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In honour of the Oakland Raiders first-team offenese's performance during Sunday Hall of Fame pre-season kickoff game, it's time to take a peak at the teams that will lose with great proficiency this season and whom will be in a position to get the #1 overall selection in the 2007 NFL Draft to draft Notre Dame's star QB Brady Quinn. Before I begink wow, the Raiders with Aaron Brookes at the helm were aweful. The Raiders have done a lot of good this offseason but they are definitely a competitor in the Brady Quinn Sweepstakes.
There are a lot of bad teams in the NFL this season, here are the pre-season favourites...
San Francisco 49ers
Wow, this team is aweful. I feel sorry for their coach Mike Nolan for having to work with such a talent deficit. Credit the organization for drafting Vernon Davis but discredit the organization for signing him to a deal that makes him the highest paid TE in football before even catching one ball. I don't care what the salary scale is in the draft, there's no way Davis should be making more then Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Whitten or Todd Heap. Currently at QB the 49ers have Alex Smith who is the second coming of Joey Harrington. The RB and WR scenario in San Fran is also pathetic. The 49ers are prime time contenders to actually go 0-16 this year and although I am sure they'll avoid that shame, it's sad to see this once proud franchise struggle so mightily. If the 49ers end up with the #1 overall selection it's tough to tell whether they'll continue the Alex Smith experiment and go with Oklahoma RB Adrian Peterson or whether it'll be Brady time in San Francisco... I hear a former Notre Dame QB once had a pretty good run for the 49ers.
Buffalo Bills
The Bills are certainly forerunners for the #1 overall selection in 2007 and SI already annoited them as such. J.P. Losman will likely fend off competition from Kelly Holcomb and Craig Nall to start the season as the #1 QB in Buffalo, but like last season that will probably not last. Willis McGahee gives the Bills some hope this season but he will likely be swarmed like he was much of last season as teams put 8 men in the box against a pourous Bills O-line and ineffective passer at QB. The Bills defense is also good enough that it will probably keep the Bills away from being the worst team in the league but another injury to a glue guy like Takeo Spikes could rocket the Bills back up toward that #1 selection.
Minnesota Vikings
My friend Liam is cursing right now and deservedly so as a lot can go right for the 2006 Minnesota Vikings or a lot could go wrong... either way, they are no Tampa Bay Bucs. Mike Tice is out. Culpepper out. In are the Brads, Childress at coach and Johnson at starting QB. Brad Johnson is about a 1000 years old and despite being very effective at the end of last year, he won't be suprising any defenses this season and teams will key on shutting him down. One thing Johnson does have working in his favour is a strong O-line led by key offseason acquisition Steve Hutchinson, but when your key acquisition is a left guard that says something about your club. The revolving door at RB continues this year in Minnesota with Chester Taylor primed to be the Vike's #1 back... I'm not sold on Taylor although he will benefit from the beefy O-line. The Vikes defense is stacked with talented players and if the offense can put some points on the game then this year's Vikes should resemeble a water-downed version of Baltimore Ravens teams from recent years, although the Vikes D lacks the superstars like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
Oakland Raiders
Aaron Brooks is the #1 QB for the Raiders? You must be kidding me. Bum neck or no bum neck I want to start the bring back Rich Gannon cheers... OK that's not going to happen but seriously, Brooks was a bust in New Orleans and he's going to be a bust in Oakland. Andrew Walter is waiting in the wings with his cannon for an arm but is going to develop into the franchise QB that Brady Quinn could be? If the Raiders fail this season and earn the #1 selection don't think for a second that Al Davis will hesitate to bring in Quinn to work with Moss and Porter? (maybe) and LaMont Jordan. Mark my words, this team will be bad, even Art Shell can't save this year's team.
New York Jets
Pennington, Clemmons, Bollinger, Ramsey.. Quinn? Probably not. The Jets are looking at a long season and the solution in the 2007 draft will likely be Adrian Peterson (left) from Oklahoma. With Curtis Martin's career seemingly over the Jets are going to turn to servicable career backup Derrick Blaylock to carry the load. So the score for the Jets is... questionable QB situation, no starting RB, average receivers, two rookies on the O-Line.... doesn't look good for the J-E-T-S. Atleast they have Jonathan Vilma.
Houston Texans
Dom Capers out. Gary Kubiak in. Kubiak, the ultimate QB coach, who did the impossible and turned Jake Plummer into a dependable QB in Denver. This is the final year of the David Carr (right) experiment and if Carr can not produce results this season then the Texans will find themselves at or near the top of the draft and they will not pass on the opportunity to grab the #1 offensive weapon in the 2007 draft in Quinn. Quinn would be far too tempting for the QB obsessed Kubiak to pass on.
