NFL: Biggest Busts of 2011

By Jared Epstein

At the beginning of each NFL season, the players, coaches, and fans all have certain expectations for different players.  Here are the biggest busts of the 2011 season after week 9…

5) To start this list of colossal crashes, we must venture into the depths of Indianapolis. The stock of the all and mighty Colts has completely plummeted. Over the past 11 years, the Colts have dominated, only have one losing season in 2001 with a record of 6-10 placing fourth in the division. Every other year, they finished with three 10-win seasons, four 12-win seasons, one 13-win season, and two 14-win seasons. Also, in their division, they’ve placed 1^st seven times, 2^nd three times, and 4^th just once.  Heading into the 2011 season, people weren’t expecting the usual 12-win season as previous years due to their hero Peyton Manning having to be a spectator from the sidelines because of neck surgery during the off-season. However, they still had veteran players such as Dwight Freeney, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai along with young explosive players like Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie to give some hope.  With the Texans getting stronger every year, 1^st place in the division was out of the question but perhaps they could fight for a wild card spot. After 9 weeks through the season the Colts are 0-9 with a hefty side of humiliation. Their passing yards are 28^th, rushing yards 23^rd, opposing passing yards are at 24^th and the opposing rushing yards are 31^st, a disgrace to the Colts franchise name. The Colts have had a mediocre schedule but some of their 9 losses were flat out embarrassing. Losing to the Browns and Chiefs is always embarrassing in this day and age but the way they lost to the Saints in week 7 was the worst display of football I’ve ever seen. Losing 62-7 is just pathetic. I might as well have been watching a pop-warner game the way that defense played. Peyton Manning is and will always be high on the list of greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game but does one player really have that big of an effect on a whole TEAM? Last time I checked football was a team sport, which consists of contributions from MANY players on the team. The quarterback is one, if not the most, important position to fill on the team but when you have talent surrounding you, it’s easy to make a QB look good, look at Mark Sanchez in New York or Joe Flacco in Baltimore. This season is long gone for the Colts and I don’t see them getting more than two wins if they even get that many. Colts fans just hope they lose every game at this point so you get that nice draft pick for next year.  

4) Coming in at #4 on major meltdowns is Donovan McNabb. Throughout MccNabb’s career, he is though of as the hard working QB with a great arm and a great set of legs to scramble with for the smash-mouth Eagles (even though Eagles fans always treated him like shit). He brought the Eagles to five conference championship games and reached only one championship game, Super Bowl XXXIX against the Patriots, which he lost to despite a close 24-21 finish. After being traded to the Vikings from the Redskins this season, there were high hopes for Viking fans. McNabb would be surrounded by top rusher, Adrian Peterson, which would open up the passing game, and would have decent targets in Malcolm Jenkins, Percy Harvin, and Visanthe Shiancoe. Although McNabb has a completion percentage of 60.3%, which isn’t so bad, he only averaged 152.2 yards per game. McNabb went 1-5 before being replaced at the starting spot to rookie Christian Ponder but not before being man handled by the Bears in week 6. McNabb’s had a great chance to make everyone forget that pathetic year with the Redskins but instead he’s showing everyone he’s at the end of his career and will never make it to the Super Bowl again. Say goodbye to Donovan McNabb because it’s only going down hill from here.

      

3) Getting to #3, we must head to New England for the one and only Chad Ochocinco (which should actually be Ochenta y Cinco, not eight five you idiot. Who even changes there last name to an incorrectly spelt number but that’s a whole different topic). Ochocinco, although a cocky asshole, has proven to put up great numbers while on the Bengals year after year besides the last three with Cincinnati but they were dealing with Carson Palmer problems and just an overall poor team. With the Patriots getting rid of Randy Moss last season, the only thing they were missing from their offense was the deep ball threat.  Standing in at 6”1 with 10 years of experience in the league and having one of the leagues best QBs throwing to you, there were big plans for 85.  Unfortunately, Ochocinco’s numbers are less than stellar picking up only nine catches out of 21 targets, 136 yards, only one catch for more than 20 yards and has the big goose egg for touchdowns. How a former elite wide receiver gets stats like these when Tom Brady is throwing to them, I will never know why. Especially when a 5”9 Wes Welker is averaging 120 YDS/G and Ochocinco (6”1) is getting an average of 17 YDS/G. I don’t know how much longer it’s going to take for 85 to learn this offense (let me give you a hint Ocho, it’s a passing offense) but maybe the Pats should of kept Haynesworth and given ole’ Chad the goodbye boot because this performance so far is terrible. 

  

2) Coming in hot at #2 is Peyton Hillis, last years breakout player. Hillis was a no name the first two years on the Broncos so his third year he was shipped to Cleveland to be a Brown. After being a ghost of a running back, he made a completely new name for himself on the Browns. He had 270 rushes that went for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns.  It was such a break out year; he was awarded the cover of Madden 12, which is reserved for only the best of players.  But was it a mistake to accept the cover?  So far this year, Hillis has been plagued with injuries and has only played in 4 games with 60 rushes for 211 yards and just two touchdowns. Hillis, who once had such a promising future, is now being asked questions like, what is his value since the injuries? Can he go back to that break out season or did he just somehow get lucky? Unfortunately for the Browns, they’re sucking as bad as Hillis. This season is long gone for Hillis but Madden curse or not, he better get his shit together or else he will be as forgotten as Tony Mandarich drafted at #2 overall by the Packers in 1989.

