Patriots' division rivals haven't gained much ground

[JetFan79]

Woody Johnson is just an idiot rich nerd who wants to hang with the cool kids.

But he sure knows how to tamper.

Plus he demolished Midget Stadium, so he's cool with me.

 

[The Gr8est]

Well the Pats DID have their 1st round pick stolen.

If the division opponents cannot close the gap themselves then the Omissioner and the rest of the NFL leadership will just have to step in and try and change the balance by whatever industrial justice is necessary.

 

[Kontradiction]

Absolutely! And while I'm sure this will get a lot of laughs around here, it's why I want Geno starting this season. Fitz does us no good.

The only reason why you should ever want Geno starting over Fitzpatrick is to improve your draft positioning to where you may be able to draft the future of the franchise at the quarterback position. Geno is trash.

 

[JetFan79]

The only reason why you should ever want Geno starting over Fitzpatrick is to improve your draft positioning to where you may be able to draft the future of the franchise at the quarterback position. Geno is trash.

I disagree, but still cool with that outcome.

Any outcome w/Geno starting this year is better than any even somewhat realistic outcome w/Fitz starting.

11 years, 0 playoffs... not worth any sort of decent money. Also not worth any time as the starter as it's a dead end. He is a great backup though if needed.

 

[Kontradiction]

I disagree, but still cool with that outcome.

Any outcome w/Geno starting this year is better than any even somewhat realistic outcome w/Fitz starting.

11 years, 0 playoffs... no worth any sort of decent money. Also not worth any time as the starter as it's a dead end. He is a great backup though if needed.

He at least put you in the position to go to the playoffs last season. Give the guy a strong defense and your weapons again this season and he could do the same. He's hands down a better quarterback than Geno. That said, he also reared his ugly head and pretty much single handedly cost you a playoff spot on his own in Week 17. If I were a Jets fan, I would want to play Geno as well, but that would only be to tank the season and get a better draft pick.

 

[JetFan79]

He at least put you in the position to go to the playoffs last season. Give the guy a strong defense and your weapons again this season and he could do the same. He's hands down a better quarterback than Geno. That said, he also reared his ugly head and pretty much single handedly cost you a playoff spot on his own in Week 17. If I were a Jets fan, I would want to play Geno as well, but that would only be to tank the season and get a better draft pick.

Again, I'm cool with the draft pick option. But also think Geno has a good chance to outperform Fitz.

That was the best season Fitz ever had because of the team and scheme around him. Fitz didn't all of a sudden become a good QB. IMO, Geno will do more with the team than Fitz can.

What advanced stats say about Ryan Fitzpatrick's 2015 season

* Fahey calculated that Fitzpatrick racked up 995 Simple YAC yards on 115 attempts. That means 25.5 percent of his yardage came on Simple YAC plays and those plays accounted for just 20.5 percent of his attempts."


* Accuracy percentage? Fitzpatrick came in at 72 percent, which was second-worst, with only Jameis Winston of the Bucs (71.9 percent) below him.

* Fahey calculated that while Fitzpatrick threw 15 interceptions last year, Fitzpatrick had also thrown an interceptable pass on one out of every 18.7 of his throws. And 13 of Fitzpatrick's 30 interceptable passes--the second-highest total in the league--came during the Jets' first four games.

Is there any guarantee Smith will match Fitzpatrick, or even be better than him? Of course not. But Fahey's numbers go a long way toward quantifying why the Jets have drawn a line in the sand with Fitzpatrick.

 

[aluminum seats]

The guy definitely is a "lunch pail" type of guy doing his best with what he has. So at least he's easy to root for.

He's sort of blowing that rep by holding out for absurd money though. But I guess if he ends up signing he'll be settling for less so he'll get the rep back.

 

[jmt57]

If one is going to play the hypothetical 'what if the Patriots were in another division' game, it could be expanded to 'what if the NFL had realigned differently heading into the 2002 season'?

In 2001 each conference had three divisions; in 2004 it became four four-team divisions in each conference.

What if geography played a larger role than rivalries?

- Miami would be in the AFC South rather than keeping four AFL teams together in one division.