Tennesee Titans
The Titans are going to be bad this season like they have been for the last few season but this team is headed for it's Vince Young years so scratch any idea of Quinn ending up here.
Detroit Lions
Matt Millen has successfully pile driven the Lions into the toilet since he took over the football team. The home fans protest by wearing the opposing team's colours and cheering for the visiting team but yet somehow Millen is still not fired. Millen is in rare company with Isiah Thomas as the worst executive in professional sports and the only reason either of them are surviving in their respective roles is that they must have compromising photographs of their bosses with trans-sexual hookers. The Joey Harrington years in Detriot are now over and Jon Kitna (right) is the man at QB, which is not good news for Lions fans because hold one good season in Cincinnati, Kitna has routinely disappointed as a starting QB in the NFL. It is more likely then not that the Lions will be bad again this season, which is baffling given the amount of talent on this team but the culture is losing and that's the bottom line in Detroit. At least we will get to witness more fans lashing out with Fire Millen protests.
It is more likely then not that one of these bottom-feeders will end up winning the Brady Quinn sweepstakes unless another team suffers a series of key injuries to key players, then EA Sports can begin generating the jersey options for #10 in Madden '08.
I know it's baseball season around here like it hasn't been in a long time. So we'll see how much this is Lions Country over the next few weeks.
But with the Lions beginning their pre-season on Friday with an exhibition against the Denver Broncos, I thought it might be a good time to talk some football. Playing "Five Questions" with Thank You Brian Sabean about the Minnesota Twins a couple of weeks ago went so well that I thought we might try it again. So I exchanged some questions with Kevin Antcliff, who now whirls his wit from the Rocky Mountain region, and tried to ask the same sort of hard-hitting, insightful questions about the Broncos.
Just remember, it is the pre-season, so we still have some sharpening up to do. My answers to his questions on the Lions can be read at Kevin's blog. Here's our conversation:
Me: Any truth to the reports that Mike Shanahan didn't want to make the trip to Detroit, saying that his scout team would provide better competition in practice than the Lions?
K-Dog: None whatsoever. The only reason Coach Shanahan didn't want to go to Detroit is because... it's Detroit.
Me: Who the hell is Mike Bell? And is it true that the Broncos will feature a "play running back and get 100 yards" contest in each game this season?
KA: I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but I have heard of no such contest. That said, the Broncos will be holding their yearly "Be a no-name and get 1,000 yards" contest.
As for this Mike Bell guy, there is very little information available about him. My mole tells me that he was just the guy Shanahan picked out of a hat to be the next RB to prove that anybody can gain 1,000 yards in his offense. Other names in the hat included Willie Roaf, Ty Detmer, the kid in the wheelchair from Malcolm in the Middle, and Phyllis Diller. Shanahan is convinced that any of them could have rushed for 1,200 +. Hard to argue with him.
Me: Did you see Maurice Clarett got arrested again? It's a cry for help! Seriously, don't the Broncos feel bad about that? The guy just wanted a job, just wanted a chance, and he was kicked to the curb. Couldn't they have spared him the indignity of having to return to, of all places, Columbus? Really, wouldn't you go crazy too?
Mr. Antcliff: Ian, it's hard for me to be very tough on the guy, to be honest. You see, I recently came into posession of a document that opened my eyes to a few things. I cannot post it here, but I will provide a quick summary.
Maurice left the Broncos - the Broncos didn't cut Maurice. The reason? Maurice made more money in his freshman year at Ohio State than the Broncos were willing to guarantee him. Shocked, Maurice then made a series of bad decisions that brought him to where he is today. So, this isn't the organization's fault. This is Ohio State's fault.
Me: Why hasn't Ashley Lelie been traded yet? Did he and his agent veto the deal to Chicago when they found out Rex Grossman would be the guy throwing passes to him?
Kevin: The Lelie situation is a difficult one. On the one hand, you have a receiver who thinks he's one of the best in the NFL, and just needs a chance to prove it. On the other hand, you have Ashley Lelie.
As far as the Bears trade is concerned, it was the Bears who pulled the plug on the deal. In an effort to prepare him for a future role with the team, the Broncos had Jake Plummer handle the negotiations. The conversation between Plummer and the Bears took place over a cell, so the connection was fuzzy at times. The Bears thought they were sending Thomas Jones to Denver in return for "a picture of me [Plummer]", so they were all for it. Strange. Over a cell "A picture of me" and "Ashley Lelie" sound really similar.
Me: Does Jay Cutler tearfully thank a higher power each day for the Lions drafting Ernie Sims instead of him?
K-Dog: Yes. Mike Shanahan.
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