Optimist/Pessimist – AFC East Draft Class

Like we do every year, we'll be going division by division taking a look at both sides of the coin for each team's draft haul. Today, we go long on the division we love the most: The AFC East.




New England Patriots

OPTIMIST:

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Bill Belichick hasn’t lost a step. Coming off of a year in which his pass defense was exposed, the evil genius added a corner with the ability to immediately contribute as a third CB and a special teams threat in Devin McCourty. Dude is lightning fast, and could become part of a scary duo with CB Darius Butler across from him. Whether or not that pick proves to be the all things to all people choice New England wants him to be, it’s hard to dispute that the Patriots absolutely found their defensive fixes in Florida defenders Jermaine Cunningham and Brandon Spikes. Cunningham, an athletic DE at Florida, should transition to OLB for the Pats, who desperately need youth at the edges. Meanwhile, Spikes, who fell in the draft due to a slow 40 time, moves to the interior, where any speed woes should be masked by a proven knack for reading plays and sticking tackles in the box. Adding these two to Jerrod Mayo means that in one fell swoop the Pats may have completely reloaded their once fearsome pass rush. Finally, TE Rob Gronkowski out of Arizona is a solid pick, but don’t sleep on TE Aaron Hernandez being the real gem at this position of need. Hernandez is, in many ways, a perfect replacement for the recently departed Ben Watson, who never got his due respect in New England. With a similarly well attuned knack for finding the markers and exposing holes in coverages, Hernandez should find himself on the field for longer passing downs. Oh, and they also got Zac Robinson, one of the most athletic quarterbacks on the board and an underrated passer, in the seventh. People who doubt the cold, factory line mentality of players moving in and out of New England need to check this board and remember why this team’s BAD years involve them making the playoffs.

PESSIMIST:

Of the myriad reasons why I hate this team, their near-paranoia about bringing in any attitude to their offense has to be in the top three. Point at Randy Moss all you want, but remember that they ran him through DHS style interrogations before bringing him in, and as one of the most gifted receivers of all time, he’s something of an exception. After him, the whole system has been built on yeoman grunts who know their place and fulfill their limited roles. This year’s combination should include Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and newly drafted WR Taylor Price, another player with solid gifts who shows very little in the way of dynamic ability. If this seems like an odd criticism to level at a team that has proven themselves so good for so long, remember that they looked at Dez Bryant, who could have given them a number of versatile talents at their second WR spot, eventually filling in for Moss as the top dog, and traded away to fill in another cog in the machine. That decision to stick with what they can predict instead of building around an undeniable talent embodies everything wrong with this team. Yes, they ran the most impressive offense in NFL history with their faceless army mentality, but it’s worth pointing out that they haven’t won the Super Bowl since ditching players like Corey Dillon and Deion Branch, players who brought some attitude to their roles, but who also could extend beyond their neatly defined positions. It’s a shame that, having spent so long in their new rigidity, the Patriots seem almost afraid to allow for a return to any of the edge that made them less precise, but still made them winners.


Miami Dolphins

OPTIMIST:

DT Jared Odrick is the perfect addition to Tony Sparano’s defense, and with Mike Nolan coming to town should find his relentless motor and underrated smart play at the center of a pass defense that couldn’t pressure opposing quarterbacks. For a team whose identity under Bill Parcells has been predicated on the idea of brutality in the trenches, Odrick is a great value pick late in the first round. Still, the world has to revolve around the addition of WR Brandon Marshall, who finally gives the team the legitimate number one receiver they’ve lacked since...um…maybe Wes Welker? Maybe? Marshall, a huge target with great hands and a willingness to extend himself for the catch, is going to work wonders for the questionable accuracy of Chad Henne, and could buy make the Miami run game even more impressive by keeping teams honest in the intermediate pass game. All in all, this draft was a great example of a team maintaining its identity while repairing obvious deficiencies.

