It’s a Lone Star State Showdown!

Password: new england clam chowder

That’s right kids, I am back from my weeklong backwoods retreat. I must admit it is quite liberating to get away from your cell phone and laptop for a few days. Life is much simpler when your biggest concerns are the weather on the horizon, avoiding jet skis in your kayak and identifying the right lure color or fly pattern.

Of course, it figures that I am gone when the national crisis also known as the Brett Favre situation is resolved. The Jets huh? Maybe the Jets figure the only way to beat New England and their AARP-card carrying defense is to have a quarterback that is even older.

At least in New York, Brett’s every move won’t be scrutinized by the press. We should put the over/under on the number of weeks into the season the New York Post makes some horrible pun about the Favre era being a disappointment on its back page. I set it at week 4 right now.

Oh and for all you idiots that set a single day record for buying Favre Jets jerseys on NFL.com? I have a Joe Namath - Rams jersey, O.J. Simpson – 49ers jersey, Tony Dorsett – Broncos jersey, Jerry Rice - Seahawks jersey, Joe Montana – Chiefs jersey, and Emmitt Smith – Cardinals jersey for you. All for the low-low price of $299 each.

Anyway, no reason to beat a dead Favre, that is old news. Last night we had our first live action of your Denver Broncos, in a riveting pre-season game against the Houston Texans (and our old friend head coach Gary Kubiak – or Koobs to some of us). So what did we learn? I’m glad you asked.

• While it is hard to learn much from the two short series by the offense there were a couple things that jumped out at me.
  • Where was the running game? Selvin Young’s 3 yards on 4 carries didn’t exactly inspire confidence that the Broncos running game has returned to its former glory.
  • As if by admission that they couldn’t run, there were a lot of short passes into the flats, especially to running backs out of the backfield. I’ve send this offense before. It is the ‘running game’ that FSU used to run. No, not the offense in those 14 straight years of top-five finishes. That would be the offense in those two straight years of 6 losses. Not that I am saying that is what could happen to the Broncos. There is little chance they have only 6 losses this year.
  • Now that the suspension has been handed down by the Commish it is interesting to see the Broncos make the conscious effort to not throw to Brandon Marshall. Young and Eddie Royal (promoted to starter with Darrell Jackson moving over to Marshall’s position) just jumped about 2 rounds in fantasy drafts this coming week.
• How about poor Matt Prater? Misses his first field goal attempt – a thirty yarder – causing roughly 437,896 Bronco fans mutter ‘I knew we never should’ve let Elam go’. Should we just nickname him Brian Griese right now? Ok, done.
• Speaking of former Bronco quarterbacks, I am reading Stefan Fatsis’s book ‘A Few Seconds of Panic’ right now. A fascinating look at the 2006 Broncos by a Wall Street Journal writer who spent training camp as a kicker with the team. Highly recommended reading, but I just read a chapter focusing on Jake Plummer (this was the year they had just drafted Cutler to replace Jake after he guided the team to the AFC Title game). It was nice to see that my long held feelings about Plummer (here and here) were validated. As were my feelings about Mark Kiszla, the second worst sports writer in Denver (congratulations Bernie Lincicome!).
• I haven’t spoken to Turner yet but I am sure he was thrilled with former Sooner Larry Birdine making a nice defensive play in the last minute. Unfortunately Gary Miller, probably the worst play-by-play announcer in all of pre-season football screwed up his number so his moment of glory was short lived.
• Not to toot my horn but – toot, toot – my two early picks for sleepers of camp played well (and even got mentioned by Woody Paige today, the best sportswriter in Denver). Anthony Alridge accounted for 40 yards of offense and another 23 on a kick-off return, flashing that 4.3 speed for the home folks. The only blip was a fumble, but if he can keep it from becoming a habit he should be ok. My boy Christian Morton accounted for six tackles and a sack in a secondary that was depleted with injuries and resting starters. Next week when he shuts down T.O. you will see (ok, that probably isn’t happening).
• My final note is a shout out to Wesley Woodyard, the leading tackler for the Broncos, a rookie out of Kentucky. Why are we still surprised by productive college players who don’t have the ‘right’ measurables looking good in the pros? Woodyard was the defensive leader on last year’s resurgent Wildcat team and recorded over 100 tackles in each of his final 3 seasons in college in the SEC (as we are told 453 times each fall, the best conference in college football).
• So why did he go undrafted? Apparently he is considered small (6’0”, 230 lbs) and a little slow (4.5 40-yard dash). Hmm, let’s pick a random former Bronco linebacker for comparison.
  • There was one player that was close to his size (6’0”, 240 lbs) and speed (4.56 40-yard dash coming out of college) and was the defensive leader for a strong SEC team (ironically that also beat FSU in a bowl game in the player’s senior year).
  • But why would we want another player to have a career like Al Wilson? He was a total bust – only a 5 time Pro-Bowler and the heart and soul of an AFC championship game team. Nah, why would anyone want that type of guy on their team.

