OT: Alex Smith says Brady played in the most uncompetitive division in NFL history

[sb1]

This was responding to TB12's comments about the league being mediocre today.

Yeah no. If the supposedly "easy" division made the Patriots then they'd be a quick one and done every year and they were a lot better than that. Nuff said. I liked that Rex heard that comment and looked miffed lol

 

[Brotherblues]

Maybe, just maybe, the Pats were really good during those 20 years and made their division look worse than it was.

 

[Vindicate]

I mean.

I don't ever remember the Dolphins or Bills being a big threat. Sometimes the Bills had good defenses.

I don't think it should take away from the ability to _constantly_ beat them and the rest of the league, but outside the Jets, we were generally all very annoyed by losses to the Dolphins/Bills/Jets as they were typically bad teams.

Would love to have someone jog my memory, though.

 

[borg]

YET.................

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Who?

 

[Boomer B]

All the idiot Alex Smith has to do is look at the record outside the division. It was virtually the same. More excuses from the people who have no clue.

 

[yukon cornelius]

It is surprising so many are butthurt over Tom's comments

relatively speaking, the league IS mediocre right now.....so tremendous individual talent, some amazing athletes....but....

the lack of practice time, the lack of contact at practice, the difficulty in coaching the modern athlete, the difficulty in getting buy in to the team, the commitment to one's "brand", expansion, the rules favoring the offense, the crafting of the pro & college game to meet demands of television broadcast and betting services, the big contracts making it harder to pay supporting talent, - all of these factors HAVE made the league pretty mediocre at times......the tackling sucks, the understanding of the game/mental side of things is watered down.....we have all of these tremendous individuals playing some pretty mid level football on a lot of mid-level teams

not sure why this offends so many, other than who is saying it?

 

[venecol]

This lazy take has been disproven time and time again. Brady's record is pretty much the same across all divisions. He had an incredible winning% of .775 with the Pats.

 

[Real fan 02]

This was responding to TB12's comments about the league being mediocre today.

Yeah no. If the supposedly "easy" division made the Patriots then they'd be a quick one and done every year and they were a lot better than that. Nuff said. I liked that Rex heard that comment and looked miffed lol

The jets for some reason always played us the toughest.. at Buffalo was always a tough place to play at. We dropped games in Miami..We just had utter dominant teams for 2 decades. Those other AFCE teams shuffled through QBs. Smith didn't mention that I see..

 

[Nikolai]

Pssssh

I debunked this a long time ago. It's not rocket science. All you really have to do is look at the team records outside the division to get an idea of how they stacked. I did the analysis back at the end of the 2017 season, so the numbers for 2018-9 aren't reflected. Here's the rundown.

Winning Percentage Outside the Division (2001-2017)
AFC East - .545
NFC East - .523
NFC South - .519
AFC North - .505
AFC West - .498
NFC North - .488
AFC South - .480
NFC West - .447

Remove First Place Teams ("account for Pats dominance making AFCE look better")
NFC East - .503 (no Eagles)
NFC South - .503 (no Falcons)
AFC West - .471 (no Broncos)
AFC East - .471 (no Pats)
AFC North - .468 (no Steelers)
NFC North - .458 (no Packers)
AFC South - .442 (no Colts)
NFC West - .425 (no Seahawks)

 

[amfootball]

It is surprising so many are butthurt over Tom's comments

relatively speaking, the league IS mediocre right now.....so tremendous individual talent, some amazing athletes....but....

the lack of practice time, the lack of contact at practice, the difficulty in coaching the modern athlete, the difficulty in getting buy in to the team, the commitment to one's "brand", expansion, the rules favoring the offense, the crafting of the pro & college game to meet demands of television broadcast and betting services, the big contracts making it harder to pay supporting talent, - all of these factors HAVE made the league pretty mediocre at times......the tackling sucks, the understanding of the game/mental side of things is watered down.....we have all of these tremendous individuals playing some pretty mid level football on a lot of mid-level teams

not sure why this offends so many, other than who is saying it?

