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Ten Things I Think About Football
Was gonna be ten. Actually just five.
1. The Redskins front office is completely dysfunctional. In the offseason, Coach/Team President Joe Gibbs declared Patrick Ramsey the starter, yet benched him after three series in favor of Mark Brunell. Ramsey didn't look particularly good, but this doesn't reflect well on the coach. If you had so little confidence in Ramsey that you'd bench him so quickly, then why offer him the starting job at all? Neither of these quarterbacks are any good. But things being equal, if Gibbs was going to give Ramsey a shot - he should have given him the shot he gave Brunell. The Brunell who pretty much destroyed Washington's season last year with his ineffectiveness.
2. Michigan is way overrated. Again.
3. I will need to see the Colts play against a legit NFL Offense before I decide whether or not their defense is for real. Ditto the Redskins. Ditto the Bears.
4. I have seen the future of the NFL Tight End position, and it's name is Vernon Davis (TE - Maryland). Davis, a junior, will be taken in the first round of the draft. Within five years, he will make the Pro Bowl. Maryland will only win five games this year, and his stats will probably not look earth shattering, but this is the future.
5. Michael Vick is the single most exciting football player I have ever seen. He's not nearly as accurate as he needs to be. But he wins games already, and he will improve. He's not the passer John Elway was, and maybe he never will be. But he does recall the old adage. Your best player should be playing QB, because you want that guy to touch the ball on every play. It's a rare quarterback that's so gifted a runner that NFL Coaches have to bring back QB Power Sweeps that haven't been run since the 1930s. He is not the runner that Barry Sanders is. But Barry Sanders didn't throw rope spirals fifty yards downfield.
Even if Vick never develops as the player he might yet be, watching him play is a joy.
1. The Redskins front office is completely dysfunctional. In the offseason, Coach/Team President Joe Gibbs declared Patrick Ramsey the starter, yet benched him after three series in favor of Mark Brunell. Ramsey didn't look particularly good, but this doesn't reflect well on the coach. If you had so little confidence in Ramsey that you'd bench him so quickly, then why offer him the starting job at all? Neither of these quarterbacks are any good. But things being equal, if Gibbs was going to give Ramsey a shot - he should have given him the shot he gave Brunell. The Brunell who pretty much destroyed Washington's season last year with his ineffectiveness.
2. Michigan is way overrated. Again.
3. I will need to see the Colts play against a legit NFL Offense before I decide whether or not their defense is for real. Ditto the Redskins. Ditto the Bears.
4. I have seen the future of the NFL Tight End position, and it's name is Vernon Davis (TE - Maryland). Davis, a junior, will be taken in the first round of the draft. Within five years, he will make the Pro Bowl. Maryland will only win five games this year, and his stats will probably not look earth shattering, but this is the future.
5. Michael Vick is the single most exciting football player I have ever seen. He's not nearly as accurate as he needs to be. But he wins games already, and he will improve. He's not the passer John Elway was, and maybe he never will be. But he does recall the old adage. Your best player should be playing QB, because you want that guy to touch the ball on every play. It's a rare quarterback that's so gifted a runner that NFL Coaches have to bring back QB Power Sweeps that haven't been run since the 1930s. He is not the runner that Barry Sanders is. But Barry Sanders didn't throw rope spirals fifty yards downfield.
Even if Vick never develops as the player he might yet be, watching him play is a joy.
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I just thought you might like to know that.
*g*
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2. Aren't they *always*? Go Irish! *g*
3. Oh come on! You have to give my poor Colts the thumbs up! They actually had some defense, even if it was against a poor offensive team! Freeney...is the man! Not a Redskins fan, but the hubby has been a Bears fan since birth! The QB position is gonna kill them again this year I have a feeling!
4. Good for Maryland!
5. Michael Vick is something, and I think his brother has the potential to be just as good! Hopefully he's got his life straightened out now!
