Happy Friday guys! Sorry we’re a little late on this one, but let’s check out a few more sneaky big questions for every team in the NFC South! We’ll finish up the questions with the NFC East tomorrow. Enjoy!
Carolina Panthers
Q: Is Teddy Bridgewater too good for this team to tank?
Coming into the 2020 NFL season there are three obvious candidates for next year’s coveted 1st overall pick: Washington, Jacksonville, and Carolina. The Panthers are coming off a 5-11 season that went off the rails very quickly. Cam Newton got hurt in week 2 and never took another snap in a Panther’s uniform. Carolina started Kyle Allen and Will Grier the rest of the way and McCaffrey carried this team to five wins.
The Panthers signed Teddy Bridgewater to a 3 yr/$63 million contract this offseason, which is pretty insane. Teddy had five good games filling in for Drew Brees last year then was handed upwards of 60 million dollars!! I want to say that Teddy is just a ‘bridge quarterback’ for Carolina, but his dead cap hits over the next two years is $33 million this year and $20 million in 2021! What the hell was up with that contract?
Out of the three aforementioned contenders for the 2021 1st overall pick the Panthers are easily the most fun landing spot for Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields. Imagine an offense with Lawrence, CMC, DJ Moore, Robby Anderson, and Curtis Samuel. I am rooting for Carolina to get the first overall pick, but Bridgewater is much more talented than other bridge quarterbacks we’ve seen in the past like Sam Bradford, Tyrod Taylor, and Brian Hoyer. Bridgewater went 5-0 last year, completing 68% of his passes, and throwing 9 TDs to just 2 INTs. Teddy could easily lead this team to a 5-11 or 6-10 record and this team is picking 7th in next year’s draft. I am rooting for Carolina to get Lawrence, but Teddy might be too productive for this team to go into full tank mode.
Atlanta Falcons
Q: Is Dan Quinn a sneaky pick for ‘first coach fired’?
Let’s talk a little betting for a second, shall we? Coming into the year, the three favorites in Vegas for ‘first coach fired’ are pretty straightforward. Matt Patricia +300, Doug Marrone +400, and Adam Gase at +800. It’s obvious that Patricia and Gase should be considered the front runners, but don’t rule out Dan Quinn of the Falcons for this bet.
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Dan Quinn was of course the head coach of the worst choke job in Super Bowl history, as we all remember the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead with 2:10 in the 3rd quarter. Many were surprised to see ownership bring Quinn back after another losing season last year, but Atlanta hasn’t been a complete tire fire over the last three seasons. They made the playoffs the year after that SB loss and have a 24-25 record since that fatetful night. However, when something freaky like that happens to a team, I think it affects the psyche of the players even more than we might think. I’m sure Matt Ryan and Julio Jones think about that crushing loss several times a day and when they show up to practice, Dan Quinn is a constant reminder of that.
Quinn is on very thin ice in Atlanta, as the Falcon’s defense has ranked 25th and 28th respectively in total defense over the last two years. The Falcons 2020 schedule starts off vs. SEA, @ DAL, vs. CHI, and @ GB…that could easily be 0-4 and Arthur Blank may decide to cut ties with Mr. Quinn even before their bye week. If Atlanta fails to make the playoffs this season, Quinn will most certainly be fired, but don’t be surprised if he’s out of a job by like week 5. (Dan Quinn is +1000 for ‘first coach fired’)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Q: Is this the most talented offense Brady has ever played with?
Understatement of the season: seeing Tom Brady in a Bucs uniform is going to take some getting used to. Brady shocked the NFL world last March when he announced he was leaving the Patriots and signing with Tampa Bay, a franchise that hasn’t seen playoff action since 2007.
For a player that wanted to squeeze out the last few ounces of talent he had, Tampa Bay made a lot of sense. They have two 1,000+ yard receivers, a great coach in Bruce Arians, and some solid talent on the defensive side of the ball. There are numerous questions surrounding the 43-year-old Tom Brady, but my sneaky big question for the Buccaneers would be: is this the most talented group of players that Brady has ever had around him?
Brady is of course a member of the ’07 Patriots team that went 16-0 and averaged 36.8 PPG (2nd most all-time). That team had Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Donte’ Stallworth, but other than that there weren’t a ton of talented skill position players on that squad. There is an argument to be made that on paper this Tampa Bay offense around Brady is more talented than the ’07 Pats. With Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette, OJ Howard, and Rob Gronkowski this team is absolutely stacked.
Even with the talent on this roster, we see it every year in sports. Whether it’s the 2019 Browns, the Dwight Howard/Steve Nash Lakers, or the 2007 Detroit Tigers, these teams that have high expectations and have very little chemistry together just seem to fall short of expectations. Brady has had very little time to practice with his receivers and it’s nearly impossible to build chemistry during a pandemic. I have high hopes for this Bucs team, but who knows what we’re going to get from a 43-year old QB in a whole new system.
New Orleans SaintsÂ
Q: Why do smart teams, even the Saints, continue to pay running backs big money?
There’s no question about it, the Saints have been one of the smartest organizations over the past five years. Their draft history and free agent signings over the past several seasons is truly impeccable. However, when the Kamara contract drama was happening a few weeks ago, I thought maybe…just maybe the Saints would finally be the team to put their foot down and let their star running back walk. Nope.
The nature of the running back position in the NFL is extremely challenging. Most backs come out of college, rack up a ton of miles on their rookie deal, then are never heard from again. The reason we applaud the Adrian Petersons and the Frank Gores of the world is because playing in the NFL as a tailback for 15+ years just doesn’t happen anymore. Taking that kind of punishment every week for a decade plus is absolutely grueling. The shelf life of an NFL running back is about 2.9 years of service, yet teams still overvalue the position and then find themselves in salary cap hell.
There are a laundry list of examples in recent memory of hefty running back contracts blowing up in teams’ faces. Shaun Alexander, Ahman Green, Edgerrin James, Todd Gurley, David Johnson, etc. Not only that, but it’s really easy to find solid talent in the latter rounds of the draft and they all have one thing in common: they’re cheap. Aaron Jones was taken in the 5th round, James White was a 5th rounder, Chris Carson was a 7th round pick, Phillip Lindsay, Austin Ekeler, and Arian Foster all went undrafted! RB is one of the easiest positions to replace in the draft especially when you compare it to cornerbacks, offensive line, and the QB spot.
With so much depth in the draft, it boggles my mind that teams still use 1st round draft capital on RBs and then pay them upwards of $70 million dollars four years later. What is even crazier about New Orleans’ situation is that in the two games that Kamara missed last year, Latavius Murray racked up 310 total yards and 4 touchdowns! Murray played just as well, if not better than Alvin did and only makes $4 million/year. Will Kamara’s contract come back to bite the Saints in the ass? We’ll find out over the next few years.
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