Every fan of all 32 teams is pumped (this time of year)! Blind enthusiasm reigns. We've seen it ourselves with the Jets in the recent past....terrible roster, no hope, but at least 1/2 of TGG predicting a 12-4 record. If you can't get up for your team a few days before opening kick-off, you've chosen the wrong sport.
Yes, thanks for mentioning all those young guys with interesting stories. But it's not just them. And not just teams that are on the rise, either. It will be interesting to see how the Niners do without Harbaugh, and how the Saints and Broncos hold up as their star Qb's age. Andy Reid in KC, an infusion of talent in Oakland, San Diego trying to hold onto their team. As you said TB is going to be interesting for a change, too. Will Detroit challenge GB? Problaby not, but another interesting story. Yeah, I think around the league there's a great deal going on.
To be sure I have lots of concerns about the way the NFL is being run these days. But it's all relative. Why look at the US Congress for comparison. The EU? Russia? See, it's not so bad.
I really hate them and their cheater-loving fans. It's bad enough that they aer in the same division and have won all those titles. But what makes it even worse is that while we do not have to respect them for doing so given their cheating, in doing what they have they have undermined the integrity of the sport. Thanks to them football is not just about the game, but also about one scandal after another, and asshole behavior from their HC to their Qb to their owner. And of course the many massholes. It's frankly disgusting.
I don't understand how any Jets fan or NFL football fan can say that the game has gotten "stale." We Jets fans have more reason to be optimistic and hopeful than we've had to be since Rex was hired. The difference is this time we have a guy in Bowles that is just as good and probably a better defensive mind, PLUS he's disciplined and will hold the players accountable. This means that in all likelihood, we won't see the team lose many/any games due to stupid penalties or players calling time out, or due to poor game and clock management. We got perhaps the best player in the draft and will get to see him play immediately. We have a new offensive system and a slightly different defensive system that will have some intriguing differences. Those systems are geared to our players talents and abilities and not a system where square pegs are tried to fit into round holes. We have a CS that will probably be able to make in game adjustments and won't be stuck and clueless if their initial game plan doesn't work. We have a CS that in all likelihood will have the team prepared to play each and every week, which means that we won't continue to lose following the BYE week every season, and that we should see more than 2-3 great game plans a season. We have a real chance to see one every week. True Jets fans should be glad the freaking circus has left town with its head ass clown Rex. We have an offense that looks like it will be very effective and balanced and will score points. How many seasons has it been since we've been able to expect that realistically? I could go on and on over things to get excited about that should make our team better, more fun, more exciting to watch, more interesting, etc. As to your statement about QB. Even if Fitz isn't a top 5-10 QB he could play very well and limit the TOs. That should be exciting. There's also no guarantees that Geno won't see the field again. So you still might get to see what the offense can do with Geno at the helm. Finally, we potentially have our future franchise QB in Petty. That alone, should be enough to excite ANY Jets fan and keep them interested in his development. Maybe you're just missing all the drama and the circus atmosphere that Rex created. That shit isn't football. That said, with your comment about getting married, it makes your comment more understandable. I don't know how old you are, but one's perspectives and priorities can change with age. Other things become more important. I used to love most every sport. I loved baseball first, then football, then college basketball, then soccer, and even liked the NBA a little when I was very young. Over the years, my enthusiasm waned as life became more complex and demanding, and as idiots like Steinbrenner turned me off to baseball and even my beloved Yankees. I still root for them to win, but no longer watch games or even look at box scores. I couldn't tell you have the players on their team. I no longer watch college basketball. It's just too nerve-wracking and stressful. I may watch the world cup finale in soccer. Unless a team I like is in the SB, I don't watch it. Another thing that has affected me is that Jets games are almost never on local TV down here in NC and I don't have the NFL network or Sunday Ticket, so I rarely get to see them play. At any rate, congratulations on your upcoming marriage. I hope it will be a heck of a lot better than mine was and will last. I also hope that you'll find something to get excited about regarding the Jets this season.
I've been that way for a while. I think Red Menace hit the nail on the head. As we get older, we realize that there are other, more important, things in life than football. I often think I should be doing something else with my time to try to make the world or at least my community a better and safer place to live, yet here I sit at the keyboard reading and posting. I think part of it too for us Jets fans is all the disappointment and frustration we've had over the years. I don't see how that could help but have a negative effect on our expectations, excitement and love for the game. When your HC is a loud-mouthed blowhard who refuses to grow up or learn from his mistakes, and you know in your heart of hearts that your team really has no realistic shot at winning each and every week, it's hard to keep that enthusiasm and excitement. We Jets fans have had to endure too many years of that kind of BS. Even though things are seemingly different now, I'm sure that excitement just doesn't come back overnight. It will be interesting to see what our excitement and anticipation level for football season will be like if the Jets go on a run of making the playoffs every season for the next 5-10 years and win a SB or two.
yeah i miss that drama.... IK breaking Geno's jaw over $600, Sheldon's high speed armed child endangering police evading chase, the suspensions, Marshall's race comments, contract disputes......such a refreshingly dull non circus offseason this has been.
I wouldn't say the NFL is getting stale, but it is a QB league and for over a decade we're just recycling the same teams in the playoffs, championship games, and Superbowl. Without a top 10 QB you basically stand no chance in this league, and for the 20 teams without a competent QB it's a bit nauseating to see the same guys dominating the league for 15 years while your team may scrape its way into the playoffs every now and again.
