2014 Season Moot?

[AzorianPats]

I thought the Richardson trade was a terrible deal for INDY.

Hes a bust. Many team are discovering that Bama players come with high miles out of college.

Yes the Richardson deal was a bad one. No question, but they signed Nicks, who along with Wayne and Hilton are gonna be a formidable offense. I liked the pickup of Arthur Jones on the DL as well. And the most important factor of all is Andrew Luck gonna feel that much more comfortable going into his third year in the league.

 

[Rob0729]

Yes the Richardson deal was a bad one. No question, but they signed Nicks, who along with Wayne and Hilton are gonna be a formidable offense. I liked the pickup of Arthur Jones on the DL as well. And the most important factor of all is Andrew Luck gonna feel that much more comfortable going into his third year in the league.

Both Nicks and Wayne are question marks.

If Nicks can return to his 2011 form, he is a great pick up. If he is a the Hakim Nicks of the last two seasons, he is not an upgrade at all. It was a nice low risk move, but there could be no reward there.

And can Wayne return from injury? The guy is going to be 36 by mid season. Even if he was 100% healthy, he is a strong candidate to hit the age wall.

 

[AzorianPats]

Mike Reiss is hardly a homer. He is certainly not a bag man for the team.

In my opinion he is the epitome of what an objective beat writer should be like.

http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/12dfh_3.mp3

Reiss talks about his objectivity to Felger at a little before the 18 minute mark. I believe him. It's clear to me that Reiss keeps his ego in check.

Felger is incapable of doing the same, as are many of the Boston commentators.

Agreed. Reiss is the best reporter for the team. Him and Curran are my faves

 

[Miguel]

Brady and Brees had legitimate excuses.

Brady's problems had to do with inexperience and injuries with his receivers. In the stretch when Gronk was healthy and Dobson was hitting his stride, he was pretty much flawless. If he had Gronk, Edelman and Dobson were healthy all year, and he didn't have to rely so much on rookies early in the season and put up those numbers, I would agree you have a point.

Brees basically had Jimmy Graham and not much else at receiver. Colston is still decent, but not the receiver he once was. Kenny Still showed some potential at times, but disappeared for stretches of games. And the rest of the WRs were mediocre....The Pats, Saints, and Packers all arguably had below average receiving corps last year when you factor in injuries.
Manning's problems throwing down field appeared to be primarily the fact that his balls were ducks. Brady's, Brees', and Rodgers' seemed to have a lot to do with issues with the receivers whether it was talent or getting on the same page or whatever.

Not sure why Brees needs an excuse. He threw the most TDs - 14 and had the highest QB rating (113.43) out of four.

 

[PATSNUTme]

nothing new here than last year, or the year before,or the years he was with the Colts. I guess they figure if they throw enough darts on the board, they'll hit a bulls eye sometime.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

The media portrayal of DEN being a clear cut AFC favorite is not right. The truth is that there are at least 3-4 teams such as NE, IND, and one of KC, BAL, CIN that will be battling it out right there with them.

To take it one step further, it's been 40 yrs since the SB loser returned, hasn't it?

More like 20 with Buffalo's 4 in a row.......

 

[Rob0729]

Not sure why Brees needs an excuse. He threw the most TDs - 14 and had the highest QB rating (113.43) out of four.

That's because Brees used his RBs so much in the receiving game. Sproles and Thomas combined for over 1100 receiving yards and 12 receivng TDs (most receiving yards and TDs by Saints RBs other than the Super Bowl season) while his deep threats were inconsistent (Stills) or non-existent (Meachum).

Brees has the excuse why his intermediate to long passing game wasn't great, but he doesn't need it for his overall performance. He elevated his receiving corp and hid their deficiencies to get open down the field even on intermediate passes by spreading the ball around to a ton of receivers.

Again, you are not being fair here in your comparisons. The Broncos were stacked with talent with two tall outside receivers who can get down field. None of the other elite QBs in the league had that.

Manning overcame his declining arm strength with his quick release and incredible football smarts, but at some point those will not overcome his declining physical skills. Could be this year. It could be two or three years from now.

I still think the problems that Brady, Rodgers, and Brees had passing in the intermediate to long range were as much to do with the players they had around them than their skills. Time will tell if I am right.

 

[jmt57]

I wish to correct my opening statement. Here's what Clady actually said to the Denver Post, "But barring injuries we should have an awesome team, and we should be able to make it back to the Super Bowl."

I think that's fine. He should think that way.

