis 0.6
TOTAL SCORE: 0.78
Detroit Lions
Rd 1 (17) Gosder Cherilus 3.2
Rd 2 (45) Jordon Dizon 0.8
Rd 3 (64) Kevin Smith 1.8
Rd 3 (87) Andre Fluellen 0.0
Rd 3 (92) Cliff Avril 2.8
Rd 5 (136) Kenneth Moore 0.0
Rd 5 (146) Jerome Felton 1.0
Rd 7 (216) Landon Cohen 0.3
Rd 7 (218) Caleb Campbell 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.10
Green Bay Packers
Rd 2 (36) Jordy Nelson 2.4
Rd 2 (56) Brian Brohm 0.0
Rd 2 (60) Pat Lee 0.2
Rd 3 (91) Jermichael Finley 3.2
Rd 4 (102) Jeremy Thompson 0.1
Rd 4 (135) Josh Sitton 2.9
Rd 5 (150) Breno Giacomini 0.0
Rd 7 (209) Matt Flynn 2.0
Rd 7 (217) Brett Swain 0.1
TOTAL SCORE: 1.21
Houston Texans
Rd 1 (26) Duane Brown 3.0
Rd 3 (79) Antwaun Molden 0.3
Rd 3 (89) Steve Slaton 2.5
Rd 4 (118) Xavier Adibi 1.4
Rd 5 (151) Frank Okam 0.0
Rd 6 (173) Dominique Barber 0.7
Rd 7 (223) Alex Brink 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.13
Indianapolis Colts
Rd 2 (59) Mike Pollak 2.8
Rd 3 (93) Philip Wheeler 1.8
Rd 4 (127) Jacob Tamme 2.0
Rd 5 (161) Marcus Howard 0.6
Rd 6 (196) Tom Santi 0.7
Rd 6 (201) Steve Justice 0.1
Rd 6 (202) Mike Hart 0.8
Rd 6 (205) Pierre Garcon 2.0
Rd 7 (236) Jamey Richard 0.8
TOTAL SCORE: 1.29
Jacksonville Jaguars
Rd 1 (8) Derrick Harvey 2.4
Rd 2 (52) Quinten Groves 1.1
Rd 5 (155) Thomas Williams 0.0
Rd 5 (159) Trae Williams 0.0
Rd 7 (213) Chauncey Washington 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.70
Kansas City Chiefs
Rd 1 (5) Glenn Dorsey 1.9
Rd 1 (15) Branden Albert 3.1
Rd 2 (35) Brandon Flowers 3.3
Rd 3 (73) Jamaal Charles 3.4
Rd 3 (76) Brad Cottam 0.2
Rd 3 (82) DaJuan Morgan 0.4
Rd 4 (105) William Franklin 0.2
Rd 5 (140) Brandon Carr 1.6
Rd 6 (170) Barry Richardson 1.4
Rd 6 (182) Kevin Robinson 0.0
Rd 7 (210) Brian Johnson 0.0
Rd 7 (239) Michael Merritt 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.29
Miami Dolphins
Rd 1 (1) Jake Long 3.8
Rd 2 (32) Phillip Merling 0.9
Rd 2 (57) Chad Henne 2.4
Rd 3 (66) Kendall Langford 2.0
Rd 4 (110) Shawn Murphy 0.0
Rd 6 (176) Jalen Parmele 0.0
Rd 6 (195) Donald Thomas 0.0
Rd 6 (204) Lex Hilliard 0.2
Rd 7 (245) Lionel Dotson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.03
Minnesota Vikings
Rd 2 (43) Tyrell Johnson 1.4
Rd 5 (137) John David Booty 0.0
Rd 5 (152) Letroy Guion 0.0
Rd 6 (187) John Sullivan 3.0
Rd 6 (193) Jaymar Johnson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.88
New England Patriots
Rd 1 (10) Jerod Mayo 3.9
Rd 2 (62) Terrence Wheatley 0.0
Rd 3 (78) Shawn Crable 0.1
Rd 3 (94) Kevin O'Connell 0.1
Rd 4 (129) Johnathan Wilhite 0.8
Rd 5 (153) Matthew Slater 0.6
Rd 6 (197) Bo Ruud 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.79
New Orleans Saints
Rd 1 (7) Sedrick Ellis 3.1
Rd 2 (40) Tracy Porter 2.8
Rd 5 (144) DeMario Pressley 0.0
Rd 5 (164) Carl Nicks 2.6
Rd 6 (178) Taylor Mehlhaff 0.2
Rd 7 (237) Adrian Arrington 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.45
New York Giants
Rd 1 (31) Kenny Phillips 2.6
Rd 2 (63) Terrell Thomas 3.0
Rd 3 (95) Mario Manningham 2.4
Rd 4 (123) Bryan Kehl 1.0
Rd 5 (165) Jonathan Goff 1.9
Rd 6 (198) Andre Woodson 0.0
Rd 6 (199) Robert Henderson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.56
New York Jets
Rd 1 (6) Vernon Gholston 0.4
Rd 1 (30) Dustin Keller3.2
Rd 4 (113) Dwight Lowery 2.5
Rd 5 (162) Erik Ainge 0.0
Rd 6 (171) Marcus Henry 0.0
Rd 7 (211) Nate Garner 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.02
Oakland Raiders
Rd 1 (4) Darren McFadden 3.6
Rd 4 (100) Tyvon Branch 3.0
Rd 4 (125) Arman Shields 0.0
Rd 6 (169) Trevor Scott 2.5
Rd 7 (226) Chaz Schilens 1.5
TOTAL SCORE: 2.12
Philadelphia Eagles
Rd 2 (47) Trevor Laws 1.4
Rd 2 (49) DeSean Jackson 3.7
Rd 3 (80) Bryan Smith 0.0
Rd 4 (109) Mike McGlynn 1.4
Rd 4 (117) Quintin Demps 0.4
Rd 4 (131) Jack Ikegquono 0.0
Rd 6 (184) Mike Gibson 0.0
Rd 6 (200) Joe Mays 0.4
Rd 6 (203) Andy Studebaker 0.0
Rd 7 (230) King Dunlap 0.3
TOTAL SCORE: 0.76
Pittsburgh Steelers
Rd 1 (23) Rashard Mendenhall 3.6
Rd 2 (53) Limas Sweed 0.1
Rd 3 (88) Bruce Davis 0.0
Rd 4 (130) Tony Hills 0.0
Rd 5 (156) Dennis Dixon 0.5
Rd 6 (188) Mike Humpal 0.0
Rd 6 (194) Ryan Mundy 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.6
San Diego Chargers
Rd 1 (27) Antoine Cason 2.9
Rd 3 (69) Jacob Hester 2.5
Rd 5 (166) Marcus Thomas 0.0
Rd 6 (192) DeJuan Tribble 0.0
Rd 7 (234) Corey Clark 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.08
San Francisco 49ers
Rd 1 (29) Kentwan Balmer 0.2
Rd 2 (39) Chilo Rachal 3.0
Rd 3 (75) Reggie Smith 1.2
Rd 4 (107) Cody Wallace 0.0
Rd 6 (174) Josh Morgan 2.0
Rd 7 (214) Larry Grant 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.07
Seattle Seahawks
Rd 1 (28) Lawrence Jackson 0.8
Rd 2 (38) John Carlson 3.0
Rd 4 (121) Red Bryant 0.3
Rd 5 (163) Owen Schmitt 0.5
Rd 6 (189) Tyler Schmitt 0.0
Rd 7 (233) Justin Forsett 2.0
Rd 7 (235) Brandon Coutu 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.94
St. Louis Rams
Rd 1 (2) Chris Long 3.0
Rd 2 (33) Donnie Avery 2.0
Rd 3 (65) John Greco 0.8
Rd 4 (100) Justin King 0.1
Rd 4 (128) Keenan Burton 0.6
Rd 5 (157) Roy Schuening 0.0
Rd 7 (228) Chris Chamberlain 1.1
Rd 7 (252) David Vobora 1.2
TOTAL SCORE: 1.10
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Rd 1 (20) Aqib Talib 3.1
Rd 2 (58) Dexter Jackson 0.4
Rd 3 (83) Jeremy Zuttah 2.5
Rd 4 (115) Dre Moore 0.1
Rd 5 (160) Josh Johnson 0.8
Rd 6 (175) Geno Hayes 2.2
Rd 7 (238) Cory Boyd 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.31
Tennessee Titans
Rd 1 (24) Chris Johnson 4.0
Rd 2 (54) Jason Jones 2.1
Rd 3 (85) Craig Stevens 0.0
Rd 4 (103) William Hayes 0.6
Rd 4 (126) Lavelle Hawkins 0.3
Rd 4 (134) Stanford Keglar 0.2
Rd 7 (229) Cory Williams 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.03
Washington Redskins
Rd 2 (34) Devil Thomas 0.6
Rd 2 (48) Fred Davis 1.2
Rd 2 (51) Maclom Kelly 0.4
Rd 3 (96) Chad Reinhart 0.3
Rd 4 (124) Justin Tryon 0.7
Rd 6 (168) Durant Brooks 2.0
Rd 6 (180) Kareem Moore 0.4
Rd 6 (186) Colt Brennan 0.0
Rd 7 (242) Rob Jackson 0.0
Rd 7 (249) Chris Horton 1.9
TOTAL SCORE: 0.75
Best Draft: Oakland
Oakland scored 3 starters and another solid contributor in their draft. Only one player didn't make the cut.
Worst Draft: Pittsburgh
Rashard Mendenhall is the only player who isn't a pile of garbage in the draft. 4 complete busts in the draft.
