Media darling Jacksonville is really off to a rough beginning this season. Jerry "Is there any evidence he can play?" Porter already blew a hammy, "#1" WR Reggie Williams came back from PUP just long enough to get carted off the field, and oh yeah...
THEY STILL HAVEN'T SIGNED THEIR #1 PICK.
The team that traded up (ill-advisedly) to draft Derrick Harvey in hopes that he could help to contain Peyton Manning...hasn't bothered to sign him yet. It's hard for rookie DEs (even great ones) to make a big impact in the first few weeks anyway (see Williams, Mario and Freeney, Dwight), but after missing at least several days of camp, the odds of Harvey being an impact player in the all-important week three game at Indy are slim to none. The Jags possibly had an elite roster, but will likely struggle early in the season due to continuity problems on offense and a lack of reps for their top pass rusher.
Oh, and the main page at Jaguars.com? A plea to buy tickets.
Say it with me folks...LA JAGS! LA JAGS! AFC MIDWEST! AFC MIDWEST!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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17 comments:
You can't have the AFC Midwest, unless you also rename the NFC South to the NFC Midwest.
On a related note, Houston is on the Gulf Coast, nowhere near Indianapolis or Nashville. And Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Charlotte are also nowhere near the Midwest.
Sorry, but there will not be an AFC Midwest any time soon. Even if the Jags move to LA, they'd probably give the AFC South the Chiefs (closest team to other competitors)
FYI, The link to Reggie Williams being carted off the field is wrong--it goes to an Indy Star article about Manning.
Why not? Is there any reason at all you can't have an NFC South (which is South!) and an AFC midwest (in which all the teams are basically in the midwest).
The Chiefs aren't moving divisions. They have old and established rivalries. It's not going to happen. There is no reason to keep the Rams in the NFC West.
The NFL can call the divisions whatever it wants. The Rams and Jags should switch conferences. Can you give me one reason why not?
Actually, I just thought of one...to balance out the TV deal. CBS pays less for the AFC games becuase it's loaded with small markets, while Fox pays more for the NFC. Trading Jax for LA might help...
All the more reason to move the Jags, though.
link is fixed.
"Basically" doesn't count. Assuming the Jags move to LA, would you really want to drop them in the NFC West with Seattle, Arizona, and San Francisco? They'd win every year. Moreover, why would the Rams want to be in the AFC South/Midwest? So they can get smoked by Indy and Houston twice a year, and split the series with Tennessee? How demoralizing would it be going into camp knowing that you're topping out at 11-5 and a wild-card, maybe?
As long as the Colts are top dogs, no one is going to want to be in the AFC South. It's all small markets, and there's a clear top dog. Also, they would probably make the Jaguars leave their colors and whatnot behind and become the LA Stars or some shit like that.
And then we'd be making fun of Houston and Nashville and St. Louis, and I'm just not comfortable with that.
They don't make those kind of decisions based on who is good now and what division is tough for right now. That is waaaay too short sighted.
What you are saying is true; I just don't think it's relevent to the decision. I don't know that they'll give the teams much of a choice...and EVEN if they do, who do you think will get more pull? Which team is it more important to the league to have instant success? A team with a new owner that is now in LA and trying to fill a key stadium for the league or the Rams who are constantly trying to sell?
I think the league will do whatever possible to make that LA team a go, and that means the NFC West where they would be an instant contender.
LA Stars...I do love that though. I'd kill to play their pink and mauve asses twice a year. That would be too easy.
This has been a fun discussion. Remember when the last realignment hit: I thought, oh crap, Tenn is a tough team. We did okay at first, "tying" for the win but they officially got it via tie-breaker and we were a wildcard. And it looked like years of dominance between these two well-run powerhouses.
How times change.
DZ is right in that looking at who is good now does not factor into the equation. Looking at the kind of cash flow Team X can generate over the next 10 years DOES.
But no pink and mauve--they also include merch sales in their calcs and the Ravens made a calculated, Raiders-like decision that black sells jerseys better than most other colors. Even when the team sucks. Who knows why?