PESSIMIST:

It wouldn’t be a Parcells team if it didn’t have the stink of system-think all over it. Ted Ginn Jr. was never going to be the dynamic offensive workhorse Cam Cameron stupidly tried to make him, but the old adage is still true; you can’t coach speed. While teams had always been able to bracket and safety-help Ginn into oblivion due to his small size and limited between-the-hashmarks ability, it was undeniable that there were flashes of Ginn’s physical gifts being able to contribute to a successful NFL team (particularly on special teams). So, after finally picking up Brandon Marshall to be the monstrous top dog through the air, why ship Ginn away for peanuts? Isn’t it worth seeing whether or not, finally freed from the spotlight, Ginn can contribute over the top of defenders in a way that no other WR on the roster, even Marshall, has the speed to contribute? Yes, he was a dumb pick in 2007, and he hasn’t proven himself to be a world-beater, but if he no longer has to be one, why punish him for that? Mistaking failure to meet unreasonable expectations for general failure is the mark of tunnel-vision, and is an unfortunate turn for the team that revolutionized the way we think an NFL offense works two years ago.


Buffalo Bills

OPTIMIST:

First off, don’t sleep on WR Marcus Easley in the 4th, who is a matchup nightmare out of the slot at 6’3” and has underrated downfield speed. But the real story, of course, is C.J. Spiller, the draft’s most electrifying player, and the new standard bearer for talent over system around these parts. Buffalo, in the face of obvious problems along the offensive line, serious questions under center, and a porous run defense, chose instead to add to proven commodities Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson another RB who, though thrilling, will not be on the field for most offensive snaps. Could they afford to take CJ Spiller? They couldn’t afford NOT to take Spiller. In a division in which the competition is engaged in an arms race, let’s applaud the Bills for refusing to surrender as a mid-market also ran. For all of the additions via free agency in the AFC East, there isn’t a single player in the division with Spiller’s potential for destruction. He can play WR, return kicks, and give a scary change of pace at RB. If the Bills can find a way to get him involved in the offense, are you really willing to bet against Spiller single handedly keeping his team competitive against better rosters on paper? As someone who watched Brian Westbrook and Leon Washington turn sub par offenses into playoff teams, I’m saying that Spiller is the kind of player who can do the same. Scared money don’t make money, and Buffalo, the knife in the AFC East gunfight, showed they’re set on cutting fools with this pick.

PESSIMIST:

The thing about Westbrook and Washington, however, is that they were taken in the 3rd and 4th round, respectively. They were fantastic surprises, but they were surprises nonetheless. Spiller, by contrast, is a first round pick; this isn’t a sneaky subversion, it’s a declaration of war. In the middle of a league leading playoff drought, with so little around Spiller to help, doesn’t this team run the risk of entering into the realm of spectacle, an arena the Raiders only recently escaped (Campbell at least shows they’re TRYING to build). Look, I want Spiller to succeed, and I respect the hell out of Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey for taking a risk on Spiller’s obvious potential for revolution, but this is a team that is in need of serious foundational work. As much as I want to see Spiller, and the Bills working around him, prove that an incredible talent can change the way the league works, I almost feel bad that this is the team that has decided to take that chance. Also, I’m all for local heroics, but Levi Brown?


New York Jets

OPTIMIST:

All flights grounded, people. CB Kyle Wilson is considered by most to be the best cover corner in the draft, and thanks to a continuing fascination with physicality over skill at corner (seriously, how many more Justin Miller and DeAngelo Hall clones do we need?) he fell to the Jets with the 29th pick of the draft. So in case you’re not keeping up, that’s three first round corners (two of whom have still proven to be top tier talents) in the Jets defensive backfield, pushing smart, but slow Dwight Lowery to the more manageable dime slot. If opponents thought it was difficult to deal with the Jets defense last year, this year they’ll be lucky if their quarterback doesn’t leave the game with PTSD. Meanwhile, for all the talk of the Jets being a “win now” team, the remainder of their draft showed remarkable foresight, picking up OG Vlad Ducasse to develop along the interior of the o-line, speedy RB Joe McKnight, whose fall was the result of NCAA issues (the dumbest reason for draft falls), and FB John “The Terminator” Conner, who will be groomed under the wind of Tony Richardson. Not always an option to build forward while participating in an arms race, but the Jets certainly came close this year.