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Yeah. It's going to be an interesting game Sunday. It's a hard weekend to be a UF grad from Jacksonville -- there's Florida-Tennessee on Saturday, and then Colts-Jags on Sunday. I'm going to be a limp noodle by Sunday night.
I think that Vick will be all over the place until he hits 32, and when he slows down a slight bit he'll get smart and win two Super Bowls and then retire. The Elway comparison is a great one.
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You should have a quality fooball weekend. Michigan, I assume, is probably playing some patsy though I don't quite know. Maryland gets West Virginia - a local rivalry that currently suffers as WVU doesn't look to be any good this year. And then the Redskins will go down to play in Dallas on Monday Night.
As to Vick... in terms of athleticism and physical tools, he's up there with Randall Cunningham and John Elway. He's not as big as Elway, but a much better runner. Which really says a lot since Elway can run.
The difference though, was that Elway was always a great passer - but didn't start winning titles until he had a championship runner and a championship defense. I think you could win a title with Atlanta's defense and running backs already. They just need Vick and the receivers to make that next step, and they'll be a legit Super Bowl threat - even though I'd still put them below the Patriots.
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If I had a genie come to me with three wishes, I would be tempted to use one of those wishes to see Randall Cunningham play in the modern era when coaches actually knew how to properly use a mobile quarterback like him. I mean...
Brunell hasn't been the same player since he hyperextended his knee in the preseason with the Jaguars playing against the Giants. I think this was in 1999 or 1998 or so. It made him just the slightest bit tentative in the pocket and limited his ability to get outside the pocket. The first few years he played in Jacksonville, he really did look like the next coming of Steve Young -- number eight, lefty, scrambles well, throws a good deep ball, etc. I thought he was going to be an all-time QB those first few years.
Vick is going to be watching the SuperBowl from home until he's able to sit in the pocket and complete the quick read throw on a blitz. Until then, teams like Tampa Bay and Philly -- teams that have the personel to throw blitzes from a bazillion different directions -- are going to contain him and get to him. I think the Falcons owe Kevin Mathis a *huge* bonus, because they would've lost that game if Trotter is in the lineup.
Do you think that there's a Jordan effect in football? By that, I mean how you wrote about Jordan and Buffy being similar -- unreplacable in what they do, that type of thing. Football's gotten to be such a scheming game.
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I think most people did. I didn't know about that specific injury, but he's certainly in decline. He looks better than last year, when he threw like a 90-year-old, but he's still looking like toast. Just have to hope, man...
Vick is going to be watching the SuperBowl from home until he's able to sit in the pocket and complete the quick read throw on a blitz.
Absolutely. At this point, Barry Sanders is probably the better comparison then Elway. Vick can give huge and dynamite plays, but he doesn't have the consistency to lead repeated, sustained drives - and Super Bowl Teams require that. Fortunately, he has running backs and a decent O-Line, so at least he won't get killed while he tries to figure that out.
It's hard to say if there's a "Jordan Effect" in football. The big difference is that you've got 11 players on the field and ten guys can pick up slack for one guy in a way they can't in other sports. The Bulls couldn't make the finals without MJ. But last year, the Eagles won two playoff games playing without TO and with some truly awful receivers.
Players who are tone setters and exercise leadership can make huge impacts - but it's much harder for one player to do it solely through sheer physical talent. Maybe the best example was Elway taking those otherwise pedestrian Broncos teams to three Super Bowls in the 80s.
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Not that I mind of course. I'm a Giants fan.
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Snyder is a marketing genius. And what he has done is market his team in such a way as they will be in the public eye, and he drives his decisions toward profit-making rather than on-field success. He makes big, dramatic moves and signs hihg-priced players. But does this with only limited understanding of how it might actually work on the field.
So they have Big $$ players and high picks.. but that doesn't translate into being (A) good players and (B) players that successfully fit a system. The stunningly high personnel turnover doesn't help either. Nor does the inability to find an effective Quarterback.