Mike Shanahan, Meet Britney Spears

Having successfully avoided all draft analysis over the last two days, it is time to present my in-depth , completely original analysis of the draft, not influenced by any professional, regardless of their hair. I’m not going to look at each team (I already told every team who they need to draft, I can’t be held responsible if they ignored my sound advice). Rather, let’s use the TMZ model and just focus on the biggest train-wrecks, because that is just so much more fun.

1 – Denver Broncos: I know it is hard to believe that I think that Mike Shanahan screwed up in the draft (I am nothing if not consistent) but I do. Anyone who has followed the Broncos knew that Shanahan’s OCD tendencies toward specific positions of need would rear its head at some point (see defensive backs 2004-2005, defensive line 2007). So after making a good first round pick (an actual offensive lineman!) it was only a matter of time until a wide receiver was drafted (given he has already signed Kerry Colbert, Darrell Jackson and Samie Parker this offseason). I actually got excited when DeSean Jackson, Limas Sweed and Malcolm Kelly were still on the board. So, of course the Broncos drafted…Eddie Royal from Virginia Tech. Huh?

Apparently, Shanahan chose Royal to also get his punt return abilities. Did Mike not watch any tape of Jackson? He scored 6 touchdowns and was a more dangerous punt returner in college than Devin Hester (who may have actually had input on the draft picks, since after last season’s Bears/Broncos game, he owns the Broncos! Thank you, thank you very much I will be here all week). At this point, I am almost more surprised when Mike does something I agree with.

Is this what Lions fans feel like?

2 – Chicago Bears: Sticking with the early 2^nd round blunder theme we move on to Chicago. How do I start? Do I mock who they did pick or who they passed on? Let’s start with who they passed on.

Generally, when your team has inspired its fans to start a website calling for the head of your quarterback, it might be time to consider drafting a new one. When two highly rated quarterbacks (one of whom would have been a top five pick if he had come out a year ago), slip out of the first round to you early in the second round, it might be time to consider drafting one. Apparently not when you are the Bears.

I’m not sure what the Bears team film shows but from what I have seen the root of much of their problems arises from having a player under center who is much more likely to fumble or throw an interception than throw a touchdown (52 turnovers to 31 touchdowns).

So, who did the Bears draft at pick #44 rather than Brian Brohm or Chad Henne? Matt Forte a running back from Tulane. It is true that the Bears have a need at running back thanks to bust-tastic Cedric Benson but like the Broncos and Mr. Royal was Forte really the best still available? I see Ray Rice, Kevin Smith (not Silent Bob, to be clear), Steve Slaton and Mike Hart (among others) still on the board. I follow college football as much as anyone and I can’t say that Forte left much of an impression in actual games.

A related note: I was also prepared to vilify both the Dolphins and Vikings when they passed on the same two quarterbacks early in the second round. Both teams, however, redeemed themselves later, the Dolphins grabbing Henne with the 57^th pick and the Vikings getting John David Booty in the 5^th round. Excellent work fellas. It hurts to not be able to mock the Dolphins. I miss Cam Cameron so.

3 – Green Bay Packers: Let’s play a little game. Let’s look at the stat line of a quarterback in three consecutive years:

Year #1

Rating: 84.5   Comp. %: 58%   Yards: 4089   TDs: 27    Interceptions: 20

Year #2

Rating: 90.2   Comp. %: 61%   Yards: 3366   TDs: 18    Interceptions: 7

Year #3

Rating: 68.8   Comp. %: 55%   Yards: 1994   TDs: 11    Interceptions: 13

Any guesses as to the mystery guest?

That’s right, those are the stats for our old friend Jake Plummer in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons. He of the grandest beard in the game.

So, what changed in that 1 year? Yes, during the offseason the Broncos’ running game disappeared faster than those ’19-0’ t-shirts made by the Patriots but without a doubt, the biggest factor was the Broncos trading up to draft Jay Cutler in the 2006 draft.

As evidenced by Plummer, it is not easy being the quarterback of an NFL team while constantly looking over your shoulder at your replacement, knowing any little mis-step could send you to the bench.

So, I wonder, if a quarterback with 10 years of professional experience was that affected by being labeled ‘Dead Man Walking’, what is going to happen to Aaron Rodgers?

Rodgers has played significant time in one game – at the ‘best team in the NFC’ last season going 18 of 26 for 1 touchdown and no interceptions (passer rating: 105). Yet, the Packers felt they should pull the trigger on Brian Brohm in the 2^nd round of the draft. As if hearing ‘Favre wouldn’t have done that’ after every little mistake wasn’t enough to affect his performance, now he will also be looking over his shoulder at his potential replacement.