On air the Denver reporter Mike Klis and the announcers implied that Clady said there was no AFC opposition as that's what they said specifically and agreed on it between themselves. Usually NFL Radio hosts are better than this. Effusive with praise but ask skeptical questions at the very least.

Mike Klis is a huge Denver homer. The guy was not only a Broncos apologist right after the Super Bowl, (and apparently still is), but went beyond that by attempting to scold the Seahawks for celebrating their victory. By comparison Klis makes Mike Reiss look like Felger or Massarotti in terms of homerism. I would question why any national media would have him on, except that for whatever reason it seems as if every Broncos beat writer is afflicted with the same bias and lack of objectivity. I guess maybe you get run out of town in Colorado if you are a sports writer that doesn't wave the pom poms for the home team.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Can not stand beat writers that are homers.

I don't know. I think I'd appreciate having a few that were complete homers. as long as it's not in the Skip Bayless mode. I'd want someone who draws more attention to them because of the quality of their article over drawing attention to themselves.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Mike Klis is a huge Denver homer. The guy was not only a Broncos apologist right after the Super Bowl, (and apparently still is), but went beyond that by attempting to scold the Seahawks for celebrating their victory. By comparison Klis makes Mike Reiss look like Felger or Massarotti in terms of homerism. I would question why any national media would have him on, except that for whatever reason it seems as if every Broncos beat writer is afflicted with the same bias and lack of objectivity. I guess maybe you get run out of town in Colorado if you are a sports writer that doesn't wave the pom poms for the home team.

What was funny was when he stated that Peyton Manning said that he (Manning) was not embarrassed by the SB. He followed by saying that Denver fans and the entire region WERE embarrassed by the SB.
That is enough for me. I do not need to see Denver embarrassed again next February.

 

[Miguel]

That's because Brees used his RBs so much in the receiving game. Sproles and Thomas combined for over 1100 receiving yards and 12 receivng TDs (most receiving yards and TDs by Saints RBs other than the Super Bowl season) while his deep threats were inconsistent (Stills) or non-existent (Meachum).

Brees has the excuse why his intermediate to long passing game wasn't great, but he doesn't need it for his overall performance. He elevated his receiving corp and hid their deficiencies to get open down the field even on intermediate passes by spreading the ball around to a ton of receivers.

Again, you are not being fair here in your comparisons. The Broncos were stacked with talent with two tall outside receivers who can get down field. None of the other elite QBs in the league had that.

Manning overcame his declining arm strength with his quick release and incredible football smarts, but at some point those will not overcome his declining physical skills. Could be this year. It could be two or three years from now.

I still think the problems that Brady, Rodgers, and Brees had passing in the intermediate to long range were as much to do with the players they had around them than their skills. Time will tell if I am right.

Did you look at the splits?

For passes over 20 yards Brees had the most TDs and the highest QB rating.

Looking at his splits I do not know how you could consider Manning's numbers to be horrible.

 

[Rob0729]

Did you look at the splits?

For passes over 20 yards Brees had the most TDs and the highest QB rating.

Looking at his splits I do not know how you could consider Manning's numbers to be horrible.

The QB ratings are misleading over 20 yards because he threw so few passes that the weight of a TD is so much more because you are more likely to complete a pass for a TD over 20 yards. If you complete a 40 yard pass, it is far more likely to be a TD pass than a five yard pass. So I don't buy that part of the argument at all. His completion percentages are really low above 20 yards.

But if you want to just keep looking at these stats, four out of Manning's nine INTs (44.4%) were passes over 20 yards while only 10 of his 55 TDs (18.2%) came from passes over 20 yards. While Brees only got the ball intercepted twice for passes over 20 yards of his 12 INTs (16.6%) and had 14 of his 39 TDs (35.9%) on passes over 20 yards. So, Brees was clearly the superior intermediate to deep ball passer last year. And he wasn't a particular good one and he didn't have the weapons.

I still maintain that Manning sucked for passing over 20 yards. His TD to INT ratio and percentages show that. Brees didn't. Brady did, but I argue it was his receivers.

I don't know how you can argue that Manning was better than Brees at passes over 20 yards and I don't think Brees was all that good at that range. Personally I don't even know how you can argue that looking at the splits it is even that close. And I still maintain that Brees wasn't particularly good at these passes (although better than I thought originally).

 

[Kontradiction]

If you look at Manning's stats last year, he was horrible on passes over 20 yards and many of the passes going 15-20 were floaters that Decker and Thomas had to go up for. Emanuel Sanders ain't doing that at 5'11".

