Quote:
Originally Posted by mooby
Are you saying the NFL is the same league now as it was in '94? And when JC came out he was being talked about as a fringe elite qb. I'm talking top of the class. The Giants gambled bigtime on Eli, and they've won bigtime as a result. Look at the qb's who have won SB's recently and identify all the non-franchise ones in there.
Eli, Rodgers, Brees, Roethlisberger, Eli, Peyton, Rosthlisberger, Brady, Brady, Johnson, Brady in the last 11 years. All of those were considered franchise qb's at the time, save Brady in 01 who was kind of an unknown. My point is, as the league has become a passing league, look at all the recent SB champions. None of them won without significant contributions from their qb at some step of the way.
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Dilfer, Brady, Johnson, Brady winning the super bowl in four consecutive years would have suggested that who your QB was didn't even matter at the beginning of this decade. Furthermore, Brady had two of the best QB seasons of all time in 2007 and 2010, went to the super bowl in 2007 and 2011, and lost both. If the world was truly as QB centric as most claim, the Patriots haven't been the same team since Tom Brady started putting up passing records. That wouldn't make any sense.
In the last three years, there has been a shift in who makes the big game going from the team who holds homefield advantage to the team who can put up the gaudiest passing numbers. The problem with the QB theories is that Alex Smith and Joe Flacco pretty much did as much to take their teams to the super bowl as anyone in the game.
And it's really not that hard to find Alex Smith and Joe Flacco types. But Patrick Willis or Terrell Suggs? Those guys are generational type talents.
The lesson from this season is you need to have special players to make the super bowl. Multiple special players. It doesn't so much matter that you have one of the five best QBs in the league (Eli has never been one of the five best QBs in the league), but you NEED guys who can raise their level of play in the playoffs.
For the better part of 15 weeks, Osi and Tuck nursed their injuries, sat out of practice, and let the injury report make excuses for them. And now they are champions. Apparently, to be truly great in the NFC East, you need to have great raw talents, who are willing to play up to their true potential for about a month. And you need an Eli or a JPP to keep your season afloat.