PESSIMIST:

Did the Jets need to do Neon Leon like that? Few players in the league have Washington’s ability to contribute effectively at so many different spots on the field, and the Jets decided to let him loose for a 5th rounder that yielded them a FB. If I’m going to get upset when other teams jettison talent for the sake of systems, it seems only fair that I’ll have to take the Jets to task should Joe McKnight prove to be little more than a spot back, something Washington was only called by people who never watched him play (seriously, that 2006 season belonged to him and Pennington). Certainly, every pick the Jets made was a great value selection, but if I see Danny Woodhead lined up in the backfield on even one third down I’m going to revisit the decision to ship away a player who was our C.J. Spiller before there was a C.J. Spiller for the sake of cementing an offensive system and saving a couple of bucks. Whether or not this is a case of moving on for value or a team getting wishboned between the future and the present will make the difference.

LIVE BLOGGING THE SECOND ROUND OF THE 2010 NFL DRAFT

8:24
Moving over to the Twitter account (@titraffic). See you there.

8:14
Is there a QB in this draft that this panel DOESN'T love? McCoy is a dink and dunk passer who is undersized and reaped rewards from great tools around him.

8:09
First real "What?" pick of the draft for the Browns. This is where Mangini's blinders come into play; he needs a WR, but he takes another RB for a team that probably is stocked as they could be at the position. There's a different between personality and schtick.

8:04
The hell is wrong with everyone, letting Houston cruise to Ben Tate this late in the draft? That offense is going to circle the globe in yardage. No holes at the skill spots, and the line is getting better.

7:46
The thing nobody seems to realize is that last year's Pats would have been legit with a more talented defense...AND THEY'RE GOING ALL DEFENSE SO FAR. Cunningham is a little light on his tackles, but he's fast, and he's smart. Ugh, I hate that team.

7:36
THAT, my friends, is how you replace Chester Taylor. Gerhart is going to take a lot of hits off of AP. Still, the man could button a button or two on his flannel shirt.

7:25
I AM LOVING THE 49ERS DRAFT. Seriously, FTW and their "you need a mediocre QB to replace your solid game manager QB".

7:20
And Clausen finally is off the board to the Panthers. Great move, John Fox, getting a project you don't have time to develop when you have a quarterback who has ALREADY SHOWN YOU HE CAN WIN GAMES. Stupid, stupid, stupid. PS, what is the over/under for months prior to Clausen getting decked by Steve Smith?

7:06
Seriously, two well thought out, not too flashy defensive picks in a row for the Raiders? Is Al Davis dead and nobody told us?

7:04
A black preacher just announced that Sergio Kindle is now a Raven. I mean, at what point do the Ravens figure they'll need a guy who can run down the field on offense?

6:59
Because these guys were SO excited for this on ESPN...ON TO THE DEUCE!

6:50
Holmgren has been convinced by Mangini's success with personnel up to this point. Problem is that it only applies to defense. If he gets Revis, he should also answer for Kellen Clemens.


6:47
When did the NFL draft go all gimmicky SNL episode with the cameos? Is Joe Namath backstage? They probably want to get him out here before he vomits or inappropriately grabs an intern.

6:44
Also, the way Mel is talking someone should have Clausen on suicide watch.


6:43
If you take Benn with a second round pick, you're basically drafting a big, fast body, because nothing about his career in Illinois was that impressive. Not that Juice Williams wasn't to blame for that, but still. At least you get a very athletic pass attack in Tampa Bay (Winslow, Clayton, and now Benn).

