What We Learned From the Wild Card Round

Nate Barlow — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:31:12 +0000

Round 1 of the NFL playoffs is complete. Some games were close, some were… well, not so close, and perhaps even those were closer in final score than they really were on the field. So, what did you learn? Here are my musings (some serious, some slightly less so) based upon the just completed Wild Card games.

Darren Sproles is the best back-up running back in the NFL. Any other team (except for the Vikings) and he would be starting. A healthy LaDainian Tomlinson and Sproles is one of heck of a lethal combination.
Yes, he did finally win a Super Bowl ring two years ago, but Peyton Manning remains a great REGULAR season quarterback. Seriously, the voters couldn’t come up with anybody more deserving of the MVP award this year? Manning and the Colts were terrible to start this season.
I guess Arizona really was resting up for the playoffs those last miserable weeks of the regular season. