One Thing I'll Never Understand

For some reason, sportswriters find it impossible to accept that some times good players are on bad teams, and sometimes bad players are on good teams. Jeffri Chadiha should hardly be blamed for doing something that has become the industry's bread-and-butter, but then again, the world is not fair.

Chadiha compiled a list of the 10 Most Indispensible Players in the NFL. Some of them are picks that he simply has to make: Peyton, Brady, both fine. Some are sort of unconventional. Sure Antonio Gates is a man of spectacular ability, but he's still a tight end and by last years DVOA (via Football Outsiders), not even the most valuable. Even so, Chadiha makes a good point. Likewise, four is Adrian Peterson. He is great, but he is also one of very few running backs to be have fewer in Football Outsider's adjusted yards than actual yards. His five fumbles are steep for someone with so few carries, and he shares the team with a top 20 DVOA back.

Enough of that, let's get completely crazy. Scroll down to number ten and you'll see, of all people, Eli Manning. I'll give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor. I'll admit Manning put together a pretty good playoff run, but when you look at the larger sample size of the regular season, he was just awful. Football Outsiders has him listed as roughly the 35th best quarterback. His real performance was possibly not even good enough to start. Just because his team put together a remarkable run and was inspirational and beautiful all that crap doesn't change the fact that Eli Manning was bad. He really was quite bad. It has nothing to do with him not being intense, or being too intense or whatever, he was just bad. He is not the 10th most indispensible player, he is actually, seemingly, very dispensible.

Well I'm shocked the Giants won it all

and after you see this quote by the Architect if their run, you will be too

"What difference does it make what we gave up?" Accorsi continued. "You better be right about the QB, but if you are, you can't overpay for a great QB and we think he's going to be a great QB. What would you give up for Elway? What would you give for Montana or Unitas? Just like you can't overpay a great player. Can you overpay for Mays or DiMaggio? That's all fodder."

In case you missed it, he said:

"What difference does it make what we gave up?"

"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHAT WE GAVE UP?"

"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHAT WE GAVE UP?"


The article goes on to agree with Accorsi and attribute great foresight to him just because what is by all accounts a terrible move did not cause them to not win the Superbowl. Of course forgetting that Eli's not even mediocore regular season did rather little to get them there, and that within such a small sample size as ONE GAME, fluke plays tend to have more of an effect on outcomes (flukes such as a renowned special teamer jumping 3 feet off the ground and catching a football, in coverage, with his helmet.)

Just a reminder, this is a former GM. He made a career of being the man paid large sums of money to care about what they do and do not give up. You might say that it was his "job". As you might have noticed, he goes onto say "you can't overpay for a good player". Mike Ditka approves! Notice that I'm not blaming Ricky Williams for the Saints making the playoffs once in his three years, and going 3-13 in his first year, and Ditka getting fired. I'm just saying that trading your entire 53-man roster for somebody is bad. I don't care if he's the love child of John Elway and Barry Sanders, coached/trained by Dick Butkus and Joe Montana. Vincent "Buddy" Elway-Sanders couldn't play every position on the field could he? YOU HAVE A SALARY CAP AND A LIMITED SUPPLY OF GOOD PLAYERS. You have a budget constraint. You can not give up everything for one player.

More importantly, you might have noticed that Eli isn't that good. He's actually been kind of bad, if you just look at the numbers. His career QB rating is 73.4, which would be good for 26th this season, right behind--you guessed it--Eli Manning. His career completion percentage, 54.7 puts him squarely between Grossman and Cleo Lemon, at 31 for quarterbacks qualifying this year.

Now, I know this isn't the be-all end-all of statistical analyses, but surely if you could have say Philip Rivers, an assload of draft picks and his 86.6 career rating and 60.8%, you'd at least have to think about it. Obviously, Rivers has a better offense, and anything could happen in the future. Plus, he looks weird when he throws. HOWEVER, he is by all indicators available to us, a better quarterback, and a better quarterback that came with an absolute assload of draft picks mind you.

I mean for heaven's sake, one such draft pick ended up being Shawne Merriman. Granted evaluating the acquisition of a draft PICK ex post facto ignores that there is some uncertainty involved in the actual picking. However, this is Shawne Merriman. He was a high 1st round pick. He was the very same roid-addled giganteur that won Rookie of the Year. How's that for instant impact? An almost certainly better quarterback, a freakishly good defender, and two more draft picks for Eli Manning. If that's not over paying, then I don't know what is.

[Edited to fix author's complete ignorance of Ernie Accorsi.]

I read an article today. It was about Quarterbacks.

And it was written by Scouts Inc!

The title is: In updated QB rankings, Eli Manning rises, Quinn falls

Here are some things I read in the article:

"Brady Quinn's ranking plummeted from No. 37 to No. 58 because he barely saw the field."

"About the only thing we agreed on was that Tom Brady was No. 1 and Peyton Manning was No. 2."

""The top 10 was very difficult after we got through the top five."

"Despite losing several key players to injury, Manning still completed 65.4 percent of his passes and threw 31 TDs."

"There is no longer a debate over who the best QB in the NFL is -- Brady has moved ahead of Manning."

"Favre made every player on the offense better."

"[Romo] is mentally tough"

Roethlisberger has responded with improved leadership.

"[Hasselbeck] is a rhythm passer who can be a little streaky."

"Brees is not the type of player who can carry a team without solid weapons around him."

"When healthy, McNabb has shown he can still be an elite starting QB."

"The last time he played a 16-game season was 2003."

"[Eli] lacks that emotional drive that gets you excited."

This one is the best:

"[Vince Young] didn't have much success in 2007 because former offensive coordinator Norm Chow's game plans didn't always take advantage of Young's strengths as much as they did in 2006."

And the best of the rest:

"Physically, none of his traits stand out, but he is not a major liability in any one area, either."

Guess who that guy is. Give up? Whatever, it's not important.

"The number of interceptions remain worrisome."

Same Guy.

"Starting quarterbacks are hard to find."

"[Clemens] has a lot of upside"

The Russell saga:

"[Russell] was the first overall choice in the 2007 draft for a reason."

"He didn't play all that much football at LSU compared to other top prospects."

"But wow, is he intriguing."

Why we love Steve McNair:


"On guts alone, he threw for over 1,000 yards this season."

Just a few more:

"[Sorgi] has a fragile-looking frame"

"He was pulled from a game by coach Belichick after throwing an interception, so it's obvious Cassel is not ready to be a starter for any NFL team."

"While [Quinn] showed flashes of potential in the preseason, whether that translates well in the regular season is unknown."

Just remember their position on this guy:

"[Russell] was the first overall choice in the 2007 draft for a reason."

"Wow, is [Russell} intriguing."