6:39
I'll say this for the Browns: They are absolutely committed to building this team in Mangini's vision. Two defensive backfield picks. I'm intrigued that they didn't go with Mays though. Considering they took Haden over Wilson, you would think they were ready to go all SPEED KILLS on defense.

6:33
Dexter McCluster makes that Chiefs backfield speedy as all hell, but I don't see why you need him when you've already got Jamaal Charles and you still need a WR. Wouldn't be a Pioli pick if it made sense immediately, though.

6:26
"Matt Cassel never played at USC" is Gruden's excuse?!?!? Please never let this man coach in the NFL again. Chris Simms is STILL ruined because of this bowl haircut loser.

6:25
Why on earth would Scott Pioli, the Stringer Bell of GMs, take Clausen and give up on Cassel after just one year? Dude had NO protection or defensive support. I somehow doubt Pioli is running scared.

6:22
Mel is not a dude who understands the value of investing HEAVILY at positions of need. Listen, Mel, unless Golden Tate can stop the run, the Bucs don't need him right now.

6:11
You know what? I love that Rams pick. Taking a tackle there to complement last year's tackle, and this year's new QB is the way a 1-15 team picks up 5-6 new wins in one year. Love the focused revitalization.

6:06
Kiper is STILL going on about how teams blew it by not taking Clausen. Mel, you're supposed to see a doctor for erections that last this long.

6:02
Roger Goodell showed up for this? Good to know I'm not the only one with nothing better to do.

5:55
Okay, let's paint, exercise, and do better this time.

2010 NFL DRAFT LIVE BLOG

11:00
This sucked. Second round tomorrow. Patrick Robinson is a waste. Goodnight.

10:25
Anybody else feel like Micky D is playing chess to the old school's checkers?

10:05
Dez Bryant went after Thomas, which makes sense. But is any pick more perfectly matched than Bryant to cowboys? Maybe Morgan to TEN?

9:55
McDaniels is that dude. Thomas is Marahall tools plus downfield speed.

9:30
Because what Big Ben needs is MORE protection..,

9:29
And with that, Derrick Morgan became the steal of the draft. Perfect pick where identity meets talent.

9:23
Giants made the mistake of seeing a need, seeing tremendous upside, and projecting that into the hole. Hope for the bed, but...JaMarcus Russell on defense.

9:15
And that, friends, is why a college coach shouldn't get the keys to the kingdom.

8:30
Changing locales, but I think we have our first real reach with McClain to Oakland (still applies) Why?

8:20
How is "physical" versus "cover corner" still a debate? How many DeAngelo Halls do we need to go through before this gets settled? YOU TAKE THE GUY WHO CAN PLAY THE POSITION, not look really fast trying to play the position.

8:17
Anybody else feel a trade down coming? If Mangini still had any juice in the front office, this pick would become something like eight 7th rounders over the next several years.

8:14
Russell Okung is the perfect pickup for the Seahawks. Gives them the O-Line juice they had when they ran the NFC West, buys old man Hassy some time, and maybe, just maybe, gets that passing game back to where it needs to be.

8:11
After watching that footage, I am convinced that Pete Carroll is the Highlander. A really chilled out Highlander.

8:10
I refuse to believe that 239 year old Monte Kiffin said that five minute rant Mort describes without a whole lot of drool.

8:06
Seriously though, Eric Berry is the truth, and anyone who bought the Pioli swerve that he didn't take safeties this high never watched the tape on this kid. The ceiling is Ed Reed. That alone is worth a top five pick, and he's already got coverage tools that make him NFL ready.

8:04
Eric Berry announced his status as a Chief on the phone before the pick is in. Dude, spoiler alert.

7:58
Williams over Okung is an interesting choice, particularly when you consider they have three different backs who all need good run blocking, and this dude is not well thought of on the run.

7:55
Seriously, without Keyshawn this draft panel is missing something. Specifically, a flare burn on my monitor.

7:51
WOW McCoy looks significantly smaller than Suh when you see them back to back. Dude is a speedster, but you have to worry about his size/strength issues.