Many agreed with him - Rex Ryan, Jeff Saturday, Shannon Sharpe, etc. I am not sure how anyone can watch today's game and not see how awful the coaching is and how soft the players are because of the CBA rules and the game rules.

 

[A Defiant Goose]

The thing about the division being weak shtick is that we hardly ever swept the division:

2001 6-2
2002 5-3
2003 5-1
2004 5-1
2005 5-1
2006 4-2
2007 6-0
2008 4-2
2009 4-2
2010 5-1
2011 5-1
2012 6-0
2013 4-2
2014 4-2
2015 4-2
2016 5-1
2017 5-1
2018 5-1
2019 5-1

My problem with this argument is that in any of those 1 or 2 loss seasons, what difference would it make if the dolphins were 2-14 or 14-2 that we split with them in the regular season? Most of the time what people really mean by the AFCE being a weak division is that it would only be fair if the Patriots played in the same division as two other perennial playoff contenders. In other words, to people who use the weak division argument, the only way they would've been impressed is if we went to the other end of the spectrum and played in the hardest division possible. And yet, even if we did have the Bills for example splitting with us every year, how much of a difference does that really make in the grand scheme of things? HFA swings one way here or there? Have they not proven over the 20 year dynasty that they can win on the road (2006 SD, 2018 KC, hell even 2015 with a hobbled offense coming within inches of forcing OT) enough?

People want to say "Oh if they played the Steelers and Ravens every year they wouldn't have 6 Super Bowls" ok, but why are we replacing a bottom-tier team in the AFCN with the Pats instead of either the Ravens or Steelers? And really how much of a difference would that have made in the divisional standings?

 

[203Pat]

Their record outside the division was actually slightly better. EPSN just encourages these guys to generate soundbites.

 

[sb1]

The 2018 AFC East was probably the only time in the BB/Brady era when it was probably as bad as people say it is. The Pats won the division at 11-5 with one of those losses being that ridiculous Miami miracle ending. None of the 3 other teams were above .500 and all 3 of them had a negative point differential > minus 100.

Then there's the 2013 NFC North. The Packers won the division with 8 wins. They had a negative point differential. That was also the Matt Flynn year. The 7-9 Lions were the only team with a positive (+16) point differential in that division. Josh McCown was playing for the 8-8 Bears.

The 2019 NFC East was also bad. Eagles were the only team above .500 winning the division at 9-7. The Cowboys were 8-8. The Bears and Commanders were trash.

To say the AFC East was the most uncompetitive "in nfl history" the whole time while Brady played there seems like a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[sb1]

Or maybe Alex Smith is speaking from personal experience. Dude owned the AFC East for some reason.

Career 11-2, 111 rating and a TD/INT of 24:1 vs the division. That's impressive

 

[Love The Drake]

Or maybe Alex Smith is speaking from personal experience. Dude owned the AFC East for some reason.

Career 11-2, 111 rating and a TD/INT of 24:1 vs the division. That's impressive

He was a very good QB, we would be a playoff team with Alex Smith this season.

 

[yukon cornelius]

Many agreed with him - Rex Ryan, Jeff Saturday, Shannon Sharpe, etc. I am not sure how anyone can watch today's game and not see how awful the coaching is and how soft the players are because of the CBA rules and the game rules.

many have been waiting a long time to get some sort of cosmic payback, however misguided that may be

individual athletes right now are amazing.....quality of play is the weakest i've seen

 

[archstanton543]

Well, it's not like Brady chose to make the Bills, Jets and Phins draft poorly or for two teams to hire Rex Ryan.

 

[libra957]

Brady doesn't have an overall losing record against any team, put the patriots in any division and you still get the same results.

 

[foxboroughfraser]

Alex Smith heard mediocre and needed to defend himself since he knew how mediocre he is