Grading Scale-
4.0-Elite NFL star
3.0-3.9-Top contributor
2.0-2.9-Solid
1.0-1.9-Situational player, limited contributions
0.1-0.9-Minimal contributions
0.0-No contributions
Arizona Cardinals
Rd 1 (16) Dominique Rodgers Cromartie 2.8
Rd 2 (50) Calais Campbell 3.0
Rd 3 (81) Early Doucet 1.5
Rd 4 (116) Kenny Iwebema 0.0
Rd 5 (149) Tim Hightower 2.8
Rd 6 (185) Chris Harrington 0.0
Rd 7 (225) Brandon Keith 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.44
Atlanta Falcons
Rd 1 (3) Matt Ryan 3.5
Rd 1 (21) Sam Baker 3.0
Rd 2 (37) Curtis Lofton 3.2
Rd 3 (68) Chevis Jackson 1.8
Rd 3 (84) Harry Douglass 1.0
Rd 3 (98) Thomas DeCloud 3.1
Rd 5 (138) Robert James 0.0
Rd 5 (154) Kory Biermann 3.2
Rd 6 (172) Thomas Brown 0.0
Rd 7 (212) Wilrey Fontenot 0.0
Rd 7 (232) Keith Zinger 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.71
Baltimore Ravens
Rd 1 (18) Joe Flacco 3.2
Rd 2 (55) Ray Rice 3.8
Rd 3 (71) Tavares Gooden 1.0
Rd 3 (86) Tom Zbikowski 1.0
Rd 3 (99) Oniel Cousins 1.0
Rd 4 (106) Marcus Smith 0.0
Rd 4 (133) David Hale 0.0
Rd 6 (206) Haruki Nakamura 0.8
Rd 7 (215) Justin Harper 0.0
Rd 7 (240) Allen Patrick 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.08
Buffalo Bills
Rd 1 (11) Leodis McKelvin 2.0
Rd 2 (41) James Hardy 0.6
Rd 3 (72) Chris Ellis 0.1
Rd 4 (114) Reggie Corner 1.8
Rd 4 (132) Derek Fine 0.4
Rd 5 (147) Alvin Bowen 0.0
Rd 6 (179) Xavier Omon 0.0
Rd 7 (219) Demetrius Bell 1.9
Rd 7 (224) Steve Johnson 3.3
Rd 7 (251) Kennard Cox 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.01
Carolina Panthers
Rd 1 (13) Jonathan Stewart 2.9
Rd 1 (19) Jeff Otah 3.0
Rd 3 (67) Charles Godfrey 2.9
Rd 3 (74) Dan Connor 2.1
Rd 6 (181) Nick Hayden 0.0
Rd 7 (221) Hilee Taylor 0.8
Rd 7 (241) Geoff Schwartz 1.8
Rd 7 (250) Mackenzie Bernadeau 1.8
TOTAL SCORE: 1.91
Chicago Bears
Rd 1 (14) Chris Williams 2.9
Rd 2 (44) Matt Forte 3.8
Rd 3 (70) Earl Bennett 1.8
Rd 3 (90) Marcus Harrison 0.8
Rd 4 (120) Craig Steltz 0.5
Rd 5 (142) Zackary Bowman 2.6
Rd 5 (158) Kellen Davis 0.5
Rd 7 (208) Ervin Baldwin 0.0
Rd 7 (222) Chester Adams 0.0
Rd 7 (243) Joe LaRocque 0.1
Rd 7 (247) Kirk Barton 0.0
Rd 7 (248) Marcus Monk 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.89
Cincinnati Bengals
Rd 1 (9) Keith Rivers 3.1
Rd 2 (46) Jerome Simpson 0.8
Rd 3 (77) Pat Sims 1.8
Rd 3 (97) Andre Caldwell 1.7
Rd 4 (112) Anthony Collins 1.0
Rd 5 (145) Jason Shirley 0.0
Rd 6 (177) Corey Lynch 0.0
Rd 6 (207) Matt Sherry 0.0
Rd 7 (244) Angelo Craig 0.0
Rd 7 (246) Mario Urrutia 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.84
Cleveland Browns
Rd 4 (104) Beau Bell 0.0
Rd 4 (111) Martin Rucker 0.0
Rd 6 (190) Ahtyba Rubin 2.6
Rd 6 (191) Paul Hubbard 0.0
Rd 7 (231) Alex Hall 0.6
TOTAL SCORE: 0.64
Dallas Cowboys
Rd 1 (22) Felix Jones 2.2
Rd 1 (25) Mike Jenkins 2.8
Rd 2 (61) Martellus Bennett 1.2
Rd 4 (122) Tashard Choice 1.9
Rd 5 (143) Orlando Scandrick 1.5
Rd 6 (167) Erik Walden 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.60
Denver Broncos
Rd 1 (12) Ryan Clady 3.2
Rd 2 (42) Eddie Royal 2.5
Rd 4 (108) Kory Lichtensteiger 0.0
Rd 4 (119) Jack Williams 0.2
Rd 5 (139) Ryan Torain 0.6
Rd 5 (148) Carlton Powell 0.0
Rd 6 (183) Spencer Larson 0.1
Rd 7 (220) Josh Barrett 0.2
Rd 7 (227) Peyton Hillis 0.6
TOTAL SCORE: 0.78
Detroit Lions
Rd 1 (17) Gosder Cherilus 3.2
Rd 2 (45) Jordon Dizon 0.8
Rd 3 (64) Kevin Smith 1.8
Rd 3 (87) Andre Fluellen 0.0
Rd 3 (92) Cliff Avril 2.8
Rd 5 (136) Kenneth Moore 0.0
Rd 5 (146) Jerome Felton 1.0
Rd 7 (216) Landon Cohen 0.3
Rd 7 (218) Caleb Campbell 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.10
Green Bay Packers
Rd 2 (36) Jordy Nelson 2.4
Rd 2 (56) Brian Brohm 0.0
Rd 2 (60) Pat Lee 0.2
Rd 3 (91) Jermichael Finley 3.2
Rd 4 (102) Jeremy Thompson 0.1
Rd 4 (135) Josh Sitton 2.9
Rd 5 (150) Breno Giacomini 0.0
Rd 7 (209) Matt Flynn 2.0
Rd 7 (217) Brett Swain 0.1
TOTAL SCORE: 1.21
Houston Texans
Rd 1 (26) Duane Brown 3.0
Rd 3 (79) Antwaun Molden 0.3
Rd 3 (89) Steve Slaton 2.5
Rd 4 (118) Xavier Adibi 1.4
Rd 5 (151) Frank Okam 0.0
Rd 6 (173) Dominique Barber 0.7
Rd 7 (223) Alex Brink 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.13
Indianapolis Colts
Rd 2 (59) Mike Pollak 2.8
Rd 3 (93) Philip Wheeler 1.8
Rd 4 (127) Jacob Tamme 2.0
Rd 5 (161) Marcus Howard 0.6
Rd 6 (196) Tom Santi 0.7
Rd 6 (201) Steve Justice 0.1
Rd 6 (202) Mike Hart 0.8
Rd 6 (205) Pierre Garcon 2.0
Rd 7 (236) Jamey Richard 0.8
TOTAL SCORE: 1.29
Jacksonville Jaguars
Rd 1 (8) Derrick Harvey 2.4
Rd 2 (52) Quinten Groves 1.1
Rd 5 (155) Thomas Williams 0.0
Rd 5 (159) Trae Williams 0.0
Rd 7 (213) Chauncey Washington 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.70
Kansas City Chiefs
Rd 1 (5) Glenn Dorsey 1.9
Rd 1 (15) Branden Albert 3.1
Rd 2 (35) Brandon Flowers 3.3
Rd 3 (73) Jamaal Charles 3.4
Rd 3 (76) Brad Cottam 0.2
Rd 3 (82) DaJuan Morgan 0.4
Rd 4 (105) William Franklin 0.2
Rd 5 (140) Brandon Carr 1.6
Rd 6 (170) Barry Richardson 1.4
Rd 6 (182) Kevin Robinson 0.0
Rd 7 (210) Brian Johnson 0.0
Rd 7 (239) Michael Merritt 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.29
Miami Dolphins
Rd 1 (1) Jake Long 3.8
Rd 2 (32) Phillip Merling 0.9
Rd 2 (57) Chad Henne 2.4
Rd 3 (66) Kendall Langford 2.0
Rd 4 (110) Shawn Murphy 0.0
Rd 6 (176) Jalen Parmele 0.0
Rd 6 (195) Donald Thomas 0.0
Rd 6 (204) Lex Hilliard 0.2
Rd 7 (245) Lionel Dotson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.03
Minnesota Vikings
Rd 2 (43) Tyrell Johnson 1.4
Rd 5 (137) John David Booty 0.0
Rd 5 (152) Letroy Guion 0.0
Rd 6 (187) John Sullivan 3.0
Rd 6 (193) Jaymar Johnson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.88
New England Patriots
Rd 1 (10) Jerod Mayo 3.9
Rd 2 (62) Terrence Wheatley 0.0
Rd 3 (78) Shawn Crable 0.1
Rd 3 (94) Kevin O'Connell 0.1
Rd 4 (129) Johnathan Wilhite 0.8
Rd 5 (153) Matthew Slater 0.6
Rd 6 (197) Bo Ruud 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.79
New Orleans Saints
Rd 1 (7) Sedrick Ellis 3.1
Rd 2 (40) Tracy Porter 2.8
Rd 5 (144) DeMario Pressley 0.0
Rd 5 (164) Carl Nicks 2.6
Rd 6 (178) Taylor Mehlhaff 0.2
Rd 7 (237) Adrian Arrington 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.45
New York Giants
Rd 1 (31) Kenny Phillips 2.6
Rd 2 (63) Terrell Thomas 3.0
Rd 3 (95) Mario Manningham 2.4
Rd 4 (123) Bryan Kehl 1.0
Rd 5 (165) Jonathan Goff 1.9
Rd 6 (198) Andre Woodson 0.0
Rd 6 (199) Robert Henderson 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.56
New York Jets
Rd 1 (6) Vernon Gholston 0.4
Rd 1 (30) Dustin Keller3.2
Rd 4 (113) Dwight Lowery 2.5
Rd 5 (162) Erik Ainge 0.0
Rd 6 (171) Marcus Henry 0.0
Rd 7 (211) Nate Garner 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.02
Oakland Raiders
Rd 1 (4) Darren McFadden 3.6
Rd 4 (100) Tyvon Branch 3.0
Rd 4 (125) Arman Shields 0.0
Rd 6 (169) Trevor Scott 2.5
Rd 7 (226) Chaz Schilens 1.5
TOTAL SCORE: 2.12
Philadelphia Eagles
Rd 2 (47) Trevor Laws 1.4
Rd 2 (49) DeSean Jackson 3.7
Rd 3 (80) Bryan Smith 0.0
Rd 4 (109) Mike McGlynn 1.4
Rd 4 (117) Quintin Demps 0.4
Rd 4 (131) Jack Ikegquono 0.0
Rd 6 (184) Mike Gibson 0.0
Rd 6 (200) Joe Mays 0.4
Rd 6 (203) Andy Studebaker 0.0
Rd 7 (230) King Dunlap 0.3
TOTAL SCORE: 0.76
Pittsburgh Steelers
Rd 1 (23) Rashard Mendenhall 3.6
Rd 2 (53) Limas Sweed 0.1
Rd 3 (88) Bruce Davis 0.0
Rd 4 (130) Tony Hills 0.0
Rd 5 (156) Dennis Dixon 0.5
Rd 6 (188) Mike Humpal 0.0
Rd 6 (194) Ryan Mundy 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.6
San Diego Chargers
Rd 1 (27) Antoine Cason 2.9
Rd 3 (69) Jacob Hester 2.5
Rd 5 (166) Marcus Thomas 0.0
Rd 6 (192) DeJuan Tribble 0.0
Rd 7 (234) Corey Clark 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.08
San Francisco 49ers
Rd 1 (29) Kentwan Balmer 0.2
Rd 2 (39) Chilo Rachal 3.0
Rd 3 (75) Reggie Smith 1.2
Rd 4 (107) Cody Wallace 0.0
Rd 6 (174) Josh Morgan 2.0
Rd 7 (214) Larry Grant 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.07
Seattle Seahawks
Rd 1 (28) Lawrence Jackson 0.8
Rd 2 (38) John Carlson 3.0
Rd 4 (121) Red Bryant 0.3
Rd 5 (163) Owen Schmitt 0.5
Rd 6 (189) Tyler Schmitt 0.0
Rd 7 (233) Justin Forsett 2.0
Rd 7 (235) Brandon Coutu 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 0.94
St. Louis Rams
Rd 1 (2) Chris Long 3.0
Rd 2 (33) Donnie Avery 2.0
Rd 3 (65) John Greco 0.8
Rd 4 (100) Justin King 0.1
Rd 4 (128) Keenan Burton 0.6
Rd 5 (157) Roy Schuening 0.0
Rd 7 (228) Chris Chamberlain 1.1
Rd 7 (252) David Vobora 1.2
TOTAL SCORE: 1.10
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Rd 1 (20) Aqib Talib 3.1
Rd 2 (58) Dexter Jackson 0.4
Rd 3 (83) Jeremy Zuttah 2.5
Rd 4 (115) Dre Moore 0.1
Rd 5 (160) Josh Johnson 0.8
Rd 6 (175) Geno Hayes 2.2
Rd 7 (238) Cory Boyd 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.31
Tennessee Titans
Rd 1 (24) Chris Johnson 4.0
Rd 2 (54) Jason Jones 2.1
Rd 3 (85) Craig Stevens 0.0
Rd 4 (103) William Hayes 0.6
Rd 4 (126) Lavelle Hawkins 0.3
Rd 4 (134) Stanford Keglar 0.2
Rd 7 (229) Cory Williams 0.0
TOTAL SCORE: 1.03
Washington Redskins
Rd 2 (34) Devil Thomas 0.6
Rd 2 (48) Fred Davis 1.2
Rd 2 (51) Maclom Kelly 0.4
Rd 3 (96) Chad Reinhart 0.3
Rd 4 (124) Justin Tryon 0.7
Rd 6 (168) Durant Brooks 2.0
Rd 6 (180) Kareem Moore 0.4
Rd 6 (186) Colt Brennan 0.0
Rd 7 (242) Rob Jackson 0.0
Rd 7 (249) Chris Horton 1.9
TOTAL SCORE: 0.75
Best Draft: Oakland
Oakland scored 3 starters and another solid contributor in their draft. Only one player didn't make the cut.
Worst Draft: Pittsburgh
Rashard Mendenhall is the only player who isn't a pile of garbage in the draft. 4 complete busts in the draft.
Monday, February 14, 2011
What Draft Had the Best Rounds from 2005 to 2009?
I'm going to pick which year had the best year for each round. This is up for debate, let me hear what you guys think. I'm going to list the guys in each round in each year I think are worth mentioning then I'm going to rank them and give my reasons.