They won't change the name of the division unless they get more expansion teams, which won't happen any time soon. The only team in the AFCS that isn't technically South is Indy. And when you compare them to the NFC North, they ARE South. To call it the AFC MidWest would be even less accurate. Houston and Jacksonville/LA are NOT midwestern. That's half the teams. Right now there is only one team that doesn't quite fit.
That's why I want them to move the Jags to the NFC West and import the Rams. That was what predicated the 'Midwest' comment. I suppose Central would be even more apropos
If you're going to start switching teams out of their divisions, how about Miami goes to the South (who's farther South than Miami??), Baltimore goes to the East, Cincinnati goes to the South, and the Colts go to the North. The Jags can go to the NFCW and the Rams can come on over to the AFCS. That's about as geographically correct as you can get. But then what happens when LA decides the Jags suck? We gotta do it all over again, lol.
That's what they should have done in the first place, obviously. The reason they didn't was because of traditional rivalries. That is the same reason you can't move KC to the South and LA Jags to the West. The best move is to switch the Rams and Jags because you don't disrupt any real meaningful rivalries. The Seahawks and Cardinals are new to the NFC West and the Rams/49ers isn't what it once was now that the Rams are in the midwest.
We are trying to deal in the realm of the possible here.
actually, the best divisions the AFC could have had would have been Balt, NYJ, Buff and NE
Mia, Jax, Tenn, Hou
Pitt, Cle, Cincy, Ind
Den, Oak, KC, SD
But again, they didn't want to break up the Dolphins/Bills (which was a BIG deal in the Marino/Kelly era) or the KC/Denver, KC/Oakland games which go back to the beginning of the AFC.
Ok, so why did they mess with the Colts/Dolphins rivalry? Colts/Jets? Colts/Bills? What Colts fan wanted to play the upstart TEXANS twice a year? Not me.
Here's the real solution: scrap the divisions entirely. The top 6 in the AFC and the top 6 in the NFC make the postseason. No more wondering whether or not the best teams made the playoffs. No more feeling out of place in your own division. Come up with a new schedule system and you're in business. You can still keep all rivalries intact, plus build new ones. Why do we need to play anybody twice a year anyway? I look forward to playing teams like Cleveland and Miami because we don't get to but every 4 years usually. You're either an AFC team or an NFC team, no matter where you relocate. The Bills could finally go to Canada, too. :)
It's not a bad idea persea, but does create some headaches.
The main reason that won't work is that a lot of the old school teams WANT the home and home with the traditional rivals. KC WANTS to see Denver and Oakland every year. With only a 16 game schedule, there has to be some rational for why you only play the teams you play.
Divisions also make it easier for teams to build their squads. You know that every year you have to beat the Colts for instance...you'll draft and staff accordingly.
They dumped Indy from the AFC East because someone had to go and:
1. The Colts had moved
2. The Colts were originally an NFC team that moved to the AFC with the merger. They didn't go back to the old AFC like the Bills and Dolphins. That is a fact that really matters to the old schoolers like Ralph Wilson and Hunt (who was alive at the time of realignment)
Ok, so why did they mess with the Colts/Dolphins rivalry? Colts/Jets? Colts/Bills? What Colts fan wanted to play the upstart TEXANS twice a year? Not me.
Here's the real solution: scrap the divisions entirely. The top 6 in the AFC and the top 6 in the NFC make the postseason. No more wondering whether or not the best teams made the playoffs. No more feeling out of place in your own division. Come up with a new schedule system and you're in business. You can still keep all rivalries intact, plus build new ones. Why do we need to play anybody twice a year anyway? I look forward to playing teams like Cleveland and Miami because we don't get to but every 4 years usually. You're either an AFC team or an NFC team, no matter where you relocate. The Bills could finally go to Canada, too. :)
Are you reposting the same thing on purpose?
No, lol. I have no idea why it did that...
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