It's not a matter of their being punished, but rather a matter of not being rewarded. It creates an unlevel playing field, the very thing that supposedly the NFL was trying to achieve with the way the draft is handled and the use of the salary cap. The Bucs have a HUGE advantage over KF, SF, GB and all of the other top teams with their cakewalk schedule. With their having all their starters back, plus adding a lot of new talent, there's no reason to believe that even with the toughest schedule in the NFL, that they wouldn't still be a prime contender for the Lombardi Trophy. With this schedule, they can rest their starters after halftime in most games, keeping them (starters) healthy and fresh. The way the schedule is devised now is ridiculous. It doesn't even begin to be fair or create a level playing field. It makes some teams get an unfair competitive advantage and other teams have the deck stacked against them, and the idea that it all evens out in the long run is BS imo. Some teams have windows in which to win. If they're getting screwed by a really tough schedule in a year or two where they otherwise would have a great chance to win, it lessens their chances of winning.
No, they don't, not when their SOS is in the middle of the pack and the Bucs have the 4th easiest schedule. Why should the Bears have the 3rd toughest schedule and the Niners have the 19th toughest? Just because of some stupid, arbitrary rotations of divisions playing each other? IMO that decision is one of the stupidest and worst I've ever seen/heard of. The way it was set up before was fair. The best teams should have to beat the other best teams, not beat up on weak teams. How's a weak team supposed to get better by continually being beat down by the best teams? It makes zero sense to me, and imo is an epic fail in reasoning and logic. What do you mean you were looking at the answer, not the calculation? Are you referring to the "win rate"? If so, that's nonsense imo. Buffalo was a playoff team, the Jets won 2 games. For the Bills to have an easier schedule is criminal and insane imo. I don't care how you or anyone tries to spin it, it's wrong, and the owners are a bunch of fools for approving such a system.
the draft and salary cap are tools to help bad teams improve while making sure good teams can't stay on top forever. it creates parity. the problem is teams need to use those tools effectively and when you have historically shit run franchises like the jets, lions, browns, etc those tools go to waste. plus the season is just about getting into the playoffs, if you get in only due to an easy schedule you are likely 1 and done. it's just to sort out 14 teams to go to the playoffs
The low W/L record expectations for the 2021 Jets are interesting to me. Just look back at 2020: That team was horrendous, we all agree. The Jets won 2 games against the Rams and the Browns but they were in a few close games. -The Broncos game on TNF could have gone either way. Definitely a Jets win if Sam did not injure his shoulder. -The Jets had a 10-0 lead on the Bills and then collapsed. -Should have beat the Patriots on Monday Night Football. Flacco handed them the win, maybe on purpose. -The Raiders game the Jets obviously should have won, Williams lost his job for the debacle. -The Week 17 Patriots game was close until Sam made some bad decisions. We can't just assume the Jets would have won all of those games, but it was close and that would have gotten them to (7-9). Certainly you can say the Broncos, Pats, and Raiders games, that gets them to (5-11). So all of the low predictions of (3-14) or (4-13) just sound really inaccurate to me. It assumes Saleh is also a terrible coach and Wilson must be as bad as Sam was in 2020. Both highly unlikely. The roster is greatly improved too. Not saying the expectations should be playoffs, but a competitive team that wins 6-9 games feels more realistic to me.
I don't understand. I look at the Bucs first five games and there is a chance they lose every one of those games. Game 1 vs Dallas. Brady always starts out slow & although I'm not a Dallas fan, they are certainly capable in week 1 of beating the crap out of the Bucs. Week 2 they have Matt Ryan & Pitts. Again, not a fan of Ryan or the Falcons, but Ryan is certainly capable of having a great game, plus he now has Pitts. Week 3 they travel out to Los Angeles to face a tough Rams team with a better QB. Week 4 they travel to New England. Another toss-up. Week 5 they come to play Miami. It is never easy when you play Miami. Now they have Waddle who can score 4 TDs all by himself. Ok that's their first 5 games. No cakewalks there. Oh wait, then 4 days later they play a much easier team in Philly, however, to make it tougher, it is on Thursday night in a difficult place to play on the road. That 6 games in. All can be lost. But wait, there's more...Game 7 the Bears come to town with something to prove. Now, I'm not thrilled with Fields, but Chicago still has a very good team that is capable of beating the Bucs with their defense. Maybe Fields runs for a few yards too. Very tricky game and certainly not a given for the Bucs. We go to the second half of the season where they play the Panthers twice (easy wins) Jets (easy win) Giants (easy win). If there is an argument to make, you can say they were given a cakewalk schedule to end the season. 3 games vs the Panthers and Jets, plus right before that they play the Saints at home. Aside from the final 4 games where Brady is usually hitting his stride, there is a decent chance they lose a good chunk of those first 13. Brady is also getting up there in years & so are other players they brought in. The team could be half-dead by December. Throw in an extra game too. Not that easy. I can see them going 9-8 or 8-9.
