They can’t both go to Suck Town as long as the Rams are on the same bus. You can’t have a four-team division with three teams that are utter failures – *somebody *has to win those divisional matchups. At worst you’ll have two terrible teams and one that totally sucks.
Not even the most passionate Rams fan is predicting they’ll have a winning season, or even a mediocre season. The realistic hope is 4-12 or maybe 5-11.
Well, look at Tampa bay and Oakland…hard to believe they were in the Superbowl just a few years ago as well. 
The Steelers, Pats and Eagles have all had success pretty much after drafting a franchise QB. Imagine Leftwich throwing for the Steelers, Drew Bledsoe not getting hurt for the Pats, or the Eagles drafting Rickey Williams instead of McNabb. Each of these teams had a more or less defense-oriented team with a “just good enough” offense.
Minnesota is a good case in point. They had a stellar defense and two future HOF receivers in Moss and Carter, and they just couldn’t get deep into the playoffs. Add Farve and take away the receivers, and they’re a 1 minute away from the superbowl.
And that’s what I think will happen in that division, with the 49ers taking it with something like a 10-6 record. Maybe only 9-7. Heck, didn’t the Cardinals get in in their Superbowl appearance year with only an 8-8 record?
“Relatively easy division”? You’re kidding, right? The Saints are pretty much the same team that won the Lombardi last year, and the Falcons look pretty tough, barring any injuries.
But of course my beloved Browns will once again renew their lease on the corner of Suck Street and Mediocre Alley.
Sure, no doubt having good QB play has helped these teams, and they could have easily wound up with other players at that position with a few difference decisions, but in part having good quarterback play is a function of these being well-run organizations: having scouting departments that hit more often than they miss, and putting the players they do wind up with in the right scheme with the right supporting cast.
And it’s not like these franchises were floundering before their respective QBs came along. In the past 20 years, Pittsburgh has had 15 winning seasons, and only two with as many as 10 losses. New England had made the playoffs in four out of the seven years prior to Brady’s ascension. Philadelphia did have an ugly three year stretch prior to McNabb’s taking over, but in the nine years prior to that three year stretch, they’d had six 10-win seasons. All three clubs keep the talent level generally high, and all three mostly eschew boom & bust roster construction strategies.
My Mom was describing my young nephew: “He sure likes football. He keeps tossing it up in the air by himself, catching it, and falling down. He seems to think falling down is part of catching the ball.”
“Well, Mom,” I replied, “He has been watching the Redskins his whole life.”
That Redskins game is in Detroit this year.
Denver is going to suck and will probably continue to suck as long as McDaniels is coaching. But there’s going to be no football in 2011, so that at least will be a year they won’t suck.
In 1998, the Vikes, with Moss, Carter, Culpepper were 1 missed FG away from the Super Bowl. I think it was a short one too for Gary Anderson.
As a Pats fan, I have to admit my expectations are tempered right now. While I don’t think they will come close to meeting the criteria in the OP (“Suck Town”), I do think they are going to be far less dominant than they have been. I think the dynasty is in its waning stages - they looked decidedly ordinary last year, and I don’t see any improvement this year. That said, Brady is still in his prime and with him under center they will continue to be contenders.
Yeah I don’t think they’ll ever end up worse than 5-11 or 6-10 under Belichek unless they have some severe issues, like multiple key players on both sides of the ball with season ending injuries. They had Bruschi with a stroke and Brady gone for the year and they still made the playoffs.
What’s kind of amazing is that they only made the superbowl once since acquiring Moss.
Personally, I think this lends a lot of support to the idea that they were cheating in the glory days. There’s a ton of suspicious plays I saw where there’s really no way they could call that defense for that particular offensive formation.
I truly hate New England, but they’ve shown they can run an offense without a dominating running game (or even a running game with barely a threat) with great success.
And also with a relative cast of nobodies at WR (before Moss). Brady is good and so is the oline. I don’t like them, but good is good.
Carolina is getting old, fast.
Carolina has some good young players on the line and on D, but their key skill positions players are in their 30’s or cut: Pepper, Smith, Delhomme. Other than Beason and Otah, I don’t see any good young players coming up. Deangelo Williams is great and only 27, but Jonathan Stewart might only be so-so as a backup and in the future.
The only teams I see that have been at the top of their divisions which could take a dive this coming season and beyond are New England (getting old shockingly fast, and things with Brady aren’t exactly flawless) and San Diego. San Diego has feasted on a miserable division for a long time, and suddenly they aren’t as good as they once were in a division full of noticeably improved teams.
