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Hi CB,Sorry. Meant division.
The Pats lost one starter from offense. How are they inexperienced? Are you taking into account Maroney, Jax, Thomas and Mills, none of who will be starting on opening day.They lost one starter from their D last year. They played last year with an absolutely depleted secondary as well as Seymour and Bruschi missing significant time. Once Seymour and Bruschi settled back in the D was one of the better units in the league. Their exposure on paper looks to be replacing Willie as well as LB depth (That scares me the most). Yet, unless the injury bug whacks them again I see this D being at least as good as the D they had at the end of the year.
No problem. Was thinking that if the original speaker had said that, it would be funny. I agree that it will be a weaker division than in previous years, but because it has been so strong in the past, the weakness is relative.
I guess you haven't watched the Lions all that much.
10 (or so) year Vet lineman, now doing sports radio in Atl. Think he played mostly with ATL, some with Cards and ??, Chiefs maybe. Never heard him speak before that show, he's very well spoken and had very good discourse with Rich.I don't think the AFC East is all that much worse than the AFC South. Texans and/or Titans probably will struggle every bit as much as the Jets/Bills. Then Jax = Mia (if CPep is good to go) and Indy (sans Edge = slower start) = Pats. /shrug. Just don't see a big difference.What do you mean
Thank you.10 (or so) year Vet lineman, now doing sports radio in Atl. Think he played mostly with ATL, some with Cards and ??, Chiefs maybe. Never heard him speak before that show, he's very well spoken and had very good discourse with Rich.I don't think the AFC East is all that much worse than the AFC South. Texans and/or Titans probably will struggle every bit as much as the Jets/Bills. Then Jax = Mia (if CPep is good to go) and Indy (sans Edge = slower start) = Pats. /shrug. Just don't see a big difference.What do you mean
I completely agree. Buffalo and the Jets are sub 0.500 teams and New England with Gramatica instead of Vinatieri may lose a couple close games they used to win. Miami still remains to be seen how good they can be (read: Can Culpepper be at full health or does Joey Heisman lead them to a 5 win season).Probably none of those teams are division winners in any other conference.
I don't think it would be too tough to make the case that outside of Pittsburgh, New England beat every team it was better than and lost to every team it was worse than.NE was clearly better than Mia, NYJ(2x), Buf(2x), NO, Oak, TB, Atl
How are a bunch of rookies inexperienced? Seems like a definitional answer there.Tom Brady and Ben Watson are the only real certainties on that team. Dillon looks broken down, Branch doesn't want to show up, Caldwell has been extremely mediocre, Light is returning from injury, Brown is old enough to be a grandfather, Kaczur, Mankins, et al played well last year, but are still unproven.
Sep 17 and Nov 12 down?
It all begins in the trenches. Mankins and Kazcur now have a year under their belt. Mankins has a chance to be a very good one and Kazcur looks to be a fixture for years. Neal is back. Everything I've read says Light is fine. Koppen is still a question mark but Hochstein is a more than capable replacement who has a ton of experience. Gorin is another bacxkup who has started a Super Bowl game. They also added what looks to be some very nice prospects in the draft in the kids ferom ND and Cal. They also go deeper than that with some other prospects who have been in their system for a few years. That neans they have five guys who have started in a Super Bowl (two who don't even start) and don't have one Olineman older than 28. Not only do I expect this unit to be better than last year but I expect it to be vastly better.At QB, Brady is as good as it gets and he's just entering his prime. He also played a good portion of last year with a legit injury.
The Pats lost two starting Dlineman (Ted and Hamilton) as well as an O lineman (Woody) after their 04 championship. You can also add in Ty Law and Ty Poole because they missed a huge chunk of 05 as well due to injuries. That's five starters (four on defense). They currently have lost two starters going into this year in Willie and Givens.The only starters that played in all three title teams were Bruschi, Willie, Phifer/Johnson (they often flipflopped), Seymour, Light, Brady and Andruzzi (as well as AV...Law was there but was hurt in 05). The Pats have dealt with turnover every single year under BB. That's one of the big reasons they've been able to maintain a healthy salary cap situation.
He was addressing the Division form the perspective of the Dolphins while discussing which QB with a new team would have the most success. If you are the dolphins or the Pats the division would be considered weak. From the Dolphins perspective, the Pats, while still one of the eliete teams in the NFL have lost a step or 2 since 2004. The Bills are clearly in the bottom quarter of the league and IMO the Jets will challenge for the #1 pick in the draft next year.
Don't be so restrictive and don't overreact. I think that Givens was their best WR, and Dillon seems pretty clearly to be on his last legs. That's all I'm talking about. Also, while I realized that they changed over personnel during their championship run, I don't get the sense (my own personal opinion) that the changeover will be as smooth this time around. I'm certainly not putting them into the category of San Francisco or other truly rebuilding teams. I did after all predict they'd win their division.
I'm not overreacting...just trying to keep the facts straight. Now, whether you think this year will be more rocky is fine with me. That's your opinion and I'm sure you can make a case for it. I'm of the opposite opinion that nothing will ever be as rocky as last year where they lost two long term cooridinators, were devastated by injuries that wiped out three whole units (Ol, RB and Db) as well as studs like Harrison, Bruschi, Dillon, Seymour, Koppen and Light for extended periods of time (as well as Brady being banged up), had a horrible offseason as far as free agency goes, had a very tough schedule while they were getting injured and had a monster bullseye because they were the two time champ. It was as bad as it gets and I believe that this year they will benefit from that adversity and you'll see a much tougher (and hungrier) team.
Let's be honest, any offense is going to struggle when you grab Heath Evans to run the ball in the 4th game of the year, because the top 3 backs are out. The 4 of the starting 5 linemen miss signifigant time, with two missing over half of the season, and two rookies playing almost all of the season. Weis was a huge loss, and a contributing factor, but there were many reasons NE struggled on O last year. With Weis' magic they maybe overcomve the injuries. Without it, they almost did. Brady has the worst playoff game of his career, and they still had a chance to beat Denver in Denver. As to the division. Any team that hires #### Jauron to be a head coach has no direction. They reaffirmed this at the draft. Buffalo os drifting, and will wallow with Detroit at the bottom, until they make changes. Maybe they can pull off a Jauron for Millen trade this season?
I don't disagree with this assessment. I think the AFC East, NFC West, and NFC North will all be in a dogfight for worst division in the NFL.New England was lucky to win the division last year. If you swapped New England and Oakland, New England would have finished dead last in the AFC West. Miami is seriously overhyped based on a 5-game winning streak (of which only SD was a victory worth noting). The Jest are trying out my cousin at Quarterback, and the Bills... actually, I think the Bills have a great chance of winning the division this season.
Probable Losses to - 75% = 2.1 lossesDenver
But you either win or lose . . . you can't do both in the same game. If they lose 2, 1, 1, and 0 in the brackets you listed, then they'd have 12 wins.As I see it, they will go 5-1 in the division (losing at Miami), have a home loss to Denver or Indy, and another road loss somewhere. Besides that, they have all their tough games at home and have a much easier road schedule.
