The NFL season is winding down already. I hate that the season is so short as I love football more than any other professional sport. Week 13 is in the books and here are some things to mull over:
It's a QB league: Duh. The Cardinals are 4-9, the Eagles 4-9, the Jags and Chiefs 2-11. The theme here? Pretty obvious. The exceptions right now are the Lions, Saints, Raiders and Panthers. All woeful teams this season, but more due to horrific defenses than anything else. The jury is out (for me anyway) on the Titans. Jake Locker has shown flashes of potential. The Cardiac Cards are cardiac not for excitement but for killing their fans with the horrific play at QB. Ken Whisenhunt gets a pass from me as GM Rod Graves should be left holding the bag for this wipe-out. Kolb was a bust, Skelton has been less horrible(?) and rookie QB Ryan Lindley is in way over his head. They should have begged Kurt Warner to come back. I bet you Larry Fitz is still texting Warner as we speak.
Philly's Nick Foles is still a big question mark. He won a game against an abysmal (and I mean PUTRID) Tampa Bay secondary. It kills me to say that for what it's worth. Tampa is probably out of the playoffs now but I'll get to that. Foles got the job done and is auditioning for the rest of the season with Mike Vick on the bench. We'll see what Foles can do against teams not starting a 50 year old in the secondary. I have a feeling the Bengals, Redskins and Giants are going set Foles back years. Vick appears to be done in Philly and probably Andy Reid too so will Foles' development be hindered by this? Going to be tough to assess given the Eagles' remaining schedule.
The Chiefs continue to play around (see guess, throw darts at a picture, flip a coin) at deciding which is the lesser of two evils in Brady Quinn and Matt (product of a great system) Cassell. Both of these guys flat out suck. I'll say it. So will Chiefs fans. I really like GM Scott Pioli and some of the things he's done, but Cassell was an A number one bust. Cassell clearly benefited from the talent the Patriots had in place in the one season he led the team and has clearly shown he cannot lead a team by himself. Even with a player like Jamal Charles in the backfield, Cassell can't seem to keep opposing defenses even remotely honest. Brady Quinn was never, and I mean never, an NFL caliber QB to begin with. Period. End of story. Time for the Chiefs to jettison Cassell and Quinn and move on. The QB crop is not spectacular come draft time this year and Pioli better make something happen or he'll be following these flops out the door.
The Jags had moved up six spots in the NFL draft to grab Blaine Gabbert during a run of QB's in 2011. Gabbert thus far has been anything but a first round pick in his tenure so far with Jacksonville. The Jags went WR and again traded up in 2012 to get Gabbert help with their #1 pick in Justin Blackmon. They also signed away Laurent Robinson from the Cowboys to help Gabbert all to no avail. To be fair Gabbert hasn't had Maurice Jones-Drew at running back much at all this season but Gabbert's numbers are still pungent. I don't foresee much, if any improvement in Gabbert in the future and Jacksonville will pay a heavy price having traded up those six spots to get him.
The Chiefs and Cardinals are in the best position to draft a Matt Barkley, Geno Smith or Landry Jones. Will the Jags throw in the towel on Gabbert and hit the reset button to go get one of these guys? Is Foles going to be the guy in Philly? In my book anybody is better than Gabbert, but my point remains that you HAVE to have a stud QB in the NFL now. It;s more important than it's ever been to have someone that can move you up and down the field and the NFL has been maneuvering the league to be more pretty and fast paced for years. Adapt or die I suppose.
More later in the week with playoff scenarios, what the hell happened to my Buc's and why the Cowboys will not only get to the playoffs but win a game when they do.
Peace and elbow grease!
Opp