2005 NFL Draft
1st Round
Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, Cedric Benson, Antrel Rolle, DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Jamaal Brown, Derrick Johnson, Aaron Rodgers, Roddy White, Heath Miller, Logan Mankins.
2nd Round
Michael Roos, Corey Webster, Lofa Tatupu, Stanford Rout, Nick Collins, Justin Milller, Vincent Jackson, Khalif Barnes, Roscoe Parish, Kelvin Hayden, Bryant McFadden
3rd Round
Frank Gore, Justin Tuck, Oshiomogho Atogwe, Channing Crowder.
4th Round
Sean Considine, Kyle Orton, Marion Barber III, Brandon Jacobs, Kerry Rhodes, Todd Herremans, Darren Sproles.
5th Round
Trent Cole, Michael Boley, Gerald Sensabaugh, Frank Oiyale.
6th Round
Bo Scaife, Chris Harris, Chris Kemoeatu, Derek Anderson.
7th Round
Jay Ratliff, Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Madison Hedgecock.
Notable Undrafted
Robbie Gould, Josh Cribbs, Samkon Gado, Ryan Grant, Jim Leonhard, Leonard Weaver, Cameron Wake.
2006 NFL Draft
1st Round
Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, AJ Hawk, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Vernon Davis, Jay Cutler, Haloti Ngata, Chad Greenway, Antonio Cromartie, Tamba Hali, Davin Joseph, Santonio Holmes, DeAngelo Williams, Marcedes Lewis, Nick Mangold, Joseph Addai
2nd Round
DeMeco Ryans, D'Qwell Jackson, Sinorice Moss, Daryn Colledge, Marcus McNeil, Greg Jennings, Devin Hester, Maurice Jones-Drew
3rd Round
None
4th Round
Owen Daniels, Jahri Evans, Leon Washington, Stephen Gostkowski, Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumervil.
5th Round
Kyle Wilson, Charlie Peprah.
6th Round
Johnny Jolly, Bruce Gradkowski, Antoine Bethea
7th Round
Courland Finnegan, Marques Colston.
Notable undrafted:
Mike Bell, Miles Austin, Brent Grimes, Tramon Williams
2007 NFL Draft
1st Round
Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, LaRon Landry, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Lawrence Timmons, Michael Griffin, Aaron Ross, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Merriweather, Jon Beason, Robert Meachem, Anthony Spencer, Joe Staley, Ben Grubbs, Greg Olsen, Anthony Gonzalez.
2nd Round
Kevin Kolb, Eric Weddle, Zach Miller, Chris Houston, Tony Ugoh, Sidney Rice, LaMarr Woodley, David Harris, Steve Smith, Eric Wright, Ryan Kalil, Brandon Jackson, Sabby Piscitelli.
3rd Round
Jacoby Jones, James Jones, Mike Simms-Walker, Stewart Bradley, Trent Edwards.
4th Round
Michael Bush, Tanard Jackson, Danny Sepulveda, Zak DeOssie, Clint Session, Le'Ron McClain.
5th Round
Steve Breaston, Kevin Boss, Brent Celek, William Gay.
6th Round
Nick Folk, Korey Hall, Desmond Bishop, Mason Crosby.
7th Round
Tyler Thigpen, Zac Diles, Ahmad Bradshaw.
Notable undrafted
Eric Weems, Pierre Thomas, Melvin Bullitt, Matt Moore, Daniel Muir.
2008 NFL Draft
1st Round
Jake Long, Chris Long, Matt Ryan, Darren McFadden, Jerod Mayo, Ryan Clady, Jonathan Stewart, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Gosder Cherilus, Joe Flacco, Jeff Otah, Aqib Talib, Felix Jones, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson, Mike Jenkins, Dustin Keller, Kenny Phillips.
2nd Round
Donnie Avery, Jordy Nelson, Curtis Lofton, John Carlson, Tracy Porter, Eddie Royal, Matt Forte, DeSean Jackson, Ray Rice, Chad Henne.
3rd Round
Kevin Smith, Jamaal Charles, Dan Connon, Tom Zbikowski, Steve Slaton, Jermichael Finley, Cliff Avril, Mario Manningham, Phillip Wheeler.
4th Round
Tashard Choice, Jacob Tamme, Josh Sitton.
5th Round
Ryan Torain, Brandon Carr, Orlando Scandrick, Tim Hightower, Jonathan Goff.
6th Round
Erik Walden, Geno Hayes, Mike Hart, Pierre Garcon.
7th Round
Matt Flynn, Steve Johnson, Peyton Hillis, King Dunlap, Justin Forsett.
Notable undrafted:
Danny Amendola, Davone Bess, Dan Carpenter, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Gary Guyton, Caleb Haine, Garrett Hartley, David Hawthorne, Clifton Smith, Danny Woodhead, Mike Tolbert.
2009 Draft
1st Round
Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Mark Sanchez, Andre Smith, BJ Raji, Michael Crabtree, Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orakpo, Malcom Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Larry English, Josh Freeman, Jeremy Maclin, Brandon Pettigrew, Alex Mack, Percy Harvin, Michael Oher, Clay Matthews, Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Britt, Ziggy Hood.
2nd Round
Louis Delmas, Patrick Chung, James Laurinaitis, Jairus Byrd, Max Unger, Andy Levitre, LeSean McCoy, Phil Loadholt, Sebastian Vollmer.
3rd Round
Shonn Greene, Brandon Tate, Mike Wallace, Asher Allen, Ladarius Webb, Jerraud Powers.
4th Round
Brian Hartline, TJ Lang, Mike Goodson, DJ Moore, Louis Murphy.
5th Round
Johnny Knox, Quinn Johnson, David Buehler, Javon Ringer.
6th Round
Al Afalava, Jason McCourty, Bernard Scott.
7th Round
Captain Munnerlyn, Brad Jones, Pat McAfee, Moise Fokou, Julian Edleman, Zack Follett, LaRod Stephens-Howling.
Notable Undrafted
Jacob Lacey, Arian Foster, Dannell Ellerbe, Tim Masthay.
1st Round--2007
Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, LaRon Landry, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Lawrence Timmons, Michael Griffin, Aaron Ross, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Merriweather, Jon Beason, Robert Meachem, Anthony Spencer, Joe Staley, Ben Grubbs, Greg Olsen, Anthony Gonzalez.
I think this one takes the cake because of the quality of this group as a whole. Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Darrelle Revis, and Chris Johnson are all top 5 players in their positions. I think if it were a few years later it would be 2009. There are a lot of young guys in that class that have a lot to prove.
2nd Round--2008
Donnie Avery, Jordy Nelson, Curtis Lofton, John Carlson, Tracy Porter, Eddie Royal, Matt Forte, DeSean Jackson, Ray Rice, Chad Henne.
Just a huge group of playmakers. DeSean Jackson, Matt Forte, and Ray Rice make this group stand out. Avery will probably be a star one day and Nelson just had a huge game in the Super Bowl. Great group here.
3rd Round--2008
Kevin Smith, Jamaal Charles, Dan Connon, Tom Zbikowski, Steve Slaton, Jermichael Finley, Cliff Avril, Mario Manningham, Phillip Wheeler.
This group includes Jamaal Charles and Jermichael Finley as their top 2 playmakers. The rest are all very solid. A lot of 3rd rounds have netted next to nothing.
4th Round--2005
Sean Considine, Kyle Orton, Marion Barber III, Brandon Jacobs, Kerry Rhodes, Todd Herremans, Darren Sproles.
You can't complain if you get 2 starting RBs, 2 starting Safeties, and a starting QB in the 4th round.
5th Round--2007
Steve Breaston, Kevin Boss, Brent Celek, William Gay.
Not a very strong class at all. Boss and Celek are two pretty solid tight ends. That's how bad the 5th round has been.
6th Round--2007
Nick Folk, Korey Hall, Desmond Bishop, Mason Crosby.
2 starting kickers, a LB who will likely be a starter next year and a FB that's a special teams stud. Not much to see here.
7th Round--2005
Jay Ratliff, Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Madison Hedgecock.
A Pro Bowl nose and 2 starting QBs in the 7th round? Pretty damn solid.
Undrafted FAs--2006
Mike Bell, Miles Austin, Brent Grimes, Tramon Williams.
2 CBs who should have been Pro Bowlers this year and a top 10 WR. True diamonds in the rough.
2005 NFL Draft
1st Round
Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, Cedric Benson, Antrel Rolle, DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Jamaal Brown, Derrick Johnson, Aaron Rodgers, Roddy White, Heath Miller, Logan Mankins.
2nd Round
Michael Roos, Corey Webster, Lofa Tatupu, Stanford Rout, Nick Collins, Justin Milller, Vincent Jackson, Khalif Barnes, Roscoe Parish, Kelvin Hayden, Bryant McFadden
3rd Round
Frank Gore, Justin Tuck, Oshiomogho Atogwe, Channing Crowder.
4th Round
Sean Considine, Kyle Orton, Marion Barber III, Brandon Jacobs, Kerry Rhodes, Todd Herremans, Darren Sproles.
5th Round
Trent Cole, Michael Boley, Gerald Sensabaugh, Frank Oiyale.
6th Round
Bo Scaife, Chris Harris, Chris Kemoeatu, Derek Anderson.
7th Round
Jay Ratliff, Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Madison Hedgecock.
Notable Undrafted
Robbie Gould, Josh Cribbs, Samkon Gado, Ryan Grant, Jim Leonhard, Leonard Weaver, Cameron Wake.
2006 NFL Draft
1st Round
Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, AJ Hawk, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Vernon Davis, Jay Cutler, Haloti Ngata, Chad Greenway, Antonio Cromartie, Tamba Hali, Davin Joseph, Santonio Holmes, DeAngelo Williams, Marcedes Lewis, Nick Mangold, Joseph Addai
2nd Round
DeMeco Ryans, D'Qwell Jackson, Sinorice Moss, Daryn Colledge, Marcus McNeil, Greg Jennings, Devin Hester, Maurice Jones-Drew
3rd Round
None
4th Round
Owen Daniels, Jahri Evans, Leon Washington, Stephen Gostkowski, Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumervil.
5th Round
Kyle Wilson, Charlie Peprah.
6th Round
Johnny Jolly, Bruce Gradkowski, Antoine Bethea
7th Round
Courland Finnegan, Marques Colston.
Notable undrafted:
Mike Bell, Miles Austin, Brent Grimes, Tramon Williams
2007 NFL Draft
1st Round
Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, LaRon Landry, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Lawrence Timmons, Michael Griffin, Aaron Ross, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Merriweather, Jon Beason, Robert Meachem, Anthony Spencer, Joe Staley, Ben Grubbs, Greg Olsen, Anthony Gonzalez.
2nd Round
Kevin Kolb, Eric Weddle, Zach Miller, Chris Houston, Tony Ugoh, Sidney Rice, LaMarr Woodley, David Harris, Steve Smith, Eric Wright, Ryan Kalil, Brandon Jackson, Sabby Piscitelli.
3rd Round
Jacoby Jones, James Jones, Mike Simms-Walker, Stewart Bradley, Trent Edwards.
4th Round
Michael Bush, Tanard Jackson, Danny Sepulveda, Zak DeOssie, Clint Session, Le'Ron McClain.
5th Round
Steve Breaston, Kevin Boss, Brent Celek, William Gay.
6th Round
Nick Folk, Korey Hall, Desmond Bishop, Mason Crosby.
7th Round
Tyler Thigpen, Zac Diles, Ahmad Bradshaw.
Notable undrafted
Eric Weems, Pierre Thomas, Melvin Bullitt, Matt Moore, Daniel Muir.
2008 NFL Draft
1st Round
Jake Long, Chris Long, Matt Ryan, Darren McFadden, Jerod Mayo, Ryan Clady, Jonathan Stewart, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Gosder Cherilus, Joe Flacco, Jeff Otah, Aqib Talib, Felix Jones, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson, Mike Jenkins, Dustin Keller, Kenny Phillips.
2nd Round
Donnie Avery, Jordy Nelson, Curtis Lofton, John Carlson, Tracy Porter, Eddie Royal, Matt Forte, DeSean Jackson, Ray Rice, Chad Henne.