I see their 1st 5 games different 1) they face dallas with a good offense but dak's 1st game back form injury costing him 12 games last year and they have a crap defense 2) the falcons sucked only winning 4 games last year. pitts isn't going to change that. their defense sucks and no run game 3) the rams should be a tough one. good team who just got a big boost at QB 4) a 7-9 team with either broken cam or a rookie QB. still don't have anything at WR or RB and lost a pro bowl OG on an already shakey line 5) were only 10-6 because fitz bailed out tua. i'm not sold on tua the only game i could see them losing is the rams game
It may be a distraction to you but it should never be a distraction to professionals in the business. You choose what is going to take you away from your mission - anyone involved with an NFL team who allows themselves to be distracted by what's on ESPN needs to find a different line of work. Who the hell cares what is being chattered about in the papers, on the radio, social media and on television? I certainly don't and if I can separate chitchat from reality why shouldn't a player or coach be able to? Why can't you? Darnold facing his previous team is a legitimate interest to many viewers; why should it be ignored? You seem to be very big on imposing your viewpoint on everyone else; now it's on the entire world of American media that you're telling what "should" be. Game one, like every game in the season, should be about which team is going to win; that's what counts, not about what some rookie QB is going to do, if he even gets off the bench, not about the coaching staff until the game is over and their work is critiqued. This is the National Football League, not some Disney movie.
I really want Panthers to suck this year. We have their 2nd round pick, and there is a possibility it will be in the 30s, and we might end up with first round talent out of this. I also don't want Sam to be better than Zach will eventually be, since it would mean Jets screwed up again. If Sam does a fine job, and they still finish in bottom 5-10, I will take it. If Sam completely sucks and we get #33 overall, even better. Sam is gone, and it is in Jets benefit for the Panthers to lose, so I will be rooting against them almost like I will against Seattle. To me a scenario where Sam improves marginally from last year, but is still below or on par Teddy's level seems realistic, hopefully resulting in similarly poor record this year as it was the last.
Actually, we see the games exactly the same. There is still a chance the 5 teams win those games even with how terrible you see them. That's usually when the crappy teams pick off the ones who get better as the season moves along.
Every team who finishes 1st in their division plays 5 1st place teams the following year... I can’t think of anything more fair. Anything else would be random and arbitrary.
"not about what some rookie QB is going to do" ahem...SOME rookie QB?!? This reeks of Wilson hate and an odd fascination with the Carolina Panthers QB. Aside from you, assuming you are still a Jets fan at this point, would utter such nonsense about the highest ever QB we drafted???
"Ahem" yourself. First of all, "we" didn't draft anyone - the New York Jets did. I am not part of the Jets organization and, to the best of my knowledge, you're not either. Now in addition to telling fans what they should be thinking and doing, you want to define who a fan even is - get over yourself. A bunch of other NFL teams also drafted quarterbacks and the NFL Network and ESPN will be talking about all of them. There is nothing sacred about guys getting drafted in the NFL and no reverence is required for any of them. If you think that has something to do with "hate" of anyone, that's on you - continue with your baseless hero worship. I choose to judge football players by the results of what they do on an NFL gridiron, not simply how they got there. Your mileage, apparently varies widely.
All fine with having no hate towards Sam but 100% him getting retribution against us is a bit much, no?
It's exactly the same set formula as it has been for a while, with an extra game thrown in - which is against an opponent who finished in the same place in a different division. Bucs schedule seems soft because they are scheduled to play the NFC East and they finished second in their division, not top - so second place teams in 3 games for them. Bills schedule is 12 of the same opponents the Jets have so only 5 games really impact the calculation. These are the Jets twice and 3 other games against division winners. Those 3 games doesn't make their SoS harder because the Jets were so bad - and playing us twice is a double hit. SoS is just the combined win/loss ratio of all opponents. Really good teams will rarely have a hard SoS rating for the simple reason they don't have to play themselves.
