Playoffs ?? The Playoffs !?!?
By Nick Pease
Here is a public service announcement for all of you NFL fans out there: IT’S MAY 13th !!!!!!!!
May, as in the month after April, the fifth month of the year and nearly four full months before the 2009 NFL season kicks off. But apparently, some people don’t know that, or they simply just don’t have anything better to do in May than write about things that carry no merit at all this time of year.
Ok, ok … so I’m on a rant primarily because a writer over at CBS, Don Banks, believes that the Colts won’t make the playoffs this year. Now if he had a little bit of evidence or any sort of facts to support his claim, it might not be so bad, but basically his only indication of a decline is the departure of head coach Tony Dungy. And then today I saw a post over on Blogging Dirty (the Atlanta Falcons Fansided blog) that felt the same way, or more specifically, that the “wheels are gonna fall off” and the Colts will not make the playoffs.
What the ?!??!?!!?
Actually, it got me to thinking of the classic Jim Mora Playoff Rant
But for real, the playoffs ?? We’re talking about the playoff in May ?? Ok so maybe it’s fun to speculate and look at which teams may or may not make it to the post season, but in all reality, I think it’s a bit early to be making post season predictions for the 2009 season. Now, ofcourse I think the Colts will make the playoffs, only because they are the model for consistency and still have Peyton Manning at the helm. But with that said, I also think the Patriots, Steelers and Chargers will all make the playoffs as well. But we’ll leave the NFC and the rest of the predictions for a couple months. After all it is only May!
The whole idea of talking about the playoffs in May got me to thinking about a couple of other things that are pretty silly to be talking about this time of year. After some very deep personal refelction, I came up with my top three most pointless things to be discussing this early in the off season:
1.) The Playoffs
As I carried on about above, it’s pretty silly to be talking about the playoffs in May. I doubt anyone this time last year was predicting the Cardinals would go to the Super Bowl (but if you did, Kudos to you) or that the Patriots would miss the playoffs. And lots of people last year were probably predicting that the Broncos and Saints would be playoff teams – and alas, they were not. Not to mention that one team down in Texas that did not make the post season. It’s simply to early to talk about the playoffs – there are too many unknowns, too many injuries yet to happen, and too many roster moves yet to be made.
2.) Draft Grades
Let me start by saying I hate reading about draft grades right after the draft. While they are fun and it’s funny to watch teams like the Raiders fail miserably every year, they are pretty pointless. It takes at least, at the very minimumm, 2-3 years to really evaluate a group of players and their impact on a team. Now obviously there are players that come in right away and are such studs that they make a difference from day one – a la Adrian Peterson or Matt Ryan. But most players take a couple years to learn the system, adjust to the NFL, and find their niche. On the opposite end their are the Alex Smith’s who just don’t pan out like they are supposed to, in other words the draft picks that Mel “I suck at my job and life in general” Kiper gives an A and ultimately turn to an F. And let us not forget Marques Colston who was drafted with the 1,518th pick and is kind of good i hear. Yeah draft grades right now are pretty pointless.
3.) Predicting the 53 man roster
I throw this one on the list just because lots of bloggers get carried away with this one and it’s just to early to guess the final roster. Or really, it’s more like it’s too early to talk about who is going to be the final three or four players to earn a roster spot. There are injuries that will happen, players who will dissapoint, others who will shine – and really there are just too many unknowns between now and September. I love discussing position battles and looking at the Colts depth, but we’ll look at all those things in the coming months. Not in May!
Ok … so with my rant fully done, I guess i’ll stop now. But i look forward to posting more and more about the Colts for Naptown’ Finest, but don’t look for anything about the playoffs … well … not for a while that is !!