3rd Round
Kevin Smith, Jamaal Charles, Dan Connon, Tom Zbikowski, Steve Slaton, Jermichael Finley, Cliff Avril, Mario Manningham, Phillip Wheeler.
4th Round
Tashard Choice, Jacob Tamme, Josh Sitton.
5th Round
Ryan Torain, Brandon Carr, Orlando Scandrick, Tim Hightower, Jonathan Goff.
6th Round
Erik Walden, Geno Hayes, Mike Hart, Pierre Garcon.
7th Round
Matt Flynn, Steve Johnson, Peyton Hillis, King Dunlap, Justin Forsett.
Notable undrafted:
Danny Amendola, Davone Bess, Dan Carpenter, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Gary Guyton, Caleb Haine, Garrett Hartley, David Hawthorne, Clifton Smith, Danny Woodhead, Mike Tolbert.
2009 Draft
1st Round
Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Mark Sanchez, Andre Smith, BJ Raji, Michael Crabtree, Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orakpo, Malcom Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Larry English, Josh Freeman, Jeremy Maclin, Brandon Pettigrew, Alex Mack, Percy Harvin, Michael Oher, Clay Matthews, Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Britt, Ziggy Hood.
2nd Round
Louis Delmas, Patrick Chung, James Laurinaitis, Jairus Byrd, Max Unger, Andy Levitre, LeSean McCoy, Phil Loadholt, Sebastian Vollmer.
3rd Round
Shonn Greene, Brandon Tate, Mike Wallace, Asher Allen, Ladarius Webb, Jerraud Powers.
4th Round
Brian Hartline, TJ Lang, Mike Goodson, DJ Moore, Louis Murphy.
5th Round
Johnny Knox, Quinn Johnson, David Buehler, Javon Ringer.
6th Round
Al Afalava, Jason McCourty, Bernard Scott.
7th Round
Captain Munnerlyn, Brad Jones, Pat McAfee, Moise Fokou, Julian Edleman, Zack Follett, LaRod Stephens-Howling.
Notable Undrafted
Jacob Lacey, Arian Foster, Dannell Ellerbe, Tim Masthay.
1st Round--2007
Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, LaRon Landry, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Lawrence Timmons, Michael Griffin, Aaron Ross, Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Merriweather, Jon Beason, Robert Meachem, Anthony Spencer, Joe Staley, Ben Grubbs, Greg Olsen, Anthony Gonzalez.
I think this one takes the cake because of the quality of this group as a whole. Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Darrelle Revis, and Chris Johnson are all top 5 players in their positions. I think if it were a few years later it would be 2009. There are a lot of young guys in that class that have a lot to prove.
2nd Round--2008
Donnie Avery, Jordy Nelson, Curtis Lofton, John Carlson, Tracy Porter, Eddie Royal, Matt Forte, DeSean Jackson, Ray Rice, Chad Henne.
Just a huge group of playmakers. DeSean Jackson, Matt Forte, and Ray Rice make this group stand out. Avery will probably be a star one day and Nelson just had a huge game in the Super Bowl. Great group here.
3rd Round--2008
Kevin Smith, Jamaal Charles, Dan Connon, Tom Zbikowski, Steve Slaton, Jermichael Finley, Cliff Avril, Mario Manningham, Phillip Wheeler.
This group includes Jamaal Charles and Jermichael Finley as their top 2 playmakers. The rest are all very solid. A lot of 3rd rounds have netted next to nothing.
4th Round--2005
Sean Considine, Kyle Orton, Marion Barber III, Brandon Jacobs, Kerry Rhodes, Todd Herremans, Darren Sproles.
You can't complain if you get 2 starting RBs, 2 starting Safeties, and a starting QB in the 4th round.
5th Round--2007
Steve Breaston, Kevin Boss, Brent Celek, William Gay.
Not a very strong class at all. Boss and Celek are two pretty solid tight ends. That's how bad the 5th round has been.
6th Round--2007
Nick Folk, Korey Hall, Desmond Bishop, Mason Crosby.
2 starting kickers, a LB who will likely be a starter next year and a FB that's a special teams stud. Not much to see here.
7th Round--2005
Jay Ratliff, Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Madison Hedgecock.
A Pro Bowl nose and 2 starting QBs in the 7th round? Pretty damn solid.
Undrafted FAs--2006
Mike Bell, Miles Austin, Brent Grimes, Tramon Williams.
2 CBs who should have been Pro Bowlers this year and a top 10 WR. True diamonds in the rough.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
NFL-NFLPA Labor Dispute
Finally--I'm writing about a topic that truly matters. Most fans have the same attitude, "it's millionaires crying about billionaires". There's a hint of truth in that. But there are bigger issues to deal with. The Union, I'm guessing to try to sway public opinion, said they want a 50/50 split of the TOTAL REVENUE. The NFL refused. Many people are criticizing the NFL for this, but let's think about this rationally. The players received 50.06% of the total revenue this past season. The owners opted out of this current deal for a reason. It's simply unsustainable. True, player costs are relative to the amount of revenue, but some of the smaller market teams will incur rising player costs with declining total revenues. The numbers are based off of total revenue for all 32 teams. Let's make this simple...
This is all hypothetical and obviously simplified. It's not this black and white, but it is a general idea. Let's say the total revenue to be split is $1,000,000,000. 50% of that is 500,000,000...divide that by 32 and each team has to spend $15,250,000 on players. This suggests that all teams made $32,500,000. But that's not how it is. The Cowboys may have made $40,000,000 and the Panthers may have made $20,000,000. The Cowboys have $24,750,000 but the Panthers have $4,750,000. Now that money needs to be split up to pay all the executives, coaches, employees, and any stadium expenses ect PLUS player benefits (no that doesn't come out of their cap number). Yes, there is revenue sharing, but thats only SOME of the revenue not ALL of the revenue. And now you're taking money from the Cowboys and giving it to the Panthers.
The bottom line is this. The owners are taking the risks. The owners have sunk billions into capital, employees, and players. The players are just EMPLOYEES. If the league folds tomorrow, the players will walk away with whatever money they earned. The owners will still have to pay all of the employees due money, all people who loaned money to them, season ticket holders who paid upfront ect. You may scoff at the whole idea of the owners taking "risks" and you may say that it's the players risking their bodies. They are risking their bodies. They get compensated for it. They get tons more than soldiers who have a very good chance of dying if they're deployed in combat. When they're shipped off to combat, the compensation they receive for the added danger is only a couple hundred dollars. If they're lucky and live, the rest of their lives will be spent working.
There is a problem with the attitude of players. It's not a RIGHT to play football. They chose to play football, when you choose to do something, you play by the rules of the people who set it up. The owners invested money into these teams so that they can make money. They're capitalists. They set the league up to succeed. The league is huge because they set it up that way. They're as much of a reason, if not more, that the league does so well. Without the brains behind it all, these players would be jocks. Their careers would end in college and they'd go on to take normal jobs and live a normal lifestyle. These owners developed a system to not only make money off of it, but makes boatloads of money. There's a reason why in every single job, employees don't make as much as the owners. The owners are the reason you have a job.
Here's how football will continue to prosper. Make the players take a smaller piece of a bigger pie. The NFL is saying 42% is the number they want. These guys are professional capitalists. They will invest the extra money intelligently and help expand the league. With the added expansion becomes larger streams of revenue. Larger streams of revenue means a larger amount of money the 42% will get you.
If you stay where we're at or continue to raise player costs, you're only hurting the game. The owners have the profits that they want to make and they're in charge. It's the way our country is run. Let the owners run their businesses the way they want to. As long as the players get a FAIR wage, there shouldn't be a problem. The players aren't entitled to a certain percentage of the owner's money.
This past season, Laverneous Coles was signed and released by the Jets in the span of less than one week. For his duties he was given over $47,000. Put that in perspective, many Americans live off of half of that for the year. If you think that an NFL player deserves MORE for something that isn't even their own intellectual property, you need to take a seriously look at the way businesses work.
This is all hypothetical and obviously simplified. It's not this black and white, but it is a general idea. Let's say the total revenue to be split is $1,000,000,000. 50% of that is 500,000,000...divide that by 32 and each team has to spend $15,250,000 on players. This suggests that all teams made $32,500,000. But that's not how it is. The Cowboys may have made $40,000,000 and the Panthers may have made $20,000,000. The Cowboys have $24,750,000 but the Panthers have $4,750,000. Now that money needs to be split up to pay all the executives, coaches, employees, and any stadium expenses ect PLUS player benefits (no that doesn't come out of their cap number). Yes, there is revenue sharing, but thats only SOME of the revenue not ALL of the revenue. And now you're taking money from the Cowboys and giving it to the Panthers.
The bottom line is this. The owners are taking the risks. The owners have sunk billions into capital, employees, and players. The players are just EMPLOYEES. If the league folds tomorrow, the players will walk away with whatever money they earned. The owners will still have to pay all of the employees due money, all people who loaned money to them, season ticket holders who paid upfront ect. You may scoff at the whole idea of the owners taking "risks" and you may say that it's the players risking their bodies. They are risking their bodies. They get compensated for it. They get tons more than soldiers who have a very good chance of dying if they're deployed in combat. When they're shipped off to combat, the compensation they receive for the added danger is only a couple hundred dollars. If they're lucky and live, the rest of their lives will be spent working.
There is a problem with the attitude of players. It's not a RIGHT to play football. They chose to play football, when you choose to do something, you play by the rules of the people who set it up. The owners invested money into these teams so that they can make money. They're capitalists. They set the league up to succeed. The league is huge because they set it up that way. They're as much of a reason, if not more, that the league does so well. Without the brains behind it all, these players would be jocks. Their careers would end in college and they'd go on to take normal jobs and live a normal lifestyle. These owners developed a system to not only make money off of it, but makes boatloads of money. There's a reason why in every single job, employees don't make as much as the owners. The owners are the reason you have a job.
Here's how football will continue to prosper. Make the players take a smaller piece of a bigger pie. The NFL is saying 42% is the number they want. These guys are professional capitalists. They will invest the extra money intelligently and help expand the league. With the added expansion becomes larger streams of revenue. Larger streams of revenue means a larger amount of money the 42% will get you.
If you stay where we're at or continue to raise player costs, you're only hurting the game. The owners have the profits that they want to make and they're in charge. It's the way our country is run. Let the owners run their businesses the way they want to. As long as the players get a FAIR wage, there shouldn't be a problem. The players aren't entitled to a certain percentage of the owner's money.
This past season, Laverneous Coles was signed and released by the Jets in the span of less than one week. For his duties he was given over $47,000. Put that in perspective, many Americans live off of half of that for the year. If you think that an NFL player deserves MORE for something that isn't even their own intellectual property, you need to take a seriously look at the way businesses work.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Back to the Real Football Talk--Doesn't Mean I Can't Brag
Now, if you remember, I posted something the night before the Super Bowl about Big Ben not being as "clutch" or as "good" as the media liked to make him out to be. After the Super Bowl, I think my point has been proven even more.
Let's go back to his career numbers from my earlier posts and we'll compare him to Rodgers, who, up until this year, has been stigmatized by not being a "clutch" QB when it mattered.
Big Ben
229.61 YPG
1.47 TD
.88 INT
63.1% Comp
92.5 QB Rating
Rodgers
270 YPG
1.8 TD
.68 INT
64.4% Comp
98.4 QB Rating
Rodgers has a 49.39 yard, .23 TD, .2 INT, 1.3% Completion, and 5.9 point QB rating advantage over Roethlisberger. But many traditional NFL fans will say "screw stats, I'll take rings". Okay, fine, but what has Ben done compared to Rodgers to get those rings?? Let's look at playoff QB play. After each stat, in parenthesis, I will put the discrepancy between regular season stats and playoff stats. For INT stats, I'm going to use the "-" sign to represent a decline in play and a "+" to indicate a player playing better because the lower the number, the better.
Roethlisberger
220.08 YPG (-9.53 yards)
1.46 TDs (-.01 TD)
1.23 INTs (-.35 INT)
61.2% Comp (-1.9%)
84.5 QB Rating (-8 Points)
Rodgers
303.4 YPG (+33.4 yards)
2.6 TD (+.8)
.6 INT (+.08)
67,8% Comp (+3.4%)
112.6 QB Rating (+14.2 points)
Differences between the 2 in the postseason
Rodgers +83.32 YPG, +1.14 TD, +.63 INT, +6.6% Comp and +28.1 QB Rating points.
