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Is Any NFL Fanbase expecting its team to do worse in 2019 than 2018?


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There is a bit of a conundrum for me for the off-season. I only follow the Bills.  As a consequence, I fall into the trap of comparing the 2019 Bills vs the 2018 Bills. But those two teams won't play each other ever, so that comparison offers limited value.  Additionally, It makes sense that all of the Bill's personnel moves are designed to make the team better.  As a fan I assume all players who were good last year will be good, and that all young players will improve.  In the case of the Bills we expect our old player who was bad last year (McCoy) to rebound.  All of these assumptions are reasonable to make.

It occurs to me however, that the vast majority of NFL teams are making moves designed to improve their teams. And that all fans expect their teams good players to stay good and their young players to improve.  There are two exceptions to this concept that I can see 1) are any teams in "suck for luck" mode, who have gutted their rosters, and plan to start a QB who is not good now and has no future with the team  or 2) teams that had to shed significant talent for salary cap reasons ( Seahawks and Ravens are teams in the past that had great declines when this happened.)

My question for those that follow more than the Bills are there any teams in the suck for luck, or salary cap shed situations? 

Edited by PlayoffsPlease
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Giants and Dolphins strike me as falling into the "suck for luck" category, the Fins on porpoise, the Giants due to a horrible front office.  Redskins drafted a QB, but I still don't expect them to be good.  Falling into the second category would probably be the Ravens again.  They lost a lot of talent on D, with Suggs, Smith, Mosely, all jumping ship, not to mention John Brown. 

Additional teams that strike me as a team where I can't recall any big moves they made or anything that would suggest they noticeably improved at all would be the Titans and Lions.  They just seem like teams that are treading water, rather than improving.  The Steelers fall into this category for me as well.  I don't think they'll be bad, per se, just that they haven't really improved at all from last year, and maybe got a bit worse.  Bengals keep trying to redo their OL, but it keeps falling apart on them; the Red Rifle can be fairly decent behind a good line, but has shown he's bad behind a bad OL, which they now have, so I don't hold out much hope for them.  I have no faith in Chuckie being able to build a team out in Oakland.  The Cardinals are consistently believed to have improved greatly due to the new QB/coach dynamic, but I can't help but feel like they're severely overrated.  I'm still looking for them to be picking in the top 5 of the draft next year after doing nothing to improve their OL.

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Teams I expect to be worse this year than last:

 

Dolphins: Did they even make any offseason moves? QB battle between the great Fitzpatrick and Rosen. The latter of which has the designation of being the only top 10 QB in NFL history to be given away after their rookie season.  

 

Giants: Gettleman... yikes. Sticking by Eli for one more year? Or go with the top 50 NFL prospect Daniel Jones. Receivers? Who needs receivers, we have Saquon to run and catch the ball! Good thing we took him instead of one of those heralded 2018 QB prospects. Maybe he can throw it to himself? 

 

Redskins: Will undoubtedly be starting a rookie QB this year, and we know how those seasons tend to go. Historical trends are not kind.

 

Bengals: AJ Green already fighting the injury plague. Andy “Mr Average” Dalton still at the helm. Banged up OL. 

 

Ravens: Worse on D than last year. Starting a RB at QB again this season, and for the entire season. Stop Lamar’s legs and he isn’t going to beat you passing the football. Pull the Tyrod “Make him be a QB” defense out of the playbook. 

 

 

Edited by Bills2ref
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41 minutes ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

There is a bit of a conundrum for me for the off-season. I only follow the Bills.  As a consequence, I fall into the trap of comparing the 2019 Bills vs the 2018 Bills. But those two teams won't play each other ever, so that comparison offers limited value.  Additionally, It makes sense that all of the Bill's personnel moves are designed to make the team better.  As a fan I assume all players who were good last year will be good, and that all young players will improve.  In the case of the Bills we expect our old player who was bad last year (McCoy) to rebound.  All of these assumptions are reasonable to make.

