Eli has played in other seasons, you know; he’s top 10 all-time in passing yards and passing touchdowns, plus (of course) the #2 all-time consecutive starting streak for a QB, behind only Brett Favre.
But sure, yeah, Foles winning a second ring would totally make his career equal to Eli’s.
Side note: Half of the top 10 all-time passing yards leaders were drafted either in 1983 or 2004:
1 Drew Brees 74,111
2 Peyton Manning 71,940
3 Brett Favre 71,838
4 Tom Brady 70,138
**5 Dan Marino 61,361
6 Big Ben 55,527
7 Eli Manning 55,371
8 Philip Rivers 54,480
9 John Elway 51,475
**10 Warren Moon 49,325
Longevity stats mean much less than you’d think, especially in the current NFL. Of the top 10, 7 have played in the last decade, when quarterbacks are bubble-wrapped, safeties aren’t allowed to behead receivers over the middle, and offenses are finding newer and better ways to make defensive coordinators break their clipboards. Just because Eli’s played since I was a wee lad doesn’t mean he’s an exceptional talent at anything except staying upright (and better than the jokes NY has brought in as backups). He’s not bad, by any means, but he sure as hell ain’t getting into the Hall of Fame. There’s a reason they don’t call it the Hall of Very Good.
After Seahawks placekicker Sebastian Janikowski suffered a leg injury, punter Michael Dickson was tasked with the kickoff duties - which he discharged by means of drop kicks.
Doug Flutie scored 3 points with one in 2005, but when was the last time this was seen on a kickoff in the NFL?
Eli’s problem, aside from being mediocre (maybe slightly above?) overall, is that he peaked pretty early. Two rings then years of poor play that has been getting worse. People voting for the HoF are going to have that as their main impression of him, whether or not you think that’s fair, and it’s really going to hurt his chances.
Compare that with Foles who is the opposite; his career wasn’t great then he ate a Power Pellet and dismantled the Patriots in the SB, then seems to be doing everything to bring his team back into the postseason despite having a Super Bowl Hangover. That’s going to be the player people remember.
I don’t think either really deserves to get in given their overall body of work, but I’d give the edge to Foles.
As Telemark noted, Flutie’s dropkick (in the final game of his career) was an extra point, not a field goal.
Dickson had been called on to use dropkicks on two kickoffs (including an onside kick) earlier this season, in Seattle’s game against the Bears.
In yesterday’s game, Dickson’s first dropkick kickoff looked really good – he got it down to the 2 yard line. His second one bounced out of bounds (a very bad result for the kicking team), and I wonder if, at that point, the Seahawks decided that Janikowski wasn’t that hurt after all.
You are correct. If the Ravens win, they win the division. If the Ravens lose to the Browns and the Steelers lose to the Bengals, the Ravens win the division. But if the Ravens lose and the Steelers win, the Steelers win the division and the Ravens are out of the playoffs.
So an unrelated question (but no other thread for it): Why is it that seemingly no team (or their fanbase) regrets passing on Tom Brady in the 2000 draft? There are Cowboys fans still angry that Dallas passed on Randy Moss in 1998, or Chargers fans mad that their team took Ryan Leaf instead of Peyton Manning, but seemingly no non-Patriots fanbase gets upset that their team passed on Tom Brady multiple times in 2000, even though Brady is the GOAT.
I have no doubt that fans of teams that have struggled with finding a good QB over the past 20 years wish that they’d drafted Brady. The difference, of course, is that every team passed on Brady repeatedly in 2000, whereas in the cases of Manning (versus Leaf) or Moss (versus whoever the Cowboys took in 1998), there’s a particular player that you can point to who was drafted, and who turned out to be a bust. In the case of Brady, every team drafted multiple players before Brady finally was selected, and there’s not that same sort of buyer’s remorse.
