As I watched the NFL this weekend, it's becoming clear which teams are completely out of the running for the playoffs. The Jets, Pats, Raiders, Browns, Titans, Jags, Giants, Cowboys, Saints, and Panthers are pretty much totally out of things. My question is at what point do those teams start to focus on draft position and next year? When do they start playing more back ups to see what they have? When do they just start to tank for the #1 pick?
It seems like it would be hard for professional athletes to just stop playing hard, some of them are playing for incentives and contracts, so they'd want to play hard and well. Others are probably beat up enough to start thinking that some load management would keep them from getting hurt. Obviously Jerry Jones isn't going to stand for tanking because he's nuts. But teams who've lost key players to injury or just suck have to look to the future.
Next years draft isn't as QB heavy as this years, but there are a couple that look good. For teams like the Raiders, Giants, Browns, Saints, Panthers, and Jets, drafting a great QB would be a really good move. For the others, high draft picks in key positions allow for a lot of cap flexibility at other positions. In any case, looking to the future seems like a good idea at some point.
What of the Bears, Seahawks, and Rams? Many think that either of the NFC West teams have a pretty good shot at the playoffs, but does getting to the playoffs to lose in the Wild Card round actually do much to help for the future? The Bears are an interesting team, they have lots of talent, and lots of that talent is young. Many thought they'd be a lock for the playoffs and maybe even a trip to the NFC championship game, but they haven't been able to ride a relatively easy front part of their schedule to enough wins to have much hope as things get tougher. If it was me as their GM, I'd be pushing to see depth players get game reps and shooting for a top 5-10 draft pick and getting O-line or Wide Receiver help. I'd probably draft a couple of O-line deeper in the draft as well. Again, tons of talent already there and they can set themselves up for the future depending on what they do this year.
4 comments:
I've been on FB with some Bear fans suggesting that based on their crappy performance against the lowly Pats, I can't see the Bears winning a single divisional game, which means a minimum of 11 losses for the season. There's a chance they could take one Packer game, but it's slim. Their coaching and O-line doesn't inspire any confidence. Williams took at least 7 sacks, with only two of them seeming to be a problem of holding the ball too long. But then again, when you're stampeded constantly, even getting the chance to throw it out of bounds isn't necessarily easy.
I agree the Bears are loaded with talent, but it ain't on the O-line nor on the coaching staff. I'm disgusted.
Yeah, it's a tough call for teams like the Bears. Ending up with the 15th pick doesn't really help them very much, whereas a top 10 probably would. I think it's interesting that the Panthers and the Pats have both won a couple of games recently, I'd think either of them would have been after 1 or 2. Clearly the Bears were over hyped because of Caleb, and they need some more pieces. As I said, it's hard to tank, even when it's in service of something valuable.
Just at lot of pretty bad teams this year.
I was watching at B Dubs yesterday and ended up paying attention to more teams than I normally would.
I've been catching more non-Bears games this year than I have over the last few. I've found it makes it hurt even more, but I still do it. I don't know that the Bears were "over hyped" so much as provoked higher hopes for the season. The same problems with the O-line were on display for the first team during pre-season, but there seemed to be better play calling. I'm not seeing it now at all. I don't think the kid would be running for his life any more if he had no O-line at all!
Brings back memories of the Chiefs/Bucs Super Bowl when QB1 was running for his life the entire game because of injuries to the OL. I would have loved to see that game with the starters playing, no matter what the outcome it would have been a better game.
I'm not usually a fan of going to sports bars to watch games, and don't have the desire or ability to watch multiple games simultaneously at home. But being able to do so, does give you the opportunity to get a better idea of how other teams are playing that you don't get from highlights.
Post a Comment