So Rodgers outperforms Big Ben "when it counts". Rodgers also plays BETTER in important games than he does in regular season games. So when people are talking about Ben being "clutch", what are they talking about?? Obviously, all they can think about is the Santonio Holmes TD pass vs the Carinals in 2008.
Let's look at this year's Super Bowl and prove all that BS wrong. First of all "clutch" QBs shouldn't start out a game by throwing 2 INTs. Even after that, the Steelers D made stop after stop in the 2nd half, but Ben couldn't make all the plays a "clutch" QB is supposed to make. Given the ball, two minutes, and a timeout, Ben Roethlisberger had all the ingredients for another "clutch" Super Bowl game winning drive. He fizzled out quickly, converting only one first down. The Green Bay defensive backs were without former DPOY Charles Woodson and rookie sensation Sam Shields. To go with 5 or 6 DBs, the Packers had to utilize 3 safeties and 3 corners. Tramon Williams, Pat Lee, and Jarrett Bush were the 3 corners and Nick Collins (who was battling dehydration), Charlie Peprah, and Atari Bigby were the 3 safeties. Still, Ben couldn't take advantage. On a night where Rodgers was taking advantage of a secondary with William Gay, Bryant McFadden, Ike Taylor, Ryan Clark and Defensive Player of the Year Troy Polamalu, Roethlisberger couldn't get it done against a secondary filled with 4 guys who weren't opening day starters.
This brings me to my point on the whole issue. Before you call someone clutch, look at the other factors first. For a a few weeks, Mark Sanchez was being touted as "clutch". The Jets had come off of 3 big last second/overtime wins. Let's look at some specifics. Take the Houston game. The Jets needed a touchdown to win the game and there was under a minute left. The Jets called a deep route for Braylon Edwards. The DB for the Texans from the snap let him have the sideline. Mistake one. Anyone with a football brain knows, if you're going to give up a completion with less than 2 minutes left in the game when a team has no timeouts, you force him to the middle of the field. That's where all of your help is and even if he catches it you're forcing the opponent to run and waste time and a down clocking the ball. Instead, Sanchez floated a deep ball to Edwards who caught it and stepped out of bounds, stopping the clock. He was open over the top because of, mistake 2, the Texans safety realizing too late that Edwards, the Jets' deep threat, was going deep. He was there a second too late and it allowed Edwards to make the catch. Had it been a more disciplined defense, Edwards would have been forced inside and the safety would have taken away the deep route. Before you crown someone as "Clutch" take a look at his body of work. Sanchez has been marginal at best overall in his career. He's very erratic, and the Jets can win with him throwing for under 100 yards. He's an above average game manager and that's okay, but he's not "clutch" and he's not going to win you a lot of games without a lot of help.
Now, look at the Packers' game plan in the Super Bowl. They tied the St. Louis Rams for the fewest rushing attempts in the Super Bowl for a winning team with 13. They gave Aaron Rodger the reins to the offense against the league's number 1 scoring defense and he had a near flawless game. Had his WRs not dropped 5 balls, he may have had one of the best days for a Super Bowl QB, but that's not the point. On the final drive of the game for the Packers, Rodgers marched the Packers down the field. He didn't hand the ball off and try to milk the clock with a 3 point lead. Mike McCarthy felt comfortable with giving Rodgers the ball and letting him throw it. It ended up with a field goal which was enough to force Ben to start airing it out. The Packers D quickly shut it down, and the "clutch" guy had just lost to the guy who "couldn't win when it mattered". In one Super Bowl, Aaron Rodgers has the same number of TD passes, 3, as Ben does in 3 games. Rodgers was not intercepted, Ben has been intercepted 5 times in 3 games and at least once in each game. To me, clutch shouldn't mean that a guy led one final drive to score while a team was in prevent. Let's be real here...the Eli Manning pass to Tyree, the Roethlisberger pass to Holmes, those were marginal throws and timless catches. Not even amazing, timeless. Those catches will be shown to our grandkids' kids. To me, clutch should be the guys like Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers. The guys who will win you games with their arms without the theatrics. The guys who won't blow games by throwing costly interceptions. 14 of the Packers' 31 points came directly because of Roethlisberger. Clutch? Hardly.
Let's go back to his career numbers from my earlier posts and we'll compare him to Rodgers, who, up until this year, has been stigmatized by not being a "clutch" QB when it mattered.
Big Ben
229.61 YPG
1.47 TD
.88 INT
63.1% Comp
92.5 QB Rating
Rodgers
270 YPG
1.8 TD
.68 INT
64.4% Comp
98.4 QB Rating
Rodgers has a 49.39 yard, .23 TD, .2 INT, 1.3% Completion, and 5.9 point QB rating advantage over Roethlisberger. But many traditional NFL fans will say "screw stats, I'll take rings". Okay, fine, but what has Ben done compared to Rodgers to get those rings?? Let's look at playoff QB play. After each stat, in parenthesis, I will put the discrepancy between regular season stats and playoff stats. For INT stats, I'm going to use the "-" sign to represent a decline in play and a "+" to indicate a player playing better because the lower the number, the better.
Roethlisberger
220.08 YPG (-9.53 yards)
1.46 TDs (-.01 TD)
1.23 INTs (-.35 INT)
61.2% Comp (-1.9%)
84.5 QB Rating (-8 Points)
Rodgers
303.4 YPG (+33.4 yards)
2.6 TD (+.8)
.6 INT (+.08)
67,8% Comp (+3.4%)
112.6 QB Rating (+14.2 points)
Differences between the 2 in the postseason
Rodgers +83.32 YPG, +1.14 TD, +.63 INT, +6.6% Comp and +28.1 QB Rating points.
So Rodgers outperforms Big Ben "when it counts". Rodgers also plays BETTER in important games than he does in regular season games. So when people are talking about Ben being "clutch", what are they talking about?? Obviously, all they can think about is the Santonio Holmes TD pass vs the Carinals in 2008.
Let's look at this year's Super Bowl and prove all that BS wrong. First of all "clutch" QBs shouldn't start out a game by throwing 2 INTs. Even after that, the Steelers D made stop after stop in the 2nd half, but Ben couldn't make all the plays a "clutch" QB is supposed to make. Given the ball, two minutes, and a timeout, Ben Roethlisberger had all the ingredients for another "clutch" Super Bowl game winning drive. He fizzled out quickly, converting only one first down. The Green Bay defensive backs were without former DPOY Charles Woodson and rookie sensation Sam Shields. To go with 5 or 6 DBs, the Packers had to utilize 3 safeties and 3 corners. Tramon Williams, Pat Lee, and Jarrett Bush were the 3 corners and Nick Collins (who was battling dehydration), Charlie Peprah, and Atari Bigby were the 3 safeties. Still, Ben couldn't take advantage. On a night where Rodgers was taking advantage of a secondary with William Gay, Bryant McFadden, Ike Taylor, Ryan Clark and Defensive Player of the Year Troy Polamalu, Roethlisberger couldn't get it done against a secondary filled with 4 guys who weren't opening day starters.
This brings me to my point on the whole issue. Before you call someone clutch, look at the other factors first. For a a few weeks, Mark Sanchez was being touted as "clutch". The Jets had come off of 3 big last second/overtime wins. Let's look at some specifics. Take the Houston game. The Jets needed a touchdown to win the game and there was under a minute left. The Jets called a deep route for Braylon Edwards. The DB for the Texans from the snap let him have the sideline. Mistake one. Anyone with a football brain knows, if you're going to give up a completion with less than 2 minutes left in the game when a team has no timeouts, you force him to the middle of the field. That's where all of your help is and even if he catches it you're forcing the opponent to run and waste time and a down clocking the ball. Instead, Sanchez floated a deep ball to Edwards who caught it and stepped out of bounds, stopping the clock. He was open over the top because of, mistake 2, the Texans safety realizing too late that Edwards, the Jets' deep threat, was going deep. He was there a second too late and it allowed Edwards to make the catch. Had it been a more disciplined defense, Edwards would have been forced inside and the safety would have taken away the deep route. Before you crown someone as "Clutch" take a look at his body of work. Sanchez has been marginal at best overall in his career. He's very erratic, and the Jets can win with him throwing for under 100 yards. He's an above average game manager and that's okay, but he's not "clutch" and he's not going to win you a lot of games without a lot of help.
Now, look at the Packers' game plan in the Super Bowl. They tied the St. Louis Rams for the fewest rushing attempts in the Super Bowl for a winning team with 13. They gave Aaron Rodger the reins to the offense against the league's number 1 scoring defense and he had a near flawless game. Had his WRs not dropped 5 balls, he may have had one of the best days for a Super Bowl QB, but that's not the point. On the final drive of the game for the Packers, Rodgers marched the Packers down the field. He didn't hand the ball off and try to milk the clock with a 3 point lead. Mike McCarthy felt comfortable with giving Rodgers the ball and letting him throw it. It ended up with a field goal which was enough to force Ben to start airing it out. The Packers D quickly shut it down, and the "clutch" guy had just lost to the guy who "couldn't win when it mattered". In one Super Bowl, Aaron Rodgers has the same number of TD passes, 3, as Ben does in 3 games. Rodgers was not intercepted, Ben has been intercepted 5 times in 3 games and at least once in each game. To me, clutch shouldn't mean that a guy led one final drive to score while a team was in prevent. Let's be real here...the Eli Manning pass to Tyree, the Roethlisberger pass to Holmes, those were marginal throws and timless catches. Not even amazing, timeless. Those catches will be shown to our grandkids' kids. To me, clutch should be the guys like Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers. The guys who will win you games with their arms without the theatrics. The guys who won't blow games by throwing costly interceptions. 14 of the Packers' 31 points came directly because of Roethlisberger. Clutch? Hardly.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Aaron Rodgers 2005 Draft
Watching Aaron Rodgers grow before my eyes has been something special. I have been a Packer fan my whole life, but I don't remember much of Brett Favre's early days. I remember the Super Bowls and some games here and there, but it's fuzzy at best. My Aaron Rodgers memories, however, start back in 2005.
I was back in high school and my friend and I wanted to attend the NFL Draft. We had tried to go a couple times before that, but it was unsuccessful. My uncle agreed to take us into the city and go to the NFL Draft in 2005. The Draft was being held at the Jacob Javits center, and only about 1,000 people would be able to fit in the main room. They had a second room where you could watch it on TV, and of course we got there too late and we got tickets to the second room. However, while waiting on line, a woman gave us a ticket for the main room because she didn't want to go in. It was a blessing in disguise.
My friend was a Cowboys fan, so when the Cowboys picked, he took the wristband and ticket and went inside the main room to see the Cowboys pick. The Cowboys picked twice in the first round and took Marcus Spears out of LSU and DeMarcus Ware out of Troy. I was hoping the Packers would get Spears so I was a little mad about that. I was also hoping the Packers would get Channing Crowder, Matt Roth, or Shawn Merriman. As the Draft progressed, I noticed Aaron Rodgers falling. Alex Smith went number one and the experts were saying that whoever didn't go number one might fall out of the first round.
I started thinking about our new GM, Ted Thompson. I had heard that he was more of a "best player available" drafter. It started to dawn on me that if Rodgers was there, Ted was going to take him. At first it made me upset. I wanted to see us get a defender like Roth or Crowder. Our defense was pathetic and I thought that taking a QB first was a huge mistake. After all, we had Brett Favre as our quarterback. How do you argue with that?
As the Draft continued, I realized that it wouldn't be a bad idea. Brett Favre was 35, going on 36, and his age was starting to show a little bit. I started to accept the fact that my childhood hero wouldn't be around for much longer. The Packers were preparing for when he left and Rodgers would have a couple years to learn from a future Hall of Famer.
My friend passed me the wristband to get into the main room a few minutes before the Packers picked. Rodgers was the last player left at the Draft who was waiting for his named to be called and was visibly upset. When the Comish called his name for the Packers he was all smiles though. I snapped a few pictures and watched him hold his jersey up. It was something special. We left shortly after that because my uncle was getting antsy. Little did I know I was witnessing history.