It occurs to me however, that the vast majority of NFL teams are making moves designed to improve their teams. And that all fans expect their teams good players to stay good and their young players to improve.  There are two exceptions to this concept that I can see 1) are any teams in "suck for luck" mode, who have gutted their rosters, and plan to start a QB who is not good now and has no future with the team  or 2) teams that had to shed significant talent for salary cap reasons ( Seahawks and Ravens are teams in the past that had great declines when this happened.)

My question for those that follow more than the Bills are there any teams in the suck for luck, or salary cap shed situations? 

 

Good points.  (well, I dunno if it's reasonable to expect McCoy to rebound...but I did think a lot of last year was the line, so assuming he hasn't "hit the cliff", as the line goes, so goes McCoy) 

I thought the Bills would be worse last year.  I thought their non-attention to OL and their misplaced adventures at WR and QB would ditch them.  They did better than I expected.  I have higher expectations this year and am hoping they will be "better than I expected" again!
 

The top 5 teams in "Dead Money" for 2019 are the Dolphins, Giants, Cardinals, Jaguars, and Steelers.  Large amounts of dead money are often a sign of a team that's held a fire sale to clear space, right?

The Dolphins are regarded by many as being in "tank mode", but if they start Fitzpatrick, they may wind up like similar teams who have started Fitz, somewhere between 5-11 and 10-6 with 6-10 most probable, depending upon the quality of their OL, WR, and OC.  Their OL is a mixed bag of youth and career journeymen and they are banking on the problem with Stills and Parker at WR being named "Ryan" and playing for Tennesee (see what I did there?).  OC Chad O'Shea has a lot of experience, but guys who come out of NE tend to be a "mixed bag" as Darth Hoodie is notoriously secretive and information-controlling.  (They work hard, but they may not understand as much as they think they do).  However, NE was just a stop on O'Shea's 17 year journey so who knows.  I see giddy positivity on some fan sites, but FL Bills fans have reported low expectations from their Fins fan friends.

The G-men.  What to say about the G-men?  They appear to have a "unique" team-building strategy.  I hope it works out for them.  Actually I don't, like any good Bills fan thru the '80s and '90s I HATE the G-men unless they're defeating the Patriots.  Then I love 'em.  I think Pat Shurmur is a true QB whisperer and strong talent at OC who got a raw deal in his previous 2 stints at HC, but I think personnel-wise as the Giants HC, he's heading for a 3rd plate of steak tartare and sushi.  It's not clear who Shurmur's QB have to throw to.  I think NY/NJ fans expect great results somehow no matter what though, then call for the coach's head when they don't get 'em

Cardinals.  See "why your team sucks 2019".  I can't say it better.  Do they have an OL?  I don't think they did enough.  It says a lot that I think Rosen did well for himself when he got the pink slip to pack his bags for Miami, 'cuz "see above" I don't think Miami is a very good situation.  Plus living in St Louis I'm obliged to hate Bill Bidwell's guts.  But what do their fans expect?  I don't know.  I don't think 'Zona has long-term die hard fans like we do (see sentence about St Louis).  I think they check in when the team is good and shrug when the team is bad.

 

Jaguars and Steelers.  Two teams that have wasted, or are going to waste, a chance to become a dynasty.  But how do their fans see it?  Don't know.

 

 

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Which fan base could be in the biggest meltdown after 3 weeks?

If we don't start 2-1 or better this place would be unbearable.   Soft looking games to start with the Jets, Giants, and Bengals

Browns fans expectations are so high they will be a fun watch if the Browns stumble out of the gate

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5 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Name the last rookie WR that lit up the league?

Name the last rookie picked in Rd 1 to be the feature WR (non-slot) for the GOAT QB? 

 

Off the top of my head cant, i am sure there have been.  I just cheated, looked it up OBJ.

4 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

yep.  not too hard to be worse than last year, when you won the Super Bowl last year!

 

 

Yep absolutely, demonstrate the versatility of their offense.  Besides they are trending increasingly towards the run as Brady's passing skill regress.

Edited by RoyBatty is alive
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