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If Sam Bradford could do things over, he probably would have entered the draft in ’09. What does his decision mean for future collegiate stars and how will his own NFL future be affected?
If you remove the illusions of name, reputation, media market, etc., what do you get when looking at the 2008 NFL season? With the Field Impact Counter and the Reina Value it is possible.
Tom Brady has watched his Patriots fight their way to a 5-3 record through the first half of the season, and in actuality, he's pretty darn happy with where he currently stands.
While everyone focuses on the marquee players that will be drafted on day one this Saturday, the key to building a winning team is by acquiring 5-7 impact makers. It was Marques Colston last year, who will it be this year?
RealGM Search
By Christopher Reina
The scoreboard is where games are officially won and lost, but they are largely decided by the team that wins the battles of yards per pass, yards per carry, penalty yards lost, first downs, and turnovers. For this reason, I created the following formula called the ‘Trench Counter’ to look at which team truly controls the game:
(2x Yards per pass)
+ (2x Yards per carry)
+ (.5 First downs)
- (Penalty yards/10)
- (2.5 Turnovers)
- (Opposing Team's Trench Counter)
For the 2009 season, our weekly team rankings will be based solely off this formula.
1. New Orleans Saints: 15.8
The Saints aren't going to win a lot of games with their defense, but that six-minute stretch to start the second quarter with Darren Sharper's interception return and Remi Ayodele's fumble recovery was more than enough to let the offense play time-consuming ground game football.
2. Denver Broncos: 14.4
Given the lack of quality opponents in Weeks 1-3, beating Dallas 17-10 was easily Josh McDaniels' first signature win. Kyle Orton had a 117.5 passer rating in comparison to Tony Romo's 67.1 and the defense also stifled the excellent Dallas rushing game.
3. Indianapolis Colts: 11.5
Peyton Manning is throwing for 9.8 yards per pass, which harkens back to his 2004 season when he finished the year with a 9.2 average and 49 touchdowns. He also has a 114.5 passer rating while showing no ill-effects of losing Marvin Harrison and Anthony Gonzalez.
4. New York Giants: 10.9
The trio of Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham could become truly dangerous given the continued maturity and decision-making of Eli Manning. They combined for 231 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday's 27-16 win at Kansas City. Smith was targeted 16 times by Manning, while Manningham had eight targets and suffered from several drops.
With Smith's second 134 yard game in three weeks, we might have to refer to Carolina's version of Steve Smith as 'The Other Steve Smith.'
5. Baltimore Ravens: 9.8
The Ravens had a +4.0 yards per carry average advantage over New England, but were severely hurt by those nine penalties for 85 yards.
6. Philadelphia Eagles: 7.2
The early bye is a curse for most teams, but it came at a good time for Philadelphia to get Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook healthy, while also giving Michael Vick more dress rehearsal reps.
7. San Francisco 49ers: 6.7
Vernon Davis has three touchdowns in his past two games.
8. Minnesota Vikings: 6.1
Brett Favre now has beaten every team in the NFL and has a compelling 135.3 passer rating against the Packers.
9. Green Bay Packers: 5.6
The Packers held Adrian Peterson to just 55 yards on 25 carries, forcing Favre to beat them in the air, which he did.
10. New England Patriots: 4.5
As the Baltimore defense largely suffocated Randy Moss, Sam Aiken received as many targets from Tom Brady.
11. Jacksonville Jaguars: 2.9
Mike Sims-Walker has averaged better than 92 yards in each of the past three weeks.
12. Pittsburgh Steelers: 2.5
Pittsburgh's offense looked much more like their previous incarnations, with two more runs than passes and a convincing 4.9 yards per carry average.
13. New York Jets: 2.4
Mark Sanchez now has an 87.7 rating in wins and 27.0 rating in losses.
14. Houston Texans: 1.6
Even though the two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving) for Steve Slaton were encouraging, he still had a pedestrian 3.1 yards per carry average.
15. Dallas Cowboys: 1.4
Opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of 95.7, which puts them in the category of the Lions, Titans, Buccaneers and Rams, who have struggled to begin 2009.
16. Chicago Bears: -0.2
With sophomore slump murmurs surrounding him, Matt Forte rushed for 121 yards (10.1 per carry average) in the Bears' 48-24 win over Detroit.
17. Washington Redskins: -0.5
Clinton Portis was two yards shy from 100, but it had to come on a workmanlike 25 touchdowns.
18. Cincinnati Bengals: -1.9
The state of Ohio needed almost 75 minutes to determine the winner of Round 1 and the Bengals found a way to improve to 3-1 despite having J.P. Foschi lead the team in receiving with 44 yards.
19. Seattle Seahawks: -2.5
Seneca Wallace had a 94.4 passer rating and also ran for a touchdown, but his damage was mostly in garbage time.
20. Tennessee Titans: -2.6
Kerry Collins' passer rating of 66.7 was nearly half as much as the one allowed by the Tennessee defense for David Garrard (126.3).
21. Buffao Bills: -3.3
Marshawn Lynch didn't do anything to win carries back from Fred Jackson, rushing eight times for four yards.
22. Atlanta Falcons: -3.3
The Falcons got two weeks to prepare for a San Francisco team that will be without Frank Gore.
23. San Diego Chargers: -3.4
The Chargers' defense has been brutal on 3rd down, with opponents being successful 49% of the time. Meanwhile, the team they are now quickly chasing in the AFC West, Denver, is allowing a 1st down in just 26.4% of the attempts.
24. Miami Dolphins: -3.8
The Miami rushing game is averaging 183.5 yards per game, which would put them with the 2006 Falcons (183.7 yards per game average) if they were able to continue the pace. The main difference between those Falcons and these Dolphins is the former got a significant chunk of those yards from the quarterback position.
25. Arizona Cardinals: -4.3
For all of the Week 4 bye teams, Arizona could have used a bye in Week 9 or 10 the most to effectively split Kurt Warner's season in half.
26. Kansas City Chiefs: -8.5
As great/bad as the Broncos and Chargers have respectively been on defense in 3rd down situations, Todd Haley's team has been unequivocally ineffective. They were 2-for-15 in their attempts against the Giants, lowering their percentage to 17.6.
27. Detroit Lions: -9.6
Kevin Smith's two touchdowns look good in the box score, but he averaged just 1.6 yards over his 19 carries. Still, Detroit did manage 25 1st downs compared to 14 for Chicago.
28. Carolina Panthers: -9.9
After having two weeks to think about their 0-3 start, the Panthers get to host a Washington team led by Jim Zorn on life support.
29. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: -10.7
Aqib Talib had all three of Campbell's interceptions, raising his career total to seven in his first 19 games.
30. St. Louis Rams: -13.6
The Rams let Shaun Hill finish Sunday's 0-35 loss with a 104.9 passer rating.
31. Oakland Raiders: -13.7
I've been one of the last people to write off JaMarcus Russell and though my faith is waning weekly, the running game is doing him no favors with Sunday's 2.0 yards per carry average. I do think you can blame Russell for that number more than you can the ground game for his 48.5 passer rating.
32. Cleveland Browns: -14.2
While Derek Anderson did little to bolster Braylon Edwards' productivity (no catches in five targets), Mohamed Massaquoi had a breakout game with 148 yards on eight catches.