7:45
Screw it, I'm saying that the Lions make the playoffs next season. They've built too much at too many positions of need, and they have that fun mix of youth and veteran savvy.

7:42
Bradford over Suh is the new JaMarcus over...well pretty much everybody else in that class.

7:38
And with that, the Rams comitt to another five years of futility. Seriously, HIS SHOULDER IS SHOT AND THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE PLAYERS BETTER THAN HIM ON THE BOARD.

7:30
Oh yeah, we're up.

What Dreams May Come 2010 – Derrick Morgan

“Polished” has become something of a backhanded compliment. We use the term on rookies only in relation to someone else who lacks this “finished” quality, always with the implication that somehow the fact that another player is “unpolished” means that he has greater potential. To be whole is to be beyond the potential for growth, or worse still beyond the need for coaching into one’s eventual role as an NFL player. There is, of course, an element of self-serving coach speak to this; they need “unpolished” players to make themselves feel as important as they ought to be (there is no coach in professional sports as simultaneously undervalued and self-deluded as the NFL coach). Still, this idea isn’t so foreign to a culture that constantly has an eye to the “next one” (minus one for referencing Jay-Z). We elected our president on a platform of “hope” and “change”, both goals that require we start at a place of incompleteness. We’ve made fetishes of flaws. On the field, this means that we look at players like JaMarcus Russell or Charles Rogers and daydream about what they could become. In doing so, we romanticize a journey that statistics say is likely to indeed be more satisfying than the destination.

Derrick Morgan is, without a doubt, the most polished defensive end in this draft, if not the most polished defender, and yet we’ve hardly heard anything about him. The highest he goes in any ESPN mock draft is the 12th pick (to a Dolphins 3-4 scheme that would be a bad look), and I’ve seen at least 2-3 more television spots discussing Jerry Hughes or Jared Odrick, despite their having been nowhere near as dominant on the college level. Hell, even Jason Pierre-Paul, a guy with one year’s worth of NCAA football experience, gets more buzz for his “upside” than Derrick Morgan does for three years over which he managed to grow by leaps and bounds.



Looking at the footage, however, the one thing that jumps out about Morgan is the way in which his top flight physicality (which, despite the lack of press, is very much a factor) is paired with a unique mind for his position. He’s using first moves to draw blockers out of position. He’s shifting inside to follow the ball carrier before blockers can engage. He’s relentlessly pursuing the ball without over committing to a lane that will take him out of position. At a level filled with players who physically outmatch their opponents, Morgan wins because he outplays them, a subtle difference that points toward a knowledge of the game rather than a knowledge of one’s own ability, something that, at just about every other position in the draft, coaches drool over. Compared to the tape of many of his peers, one would be hard pressed to find a game so well developed, lacking in real flaws or points at which one says “well, but for that, he could be a star.”

The problem is that we don’t discuss him as a potential star at all. We become enamored with tape of Jason Pierre-Paul leaping four feet in the air to block a throwing lane or Jerry Hughes moving in a blur past a stunned offensive tackle and think “man, those guys, they’ve got NFL gifts.” Morgan’s balance of physical talent with old soul savvy, by comparison, is less captivating to our aesthetically drawn senses. Never mind that Paul’s mid air flights of fancy are frequently timed so poorly that they take him out of a play completely, or that Jerry Hughes’s speed takes him drastically behind the ball carrier as often as it makes him a threat; THESE GUYS HAVE GIFTS THAT NEED TO BE SHAPED. We assume that there will be an inevitable growth from boyhood to manhood, ignoring that Jung built an entire theory of psychology on the idea that people frequently never move from point A to point B. We forget all too easily that aesthetic wonder, though not without merit, needs ethical grounding in order to be of any real value to society.

