What has happened?
As you all know, I am a huge fan of the NFL. Football is easily the greatest spectator sport. Whether you are watching it on television, or live at the stadium. It is an amazing experience.
As a dedicated fan of a couple teams. Part of what makes football so special is the parity created by the Salary Cap, and NFL draft. Even if your team finishes last in a Season. It might only take a couple of Seasons to be back in the Playoffs if you have a smart General Manager. Some teams have suffered due to poor management, or just a poor situation that prevents them from improving. Fortunately for me my two favourite teams have always been relevant.
Generally each Season there are about four teams that lack the necessary talent to compete. This happens for a number of reasons. Some teams are in a rebuilding phase with a number of rookie Players at key positions. Some teams suffer due to injuries to key players. Some teams have issues adjusting to a new coaches scheme. Whatever it might be the reason is obvious and understood by both the fans, and the rest of the league.
This Season there are much more than the usual three or four teams that can’t cut it. In no particular order they are the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, and Chicago Bears. That’s right 10 teams in the NFL are basically irrelevant. Keep in mind that there are only 32 teams in the entire league. So what has happened this Season?
A few of the 10 teams were expected to be bad. The Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, and Washington Redskins began the Season with very little expectations for success. The Arizona Cardinals started the Season with a new Head Coach, and Rookie Quarterback so they are doing about as well as can be expected. I think everyone expected Daniel Jones to take over from Eli Manning at some point, so the New York Giants are rebuilding as well. That makes 5 teams everyone can accept are uncompetitive. What about the other 5? The Cleveland Browns were supposed to finally compete. The addition of Odell Beckham Jr., to an already strong receiving corps. Nick Chubb at Running Back, and of course cocky Baker Mayfield at Quarterback. People were picking the to win their division. Not anymore! I honestly feel bad for the Browns fans. This was finally going to be their time to shine. The New York Jets looked like they might actually challenge the Patriots with the off season addition of Le’Veon Bell, and CJ Mosley. Well that’s not happening. The Denver Broncos thought they could resurrect Joe Flacco’s career. To be honest as a Broncos fan I didn’t think it was possible. Turns out I was right. The Atlanta Falcons look like a solid team on paper. Too bad for them this game isn’t played on paper, because on the field they have been horrible. The Chicago Bears were 12-4 last season, and won their division. To be fair I felt their record was a bit deceiving last season. They won a few games through incredibly strong Defensive play. The NFL has done all it can to limit Defenses. You can’t expect a team to continue to get by on great Defense alone. The Chicago Offense is garbage. Watch any of their games and I am sure you’ll agree. In today’s NFL that isn’t a recipe for success. Defensive coaches should take notice.
What can be done?
First of all bet against any of the 10 teams I mentioned above, unless they are playing against each other. Strike while the iron is hot. Another side effect of such lopsided divisions is the reduced number of games worth watching. I have never skipped watching this many NFL games before. Maybe if we all ignore the truly horrendous mismatches the NFL will take notice. Nobody wants to say it but for at least a decade the NY Jets, Miami Dolphins, and Buffalo Bills have been tanking it. Why, because they don’t want to invest in players while Belichick and Brady are in their division. It’s not coincidental that both the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets are developing their Quarterbacks of the future now. Most people would predict that Brady is maybe two years from retirement. In fact one more Superbowl could be enough for him to call it quits. When he leaves the division is there for the taking. They are finally beginning to build a team that would stand a chance. The Collective Bargaining Agreement is coming to an end. Hopefully the league will address some of the current issues, and make changes that will prevent non competitive seasons like this in the future.