Packer fans had the same sort of regret from the 1989 draft. Here are the top five picks in that draft: #1 - Dallas - Troy Aikman #2 - Green Bay - Tony Mandarich #3 - Detroit - Barry Sanders #4 - Kansas City - Derrick Thomas #5 - Atlanta - Deion Sanders
Four Hall of Famers in the top five picks, and the Packers were the odd one out.
Also, in the case of Leaf – the Chargers never had a chance to take Peyton Manning. Going into the '98 draft, there was much debate over whether Manning or Leaf was the better prospect, but the Colts took Manning with the #1 overall pick, leaving Leaf for the Chargers at #2. So, while Chargers fans may well be annoyed by that, they can’t blame their team for “passing” on Manning. And, FWIW, the Chargers then went out and drafted two high-quality quarterbacks in the years that followed, in Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers.
Nobody thought Brady was going to be special. Not even the Patriots. They weren’t rubbing their hands in excitement because they knew they stole the future best QB of all time late in the draft. He didn’t even play until their starter got hurt during his second season as a Patriot. Clearly they didn’t draft him to take over the team.
He was really good in college but even there he was a backup for a good part of his career and had a tough battle to keep his spot as a starter. He was 20-5 as a starter for the Michigan Wolverines over two years and won two bowl games so he wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t someone you’d look at and say, “He could dominate in the NFL.”
You couldn’t really blame anyone for passing on him. You’d have to be psychic or a time traveler to know what he’d become someday. That’s why people don’t lament not drafting him, unlike others who got passed up despite evidence that they’d be great.
I’ll echo what** kenobi 65** and Atamasma have stated: A team’s fans are pissed when Player X, who has shown great potential in college, is passed over in favor of Player Y, who has also shown potential in his college career. Then Player X has a HOF NFL career, while Player Y is a relative bust. For instance, in the 1983 draft, the Chiefs selected Todd Blackledge with the 7th pick, while the Dolphins gratefully chose Dan Marino with the 27th pick. You know the rest of this story, and Chiefs fans will never forgive their front office for this mistake.
And there are plenty of other examples of future NFL greats not picked until late rounds, but nobody is really upset because their team didn’t draft these guys. For example, Deacon Jones was taken in the 14th round, and Johnny Unitas was taken in the 9th round. Bart Starr was the 200th guy drafted in the 1956 draft. Hereis a good article with these examples and others.
I don’t really understand what the Washington Redskins are doing these days. They’ve just released DJ Swearinger for mouthing off. Why not just make him inactive for the last game? If he’s such a a cancer that Gruden wanted him gone, I’m sure they could have gotten something for him in the offseason.
Sometimes you release players that are toxic to the team despite not getting anything for it. The Seahawks released Richard Sherman, one of the best (if not the best) cornerbacks in recent years, and got nothing for it except a bit of cap space. Sherman had lost a step (especially with a torn Achilles) but by far his biggest problem was his attitude. Losing his talent hurt but the team still seems stronger for it. It might work out better for the Redskins in the long run as well.
I can’t believe the Giants lost to the Colts after leading all game. It would have been perfect poetic justice if Eli had beaten every team in the league except the Chargers. But now it’s every team in the league except the Chargers and Colts, which dilutes the karmic potency of that factoid.
The officials have had a bad year. I was watching the excellent Saints vs. Steelers game and the men in black and white stripes gave New Orleans a touchdown on a non-call.
What can be done? I say have three separate replay officials not related to the team of officials on the field which cover their own rear ends. Let them decide if it was a penalty or not. 2-1 or 3-0 majority rules.
Oh for God’s sake. I have an idea. Let’s run a play. Then we’ll wait about five minutes while every aspect of the play is scrutinized by the “replay” officials. They will check to see if any of the linemen held someone, if any of the defensive backs or linebackers held someone, if anyone managed to make contact with a head, if any of the numerous pass receivers downfield were interfered with. They will measure to be certain that the offensive team was not in an illegal formation (can’t have those receivers covered up, or too few of them on the line!).
Or, you know, we could just go back to the days when we accepted that not everything got called.