Thoughts on the upcoming NFL season

Sep 10, 2009 15:20

NFL kicks off tonight, and as a result I've been thinking on and off about the various teams and happenings in the league. Such as:



--The rape case against Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger is getting more and more interesting. In the latest, apparently the accuser has stated through her attorney that she will drop the charges if Big Ben:

1) Admits it was rape
2) Apologizes
3) Donates $100,000 to a home for battered and abused women.

As someone who went through the legal process, I honestly can say that this has two totally polar opposite meanings.

The first is that the accuser is showing that this is not some plan to "extort" money from Ben, as his attorneys have claimed. The other possibility is that this is a shrewd move to shift public opinion more to her, as if Ben admitted it was rape, he could still be charged with the crime by the local DA, thus making it an offer that Ben would have to refuse.

Frankly, this smacks to me a lot of the Kobe Bryant ordeal, and other cases where a male star athlete/celebrity just can't seem to fathom that a woman wouldn't want to sleep with him. but, I was not there, so who knows?

With the case apparently showing no signs of going away, you have to wonder how much this may be a distraction from Big Ben. Tonight's game should be a good indication.

--A number of national sportswriters and commentators seem to have a very bad reaction to the Browns, and frankly, it's really weird to see such outright hate. I'm thinking that these people are made because they made the trendy pick of the Browns last year to make a deep run, and those felt like they were "shown up" because the Browns tanked.

Some just seem to distrust Mangini, no doubt because he doesn't play nice with the media and tries to keep everything ultra super hush-hush within the organization. Others think that the long QB derby was a horrible idea and both Quinn and Anderson will play horrendous as a result. Still others think that the QB derby was "lukewarm" anyways, as neither guy played like Aaron Rogers. (Again, I point out that if one of them did play like Aaron Rogers, there wouldn't have been a derby in the first place.)

Vic Carucci, a couple of weeks back, mentioned that the Browns were one of 5 teams where fans should already be panicking. Why? Because both Quinn and Anderson in the preaseaon "have been largely inconsistent and ineffective," and also because "no playmakers have emerged during the summer."

To his first point, while Quinn wasn't spectacular, he steadily improved, and recall that he led to Browns to three scoring drives against the Titans, and two of those were against the Titans starters. Both were only field goals (had they been touchdowns it would have been "spectacular," you see), but the ability of Quinn to move the chains, take care of the football, and (most importantly to me) make smart plays at least makes him "effective."

To his second point, apparently he was in the bathroom or making a sandwich or talking about Tom Brady to his family or something whenever James Davis was on the field. Additionally, I think it's safe to say that Shaun Rogers is certainly a playmaker.

But even if we take his points at face value, the Browns have far less reasons to panic than the following teams, which inexplicably didn't even make his list:

The Raiders: A fistfight between coaches, two 1st-round picks that have yet to produce, and Al Davis as the leader of the most dysfunctional organization in NFL today.

49ers: A team that had an even more tepid QB derby than the Browns, and their 1st round pick, Crabtree, remains unsigned and shows no interest in changing that stance (more on this later).

Lions: While nothing has blown up in Lions organization yet, fresh off from a 0-16 season with a rookie QB (who will eventually start), the pressure has got to be pretty hefty. Maybe the fans don't have to "panic," but I doubt that the Lions will have the miracle turnaround that Falcons and Ravens had last year.

--Micheal Crabtree continues to hold out. He is now the last unsigned draft pick and it's becoming more and more questionable that he will even start anytime this month for the 49ers. He has said that he is willing to sit out the whole year if he does not get the contract that he feels that he deserves, as well.

For those unaware, the issue here is mainly that Crabtree was projected to be taken in the top 5, but was passed on, and was not taken until pick 10 or something. Crabtree, as a result, is holding out for money that he would have gotten as a top 5 pick, rather than the money being offered to him as a #10 pick.

A few days ago, the NFL Network had a short chat with Deion Sanders, who basically tried to make it sound like Sanders was not the one at fault. It was a very surreal experience, as all of the points that Sanders made were so lame that even I could have shot each one down within seconds of them taking off. For example....

Argument: The slotting system is not real, because some players get paid more than the slot they are taken in.

Counter: Position plays an important role, as well. QBs historically make more money than any other position, and I believe that left tackle is the next highest paid, as they protect the QBs blind side.

Argument: The other player's agents screwed up because they didn't get their clients more money, which has unfairly altered the pay scale.

Counter: Even assuming that's true (which I doubt that it is, as no other player felt the need to hold out for this long), Crabtree is being offered the right amount of money for being a number 10 pick. Unless he has a time machine or access to an alternate dimension, he's stuck with being a number 10 pick.

Argument: By holding out, he can force the 49ers to trade with another team that will pay him that money.

Counter: (And this is the only time that Eisen actually spoke up) The deadline for the trade has long passed. Either Crabtree is a 49ner or he's not playing this year.