I’ll take San Diego.
As for Airman Doors, USAF, it’s long been known that he’s mostly insane when it comes to his team, so it certainly isn’t confidence that he has. Philly taking a dive? With their loaded roster that, aside from four players, is entirely under age 30 (and not one opening day starter is 30 or above)? Silliness.
I’d also like to state on the record that I don’t think anyone in Philly will miss McNabb after this season. No one in Philly will even remember who that Mac-something guy was after 2011.
As a proud Kool-Aid drinking Bolts fan, let me respond.
1. San Diego has feasted on a miserable division for a long time. Agreed.
**2. Suddenly they aren’t as good as they once were… ** Really? Their run offense AND defense should be vastly improved over last year. I actually think they’re getting better.
3. …in a division full of noticeably improved teams. Again, really? KC looks to be improving, but still has a big question at QB. The Raiders seem to have had a good draft, and Campbell can’t be anywhere near as bad as Russell, but he’s no world-beater. Denver is NOT noticeably improved. No way.
The Chargers lost 3 big names in free agency, but didn’t try to keep any of them.
LT - I love that guy to death and his number will be retired in San Diego the day he calls it quits, but 31 year old LT isn’t better than 22 year old Ryan Mathews.
Cromartie? I can’t believe the Jets signed him. They of all teams had the best view of his Ole defense on the Shonn Greene TD in the playoff game. The Chargers couldn’t get rid of him fast enough.
Jamal Williams - One of the most underrated players of the last decade; an absolute stud. But he missed almost the entire last season with an injury. The young guys at NT aren’t as good as he once was, but the Chargers are a whole lot better with them on the field than they were last year with J-Wall on the sidelines.
I don’t necessarily expect the Chargers to win 13 games again; but come playoff time, they’ll probably be a better team than they were against the Jets last season.
Glad to hear from you! You’re the first I expected to reply to my post.
I’ll just start by clarifying my original comments are still in bold here, in case anyone reading along is wondering. I’ll admit I wasn’t fully caught up on all the moves the Chargers have made this off-season, so I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt here. I don’t see much improvement in that running game though. LT was bad last season, but Sproles wasn’t much better. And losing Jackson for almost a quarter of the season
I don’t see anything that could explain how their defense could be vastly better. They didn’t draft defense until the third round, made no moves in free agency, and lost starters. Not buying improvement there, I can see regression, even.
Kansas City looks better. Doubts about Cassel might be premature, his entire offense was Dwayne Bowe and Larry Johnson for half the season, and he lost Bowe for 5 games due to injury. They improved as a team when they finally gave Charles the rock and left LJ behind. Still not great, but markedly better.
Campbell isn’t a world beater, but just having someone who can complete a pass will do wonders for that entire team. Extending drives beyond three plays puts pressure on the defense and wears them out, refreshing their already good defense and making them even better. Campbell is absolutely competent, and he’ll radically change that team himself.
Denver… well, they’re already off on a bad foot. This might already be a lost season for them.
They’re still the class of the AFC West, no doubt. But Denver was already 8-8 in 2009 and both KC and Oakland look like 8-8 teams to me (and others). You’re crazy if you don’t think the gap has closed. And where KC and Oakland are moving up, Denver seems stuck, and SD looks to me to be moving in the wrong direction. Maybe not “Suck Town,” I guess, but I don’t see them continuing their dominance over the AFC West for very much longer.
Bueller? Bueller?
I think we probably agree more than we disagree, so let me stick to these two points for now.
You make no mention of the addition of Ryan Mathews at running back. He was the best pure tailback in the draft, and rookie RBs have an easier transition to the NFL than perhaps any other position. Also, the Chargers O-Line was ruined by injuries last year. A regression back to a more normal amount of missed games by the guys up front will really help.
I honestly think the D-Line will be pretty dramatically improved as well. When the team lost Jamal Williams for the season half-way through the first game - after already having lost his primary backup for the season in training camp - they were totally lost as to how to replace him for about 6 weeks. In the end they found a somewhat effective rotation of backups to plug the hole. Now they’ve had a whole year to figure it out - and get back Ryon Bingham, and added Cam Thomas in the draft. Throw in the normal rookie improvement of a guy like Vaughn Martin at RE and they should go from nearly incompetent to pretty decent in one fell swoop.