I think this is really the problem. It really doesn't matter how much talent you have, or what kind of great schemes your coaches can cook up, if you don't have a good QB, you're team is not going far. Look at how uniformly shitty the Patriots defense has been over the past decade. It doesn't prevent them from being successful. When the Jets have a shitty defense, you are looking at four win seasons.
So expansion, whatever the economic benefits to the NFL was a bad thing overall. It diluted the one thing, competent QB play, that matters. It left half the teams unable to really compete. It created a shadow two division format with a second division that is unable to realistically compete with the first division but that is intermingled with it in an almost dishonest way. More bucks for everybody but only a competition among a dozen or so teams. The rest of us are just window dressing. Patriots Steelers Ravens Colts Broncos Chargers Giants Packers Saints Seahawks A 'wildcard' team every year has a great season but winds up just short in the end due to QB issues. Has often been the Bengals or Eagles recently. Was the Jets for 2 years in '09 and '10. Should be the Cowboys almost every year but Jerry Jones is no Al Davis.
you can blame expansion, sure, but at the same time college programs aren't having the same troubles finding QBs. Why is that? because they are playing the systems these kids are growing up playing. The NFL is rooted in the past. They are purposely trying to find the needle in the haystack: the QB that stays exclusively in the pocket, reads defenses like a MENSA candidate and makes all the tough throws... (oh and he's gotta be the personality type you'd like to see your daughter date too!, the "face of the franchise"). They are purposely trying to find the needle in the haystack and then complaining that its difficult to find that needle- - well, duh. expansion can be the issue, two many teams trying to find that elusive needle... or, you know, these teams could open their minds, get with the modern times and let these kids play the systems they've been playing their whole lives and worry less about their "intangibles". Then you know, the pool of QBs gets bigger and you have more options and flexibility. The league gets better to watch. Look at Ohio St. for shit's sake- they are at the highest level of college football like the NFLs version of a AAA team and they got a freaking wealth of QBs... no problems at all. Its because Urban Meyer isn't looking at a Braxton Miller and saying that he can't play the position because he might get hurt. He's not looking at J.T. Barrett and saying he leaves the pocket too much, has poor footwork and puts him in a system created in the 1980s that the kid's never played his whole life that goes against his strengths. He's not looking at Cardale Jones, and saying, "boy he's got all the physical tools but man, no leadership. remember that tweet about not wanting to care about school, we can't have a guy like that as the face of the franchise- I'll pass" Chip Kelly is the only HC so far willing to change with the times. I wish him success despite my hatred of the Eagles because I want his mindset to spread throughout the league because it will be better for the game as a whole
It's definitely the problem and the league has made it 10 times worse by effectively making it impossible to stop the aerial attack in the NFL. So now, no matter how good your defense is, and how good your running game is, if your QB isn't completing 65% of his passes for 4000+ yards you have a very difficult time competing. The NFL figured passing is a lot more exciting than running, so they've crafted a league where only about 25% of the teams have any chance of realistically competing. Now if they could extend contact on receivers and actually treat the QB like he were a football player it could even the playing field. When we have QBs who don't even look to complete a pass, but to get a PI call, we have a problem.
@ BrowningNagle The reason NFL teams stay with the in-the-pocket offense is because that's the hardest offense to take apart when it is executed well. It has the fewest moving parts and the least number of exchanges that can go wrong. You can't run an Air Raid or even a normal Spread Option in the NFL because the defensive players are too fast as a class to run it successfully against. There are too many exchanges of the ball and the random factor goes way up, something that does not benefit the team with the ball. Even teams that have a great Spread Option QB, like the Panthers and the 49ers, won't run the offense in the NFL because they know it would be too random to be top notch. Also the injury factor for the QB's is too high as the Redskins discovered with RG III when they incorporated a lot of Spread Option. The EP, WCO and AC aren't going away unless the NFL changes the rules to make them less effective and I'm not sure how you'd do that.
One word "concussion" They are destroying the league because of this. If you do not want a concussion don't play football. They are killing the league with over commercialization and taking what made the game great away "violence and collisions" . There are so many damn commercials in a game do you really need an extra TV timeout?
There are different ways to handle the concussion issue, with better equipment and significant penalties handed out to the teams and players who head hunt. It wouldn't be that hard for the NFL to put the ball on the 1 yard line every time a player goes high for the head. For either the offense or the defense that is a game-altering play. Backed up on your own 1 because a blocker went high or seeing the opponent on your 1, which is more likely, when a defender went high. To handle the retaliatory, we're losing anyway, situations you could have 50% of the player's game check fines for the player involved and the loss of a draft pick on the 3rd violation for a team each season and with another draft pick coming of the top each time thereafter. 3rd head hunt of the year and your 7th round pick is toast, 4th and your 6th round pick goes too, etc. The head hunting would stop overnight. Literally overnight.
you may be right but I'm not so sure about that. that was certainly the argument for the regular triple option not being adopted by the NFL but that, I understood, with everything so tight together of course it wouldn't work with nfl personnel on the other side. but Idk about the Air Raid or normal spread. I think it would work in the NFL full time. I mean some teams run close variations of it to success anyway. some really close variations. I think just because nobody yet has really dedicated themselves to running it full time doesn't mean it wouldn't work. although some teams have been very close anyway (and showed it can work) your point about the few moving parts in a traditional pocket passing offense is true but I mean at the same time it makes it more predictable too. Honestly, I think its less about the powers-that-be being convinced that it won't work and more that they are afraid of change.