Argument: There's only one shot at a first contract, and he may not ever see a second one, so best to get it right the first time.

Counter: There's only one shot at a first contract, and he may not ever see a second one, so the 49ners had best to get it right the first time; which is to say, not throw money out the door on a bust.

Argument: He will be willing sit out the year and re-enter the draft next year in order to get the deal he feels he deserves.

Counter: Just how stupid and/or egotistical is that line of thought? First of all, there are rumors of a rookie pay scale, a la the NBA, that will be put in place if a new CBA is reached. Second, even if that doesn't happen, does Crabtree honestly think that by not playing football for a year and then re-entering the draft up against a fresh batch of college receivers, that he is suddenly going to get drafted higher than 10? If anything, he'll probably slip to the 3rd or 4th round, and then what is he going to do when his offer sheet is only a fifth of what it is today? Hold out again and demand a contract with top 5 money?

Conclusion: The only thing that Crabtree is proving right now is that the Browns were wise in not even placing him in consideration to pick.

--I've mentioned before the criticism that Mangini has received because of how he has handled the QB derby, in terms of the team not knowing who the leader is, or Mangini losing the trust of his players.

Now, there are arguments that can be used to defend these actions, such as the fact that the team needs to rally behind whoever is under center, as injuries to QBs is a regular occurrence in the NFL. Remember, the Browns started 4 different QBs last year after both Quinn and Anderson went down for the year.

But even putting those aside, it says something about the national sports media, in general, that nobody has been taking Brad Childress to task for *his* handling of the QB position. Last year, he yanked them in and out after stating that one of them "was the guy." During the offseason, he told the team to their face that he was not trying to convince Favre to come out of retirement while he was, at the very time, trying to convince Favre to come out of retirement. Favre decided not to, and then after the first preseason game, Chlidress called and practically begged Favre to come out. Now, Favre is on board, and he says that he might not even start all of the games. I sure hope, then, that the Vikings have no "must-win" games later in the year, because it's brutally clear that Childress has no faith in his other QBs.

Now, seriously, why isn't isn't the sports world condemning Childress for this constant game of skulduggery and backstabbing? Well, the reason, obviously, is because it's Brett Favre.

The Vikings are now entering the season as contenders for the SuperBowl. I'm going to say that, for me, they enter as contenders for the Super Bomb. This team is loaded with talent on the defensive side of the ball, and Peterson is obviously going to carry the team forward whoever is under center. And yet, just from the way that Childress has handed the QB situation, it just looks like all it will take is one bad break for the whole thing to collapse.

With the Browns luck, it won't happen until well after opening day, course, but that's the life of a Cleveland fan.

--Finally (never thought this would end, did you?) I have to look back on the Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage era and wonder how things went downhill so fast. It's becoming increasingly obvious that Savage was hit-and-miss on evaluating talent (best example was the dual move to get Corey Williams and Shaun Rogers; he struck out on Corey but hit the jackpot on Rogers). But the nadir of his management was, without question, the staph infections that kept cropping up. It was an embarrassment and worse yet, a danger to the players and their health. His nasty e-mail to a fan after the Bills game certainly didn't help matters, and it says a lot about how Randy Lerher felt when he fired Phil via a text message right after the blowout loss to the Steelers on the last game.

Contrast that to Romeo, who Randy waited until he could talk to him face-to-face to fire, but even then there was talk about Romeo staying on in some capacity, as everyone on the team and in the organization loved him. The downside was that, well, he apparently couldn't coach very well, at least in terms of getting the most out of his players. The Browns all too often played sloppy games, with penalties, lackluster performances, and, most evident by the lack of touchdowns over the last six games, "when the wheels fell off, they stayed off."

But these days I'm starting to think that there really was a schism, however slight, between Phil and Romeo in how to run the team. If Quinn turns out to be a legit starter, then I buy more into the theory that Phil backed Quinn as the starter in 08, while Romeo backed Anderson. I always got the feeling that Romeo didn't like Quinn holding out during training camp, and as a result never warmed to him. Then, when Anderson had a breakout year in 07, Romeo gave Anderson a lot of leeway going into the next year. It certainly explains why Anderson got a much longer leash in games than Brady did.

Additionally, players like Alex Hall, Jerome Harrison, and Kamerion Wimbley seem like they could be breakout players, but the old coaching staff never seemed to know how to utilize them. While Harrison hasn't had a chance to show anything due to injury, and Wimbley is basically on his last chance to show he's a starter, so far, in the preaseason, they've been more active and intense than they have in previous seasons.

If it turns out that these players, as well as Quinn and Edwards, can show to be starters of Joe Thomas' quality, then maybe Savage was a pretty good judge of talent, after all (even if he was a lousy manager), and the team's failings really lay with Romeo and the old coaching staff.

Still, I suspect that I would get along with Romeo better.

browns

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