I am going to go out on a limb and say this is not going to end well for Mr. Rodgers and his Green Bay neighborhood.

One final note on a quarterback just drafted. Let me start by saying that I am not Ron Jaworski (as if that weren’t self-evident) but I have to say I am glad I am not a Ravens fan. The highlight package of Joe Flacco made him look awfully busty to me, and not in a good way. In my view, the highlights they picked simply showed a quarterback with a strong arm, who likes to chuck the ball down the field and hope for the best. I equate that to Brady Quinn’s college career, throw the ball and hope that your receivers can beat the defense to the ball.

And I think I have made it pretty clear how I feel about Brady Quinn.

Sorry Joe.

Pondering the Great Questions

More random thoughts, strewn about like the toys of a young child on the bedroom floor of the NFL.

• Obviously one of the big stories over the last week has been Donovan McNabb’s comments regarding race playing a factor in the level of criticism directed at quarterback’s around the league. There are a couple reasons I haven’t felt an overwhelming need to comment on this particular issue:
  • I set it as a mission of this forum to not discuss the topics du jour when I have nothing really to add to the general public conversation. In this case, I actually agree with much of the public responses I have seen…I know I am a little surprised too. I look around the league and see Sexy Rexy Grossman get roasted on a pig spit about 3 times a day, Chad Pennington cheered when carried off the field injured and columnists in Denver still referring to Jake Plummer as the ‘hippy-dippy quarterback’ almost a year after he last started for the Broncos simply because he wasn’t John Elway and had the audacity to speak his mind on issues beyond the merits of zone blocking (like one of his best friends being killed in Afghanistan and then held up by the government as a piece of propaganda like The Ol’ Shoe). All of these guys have two things in common with McNabb, they play quarterback in pro football crazy towns. They have one thing not in-common with McNabb – their skin color.
  • Let’s face it; I am an anonymous 32-year old, upper-middle class , white, heterosexual male – why exactly do I have any right to tell Donovan McNabb that his perception and experience of discrimination is wrong? Have I experienced discrimination? Actually yes, (because of my skin color, no less) but can I compare this to what Donovan may have experienced? No, so why should I tell him that his perception is wrong? Donovan is in a fairly unique position in between the pioneering African-American quarterbacks (Doug Williams, Warren Moon) who most definitely experienced discrimination and the new generation (Jason Campbell, Vince Young) who benefited from these pioneers and have for the most part (probably) not felt the sting of discrimination.  If he feels his skin color has played a role in the criticism directed at him, then do I really have any basis (beyond opinion) to disagree?
    • As for me and my brush with discrimination, it was long ago and fairly isolated so there is no need to go into it here. I’m not paying you $100/hour to listen to me whine.
    • Damnit, I just commented on the issue and added nothing to the argument…so much for principles, I feel like a cheap whore.
• Are Bill Belichick and the Patriots turning the sports commentary world as divided as the political world? To look at the red state/blue state stand-off of Cameragate you can check out the different views just housed on ESPN Page 2. Gregg Easterbrook (now that is a man, who is confident in his opinions) sees Watergate level conspiracy here and may already be debating whether Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman would play him in the film to come (All the Commissioner’s Men?). Bill Simmons at the other end of the spectrum takes much more of a Shakespearean view (Much Ado About Nothing, for those in the audience who slept through English Lit in high school), though his blind allegiance to the Patriots couldn’t have anything to do with it…no, definitely not,  fair and balanced indeed.
• Why didn’t we see the Tom Brady fantasy explosion coming? He was one of the only 4 quarterbacks that should be drafted in the first four rounds based on stats throwing to 17^th rate wide receivers and this year is given Randy Moss (I still cant believe people doubted his resurrection coming into the season, how his attitude got lumped in with the likes of TO, I still don’t know), Wes Welker and, at some point, a healthy Donte Stallworth. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones currently getting 25 – 30 fantasy points from Mr. Baby-Daddy each week, not to rub it in.
• Speaking of fantasy (2 and 1 on the season and in 5^th place for the record), I have been struggling with an internal debate over the last few days so I will open up to my readers (both of you) to help decide (now that the whole chicken and egg thing has been resolved):
  • Which is a bigger annoyance to fantasy owners: 1 – Putting a player on the bench who has doesn’t much but ends up having a big day (i.e. – my own Vincent Jackson this week, bastard) or 2 – Having a player on your team make a nice long play but get knocked out at the 2 yard line so that some undeserving running back (on another fantasy team, of course) gets the touchdown and the 6 points (to all Marques Colston and Drew Brees owners, thanks for those two walk-in touchdowns for Reggie Bush on Monday night)? I will open the floor to debate. Please feel free to add a comment here and we can re-visit the consensus in a week.
  • For the record, I polled two people and got one vote for each side. I will remain Swiss on this one as I can make a solid argument each way and get really annoyed by both.