NFL Week 10 Running Thread

Of course, we would rip a 9-7 playoff just the same as, say, the 2005 NL West champion Padres (82-80) or even the 2006 NL Central champion Cardinals (83-78), both of whom heard they didn't deserve to make the playoffs once they got in.

 

In fact, extend that to your Gradkowski example. Will he be the starter next season? Not if Chris Simms comes back. So that stiff, like those of whatever Golden Age you subscribe to, will have a short run as a starter.

So explain to me again how this is an example of the demise of the NFL?

 

Simms isn't coming back to the Bucs next year. Gradkowski will get at least one more year to prove he's not ready for the NFL.

The athletes are better and faster than ever, yet the caliber of play is worse than ever. Today's elite teams would shoot themselves in the feet multiple times against the champs of yesteryear. The Panthers, supposed Super Bowl contenders, could not put one foot in front of the other for the better part of 30 minutes the other night. This is not an anomaly. The game sucks.

 

I wouldn't rip a team makjing the NFL playoffs whose record would extrapolate to a 91-win team in baseball...

 

gradkowski is this year's kyle orten. 'member him? ??? ??? ???

the guess here is that the gradkowski fella is doing his darndest to get another one-year contract for simms in tampa and a last chance to audition for a long-term deal, imo.

 

Steve Young is an unfair example if you are talking about teams having superior depth then compared to now. It was more of an aberration that one NFL team ended up with two of the best quarterbacks in the league at the same time.

Remember, Young had struggled as a starter more than once on the pro level before going to the 49ers, first with the LA Express of the USFL and then with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11 touchdowns and 21 interceptions in 19 games over a two-year period).

Young was impressive enough to be a starter over a four-year period of spot duty in San Francisco, but he was stuck behind one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Joe Montana. It's not like Young had proven himself as a quality NFL starter before having to sit behind Montana and it's not like every NFL team had a Steve Young on its bench.

 

So which is the better deal, that or the one the Chargers made in 2004 -- basically Eli Manning for Philip Rivers, Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding? Seems like the Chargers don't miss when it comes to draft trades.

 

Wow, I didn't realize that's who they got with those draft picks. Two excellent trades.

Trading those picks to get Manning is looking like a worse and worse move by the Giants. Of the three top quarterbacks in that draft, he may be the worst. Rivers is outplaying both of them this season and the only real edge Manning has on Roethlisberger when you look at their careers so far is staying healthy.

 

That is called karma. Suck it, Eli and Archie.

 

What he said!