I say “we” on all of the above because I’m as guilty as anyone. A recurring theme around here is that completed pictures are so much more “boring” than those with room left to create. I stand by that as a general sentiment, but watching Morgan has made me realize that there needs to be some balance. “Pretty” without a foundation of right or wrong technique is as boring as anything else because of its neutrality; we all can like pretty things, regardless of their real worth. It is in balancing these aesthetic gifts with correct application, or even in “wrong” but revolutionary application, that they really have significance in the league. In this way, maybe “creation” doesn’t necessarily need to happen in the filling of gaping holes, but rather in the development of an already existing balance. To say that Derrick Morgan is “complete” is not to say that he is “finished”. In the right hands, Morgan could become an indispensable part of a defensive scheme, particularly considering he has shown the football acumen take advantage of opponents’ weaknesses. Far from being the sort of player that can’t be coached up, Morgan’s “polished” qualities could allow him to gain the most from a coach with unique tactics toward which Morgan can apply his well-honed skill set. Fans and coaches don’t get to take the credit for discovering his potential; they just get to appreciate what a fully realized player can do when veteran mindset meets rookie motor skills.

If all of this sounds like I’m turning my back on “upside,” well, maybe I am a little. I still believe in the idea that players with incredible raw gifts can and should be molded by coaching and experience into players that will alter the course of the league…but getting older makes the idea of waiting on “potential” less and less appealing. There’s something to be said for the satisfaction of not having to worry about a player ever “arriving.” Derrick Morgan doesn’t have physical tools to drastically change the way the game is played, but he does bring a mind that most rookies, particularly most rookie defenders, need years to acquire. Maybe that itself is a shift in league values, placing mind over matter at an age when the reverse is traditionally true. If the future needs freaks, it also needs new generations of field generals, and Morgan brings into sharp focus the value of understanding how the game is and isn’t played at a young age. If the draft is a young man’s circus, then Morgan’s prematurely aged game is a reminder that while nobody goes to watch the ringmaster, he’s the guy that makes everyone else understand where the should be.

Ghost Whispering

This is why the right-way NFL will fail. It has to fail. Things that don’t make sense must always fail, or people will continue to replicate them, and then we’re moving toward something other than that which is best, in this case the best possible football, something that the NFL has been and should continue to be about at its core. That said, if there was going to be a team that worshipped at the feet of monuments to Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry and Chuck Noll, it was going to be the Steelers. That’s fine, too; just because a generation is dying out doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have a team. What bothers me is the lack of any critical thought whatsoever (at least, this certainly seems to be the case when it’s a young black athlete involved…eager to see how the team deals with Big Ben…). Holmes smoked some pot and wrote some tasteless things on the internet? Great, send him to the dean from Animal House, because that’s the only person I know who gives a damn about that sort of thing.

The fact of the matter is that NFL teams are no longer moral arbiters for the societies in which they exist, despite what Roger Goodell would have you believe, and when they try to act like they are, they fail even worse. Big Ben, James Harrison, these are all Steelers who could just as easily be ejected on the logic the Steelers applied to Holmes. Somehow sending a slightly troubled top tier WR to another team where he’ll achieve success sends a message other than “we are stubbornly stuck in our narrow view of what is and isn’t important in the league”? You don’t like him? Find a way to work with him so that his undeniable talent works for your team. You really don’t like him? Keep him on the bench for a couple of games; then HE is the one getting the message. NFL teams as judges and juries only seem to either minimize actual crimes by overstating the importance of the trivial.


