Fear this team

Two lines of thought inspired this Dream Team. 1) The countless conversations I have had about Super Bowl quarterbacks when someone brings up the Ravens won with Trent Dilfer – and I always say he was the worst Super Bowl quarterback ever. 2) Many years ago I got into a discussion with several fans about the best free agents to sign in that given offseason. One of them raised an argument against several players on the grounds they had never been on playoff teams. I found this argument poor and many days later on a dull day I thought about the reverse – who were the worst players on Super Bowl winners.

Incidentally that stupid argument does seem to hold water with some GMs, which is why most Super Bowl winners have their depth raided as teams overpay for roll players (I’ll pick Alvin Harper from the plethora of examples). Perhaps my most favorite was when whatever was left of Al Davis’s brain put the 1995 and 1996 Super Bowl MVPs on the 1997 Raaaaid-ers – who went 4-12. Both player spent two seasons in Oakland.

So this is a collection of the worst winners. Now realize that there will be some guys you can think of who are not on this list. I don’t remember very single obscure player and if I did not know them I did not consider them. Thus even if Dylan Gandy the 2006 World Champion Indianapolis Colts was the worst guard ever he is not included. I did have a little trouble balancing a guys over talent vs. the year he had when he won a ring.

I started from 2000 so I could include our inspiration at QB.

QB Trent Dilfer 2000 Ravens – not on team next year
RB James Starks 2010 Packers
WR Patrick Johnson 2000 Ravens – caught 1 pass for 8 yards in whole 2000 playoffs
WR Antwaan Randle El 2005 Steelers
TE Christian Fauria 2003 Patriots
TE Ben Utecht 2006 Colts
T Roman Oben 2002 Bucs
G Jake Scott 2006 Colts
C Damien Woody 2001 Patriots
G Chris Kemoeatu 2008 Steelers
T Kenyatta Walker 2002 Bucs

DE Chris Canty 2011 Giants
DT Raheem Brock 2006 Colts
DT Linval Joseph 2011 Giants
DE Anthony Pleasant 2001 Patriots
OLB Kawika Mitchell 2007 Giants
MLB AJ Hawk 2010 Packers
OLB Scott Shanle 2009 Saints
CB Duane Starks 2000 Ravens – 5 more years, 4 teams
SF Charlie Peprah 2010 Packers (almost went with Gibril Wilson 2007 Giants)
SF Tebucky Jones 2001 Patriots
CB Otis Smith 2001 Patriots

Coach Brian Billick 2000 Ravens. An “offensive guru” who won with defense. In the next seven years he made the playoffs three times only winning a single game the very next year, which was the last year he had Marvin Lewis as his defensive coordinator.

Center and middle linebacker proved tough positions. Damien Woody was such a good center that he was later moved to guard and then went to Detriot – where he played tackle. There were plenty of bad outside linebackers, but inside I went with AJ Hawk just over his partner in the middle Desmond Bishop.

I went with two tight ends as very few of these teams had traditional fullbacks.

I’m sure I’ll hear comments on having both tackles from the 2002 Buccaneers. I can point out that they were a defensive football team. If I hear about having two Giants from last year I’ll point out they were 27th in D. I have two Colts from ’06 to. Most controversial will probably be having two starters from the Pat secondary that shutdown the Greatest Show on Turf –but Otis Smith was journeyman and Tebucky Jones was a first round bust. Mike Martz’s hubris is what beat St. Louis that day.

I bet in New Orleans I will hear about Jason “Toast” David from the 2006 Colts, but the truth is in Indy’s system he was effective.

"Franchise" tag

Teams that were going to apply to franchise tag to someone to keep them from leaving via free agency had to do it by today. 21 teams tagged their "franchise" player. Amongst those 21 were FIVE kickers and a punter. That is right: roughly A QUARTER of franchise players were specialists. Only six of the players to be tagged could be called true face of the franchise type guys (and that is being generous to Dwayne Bowe). And that include Wes Welker, who is clearly not the Pats #1 stud (Ray Rice and DeSean Jackson) is pretty borderline too.

You can thank the NFLPA for this, when they renegotiated the contract they changed the salary a team must guarantee to a franchise players dropped. Under the new system to set franchise number the NFL takes is the average percentage of the salary cap the franchise tag been for the last five years and set the tag at that percentage of the cap. That is if the last five years the QB franchise tag salary has been 15% 20% 20% 15% and 20% of the cap - this year it is 18% of the cap (they would multiple whatever the cap number is by 0.18). Pervious the franchise number was based on the top five salaries of players at a given position. The result is the franchise number for every position dropped - usually by about $2 millions (DTs take a whooping $4.5 mil cut - yet none were tagged). You can see the exact numbers here.

For all the money the players get paid you could argue that the NFLPA doesn't represent them very well - although on the other hand it more about how they do for rank and file players, not the stars, that matters.



****Also learned of another Jerry Rice record. This was one I would not have expected - the G.O.A.T. has the NFL career record for most TD catches of 50+ yards. While Jerry was great I tend to think of him as an all around great WR, not as one dimensional deep threat - ironically his over all skills diminish specific ones. He had 36 TDs that covered over half the field - seven more than the next guy (Randy Moss). Of course when you have 208 TDs in your career some of them will be long.