1) The past 3 years, Chris Johnson has been in an elite group of running backs with other great names as Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster and Michael Turner, the best of the best. 2008-2010 seasons, CJ has passed 1,000 rushing yards and in 2009 he racked up 2,006 yards. However this year has been a little different for the featured running back with 121 touches and getting only 366 yards and only one touchdown. He’s putting up a pathetic 3 yards per carry and has played all games, yet has one less touchdown than Peyton Hillis at 2 TDs and he has only played in 4 games. With Hasslebeck looking as good as his early Seahawk days, this is not the time for CJ to put up such weak numbers as these. Due to the fact that the Titans biggest receiving target, Kenny Britt, is out for the season, the question on everyone’s mind is, when are we going to see the real Chris Johnson come out and play? If your still not getting how bad CJ is performing, the Titans are ranked 32^nd in rushing yards. The Titans are 2 games behind the rolling 6-3 Texans but one can only hope CJ will turn this horrible slump around to possibly take 1^st place and as we’ve seen before, once Johnson starts going, it’s hard to stop him.

Jared Epstein is a contributing writer for The Jockstrap. He'll be around to drop knowledge on the NFL, NBA, and MLB; hopefully not about the Mets. 

NFL: "Elite" Quarterbacks

“Elite” is a term that is thrown around way too often in the NFL. This past week John Clayton of ESPN called Joe Flacco an elite quarterback. Last season analysts were already calling Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman elite. This is the preverbal “rock bottom” of throwing around the word elite to any NFL quarterback that has a good season. Both Freeman and Flacco had great seasons last year, with Freeman throwing for 25 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions. Flacco threw for 25 and 10 while leading the Ravens to the playoffs before losing in the divisional round. Through his career, Flacco has a 4-3 playoff record with a 60.7 completion percentage and 86.4 quarterback rating. Freeman, on the other hand, has never made it to the playoffs and boasts a 59.5 completion percentage and a 79.8 quarterback rating. 

To call these two elite at this stage in their careers is just wrong. Focusing on Flacco, he has without a doubt been the strongest quarterback the Ravens have had in their current history of having a dominant defense. Flacco does have a decent playoff record for a fourth year quarterback, but much of that can be attributed to the Ravens all-world defense. New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is said to be the weakest link on the Jets team. The Jets have a similar team structure to the Ravens; a team with a strong defense and emphasis on the running game. Through two and a half seasons, Sanchez has a 4-2 playoff record with a 72.9 quarterback rating and 54.7 completion percentage. Sanchez has thrown for less touchdowns and more interceptions than Flacco has, but the stats are not all that different. Factor in a difference 6% in completions and a 14 point difference in quarterback rating, the two players aren’t far off from each other. 

Using the same comparison as Flacco, Freeman has similar stats to Sanchez as well. Freeman and Sanchez both entered the league in 2009. With fewer games played, Freeman has thrown for three less interceptions and one more touchdown. Both players have 7,000 yards passing to their credit and a 6 yard average per attempt pass. Freeman has never led the Bucs to the playoffs, the closest being last season when they went 10-6 and missed the wild card by one game. 

The point of this is, if analysts are going to call guys like Flacco and Freeman elite, then using the same stats (playoffs, career qb rating, career passing stats), average quarterbacks like Sanchez and even Matt Cassel should be in the conversation as well. Which brings me to my point, none of those four players are elite. The purpose of the Sanchez comparisons were not to push that he is an elite quarterback. At this stage in his career, Sanchez is an average quarterback whose strongest skill is being a game manager. Looking at the stats and playoff records, guys like Freeman and Flacco cannot be called elite if they have similar resumes to game managers and decent quarterbacks like Sanchez and Cassel. 

In my eyes, being an “elite” quarterback puts you in the pantheon of NFL starters. They are the guys who when you see their team on the schedule, you cringe and think that they will beat you. Nobody looks at a game against the Ravens or Bucs and says, “Flacco/Freeman is going to beat us in that game”. The elite title should be reserved for quarterbacks who are the best players on their team, players who have been deep into the playoffs and remained the last man standing. Players who throughout their career have put up big numbers and big win totals. Not guys like Flacco, who one week could throw for 300+ yards and a few scores then the next week throw for 8 yards in an entire half (Jacksonville game). Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger. Those guys have won games single handidly. They take their teams to the playoffs year in and year out and have been the last man standing in February. Phillip Rivers could become elite. Eli Manning is right there, too. But right now, as we sit in week 9 of the 2011 season, the “elite” quarterback list starts and ends with those five names. Maybe in two, three, four years Flacco and Freeman could leap into the conversation, but to call them elite at this stage and with their current career stats is defacing the title all together.