Rodgers sat on the bench the next 3 years. The first two were rather uneventful and he didn't look particularly good in any of his brief appearances, braking his ankle in his only extended time. Year three is when he really showed us why Ted Thompson drafted him. The Packers and the Cowboys were about to play on Thursday Night Football. Clash of the Titans for the top seed in the NFC. The Packers came out slow and the Cowboys were beating them badly. Brett Favre takes a shot and he's done for the day. In comes Aaron Rodgers. He was deadly accurate, he had an insane pocket presence, and he was even a threat on the ground. The Cowboys didn't have an answer for him. Had he played the whole game, who knows what would have happened. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to say he would have won. Who knows. But he gave us the best chance to win.
After Favre punted/threw an INT in overtime vs the Giants in the Championship game, he retired. And then he wanted to come back. The management saw enough in Rodgers to say no. This started a whole backlash by Favre who made his way to the Vikings out of spite. Favre came up just short of a Super Bowl, fittingly throwing an INT to blow the Vikings' chance of winning. Rodgers proved to the world why the Packers drafted him 24th overall, held on to him all of those years, and showed a legend the door last night. I'm proud to say that I was there from the beginning. I watched him grow and he's now the face of the Packers and he's writing his own legacy rather than following in the footsteps of Favre. I couldn't be happier as a Packer fan. Super Bowl XLV Champs!!!
I was back in high school and my friend and I wanted to attend the NFL Draft. We had tried to go a couple times before that, but it was unsuccessful. My uncle agreed to take us into the city and go to the NFL Draft in 2005. The Draft was being held at the Jacob Javits center, and only about 1,000 people would be able to fit in the main room. They had a second room where you could watch it on TV, and of course we got there too late and we got tickets to the second room. However, while waiting on line, a woman gave us a ticket for the main room because she didn't want to go in. It was a blessing in disguise.
My friend was a Cowboys fan, so when the Cowboys picked, he took the wristband and ticket and went inside the main room to see the Cowboys pick. The Cowboys picked twice in the first round and took Marcus Spears out of LSU and DeMarcus Ware out of Troy. I was hoping the Packers would get Spears so I was a little mad about that. I was also hoping the Packers would get Channing Crowder, Matt Roth, or Shawn Merriman. As the Draft progressed, I noticed Aaron Rodgers falling. Alex Smith went number one and the experts were saying that whoever didn't go number one might fall out of the first round.
I started thinking about our new GM, Ted Thompson. I had heard that he was more of a "best player available" drafter. It started to dawn on me that if Rodgers was there, Ted was going to take him. At first it made me upset. I wanted to see us get a defender like Roth or Crowder. Our defense was pathetic and I thought that taking a QB first was a huge mistake. After all, we had Brett Favre as our quarterback. How do you argue with that?
As the Draft continued, I realized that it wouldn't be a bad idea. Brett Favre was 35, going on 36, and his age was starting to show a little bit. I started to accept the fact that my childhood hero wouldn't be around for much longer. The Packers were preparing for when he left and Rodgers would have a couple years to learn from a future Hall of Famer.
My friend passed me the wristband to get into the main room a few minutes before the Packers picked. Rodgers was the last player left at the Draft who was waiting for his named to be called and was visibly upset. When the Comish called his name for the Packers he was all smiles though. I snapped a few pictures and watched him hold his jersey up. It was something special. We left shortly after that because my uncle was getting antsy. Little did I know I was witnessing history.
Rodgers sat on the bench the next 3 years. The first two were rather uneventful and he didn't look particularly good in any of his brief appearances, braking his ankle in his only extended time. Year three is when he really showed us why Ted Thompson drafted him. The Packers and the Cowboys were about to play on Thursday Night Football. Clash of the Titans for the top seed in the NFC. The Packers came out slow and the Cowboys were beating them badly. Brett Favre takes a shot and he's done for the day. In comes Aaron Rodgers. He was deadly accurate, he had an insane pocket presence, and he was even a threat on the ground. The Cowboys didn't have an answer for him. Had he played the whole game, who knows what would have happened. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to say he would have won. Who knows. But he gave us the best chance to win.
After Favre punted/threw an INT in overtime vs the Giants in the Championship game, he retired. And then he wanted to come back. The management saw enough in Rodgers to say no. This started a whole backlash by Favre who made his way to the Vikings out of spite. Favre came up just short of a Super Bowl, fittingly throwing an INT to blow the Vikings' chance of winning. Rodgers proved to the world why the Packers drafted him 24th overall, held on to him all of those years, and showed a legend the door last night. I'm proud to say that I was there from the beginning. I watched him grow and he's now the face of the Packers and he's writing his own legacy rather than following in the footsteps of Favre. I couldn't be happier as a Packer fan. Super Bowl XLV Champs!!!
Bandwagon Jumpers
Being a lifelong Packer fan, I've seen the good and the bad. I was a fan in 1996 when a young Brett Favre led the Packers to a Super Bowl. I was a fan in 1997 when John Elway finally got his ring and defeated the Packers. I was a fan when Holmgren left the Packers and Ray Rhodes was the head coach. I was a fan when Mike Sherman took over and drafted bust after bust. I was a fan during Favre's 6 INT playoff game vs the Rams. I was a fan during the 4th and 26 game. I was a fan when Michael Vick came in and rewrote the history books in Lambeau during the playoffs. I was a fan during the magical "we want the ball and we're going to score"game vs the Seahawks. I was a fan during Favre's 4-12 year. I was a fan during the 2007 season where we lost in OT during the championship. I was a fan during the whole Favre situation. I was a fan through the Aaron Rodgers 6-10 season. I was a fan after that tough OT loss last season. And I was a fan even after 16 guys were put on IR and another suspended.
I've been to drafts, I've traveled out of state to games. I watch every game I can, and if I can't see the game, I watch endless sums of highlights. I read all of the local newspaper articles, I read every post about the Packers on various sites. I'm on several forums representing the Pack. Through all of this, thick and thin, good times and bad, I've remained a Packer fan. Even after losses, I wear my Green and Gold with pride.
That's why this bothers me so much. It's perfectly fine to pick a team to root for in the Super Bowl. But for you people who don't watch all the games, don't know the players, don't know the history, and don't have team pride all year round. This game wasn't for you. Don't go around acting like this game matters to you. It doesn't. This is for the true fans. The fans who believed in Aaron Rodgers, the fans who believed in Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy and the rest of the team. This one is for us. The Packers brought the Lombardi Trophy back home where it started. World champion. Green. Bay. Packers.
I've been to drafts, I've traveled out of state to games. I watch every game I can, and if I can't see the game, I watch endless sums of highlights. I read all of the local newspaper articles, I read every post about the Packers on various sites. I'm on several forums representing the Pack. Through all of this, thick and thin, good times and bad, I've remained a Packer fan. Even after losses, I wear my Green and Gold with pride.
That's why this bothers me so much. It's perfectly fine to pick a team to root for in the Super Bowl. But for you people who don't watch all the games, don't know the players, don't know the history, and don't have team pride all year round. This game wasn't for you. Don't go around acting like this game matters to you. It doesn't. This is for the true fans. The fans who believed in Aaron Rodgers, the fans who believed in Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy and the rest of the team. This one is for us. The Packers brought the Lombardi Trophy back home where it started. World champion. Green. Bay. Packers.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Ben Roethlisberger Really Isn't That Good
For my last post, I'm going to take a shot at one of the media's favorite people: Ben Roethlisberger.
Now I know what everyone is thinking, the guy is clutch! The guy has 2 rings! The guy has an uncanny scrambling ability! He belongs up there with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. I'll prove all of these things wrong.
To say Ben Roethlisberger is on the same level assumes he's a top 5 QB. So I'm going to dispell that notion. Arguably right now the top QBs in the NFL are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger. What I am going to do here is compare all 10 stat by stat and determine who's the best. I am going to use career numbers, averaged by the number of career starts to prove my position so that everyone is on fair ground. Let's begin.
Starts for each player:
P. Manning-224
E. Manning-103
Brady-143
Rodgers-47
Brees-137
Rivers-80
Ryan-46
Romo-61
Vick-80
Roethlisberger-98
Touchdown Passes Per Game
1.Romo-1.93
2.Rodgers-1.85
3.Brady-1.83
4.P. Manning-1.78
5.Brees-1.72
6.Rivers-1.7
7.E. Manning-1.51
8.Roethlisberger-1.47
9.Ryan-1.43
10.Vick-1.16
Interceptions Per Game
1.Rodgers-.68
2.Brady-.72
2.Rivers-.72
2.Vick-.72
5.Ryan-.74
6.Roethlisberger-.88
6.P. Manning-.88
8.Brees-.96
9.Romo-1.02
10.E. Manning-1.1
Completion Percentage (Career)
1.Brees-65.2%
2.P. Manning-64.9%
3.Rodgers-64.4%
4.Romo-64.1%
5.Rivers-63.7%
6.Brady-63.6%
7.Roethlisberger-63.1%
8.Ryan-60.8%
9.E. Manning-58.0%
10.Vick-55.3%
Yards Per Game
1.Romo-272.95
2.Rodgers-270.7
3.Brees-257.42
4.Rivers-245.76
5.P. Manning-244.77
6.Brady-242.97
7.Roethlisberger-229.61
8.E. Manning-219.86
9.Ryan-218.72
10.Vick-182.61
Yards Per Completion
1.Roethlisberger-12.74
2.Rivers-12.57
3.Romo-12.56
4.Vick-12.5
5.Rodgers-12.26
6.E. Manning-11.72
7.P. Manning-11.71
8.Brady-11.6
9.Ryan-11.37
10.Brees-11.21
QB Rating
1.Rodgers-98.4
2.Rivers-97.2
3.Romo-95.5
4.Brady-95.2
5.P. Manning-94.9
6.Roethlisberger-92.5
7.Brees-91.7
8.Ryan-86.9
9.E. Manning-80.2
9.Vick-80.2
Rush Yards Per Game
1.Vick-57.88
2.Rodgers-19.7
3.Roethlisberger-8.92
4.Romo-6.77
5.Ryan-5.98
6.Brady-4.24
7.Brees-3.5
8.E. Manning-3.4
9.Rivers-3.27
10.P. Manning-3.22
Rush Yards Per Carry
1.Vick-7.1
2.Rodgers-4.9
3.Roethlisberger-3.3
4.Romo-3.0
5.E. Manning-2.2
6.P. Manning-2.1
7.Ryan-2.1
8.Brady-1.8
8.Brees-1.8
10.Rivers-1.6
Rush Touchdowns Per Game
1.Vick-.40
2.Rodgers-.28
3.Roethlisberger-.14
4.P. Manning-.08
5.Brady-.05
5.Brees-.05
5.Romo-.05
8.Ryan-.04
9.E. Manning-.03
10.Rivers-.02
Fumbles Per Game
1.P. Manning-.08
2.Ryan-.13
3.Brees-.19
4.Roethlisberger-.21
5.Brady-.22
6.Rodgers-.23
7.Rivers-.24
8.E. Manning-.26
8.Romo-.26
10.Vick-.38
Total Turnovers Per Game
1.Ryan-.87
2.Rodgers-.91
3.Brady-.94
4.Rivers-.96
4.P. Manning-.96
6.Roethlisberger-1.09
7.Vick-1.1
8.Brees-1.15
9.Romo-1.28
10.E. Manning-1.36
Total Touchdowns Per Game
1.Rodgers-2.13
2.Romo-1.98
3.Brady-1.87
4.P. Manning-1.86
5.Brees-1.77
6.Rivers-1.73
7.Roethlisberger-1.61
8.Vick-1.56
9.E. Manning-1.54
10.Ryan-1.48
Average Scores-
Rodgers-2.24
Romo-4.48
P.Manning-4.83
Brady-4.92
Roethlisberger-5.08
Rivers-5.58
Brees-5.83
Vick-6.08
Ryan-6.75
E. Manning-8.17
So Big Ben is top 5 if you include rushing, but let's take a look at just purely passing ranks.
Rodgers-2.33
Rivers-3.5
Romo-3.55
P.Manning-4.83
Brady-4.83
Brees-5.67
Roethlisberger-5.83
Vick-7.5
Ryan-8
E.Manning-8.17
So as far as passing he's not even top 5. He ranks 7th. Elite? And this is less than 1/3 of the league.
