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

[1960Pats]

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)

Where did Smith play?

 

[Nikolai]

Where did Smith play?

Right??? Methinks this is partly projection on his part.

 

[50-yard-line]

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?

Jesus, what a great post. You got it all in there, concisely and precisely.

 

[Sect140]

Do I think Alex Smith did thorough research of the worst divisions in NFL history? No I do not. Do I think an ESPN producer instructed him to say this in their production meeting? Yes I do.

Was he crying when he said this?

 

[Steve102]

Ask this POS if he watched the Bears/Vikings MNF showcase of excellent football. Or our beloved Patriots/Giants game? Carolina/Tennessee? That's just this week.

Once again, Tom Brady is right. But the league sends out this mouthpiece to defend the shield. Here, Alex, read this.

 

[archstanton543]

Right??? Methinks this is partly projection on his part.

The sourest of sour grapes.

 

[Steve102]

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?

#defendtheshield

 

[1960Pats]

No, it wasn't.

Of course not, and I just read 5 posts in this thread that show it as plain as day.

 

[1960Pats]

Right??? Methinks this is partly projection on his part.

I had forgotten how poor the NFCW has been. Alex might have messed up with his projection. Now some fans may learn the facts.

The same type of thing happened when Shula talked of asterisks in 2007. That jogged memories about his undefeated team cheating and being fined a record amount, which is what he was calling for if the Pats went 19-0.

 

[Nikolai]

Yes, it was.

What do you base this on?

 

[Nikolai]

For much of the Patriots' dynasty years, the AFC East was one of the worst divisions in football. It is hard to deny that

It's rather easy to deny that. See my first post in this thread.

 

[Nikolai]

I had forgotten how poor the NFCW has been. Alex might have messed up with his projection. Now some fans may learn the facts.

The same type of thing happened when Shula talked of asterisks in 2007. That jogged memories about his undefeated team cheating and being fined a record amount, which is what he was calling for if the Pats went 19-0.

The whole "AfC eASt wUZ BAd" hot take is some BSPN garbage which got repeated often enough that most people accepted it as fact. It's odd for Pats fans to adopt this approach, given how hard we railed against similar dynamics when it came to Defamegate especially.

 

[sb1]

AFC East one-and-dones by the division champ in the Brady era

2008 (Dolphins lost to Ravens)
2009 (Pats lost to Ravens)
2010* (Pats lost to Jets - another AFC East team)
2019 (Pats lost to Titans)

Just 4 one and dones out of 19 years for the AFC East. I wonder how this compares to other divisions over this timeframe. I would have thought if the AFC East was that terrible and the champion was only a product of the division there would be a lot more one and dones.

 

[Hyped]

Greatly appreciated Hyped, you just made my argument for me. Other than pre injury Pennington, and a Bledsoe who was past his prime, that a weak group of QB’s. Culpepper was a shadow of himself in Miami, and Allen didn’t turn into the player he is now until after Brady left.

I’m not knocking the Patriots, they got it done, and you don’t make your schedule, but that was not a strong AFCE.

But not a cake walk either and not the WORST division.

 

[Ivan]

What do you base this on?

Watching the Patriots beat up the division for 20 years.

 

[Ivan]

But not a cake walk either and not the WORST division.

I thought it was a cakewalk, but then again I had them penned in for 12-14 win every season, and a deep run in the playoffs, so I was never worried about them winning the division.

Whether it was the worst would take more research than I would ever be willing to do, because I really don’t care about it. But I do think that the effect that dominating your division like that leads to your competition repeatedly changing GM’s and coaches, and all that change leads to sucking, so I think the Patriots were a big reason their competitors sucked.

 

[Hyped]

I thought it was a cakewalk, but then again I had them penned in for 12-14 win every season, and a deep run in the playoffs, so I was never worried about them winning the division.

Whether it was the worst would take more research than I would ever be willing to do, because I really don’t care about it. But I do think that the effect that dominating your division like that leads to your competition repeatedly changing GM’s and coaches, and all that change leads to sucking, so I think the Patriots were a big reason their competitors sucked.

No need to even do the research...just scroll on pages 1-3 of this thread and pause at any graphic posted! This has been debated ad nauseam and repeatedly proven wrong.