Most pathetic franchise in the NFL.

Just because the Brown stats on defense suck, does not mean that Shaun Roger’s isn’t the best damn player ever to grace the NFL, right?

I looked to be a focus of conversation from many. So I signed into my other account and wanted to contribute (in a civilized manner) only to find out………I WAS BANNED! I am 2 for 2 with DBN.

In the process of another name…….any ideas anyone?

I need to be able to blog there once the season starts. Not being able to takes away the fun.

the one thing that scares me from this is the slight chance that palmer comes back healthy next year. imagine if they end up with a top 10 defense and offense… definitely would add a whole new dimension to this division. i doubt that can happen though, too many internal problems on that team.

overall i like the write up, except for the turnover differential stat. i think it’s kind of misleading to post defensive stats that are MAJORLY affected by the offensive play. i’m not gonna lie though, i’m still in shock that cleveland has a +5 ratio. i just can’t put it together in my head seeing as they went through four quarterbacks and they don’t exactly have the sharpest secondary for getting int’s as far as i know.

Great stuff. I expect the Browns to flop and the Bengals to be very competitive this season, but it will still be Steelers/Ravens winning the division and both making playoffs

secondary – ravens need healthy corners this year, they have been suffering on that front recently. The Steelers lose a starter but gain a versatile duo in the draft. The ravens also lose a young safety. Not sure if they replaced Leonard adequately.

linebackers -the Steelers will continue to dominate with the best outside duo of the decade, but the do lose key depth on the inside. Hopefully Fox can step up. The Ravens lose Scott and pick a fifth rounder.

the line – Ravens took a second rounder that could help, the steelers pick the Ziggy who will hopefully be a starter for many years.

Both defenses seem pretty well set up except I question the raven’s secondary being able to go the distance again.

The skilled leader Ryan is on to bigger and better things for the ravens while the Steelers continue to employ the genius of LeBeau

Browns- Full on rebuild mode. They are literally rebuilding from scratch again. I don’t seem them making any real headway for the next year when it comes to wins and loses. That 10-6 season I think did more damage in covering up issues and making the organization think it was on firmer footing than it actually was. QB is still a huge issue along with RB (Jamal is just not getting it done) and WR.
Bengals- I cannot help but be skeptical about their draft. There is a reason they have made some historically bad draft picks…they have the most underfunded recruiting staff in the league. Mike Brown has, time and time again, gone after guys with talent but also questionable issues, in hopes of getting cheap talent. Just look at their handling of their wild receiver corp. Ouch Stinko should have been traded to the Redskins, Chris Henry…if anyone would even try to argue that he would still be playing on the Steelers or the Ravens, I think your insane, and the Housh handling just seemed really mucked up to me. IF, and this is a huge if, the defense plays at the same level, and somehow Palmer doesn’t get killed again this year…they will be good. But this team never seems to have depth when it comes to injuries, the team seems to be a three ring circus off the field, and having HBO cameras there will not help in my opinion.
As for the Ravens and the Steelers…we are going to be fighting each other for the division yet again. The Ravens are going to have to take the crown from the Steelers and it won’t be easy. To quote the great Ric Flair “To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best”.

…is what people who don’t know football schematics use to sound like the know football schematics…

Frankly, the stats leave out key parts of the game. There is no stat for Haloti Ngata eating double teams on every play. There is no stat for Bart Scott subtracting the Fullback from every running play so that Ray is untouched. There is no stat for a Linebacker who stunts up to the line of scrimmage and looks like he’s blitzing and makes the LT miss his assignment even though he doesn’t actually make the tackle on the play.

Bottom line is that Baltimore’s defense is good because of the versatility of each player on it and their collective ability to make pre-snap reads nearly impossible (which is why we cause so many turnovers). Pittsburgh’s defense is good because of absolutely perfect defensive responsibility and skill at every position. The Eagles, though featuring the 3rd ranked defense in the NFL (if you ask the numbers), are basically just good at using their 46 scheme to fill up the inside gaps and let the Defensive Ends run free with the singular responsibility of getting to the QB. They don’t have the same type of bulletproof gap responsibility that the Ravens and the Steelers show.

We’ll see how the Bengals defense looks next year with all those new faces. They could have chemistry problems, or they could gel together like Dr. Scholls. If they do, and palmer stays on his feet, that could be a dangerous 8 or 9 win team.

But you can forget about the stats. Most years, the NFL’s leading tackler is on a horrible defense. Why? Because they can never get off the field, so they keep makig tackles! Besides beating off to sack numbers or passer ratings, the stats don’t really tell you what type of football teams play.

cleveland and cincy need to go dirty bird black for a season and change their mojo. something about orange in pro-sports makes you the whipping team.

browns, bengals, fins, orioles, tigers…crayola teams. even the indains and reds where smart enough to stay away from traffic cone orange.

someone mentioned that the Pitt Lb’s are job specific and simply line up and rush the qb. can i see the hands for initiating this program? actually. we do get on Ben pretty good but he disappears faster than Clarence the angel outside of Martinin’s bar.

oops, not martinis bar but the old house were ernie the cop was wrestling him. gotta get my Wonderful Life straight.