The point is that the idea that we “send messages” to third parties through the lives of players is one of the aspects of old school, group-think right-way NFL football that needs to die sooner rather than later. Scapegoats are the trademark of backwards civilizations, and as far as the NFL goes, this is only slightly dumber than the McNabb trade, because at least the Eagles got a second round pick and had a backup plan. Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin we have teams like the Jets, Bengals, and Patriots, who all seem to get that we’re living in an age of shifting value scales, with the shift being away from morality tales and towards maximizing efficiency. Certainly, there are exceptions (though if Leonard Little’s case didn’t’ cross the line, what does?), but Holmes is far from the sort of case that establishes the ethics of an organization. Instead, it just reflects a bafflingly shortsighted view of what is and is not important to a football team. The Jets will live with a four game suspension, and will put a system of incentives and disincentives in place to maximize Holmes’s potential in New York. They embrace that they are an economic entity out to use economic tools to maximize success. Meanwhile the Steelers will have gutted their talent base on offense for the sake of sending some obscure message to…well, that’s the question. Do we really think that this is affecting Roethlisberger one way or another? Do fans even care about weed anymore (more than they do about their drunk creep of a QB)?

Instead, this seems to be a message not to any person or persons, but instead to a bygone era, to the same dead statues of former legends that would have done what they just did. If the McNabb trade was a sacrifice at the altar of winners/“winners”, this was a nod to an era where you could choose between winning, losing, and “winning OUR way”. Thankfully, that was the first element of the right-way NFL to die, leaving only a choice between two opposites, removing the heavy handed morality play from what is a philosophically complicated and brutal game. The choice of “right/wrong” (again, clear exceptions aside) has been left to the courts and the commissioner (the only good product of Goodell’s conduct policy). All that is left for the teams to decide is how to best win, nothing more (and yes, this sort of simple economics can and should consider personal issues as they relate to a player and his team). The statues and monuments are just that: Memories, and as it turns out, Al Davis, who will never be so well memorialized by the league, might have been right after all when it came to how teams should win.

Afternoon Reading - 4/6/2010

- If you're not already reading the excellent Cleveland Frowns, then fix that today. Frownie digs deep into why Holmgren's public stance on Jimmy Clausen may have hurt the team's options on draft day. While Frownie and I disagree on certain things (suffice to say he is not buying a "FREE SENECA WALLACE" t-shirt), I absolutely agree with him on this. That team has enough needs that the flexibility to trade or use draft picks however they see fit is a must. Teams may be less willing to trade up thanks to this, and Cleveland's needs, particularly if Eric Berry is off of the board, would be best suited with a move down in the round and additional draft picks. Also, we agree on Jared Odrick's importance as a smart, physical defensive lineman. Oddly enough, Odrick's style would be perfect for more flexible fronts (the reason I want him to be a Jet), but he's tailor made for Mangini's rigid 3-4 scheme, with the size and athleticism to become an excellent pass rush weapon. A rare player who can succeed with or without rigid structure.

Evening Reading - 4/5/2010

- Head over to Second String Fullback, where the guys have less enthusiasm than I do for Donovan McNabb, but they're still optimistic. I'm clearly the only one who believes that three guys who are old, but not THAT old can take advantage of fresh legs during the game and amount to a reliable, if unspectacular running game. Solid read from a solid blog.

Don't Buy the Cool

In the dead of night, on a national holiday no less, two of the league’s most storied franchises changed their entire image and strategy, as well as the face of their division (if not the league as a whole). What has followed has been bizarrely relaxed, with the media and the teams selling this as a simple business transaction, just the way of their world. Make no mistake; this alters the world of the NFL down to its core, from the signifiers we see in the public speech to the fundamental convictions that have driven the league throughout the modern era.



On a game strategy level, the NFC East just got completely upended. The Redskins, who for so long have been making desperate grabs for the talent to keep up with their more organically constructed peers, have finally found the piece that lets them take the lead. McNabb, unlike every other high profile acquisition they’ve made, has value outside of himself; he validates the previous decisions, giving them value they may not have otherwise had. Any Washington fan that isn’t excited about having their offense led by McNabb instead of Jason Campbell doesn’t deserve a winning team because they don’t understand what a “winner” is. Whether or not McNabb was ever going to achieve ultimate victory in a city that refused to embrace him is one thing (last I checked, though, there was still crime in Gotham City...); it is another thing entirely to say that McNabb isn’t a winner. He’s missed the playoffs just twice in his entire career, and has a postseason resume that every quarterback without a ring should envy. The man knows what victory tastes like. Oh, and he’s at his best when he’s pissed; check what he did after his benching two seasons ago.

