NFL Quarterly Rankings

Here are my rankings of the 32 NFL teams after the first quarter of the season.

(32)      Jacksonville

(a letter to the only person I know that is a Jags fan)

Dear Dalton,

At least you still have the Braves.

Sincerely,

Cody (the Pats fan)

(31)    Giants

(30)    Tampa Bay

(29)    Oakland

I’m confused by Oakland…are they trying to win? Or did they get up 14-0 and think “Oh, shit, we’re winning…lets concuss Flynn and send him back out there so he’ll stand in the pocket forever a take a record number of sacks”?

(28)    Pittsburgh

(27)    St. Louis

(26)    Carolina

(25)    Philly

Are we sure Chip Kelly is really even that good…? I mean, Oregon is still dominating and Kelly’s team has one win, which was against Washington. Speaking of Washington…

(24)    Washington

Is it too late to start Kirk Cousins?

(23)    Minnesota

(22)    Jets

(21)    Cleveland

Um…does anyone know what is going on with this team?

(20)    Arizona

(19)    Dallas

(18)    Buffalo

I want to go on record and say that I think this team is pretty good and will be in a lot of games…EJ Manuel might just be the real deal…and, yet, the guy that replaced him at FSU, Jameis Winston, is on a Johnny Football-like trajectory.

(17)    Atlanta

(16)    Green Bay

Don’t worry…they’ll be in the top-8 in four weeks.

(15)    San Francisco

(14)    Indianapolis

(13)    Houston

Flat-out, they blew that game last week. I watched it. That was embarrassing. Losing to Seattle has no shame in it. But Houston was DOMINATING that game.

(12)    Baltimore

(11)    Cincinnati

(10)    San Diego

(9)      Tennessee

Well, without Locker, who knows where this team will go. But, this team has looked good through the first four weeks.

(8)      Chicago

(7)      Miami

(6)      Detroit

(5)      New England

I’m not sure if the Pats are good, or if they lucked into two wins, took care of an imploding team (TB), and caught Atlanta at the wrong time. Either way, as a Pats fan, I’m just happy to be 4-0. Because the Pats don’t look like a 4-0 team the majority of the time…

(4)      New Orleans

I question their defense. I know the D has played well this year, but Rob Ryan has not had a good defense in awhile.

(3)      Kansas City

I like this team. No turnovers. Solid D. Andy Reid and Alex Smith were made for each other. Their games are matched up perfectly. They may end up winning 12 games. Killer is 12 wins may only give them the 5-seed…

(2)      Seattle

They’ve looked good this year, but I’m still weary of them on the road. Houston had them dead-to-rights and Carolina had the ball in the red zone with a chance to win at the end of the game. Yet, at home, they’d beat Denver.

(1)      Denver

2007 Pats vs 2013 Broncos. Neutral Field. Who wins?

Ways to improve the NFL (Post #1: Roster changes)

As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of the NFL. I sit around all day on Sunday just watching football. It's great. Wouldn't want to be doing anything else. But, I do feel there are a few changes the league could make that would make it better. This is my first post in what will be a series of proposed rule changes.

For this post, I want to focus on rosters. 

For me, this is simple. I would up rosters to 60 (currently 53) and active rosters to 55 (currently 47). One thing I've hated for awhile is how the practice squad works in the NFL. Practice squad players are not actually on your team (anyone can sign them away) but they kind of are on your team (they practice with the team and everything). So, why not just make the roster normal and get rid of the practice squad? 

My idea of 60 players would be to replace the practice squad (which currently consists of 8 players, but has many restrictions (age, experience, etc) on who can actually be on a practice squad). Where this helps the teams and the league is that now you can keep those project players on your roster and not worry about that person taking up a roster spot. Remember, because practice squad members are essentially free agents that practice with a team, any "project" type player would have to be kept on the active roster, where empty spots are in limited supply. The reason this becomes a problem, is when you start to have injuries on your team, and those injured players become inactive, you need players on your roster who can contribute and not just ones who are projects and not ready yet for games.

This brings me to my next point on rosters. I think the NFL should have a Disabled List similar to the one MLB has. I would have a 4-week DL and a season-long DL. The 4-week DL would have a maximum of eight players on it at any time. Any player on the 4-week DL would have to be made active after the four weeks are up or would need to be put back on another 4-week DL. With this DL feature, teams would be able to sign players to the active 60 man roster to replace that player for those 4-weeks. 

The NFL has so many injuries week-to-week, that guys are constantly out for 2-6 weeks all the time in the league. This 4-week DL would give teams the flexibility they need in the middle of the season to sign players and replace players as need be. Also, with 55 man active rosters, this should decrease the amount of injuries teams sustain as you would not have more back-ups to play on special teams and defense, giving tired players more of a rest.

Thank you for reading my first post on how to improve the NFL! Stay on the lookout for future posts.