So I know what you're thinking. "Mike! He's clutch! Come on! He's got 2 Super Bowl rings!"
Funny you should say that...
Big Ben has probably the worst statistics of any winning Super Bowl QB. He didn't help his team win very much, let's see the scoring breakdown for the Steelers in their 2 SBs
TDs with Roethlisberger accounting for points
Roesthlisberger-1 rush TD, 1 pass TD
Total: 14 points in 2 games
TDs without Roethlisberger
W. Parker-1 rush TD
H. Ward-1 rec TD
A. Randle El-1 pass TD
J. Reed-2 FG
G. Russell-1 rush TD
J. Harrison-1 Def TD
Total: 34 points in 2 games
Big Ben also accounted for 3 INTs in those 2 games. So 1 pass TD, 1 rush TD, 3 INTs in 2 games. Is that "clutch" or is that "game manager"? I know he scored the game winning TD in the 2nd Super Bowl, but it should't have taken him that long to throw 1 TD in the Super Bowl. Plus Holmes deserves as much credit as Roethlisberger for that play. The pass was off target, Holmes made a fantastic play. Ben is a very good QB, but he's not top 5 and he's not elite. He's got some glaring holes that will always keep him from being considered elite in my eyes. Also this whole "clutch" business needs addressing.
Now I know what everyone is thinking, the guy is clutch! The guy has 2 rings! The guy has an uncanny scrambling ability! He belongs up there with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. I'll prove all of these things wrong.
To say Ben Roethlisberger is on the same level assumes he's a top 5 QB. So I'm going to dispell that notion. Arguably right now the top QBs in the NFL are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger. What I am going to do here is compare all 10 stat by stat and determine who's the best. I am going to use career numbers, averaged by the number of career starts to prove my position so that everyone is on fair ground. Let's begin.
Starts for each player:
P. Manning-224
E. Manning-103
Brady-143
Rodgers-47
Brees-137
Rivers-80
Ryan-46
Romo-61
Vick-80
Roethlisberger-98
Touchdown Passes Per Game
1.Romo-1.93
2.Rodgers-1.85
3.Brady-1.83
4.P. Manning-1.78
5.Brees-1.72
6.Rivers-1.7
7.E. Manning-1.51
8.Roethlisberger-1.47
9.Ryan-1.43
10.Vick-1.16
Interceptions Per Game
1.Rodgers-.68
2.Brady-.72
2.Rivers-.72
2.Vick-.72
5.Ryan-.74
6.Roethlisberger-.88
6.P. Manning-.88
8.Brees-.96
9.Romo-1.02
10.E. Manning-1.1
Completion Percentage (Career)
1.Brees-65.2%
2.P. Manning-64.9%
3.Rodgers-64.4%
4.Romo-64.1%
5.Rivers-63.7%
6.Brady-63.6%
7.Roethlisberger-63.1%
8.Ryan-60.8%
9.E. Manning-58.0%
10.Vick-55.3%
Yards Per Game
1.Romo-272.95
2.Rodgers-270.7
3.Brees-257.42
4.Rivers-245.76
5.P. Manning-244.77
6.Brady-242.97
7.Roethlisberger-229.61
8.E. Manning-219.86
9.Ryan-218.72
10.Vick-182.61
Yards Per Completion
1.Roethlisberger-12.74
2.Rivers-12.57
3.Romo-12.56
4.Vick-12.5
5.Rodgers-12.26
6.E. Manning-11.72
7.P. Manning-11.71
8.Brady-11.6
9.Ryan-11.37
10.Brees-11.21
QB Rating
1.Rodgers-98.4
2.Rivers-97.2
3.Romo-95.5
4.Brady-95.2
5.P. Manning-94.9
6.Roethlisberger-92.5
7.Brees-91.7
8.Ryan-86.9
9.E. Manning-80.2
9.Vick-80.2
Rush Yards Per Game
1.Vick-57.88
2.Rodgers-19.7
3.Roethlisberger-8.92
4.Romo-6.77
5.Ryan-5.98
6.Brady-4.24
7.Brees-3.5
8.E. Manning-3.4
9.Rivers-3.27
10.P. Manning-3.22
Rush Yards Per Carry
1.Vick-7.1
2.Rodgers-4.9
3.Roethlisberger-3.3
4.Romo-3.0
5.E. Manning-2.2
6.P. Manning-2.1
7.Ryan-2.1
8.Brady-1.8
8.Brees-1.8
10.Rivers-1.6
Rush Touchdowns Per Game
1.Vick-.40
2.Rodgers-.28
3.Roethlisberger-.14
4.P. Manning-.08
5.Brady-.05
5.Brees-.05
5.Romo-.05
8.Ryan-.04
9.E. Manning-.03
10.Rivers-.02
Fumbles Per Game
1.P. Manning-.08
2.Ryan-.13
3.Brees-.19
4.Roethlisberger-.21
5.Brady-.22
6.Rodgers-.23
7.Rivers-.24
8.E. Manning-.26
8.Romo-.26
10.Vick-.38
Total Turnovers Per Game
1.Ryan-.87
2.Rodgers-.91
3.Brady-.94
4.Rivers-.96
4.P. Manning-.96
6.Roethlisberger-1.09
7.Vick-1.1
8.Brees-1.15
9.Romo-1.28
10.E. Manning-1.36
Total Touchdowns Per Game
1.Rodgers-2.13
2.Romo-1.98
3.Brady-1.87
4.P. Manning-1.86
5.Brees-1.77
6.Rivers-1.73
7.Roethlisberger-1.61
8.Vick-1.56
9.E. Manning-1.54
10.Ryan-1.48
Average Scores-
Rodgers-2.24
Romo-4.48
P.Manning-4.83
Brady-4.92
Roethlisberger-5.08
Rivers-5.58
Brees-5.83
Vick-6.08
Ryan-6.75
E. Manning-8.17
So Big Ben is top 5 if you include rushing, but let's take a look at just purely passing ranks.
Rodgers-2.33
Rivers-3.5
Romo-3.55
P.Manning-4.83
Brady-4.83
Brees-5.67
Roethlisberger-5.83
Vick-7.5
Ryan-8
E.Manning-8.17
So as far as passing he's not even top 5. He ranks 7th. Elite? And this is less than 1/3 of the league.
So I know what you're thinking. "Mike! He's clutch! Come on! He's got 2 Super Bowl rings!"
Funny you should say that...
Big Ben has probably the worst statistics of any winning Super Bowl QB. He didn't help his team win very much, let's see the scoring breakdown for the Steelers in their 2 SBs
TDs with Roethlisberger accounting for points
Roesthlisberger-1 rush TD, 1 pass TD
Total: 14 points in 2 games
TDs without Roethlisberger
W. Parker-1 rush TD
H. Ward-1 rec TD
A. Randle El-1 pass TD
J. Reed-2 FG
G. Russell-1 rush TD
J. Harrison-1 Def TD
Total: 34 points in 2 games
Big Ben also accounted for 3 INTs in those 2 games. So 1 pass TD, 1 rush TD, 3 INTs in 2 games. Is that "clutch" or is that "game manager"? I know he scored the game winning TD in the 2nd Super Bowl, but it should't have taken him that long to throw 1 TD in the Super Bowl. Plus Holmes deserves as much credit as Roethlisberger for that play. The pass was off target, Holmes made a fantastic play. Ben is a very good QB, but he's not top 5 and he's not elite. He's got some glaring holes that will always keep him from being considered elite in my eyes. Also this whole "clutch" business needs addressing.
Coach of the Year
Here is another award that is surrounded by ambiguity and rewards the whole trend of "winning is everything" and ignoring accomplishmnets of other coaches.
First off "Coach of the Year", what does that even mean? I don't even know how you can gauge this. A lot of times it doesn't have a lot to do with the coach. Take Green Bay for example. People are upset McCarthy didn't win COTY, but I understand why he didn't. True, the Packers had 16 guys on IR, a guy suspended, and a guy from last season who couldn't get healthy and was cut. But a majority of those guys were on defense. McCarthy is clearly the offensive mastermind of the team, but his major injuries came with Grant and Finley. Without Grant, there was no rushing game until Starks. McCarthy couldn't figure out how to utilize Brandon Jackson effectively. He attoned for the absence of Finley, though, with calling on Greg Jennings who answered quite well.
The much larger occurance of injuries happened on defense, an area in which McCarthy has little control. Come in GM Ted Thompson and DC Dom Capers. Thompson has an uncanny ability to scout smaller school players and comb through the undrafted guys and find capable replacements. Just this season, Thompson secured guys like Frank Zombo, Erik Walden, and Sam Shields as undrafted free agents or street free agents. Once Thompson gets the pieces to the puzzle, Dom Capers puts it together. The offense and defense were both effective and both sides of the ball won games (see: playoffs). So that begs the question, can you give ALL the credit for winning to the Head Coach? My view is no. They are the glue that holds everything together, but it's difficult to tell whether a team's success is due to a Head Coach, Offensive Cooridinator, Defensive Coordinator, GM, ect. If a coach does ALL of that, you can say it was them.
Now I know another side of this is player morale, but once again this is a very hard thing to prove. Not every voter in the AP covers one particular coach. You can't tell me that every person who has a vote knows each coach well and knows how they coach and what kind of leader they are and the support they have from their players. It's based off of asuumptions and number of wins. I think all voting for awards needs a reform if they want any credibility.
Does Bill Bellichick deserve to be coach of the year because he took an already good core of players and maintained the good record the Pats are known for? Or does Raheem Morris deserve to be coach of the year because he took a terrible team and made them a winning team in the span of one offseason. How do we, as fans, know who should win the award? It can't be both or you'll always be screwing someone over.
This is a recurring trend that the NFL is going through. Why can't things be more clear for the fan? From rules to awards, the NFL has done a good job at keeping the fans in the dark. You can't even get a rule book on the NFL's website. How do they expect fans to educate themselves?
First off "Coach of the Year", what does that even mean? I don't even know how you can gauge this. A lot of times it doesn't have a lot to do with the coach. Take Green Bay for example. People are upset McCarthy didn't win COTY, but I understand why he didn't. True, the Packers had 16 guys on IR, a guy suspended, and a guy from last season who couldn't get healthy and was cut. But a majority of those guys were on defense. McCarthy is clearly the offensive mastermind of the team, but his major injuries came with Grant and Finley. Without Grant, there was no rushing game until Starks. McCarthy couldn't figure out how to utilize Brandon Jackson effectively. He attoned for the absence of Finley, though, with calling on Greg Jennings who answered quite well.
The much larger occurance of injuries happened on defense, an area in which McCarthy has little control. Come in GM Ted Thompson and DC Dom Capers. Thompson has an uncanny ability to scout smaller school players and comb through the undrafted guys and find capable replacements. Just this season, Thompson secured guys like Frank Zombo, Erik Walden, and Sam Shields as undrafted free agents or street free agents. Once Thompson gets the pieces to the puzzle, Dom Capers puts it together. The offense and defense were both effective and both sides of the ball won games (see: playoffs). So that begs the question, can you give ALL the credit for winning to the Head Coach? My view is no. They are the glue that holds everything together, but it's difficult to tell whether a team's success is due to a Head Coach, Offensive Cooridinator, Defensive Coordinator, GM, ect. If a coach does ALL of that, you can say it was them.
Now I know another side of this is player morale, but once again this is a very hard thing to prove. Not every voter in the AP covers one particular coach. You can't tell me that every person who has a vote knows each coach well and knows how they coach and what kind of leader they are and the support they have from their players. It's based off of asuumptions and number of wins. I think all voting for awards needs a reform if they want any credibility.
Does Bill Bellichick deserve to be coach of the year because he took an already good core of players and maintained the good record the Pats are known for? Or does Raheem Morris deserve to be coach of the year because he took a terrible team and made them a winning team in the span of one offseason. How do we, as fans, know who should win the award? It can't be both or you'll always be screwing someone over.
This is a recurring trend that the NFL is going through. Why can't things be more clear for the fan? From rules to awards, the NFL has done a good job at keeping the fans in the dark. You can't even get a rule book on the NFL's website. How do they expect fans to educate themselves?
