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When Bill Walsh was lording over the San Francisco 49ers during their they heydey, he once said, “We are only competing against eight teams.”
At the time, there were 28 teams.
Now, with 32 teams, there are still only about eight teams.
And the two teams facing off Sunday at MetLife Stadium. the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts, aren’t in the group of eight.
Both teams have very hands-on owners; some would argue that is not the best formula for success.
Some would argue that best formula is that one that Eddie DeBartolo used when Walsh was leading the 49ers to championships, and that is throw the car keys to the football people and let them do their thing.
Football decisions are generally not in the wheelhouse of owners who come from the business world.
In the game of the year so far in the AFC, the Kansas Chiefs travel to Buffalo to face the Bills on Sunday.
Both of those successful teams have owners who let their football people do their thing.
Like his father Robert Irsay, with the Colts, owner Jimmy Irsay is very involved in football decisions.
The Colts are going back to Anthony Richardson at QB on Sunday against the Jets.
This is QB, who wasn’t good at Florida, and never should have been the fourth pick overall.
And when he was benched three weeks ago, after competing just 44.4 percent of his passes, he has some other shocking stats as well:
“On throws between one and ten yards, he’s 52 percent and on throws behind the line he’s 57 percent,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN. “On throws between 11-20, he’s 37 percent. How do you win with that?”
How does a QB complete just 52 percent of his passes between 1-10 yards, and 57 percent behind the line?
Those are gimme throws.
Those are layups.
He also can’t throw to his left very well.
But Irsay and the Colts are going back to him this week.
Now, maybe he has a breakout game this week against a defense that looked broken last week against Arizona.
And like Richardson has no business starting for an NFL team, the Jets have defenders who fall into the same category, so maybe that evens the playing field.
There is a player on the Jets defense that the fans and media think is a star, but he’s out of position so much and misses so many tackles, that he probably shouldn’t be a full-time starter.
There is a defensive lineman who the Jets never should have picked because he’s not athletic enough for their defense, but they fell in love with his toughness and “strain” as they like to say. He’s a 3-4 player, not a 4-3 player, but they ignore the film and keep rolling with him, and it’s hurting their defense.
While Robert Saleh has turned into Vince Lombardi with some reporters and fans, his blind loyalty to players no matter what the film said, due to getting close to them as people, is one of the reasons this team’s defensive roster is not very good right now. Remember, he helped pick this roster to enter the season.
And when you ignore the film, it’s hard to be in that group of eight.
The best ownership approach is to hire a GM and coach, throw them the car keys to the football operation, and let them run it.
Until the Jets and Colts reach that realization, it will be hard for them to win consistently.
But somebody has got to win on Sunday a matchup between those two teams, and that will probably be the Jets because in a matchup between Aaron Rodgers (who is not the Jets’ problem), and Richardson, who are you going with?
So one of these teams will win on Sunday, but that won’t mean their current approach to running their football operations, with owner/businessman very hands-on with personnel decisions, is the way to go.
November 15, 2024
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