People just assume that Sanders is going to go to Denver and become a 1,000 plus yard receiver with 8 or 9 TDs. I don't know if he will. I watched him a lot last year because I figured the Pats might go after him in free agency this offseason and I saw a guy that Roethlisberger tried to get involved in the game and was wildly inconsistent. The Steelers let him walk away and re-signed Cotchery when they could have re-signed Sanders for cheap money. That tells you something. The Pats signed LaFell rather than pursuing Sanders again.

He'll be effective in those pick plays the Broncos run but Manning is no longer automatic on longer passes anymore. He'll probably generate a lot of YAC, but one of the more important parts of his game is now null and void since Manning has trouble getting the ball downfield.

 

[Triumph]

Ahh.. but there's a lot less work to do before we are capable of beating the BRONCOS.

And Belichick uses just this kind of a "snub" as bulletin board material to motivate his Players.

Bulletin board provides a motivational tack - AFC East blog - ESPN

If it's good enough for the Player's to get worked up over, how can us fans be any better?

There is?

The WRs are a mystery beyond Edelman. The Pats should be better equipped to slow Manning down on offense but every damn season someone gets injured in the secondary that was counted on to be a key contributor. Adrian Wilson never saw the first snap in a NE game.

You disrespect? Vegas has Baltimore and Pittsburgh at 30 - 1.

 

[supafly]

More like 20 with Buffalo's 4 in a row.......

It's been 40 yrs since a SB loser made it back and won the game, which is what I was thinking of.

You're right, BUF went back and lost is again in the 90s, so it's only been about 20 yrs since a SB loser went back and lost again.

 

[supafly]

The Bills say hi, and then walk off in shame.

I know that often we've referred to the "40 year" stat that pertained to the SB loser, so I imagine I was thinking of the fact that no other team has returned to win it, so that's my bad.

 

[ausbacker]

Yes the Richardson deal was a bad one. No question, but they signed Nicks, who along with Wayne and Hilton are gonna be a formidable offense. I liked the pickup of Arthur Jones on the DL as well. And the most important factor of all is Andrew Luck gonna feel that much more comfortable going into his third year in the league.

I don't see the Colts D as an intimidating road block to any future success the Patriots or Broncos may have in 2014. Sure, they added Arthur Jones and D'Qwell Jackson, but who else do they have? Robert Mathis is the one player teams must account for. Jones will change that but the rest are a collection of run of the mill types in the NFL.

The real strength of the Colts lies in Luck and the proliferation of talent on O. I believe Nicks is more name than a producer. He is an implied threat who has size and a reputation. All things considered, Nicks, Wayne, Hilton, Fleener and Allen is a pretty darn good collection of players for Luck. Still, they look similar to Manning's Colts unless they considerably bulk up their D through the draft. I see them as having potential to be a good team this season and a great team in the future if they engage smart strategy to improve their D.

 

[Miguel]

I don't know how you can argue that Manning was better than Brees at passes over 20 yards and I don't think Brees was all that good at that range.

Never argued that. I was the one who posted that Brees did not need an excuse for his numbers.

 

[Rob0729]

Never argued that. I was the one who posted that Brees did not need an excuse for his numbers.

I'm sorry. I guess your original post made me think you were indicating that Manning was better at passing over 20 yard than Brees was last year.

 

[QFFL]

I don't see the Colts D as an intimidating road block to any future success the Patriots or Broncos may have in 2014. Sure, they added Arthur Jones and D'Qwell Jackson, but who else do they have? Robert Mathis is the one player teams must account for. Jones will change that but the rest are a collection of run of the mill types in the NFL.

The real strength of the Colts lies in Luck and the proliferation of talent on O. I believe Nicks is more name than a producer. He is an implied threat who has size and a reputation. All things considered, Nicks, Wayne, Hilton, Fleener and Allen is a pretty darn good collection of players for Luck. Still, they look similar to Manning's Colts unless they considerably bulk up their D through the draft. I see them as having potential to be a good team this season and a great team in the future if they engage smart strategy to improve their D.

I agree with the analysis. For Colts to be a serious contender in the post season. They have to improve their defense. With Andrew Luck and all his weapons, plus a "first round RB", forget about the RB, their offense can dance with any team in NFL. Without a first round pick in the draft, I don't think they can upgrade their defence much. They surely are a playoff team, but don't expect them to go deep in the playoff.