How the NFL works...

[The Goat]

Been wanting to start this thread for a coon's age, partly to explain my harshness toward the current regime and because the article linked below is a great read. It's a few years old, but holds true as ever today.

American sports: In a league of its own | The Economist

The whole idea within/behind the NFL's structure is parity. The strict salary cap, draft scheme and profit sharing all strongly promote parity among the franchises toward maximizing competitiveness between the rosters that take the field every game. As well, the NFL has a strong innate parity factor because player longevity is relatively short, between three and four years, by all accounts. What it all boils down to really is any franchise in the league can be turned around (for good or bad) in roughly that time. The whole system promotes balance and equal opportunity, if you will.

To be the bottom of a division three out of four years, especially a division struggling across the board, should be less than rare. Nobody is this unlucky. If you believe Shanahan or any NFL coach who loses this consistently is unlucky, you're the type of person who burnt "witches" at the stake a few hundred years ago. You have to be epically incompetent to lose so consistently in this league. And given Mike's near total control of the franchise, I would argue he's high in the running for the most incompetent HC in decades at this point.

But back to the parity discussion, it's why I can always feel optimistic about the Skins future. Hit on the right coach/GM, and you can be top of the league in just a couple years. If there's "luck" in the NFL, it's picking the next HC/GM poised to dominate the chess board.

Here's to the 2014 off-season and "lucky" choices

[MTK]

We did come out of nowhere last year to win the division, right?

Parity at it's finest.

[donofriose]

Out of the major sports, interestingly enough Baseball has the most parity in terms of champions, and it also has no salary cap. It is interesting to see how the salary cap actually prevents parity.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by donofriose

Out of the major sports, interestingly enough Baseball has the most parity in terms of champions, and it also has no salary cap. It is interesting to see how the salary cap actually prevents parity.

To your point

Baseball, not NFL, still the king of parity - ESPN

[Gary84Clark]

Luck sux

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

We did come out of nowhere last year to win the division, right?

Parity at it's finest.

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles and the Shanahans got the most out of a one time gimmick offensive scheme that (briefly) neutralized defenses. It was, by any measure, a glaring outlier.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

To your point

Baseball, not NFL, still the king of parity - ESPN

Errrr, I'll take the acumen from any thinker at the Economist over any sports writer/journalist (and especially a blogger lol) any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles and the Shanahans got the most out of a one time gimmick offensive scheme that (briefly) neutralized defenses. It was, by any measure, a glaring outlier.

How many experts picked the Skins to win the East last year?? Most people agreed their ceiling was probably 7 or 8 wins.

A team going from 5-11 to 10-6 and division champs is what parity is all about.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Errrr, I'll take the acumen from any thinker at the Economist over any sports writer/journalist (and especially a blogger lol) any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Problem is your article is so outdated and can't take into account the last 7 years of info/data. The NFL preaches parity but baseball is clearly the leader.

Stark isn't merely a blogger.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by The Goat

Not out of nowhere really. The rest of the division was in shambles .

Really ? Considering just the season before the Super Bowl Champion came out of the division, what shambles ?You won it with a 10-6 record , Giants were also 9-7 .People always forget 2 things in football 1)cohesiveness ,usually a team with less talent but jells well wins 2) luck ....teams that win have a certain amount of luck with them also .

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Problem is your article is so outdated and can't take into account the last 7 years of info/data. The NFL preaches parity but baseball is clearly the leader.

Stark isn't merely a blogger.

How the Goat works...

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

How many experts picked the Skins to win the East last year?? Most people agreed their ceiling was probably 7 or 8 wins.

A team going from 5-11 to 10-6 and division champs is what parity is all about.

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.

I mean, we beat two winning teams all last season. You've really got layers of outliers. The division (year) was an outlier. The easy schedule was an outlier. The gimmick offense an obvious outlier.

Anyway, I think we're getting close to the end of this dark era and there's great opportunities ahead. That was my purpose for the thread.

[Giantone]

[QUOTE=The Goat;1043396]And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.



QUOTE]

So, only the Cowboys and the Eagles had players injured last year ,ok .

[CrazyCanuck]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

The NFL preaches parity but baseball is clearly the leader.

With all due respect to the EGO, this is false. The writer cherry picks one little indicator to demonstrate parity.

Baseball is a fckn joke and Selig is a douchebag. I'll leave it at that cuz I'm starting to get angry.

[The Goat]

[quote=Giantone;1043397]

Originally Posted by The Goat

And a typical season within the NFCE 7 or 8 wins would have been the ceiling (though I suspect probably fewer, more like '10, '11, '13). But then the Cowboys saw umpteen players go out injured. The Eagles lost their best player (Jason Peters) along with several others and fell to pieces at the tail end of Reid's tenure. The Giants really never showed up all season.



QUOTE]

So, only the Cowboys and the Eagles had players injured last year ,ok .

LOL I'm not trying to leave y'all out. Giants had injuries, just didn't feel like they were in it all season. Post SB peak, similar to so many other winners.