NFL Running Thread Week 4 -- Who is this Kevin Kolb guy?

The Patriots won 11 games with Matt Cassel after Brady got hurt Week 1 in 2008.
The Steelers have won with Dixon/Batch/Leftwich with Roethlisberger has missed time.
The Cardinals and Rams have made Super Bowls by turning to the backup QB (Warner).
The Dolphins nearly made the playoffs with a backup (Henne) after Pennington got hurt.
The Falcons turned Matt Schaub into valuable trade bait filling in for Vick fron 2004-06.

The NFL is littered with examples of where teams have competent quarterbacks who have done the job when the starter either got hurt or didn't produce. Not every team is in the same dire position the Bears are in now.

 

The Bills have Spiller and Jackson. Not enough footballs to go around.

 

I understand trading Lynch. I guess I just wonder how he got so deep into the doghouse when nobody can run behind that crap offensive line.

 

Hmm. That sounds funny. That sounds like MLB.

Reds: In playoffs for the first time since 1995.
Rangers: In playoffs for the first time since 1999.
Braves: Were in last place on Apr. 30.
Giants: Were in fourth place on July 15.

*flicking a cigarette on a gas spill*

 

None of those four teams exactly came from nowhere. Braves were a sexy pick before the season, the Rangers to a lesser extent but still popular, Giants came close to making the postseason last year, and the Reds ... OK, they did come from nowhere.

MLB is very predictable. Save for the Reds, it's pretty much what we thought might happen in March.

 

FUCK YOU OOP THE STEELERS FUCKING SUCK!!!

Oh. Whoops. Sorry.

Even if I grant you the Braves (and this is the first time in four years they've made the playoffs), the Giants still spent most of the season chasing the Padres (another thoroughly unexpected story) and the Rangers are in a division dominated by a team that gets hotter as the season goes on (the horribly managed Angels ).

Sorry, but there are plenty of surprises in the MLB field, and if more than half of this year's NFL playoff field was comprised of teams that didn't make it last year, it'd be touted as a shining example of why the NFL is so competitive and why it's the best sporting league in America.

BTW, only six of last year's 12 NFL playoff teams failed to make the playoffs in 2008. It's 5 of 8 this year in MLB.

 

Told you he couldn't do it. Still waiting.

 

Just saying: Don Banks thinks the same thing as spnited, and I don't think anyone thinks NFL writer Don Banks hates football.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/don_banks/10/05/no.elite.class/index.html

 

Except he isn't really saying it is a bad thing, nor is he saying it is a long-term issue. He also isn't trying to tie it to the salary cap in some ridiculous attempt to defend baseball.

But other than that, it's kinda similar.

 

Well said - coaches now instead of building a team over a few years have to take a team with perhaps 10 - 15 new players and get them into their system in 8 weeks. The coaches that understand that seem to do the best .

The Pats have done well because they have a system and can drop new players in like they are a car part.

 

Please, Bear fans are grateful they didn't dust off Bob Avellini. You know he's still somewhere on Virginia's list.

 

Wait, I'm sorry, who is Todd Collins again?