3 Thoughts on the NFL season thus far

1.      The Denver Broncos management is doing everything they can to throw the season and land Andrew Luck.

               

Consider the facts: (1) The Broncos benched Orton, who was the better QB, in favor of Tim Tebow whom everyone but Skip Bayless understands is not ready to be an NFL QB.  (2) The Broncos recently traded Brandon Lloyd. By pulling this trade the Broncos not only loss their best offensive weapon, they also gave an offensive boost to St. Louis who could challenge the Broncos in the race for Luck. (3) The Broncos are reportedly looking to make their team worse in the short term by trading Eddie Royal. (4) The Broncos are completely under-utilizing running back Knowshon Moreno.

Of course one could argue that all of these moves are defensible: Orton’s winning record is lousy, Brandon Lloyd was going to leave next year and the Broncos wanted to get something in return, Eddie Royal is undersized and injury prone and could also leave next year, and Willis McGahee has been better than what was expected.  But when you watch the Broncos play on Sundays, it become clear what their true intentions are.

2.      Jim Harbaugh has imposed his personality on his team

           

At this point last year the 49ers were 1-5.  This year, the 49ers are 5-1 with an impressive comeback victory on the road against the eagles, a home blow-out of the Buccaneers, and an emotional road victory over the previously unbeaten Detroit Lions. Amazingly, the 49ers have made this dramatic improvement with arguably less talented players than last year.  The 49ers loss stud nose tackle Franklin to the Saints, and veteran LB, Spikes, to the Chargers.  Their only real acquisition was WR Braylon Edwards who has sat most of the year due to an injury.

The big change has been the coaching. Harbaugh seems able to get the best out his players.  For instance, Alex Smith is still has fumbling issues and still lacks the ability to be a real areal threat; the 49ers rank 30^th in the league in passing.  But Harbuagh has masked those issues by asking Smith to continually throw quick timing routes.  The result – Smith’s touchdown to interception ratio is amazing and Smith is amongst the very best in the league in total QBR.

More than X’s and O’s, Harbaugh’s biggest impact seems to be a change in attitude. Harbaugh has a reputation of being a fierce competitor to a fault.  As a player he reportedly tracked down and punched a TV analyst who called him soft.  As a collegiate coach, Harbaugh created a mean-spirited rivalry between himself and USC coach Pete Carrol. And if Harbaugh’s tiff with Jim Schwartz is any indication, Harbaugh’s NFL coaching career won’t be any different.

The 49ers seem to have adopted their coach’s overly competitive attitude. When you watch them play they don’t look particularly impressive, but they do look mean and nasty.  After the 49ers completed their comeback over the Eagles, Frank Gore explained that the 49ers simply beat the will to win out of the Eagles. It’s that nastiness which was propelled the 49ers to such a strong start.

3.      The dream team approach simply doesn’t work in the NFL.

            

I was surprised at how well the Miami Heat played this year.  I always believed that to win the NBA you need 1 superstar, 1 semi super start, and about 4 role players. Unfortunately I was proven wrong. Fortunately, however, the Philadelphia Eagles are proving that the Dream team approach doesn’t work in the NFL.  Despite signing just about every marquee free agent over the summer, the Philadelphia Eagles only have 2 unimpressive wins. It won’t get any easier either.  The Eagles still have to play vs. Chicago, at New York Giants, vs. New England, vs. New York Jets, and at Dallas. The Eagles could easily finish the season 7-9. It’s possible that the Eagles turn it around and win the lousy NFC East, but they certainly are no longer Superbowl favorites – and that is good for the league.