- That would have put the Ravens in the AFC East.

- The Colts would have been in the AFC North.

- That would have also been a perfect time to realign the NFC East, and put the Cowboys in the NFC South and Carolina in the NFC East.

- As far as the two western division go, perhaps Seattle would not have moved from the AFC. There could have been an AFC Pacific division consisting of San Diego, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco, with an NFC West division of St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Arizona. Of course that part would have never happened due to the way the networks do things (two teams in the same division/conference in the Bay area, two teams in the same division/conference in Missouri).


Ravens-Patriots in the same division would have replaced the Baltimore-Pittsburgh rivalry, while the AFCN would instead have had Indy-Pitt. Dallas would have had a more logical division rivalry with the Saints. Jacksonville-Miami would have become an I-95 rivalry in the AFC South.

2001 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

2002 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

 

[jmt57]

Here is another article on the AFC East. This one is from the CBS Boston/Sports Hub website, but is written by a die hard Jet fan. One of his three questions is about Jimmy Garoppolo, as he is already convinced that Tom Brady will be suspended for the first four games of the season.

AFC East: Three Burning Questions For Each Team Entering Training Camp

 

[varjao]

Well its a QB league and they certainly didn't improve their QB situation.

Tanehill is garbage.
Tirod Taylor is a borderline starter.
Jest doesn't even have a starter QB right now.

All their hopes are on the confirmation of Brady suspension and the Pats starting 2-2 at best to balance things a little bit. Not even the 1st round pick stolen is a factor.

 

[1960Pats]

it doesn't hurt that at least two of the owners in this division are idiots. Stephen Ross wants to emulate the Daniel Snyder way of building a roster. Woody Johnson is just an idiot rich nerd who wants to hang with the cool kids.

And the third owner re-hired Rex Ryan as the HC

 

[1960Pats]

Tom Brady and Belichick alone make the difference

A match made in heaven.
Two peas in a pod.
Cut from the same cloth.
Tarred with the same brush.
Horses of the same color.
Go together like horse and carriage.
From the same school.
Two halves of a whole.
And my favorite... New England Patriots

 

[1960Pats]

If one is going to play the hypothetical 'what if the Patriots were in another division' game, it could be expanded to 'what if the NFL had realigned differently heading into the 2002 season'?

In 2001 each conference had three divisions; in 2004 it became four four-team divisions in each conference.

What if geography played a larger role than rivalries?

- Miami would be in the AFC South rather than keeping four AFL teams together in one division.

- That would have put the Ravens in the AFC East.

- The Colts would have been in the AFC North.

- That would have also been a perfect time to realign the NFC East, and put the Cowboys in the NFC South and Carolina in the NFC East.

- As far as the two western division go, perhaps Seattle would not have moved from the AFC. There could have been an AFC Pacific division consisting of San Diego, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco, with an NFC West division of St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Arizona. Of course that part would have never happened due to the way the networks do things (two teams in the same division/conference in the Bay area, two teams in the same division/conference in Missouri).


Ravens-Patriots in the same division would have replaced the Baltimore-Pittsburgh rivalry, while the AFCN would instead have had Indy-Pitt. Dallas would have had a more logical division rivalry with the Saints. Jacksonville-Miami would have become an I-95 rivalry in the AFC South.

2001 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

2002 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

It's pretty clear that the NYJFL decided that it was time to take care of PEDton and give him a free ride to the playoffs and possible multiple SB victories. It worked pretty well too.

After they put Indy into an all expansion team division they went from 6 wins to 10 and knocked NE (crushed Indy twice in 01), Miami (beat Indy twice in 01), Baltimore (put up 39 points in a big win over Indy in 01) and Denver out of the playoffs.

The NYJFL got the added benefit of seeing the Jets make the playoffs by beating out 3 other teams for the playoffs on tiebreakers.

Nobody, not even the most loyal of us NE fans, saw Brady and Belichick coming though. That monkey wrench is still jamming up the works for the NYJFL. So much so that they're resorting to more and more scandalous ways to try and deprive our team of it's wins.

It's still not working for them.