End of the Year Awards
This is my first post. I'm starting this because I'm tired of a lot of the truly ignorant things football "fans" pawn off as facts. I will update this whenever I have something to rant about. Enjoy, and please comment on this and let me know what you guys think about all of these topics.
This is something that has always bothered me. The NFL hands out a set of end of the year awards to the "best" players in the NFL. Some of these include MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year. There are a lot of common misconceptions surrounding these awards, and I'm going to try to debunk them. A lot of you will get upset because this goes against a lot of the common views of football.
Let's start with MVP, or, Most Valuable Player. Right off the bat, there is ambiguity in the title. What is valuable? What does that mean? Is it most valuable to the NFL or most valuable to a team? The common perspective on this topic is that "valuable" means a player (or should I say, quarterback) who means the most to his team. But value is a matter of perspective. There's no cut or dry way to quantify a player's value the way the media would like to portray it. To them the things that matter most is leadership, heart, and winning. The thing that they usually ignore is statistics. Lets take a look into this, shall we?
Let's go back in time one year. Peyton Manning wins the MVP. Why? Peyton Manning wasn't even a top 5 QB last year. But he received 37.5 of the 50 votes handed out by the Associated Press. Of course, traditional NFL fans will go, "Peyton Manning won because he's a winner." That's just not how things work. You can't give someone total credit for a team effort. Sure Peyton Manning had a large effect on those wins, but he didn't catch the ball, he didn't rush very often, he didn't make tackles, he didn't intercept the ball, he didn't kick field goals, punt, kickoff, cover punts, ect.
Now lets look at the other 3 vote getters. Drew Brees came in second, Philip Rivers in third, and Brett Favre brings up the rear. All 3 had statistically better seasons than Manning. A 4th, Aaron Rodgers, wasn't even mentioned though he played markedly better and more efficiently. Yet, because of "intangibles" such as "leadership", "heart", and "clutch", Manning was a winner. But the 4 QBs who got snubbed by the voters weren't even the worst snub.
Chris Johnson had an unbelievable season in 2009. He accounted for over 2500 yards (an NFL record for a single season) and 2006 yards rushing (good for 5th best all time single season). Yet Chris Johnson didn't even get a vote? Why is that? If you ask the normal fan they'll say these two things: "quarterbacks are more important" and "the Titans only went 8-8". First off, the importance of a position is relative to the team. The Colts have a very QB centered system. The team builds the offense around Manning, the defense and rushing game are just enough to get by. The Titans are a run first team, their passing offense in 2009 ranked 26th and their defense (scoring and yardage) was 28th in the league. So Johnson and Manning both did what they did with defenses keying on them, so there goes that argument about the "importance" of one position over another. If you're great, you're going to have a great season. This idea that a team's record reflects an individual is also just obnoxious. Once again, CJ and Manning aren't on the field for defense or special teams. You can't use team accolades to promote an individual.
So how should you determine the "Most Valuable Player"? Easy. Statistics. Now here's probably the most annoying cliche in all of sports: "Yeah, (insert player here) is a really great fantasy player, but he isn't a winner." But how else do you gauge a player's ability? If you go by players who "win" and don't put up stats you'd have guys like Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, and Mark Sanchez as the top QBs in the NFL. They're not. Nobody would take Sanchez over Philip Rivers. "Fantasy stats" is a fancy way of saying "this guy produces a lot".
Water is necessary for life and gold is essentially useless to the basic survival of humans. So why is gold so expensive for just an ounce of it? Because there's such a scarce amount of it. The less there is of something desirable, the higher the price. There more there is of something, the lower the price. Simple economics. If you look at the statistics of Manning and of Johnson, Manning was the #6 QB while Johnson was the #1 RB. If you look all time, Johnson had the best season for any offensive player ALL TIME and the 5th best season for a running back yardage wise ALL TIME. How does someone who's not even in the top 5 in his position for a single year beat out a guy who's top 5 ALL TIME? To me "value" is based off of what can he do that nobody else can? I understand Peyton Manning is a GREAT player, but this is a YEARLY award based off of the body of work from one season, not including playoffs. You have to go off of what both players have done THIS YEAR. Chris Johnson is clearly more valuable.
Which brings me to my next point (I'll make these a lot more brief). Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year. Once again these awards are predicated on intangibles such as heart as well as wins. But there's some other questionable practices with these awards. Let's start with OPOY...
Offensive Player of the Year is usually given to the best NON QB (though, this year it will likely be Brady for MVP and he already won OPOY) who performs statistically better than the QB but doesn't win MVP because he's not a QB. How does that make any sense? If someone is the BEST defensive player and someone else is the BEST offensive player, how the the MOST VALUABLE player not one of those two guys? In 2009 Chris Johnson was OPOY, Charles Woodson was DPOY, and Peyton Manning was MVP...why? Shouldn't one of the two best in the two broad categories be MVP?? If there's so much importance on quarterbacks, make a separate category for QBs. Have a Quarterback of the Year award. That or get rid of MVP and just have Offensive and Defensive POY.
Finally, we'll get to DPOY (I'm going to have another post soon on COTY). Defensive PLAYER of the year. There's a key word in that title that should key you on where I'm going with this one. Again, let's go back to 2009, though this time I believe the right person was picked (yes, I'm a Packer fan, but no I am not biased here).
The two players who were mainly in the running were Charles Woodson and Darrelle Revis. Now, I will agree with anyone that says from a coverage standpoint, Revis is the best in the game right now. But that doesn't make him the best defensive player. Going along with the value trend (I assume this is also based on "value"), think of it this way. What's the appeal of a 2 for 1 deal? You're getting more of a good thing for the same price. People argue that Revis shuts down a WR, which is fantastic. But let's look at the bigger picture. Aside from coverage, Revis is very limited. He's not always gonna come up on the run, he's never going to blitz, he's usually going to stay 1 on 1 with a team's top WR. He does what he does well and he deserves all the credit in the world for it. But now let's look at Charles Woodson's season. He had more sacks, forced fumbles, tackles, interceptions, and touchdowns than Revis. Sure he probably gave up a couple more passes than Revis, but nobody can argue that being a great cover corner as well as being a bigger threat in the other parts of the game is a much more valuable asset than just pure cover skills. He's a better all around defensive PLAYER. He's not limited. Revis would be the best CORNERBACK, Woodson is the best DEFENDER.
Next time I rant about Coach of the Year.
This is something that has always bothered me. The NFL hands out a set of end of the year awards to the "best" players in the NFL. Some of these include MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year. There are a lot of common misconceptions surrounding these awards, and I'm going to try to debunk them. A lot of you will get upset because this goes against a lot of the common views of football.
Let's start with MVP, or, Most Valuable Player. Right off the bat, there is ambiguity in the title. What is valuable? What does that mean? Is it most valuable to the NFL or most valuable to a team? The common perspective on this topic is that "valuable" means a player (or should I say, quarterback) who means the most to his team. But value is a matter of perspective. There's no cut or dry way to quantify a player's value the way the media would like to portray it. To them the things that matter most is leadership, heart, and winning. The thing that they usually ignore is statistics. Lets take a look into this, shall we?
Let's go back in time one year. Peyton Manning wins the MVP. Why? Peyton Manning wasn't even a top 5 QB last year. But he received 37.5 of the 50 votes handed out by the Associated Press. Of course, traditional NFL fans will go, "Peyton Manning won because he's a winner." That's just not how things work. You can't give someone total credit for a team effort. Sure Peyton Manning had a large effect on those wins, but he didn't catch the ball, he didn't rush very often, he didn't make tackles, he didn't intercept the ball, he didn't kick field goals, punt, kickoff, cover punts, ect.
Now lets look at the other 3 vote getters. Drew Brees came in second, Philip Rivers in third, and Brett Favre brings up the rear. All 3 had statistically better seasons than Manning. A 4th, Aaron Rodgers, wasn't even mentioned though he played markedly better and more efficiently. Yet, because of "intangibles" such as "leadership", "heart", and "clutch", Manning was a winner. But the 4 QBs who got snubbed by the voters weren't even the worst snub.
Chris Johnson had an unbelievable season in 2009. He accounted for over 2500 yards (an NFL record for a single season) and 2006 yards rushing (good for 5th best all time single season). Yet Chris Johnson didn't even get a vote? Why is that? If you ask the normal fan they'll say these two things: "quarterbacks are more important" and "the Titans only went 8-8". First off, the importance of a position is relative to the team. The Colts have a very QB centered system. The team builds the offense around Manning, the defense and rushing game are just enough to get by. The Titans are a run first team, their passing offense in 2009 ranked 26th and their defense (scoring and yardage) was 28th in the league. So Johnson and Manning both did what they did with defenses keying on them, so there goes that argument about the "importance" of one position over another. If you're great, you're going to have a great season. This idea that a team's record reflects an individual is also just obnoxious. Once again, CJ and Manning aren't on the field for defense or special teams. You can't use team accolades to promote an individual.
So how should you determine the "Most Valuable Player"? Easy. Statistics. Now here's probably the most annoying cliche in all of sports: "Yeah, (insert player here) is a really great fantasy player, but he isn't a winner." But how else do you gauge a player's ability? If you go by players who "win" and don't put up stats you'd have guys like Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, and Mark Sanchez as the top QBs in the NFL. They're not. Nobody would take Sanchez over Philip Rivers. "Fantasy stats" is a fancy way of saying "this guy produces a lot".
Water is necessary for life and gold is essentially useless to the basic survival of humans. So why is gold so expensive for just an ounce of it? Because there's such a scarce amount of it. The less there is of something desirable, the higher the price. There more there is of something, the lower the price. Simple economics. If you look at the statistics of Manning and of Johnson, Manning was the #6 QB while Johnson was the #1 RB. If you look all time, Johnson had the best season for any offensive player ALL TIME and the 5th best season for a running back yardage wise ALL TIME. How does someone who's not even in the top 5 in his position for a single year beat out a guy who's top 5 ALL TIME? To me "value" is based off of what can he do that nobody else can? I understand Peyton Manning is a GREAT player, but this is a YEARLY award based off of the body of work from one season, not including playoffs. You have to go off of what both players have done THIS YEAR. Chris Johnson is clearly more valuable.
Which brings me to my next point (I'll make these a lot more brief). Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year. Once again these awards are predicated on intangibles such as heart as well as wins. But there's some other questionable practices with these awards. Let's start with OPOY...
Offensive Player of the Year is usually given to the best NON QB (though, this year it will likely be Brady for MVP and he already won OPOY) who performs statistically better than the QB but doesn't win MVP because he's not a QB. How does that make any sense? If someone is the BEST defensive player and someone else is the BEST offensive player, how the the MOST VALUABLE player not one of those two guys? In 2009 Chris Johnson was OPOY, Charles Woodson was DPOY, and Peyton Manning was MVP...why? Shouldn't one of the two best in the two broad categories be MVP?? If there's so much importance on quarterbacks, make a separate category for QBs. Have a Quarterback of the Year award. That or get rid of MVP and just have Offensive and Defensive POY.
Finally, we'll get to DPOY (I'm going to have another post soon on COTY). Defensive PLAYER of the year. There's a key word in that title that should key you on where I'm going with this one. Again, let's go back to 2009, though this time I believe the right person was picked (yes, I'm a Packer fan, but no I am not biased here).
The two players who were mainly in the running were Charles Woodson and Darrelle Revis. Now, I will agree with anyone that says from a coverage standpoint, Revis is the best in the game right now. But that doesn't make him the best defensive player. Going along with the value trend (I assume this is also based on "value"), think of it this way. What's the appeal of a 2 for 1 deal? You're getting more of a good thing for the same price. People argue that Revis shuts down a WR, which is fantastic. But let's look at the bigger picture. Aside from coverage, Revis is very limited. He's not always gonna come up on the run, he's never going to blitz, he's usually going to stay 1 on 1 with a team's top WR. He does what he does well and he deserves all the credit in the world for it. But now let's look at Charles Woodson's season. He had more sacks, forced fumbles, tackles, interceptions, and touchdowns than Revis. Sure he probably gave up a couple more passes than Revis, but nobody can argue that being a great cover corner as well as being a bigger threat in the other parts of the game is a much more valuable asset than just pure cover skills. He's a better all around defensive PLAYER. He's not limited. Revis would be the best CORNERBACK, Woodson is the best DEFENDER.
Next time I rant about Coach of the Year.
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