He’s also one of the most statistically dominant quarterbacks of the last decade, putting up all-world numbers with a faceless gang of second tier talents (with one very high profile exception). On Washington, he enters an offense with similarly unheralded pass catchers, except this group is made up of potential entering its prime (whatever that means). Fred Davis, Devin Thomas, and Malcom Kelly are entering the all important third year, this time with a quarterback who has made a career out of marking unmarked terms at receiver. Chris Cooley is the truth, and is probably writing an “inappropriate” blog post as we speak. Buying into McNabb is, in essence, buying into the foundation the Redskins have already been building. Throw in the possibility of a franchise altering rookie left tackle (Okung) and a ground game that will be built on cycling fresh legs (as opposed to the previous “let’s recklessly endanger Clinton Portis” plan), and it’s hard not to feel the change in the air of the NFC East.

If the battle strategy aspects of this is bewildering in its implications, the war strategy aspects are damn near unprecedented. These two teams hate each other. They bitterly loathe losing to one another. The thought of either one of these teams doing anything to avoid harming the other team seems crazy to anyone who has watched this rivalry, let alone actually helping them succeed. Yet here we see a kind of “I’m OK; you’re OK” social redistribution that runs against every competitive football front office philosophy we’ve known. Any football philosophy, and certainly those driving division rivalries, has historically dictated that one thing is true: You win the war by focusing on winning the individual battles. Your team succeeds based on causing your opponents for the season to fail, and there are literally no opponents that need to be defeated more than divisional rivals. Certainly both sides are engaging in gamesmanship, with each thinking they’ve outsmarted the other, but that sort of shrewd negotiation is meant for distant enemies to use across oceans; blood feuds at the doorstep get settled with silence or violence. In jettisoning McNabb, the Eagles have essentially said that their enemy, the Redskins, isn’t as threatening as history has taught us, or that the rivalry was all business, with this transaction simply another calculation in the ledgers of competing firms. Two of the teams that helped create the metaphor of football rivalry as war have traded swords for calculators and soldiers for accountants. The blood is removed from the blood feud.


Of course, this sort of tidy endpoint ignores that there is an enemy in all of this. However the teams and the media may downplay it, the Eagles have exchanged rivalry built on history for enmity built on personal passion, because this is VERY personal to Donovan McNabb. You think he was insulted by the idea that the organization he’d given his legacy to was now set against him staying? What does it say that the same organization, rather than exile him to irrelevance, has made him a pawn in their “greater” war? Fine, they say that they were trying to respect his wishes, but how often do people in any relationship say things acting as dares, to see just what the other party thinks of what they’ve built? Well, in moving McNabb to the Redskins, the Eagles have given him his answer. This is the only thing worse than love becoming hate; this is indifference. Trading McNabb to the Redskins isn’t “I don’t love you anymore,” but rather “I don’t think I ever loved you at all.”

Ironically, that’s the answer that makes blood boil hottest. Every time McNabb sets foot on the field to face his old team, he’ll seek to force their acknowledgement the only way left, by killing them. Every time the Skins go to Philadelphia, the boos he heard on draft day will have been validated as the truth behind a decade of false friendship hiding cold utility, and unlike so many other players who fall victim to what is the “simple business” of football, he’ll be angry, whether or not he ever admits it. That anger is what will define this rivalry for as long as he plays in Washington. What was once “we don’t like them because that’s the way it is” is now “we don’t like them because of HIM.” Personally, I’m glad to see a feud in the league with a little flesh behind it; it gives the passion significance beyond the numbers. Still, one has to wonder whether or not the Eagles ever stopped to consider that they’ve exchanged their war for a vendetta, and that turning Donovan McNabb into an enemy, after he spent a career building goodwill and saw it become something dirty, makes things much more complicated than they ever intended.