How the NFL works...

[The Goat]

Been wanting to start this thread for a coon's age, partly to explain my harshness toward the current regime and because the article linked below is a great read. It's a few years old, but holds true as ever today.

American sports: In a league of its own | The Economist

The whole idea within/behind the NFL's structure is parity. The strict salary cap, draft scheme and profit sharing all strongly promote parity among the franchises toward maximizing competitiveness between the rosters that take the field every game. As well, the NFL has a strong innate parity factor because player longevity is relatively short, between three and four years, by all accounts. What it all boils down to really is any franchise in the league can be turned around (for good or bad) in roughly that time. The whole system promotes balance and equal opportunity, if you will.

To be the bottom of a division three out of four years, especially a division struggling across the board, should be less than rare. Nobody is this unlucky. If you believe Shanahan or any NFL coach who loses this consistently is unlucky, you're the type of person who burnt "witches" at the stake a few hundred years ago. You have to be epically incompetent to lose so consistently in this league. And given Mike's near total control of the franchise, I would argue he's high in the running for the most incompetent HC in decades at this point.

But back to the parity discussion, it's why I can always feel optimistic about the Skins future. Hit on the right coach/GM, and you can be top of the league in just a couple years. If there's "luck" in the NFL, it's picking the next HC/GM poised to dominate the chess board.

Here's to the 2014 off-season and "lucky" choices

[MTK]

We did come out of nowhere last year to win the division, right?

Parity at it's finest.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

We did come out of nowhere last year to win the division, right?

Parity at it's finest.

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles and the Shanahans got the most out of a one time gimmick offensive scheme that (briefly) neutralized defenses. It was, by any measure, a glaring outlier.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles and the Shanahans got the most out of a one time gimmick offensive scheme that (briefly) neutralized defenses. It was, by any measure, a glaring outlier.

How many experts picked the Skins to win the East last year?? Most people agreed their ceiling was probably 7 or 8 wins.

A team going from 5-11 to 10-6 and division champs is what parity is all about.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

How many experts picked the Skins to win the East last year?? Most people agreed their ceiling was probably 7 or 8 wins.

A team going from 5-11 to 10-6 and division champs is what parity is all about.

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.

[Giantone]

[QUOTE=The Goat;1043396]And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.



QUOTE]

So, only the Cowboys and the Eagles had players injured last year ,ok .

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by The Goat

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.

Again with the "We only beat two winning teams" -- Say all you want about this year, but stop twisting last year's run into something other than a good team putting it together and going on a run against all types of of teams - even when it's starting QB went down. Jesus.

I did this once before with you - you're ability to twist facts so that they contort to confirm your bias and do so with a straight face is simply mind blowing. See Post 238 in the "Who's your pick's for next HC, DC and OC?" thread:

Really nice revisionist history. "We won seven games in spite of bad coaching and were really just lucky." [EDIT: Your words quoted]

Let's get our facts straight shall we? During our run we beat the Cowboys (twice), the Giants, the Eagles (twice), the Ravens (you know, the eventual SB winners), and the Browns (with our back-up rookie QB, btw). In that run we scored 27 or more points six times and topped 30 points four times.

Had we not beaten the Cowboys (twice), they would have had a record of either 9-7 or 10-6 and would been in the play-offs had we even one lost just one to them. As to their "8-9 starters", please tell me who they were. I know S. Lee went down (a big loss), Radcliff (not so much), but, as I recall, we were playing w/out a few guys too. Outside the division, they were 5-5.

Had we not beaten the Giants (who were 7-4 to our 5-6 when we played them), they would have ended up 10-6 and in the play-offs. After playing us, their only other two losses were to the Baltimore Ravens, in Baltimore (You know, the eventual SB champs) and Atlanta in Atlanta (the NFC West Champs). Outside the division they were 6-4 (including wins over SF and GBay).

The only "gimme" games in the run were the Eagles. Cleveland wasn't good but we were down our starting QB. I seem to recall the rest of the team demonstrating a great deal of " discipline, preparedness and heart" in that game.

Have they lacked those things so far this year? Yup. However, to assert they lacked "discipline, preparedness and heart" during the run is simply ignorant, subjective, revisionist history originating from, consistent with and now used for support of your "Shanahan sucks at everything and always has" mindset.

... but, hey, every village needs an idiot. Thanks for filling an essential role here on the WP.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by The Goat

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.

Once again you line up the excuses for other teams... but ignore the fact we had plenty of injuries to contend with as well. We actually beat 3 winning teams, Minnesota, the Giants, and the Ravens.

10 wins, a div title, rookie of the year, 7 game win streak, 2nd leading rusher in the league, there's a lot of positives there. No need to discredit it.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by The Goat

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.

No one believes that was your purpose for this thread

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles .

Really ? Considering just the season before the Super Bowl Champion came out of the division, what shambles ?You won it with a 10-6 record , Giants were also 9-7 .People always forget 2 things in football 1)cohesiveness ,usually a team with less talent but jells well wins 2) luck ....teams that win have a certain amount of luck with them also .

[donofriose]

Out of the major sports, interestingly enough Baseball has the most parity in terms of champions, and it also has no salary cap. It is interesting to see how the salary cap actually prevents parity.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by donofriose

Out of the major sports, interestingly enough Baseball has the most parity in terms of champions, and it also has no salary cap. It is interesting to see how the salary cap actually prevents parity.

To your point

Baseball, not NFL, still the king of parity - ESPN

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

To your point

Baseball, not NFL, still the king of parity - ESPN

Errrr, I'll take the acumen from any thinker at the Economist over any sports writer/journalist (and especially a blogger lol) any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Errrr, I'll take the acumen from any thinker at the Economist over any sports writer/journalist (and especially a blogger lol) any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Problem is your article is so outdated and can't take into account the last 7 years of info/data. The NFL preaches parity but baseball is clearly the leader.

Stark isn't merely a blogger.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Problem is your article is so outdated and can't take into account the last 7 years of info/data. The NFL preaches parity but baseball is clearly the leader.

Stark isn't merely a blogger.

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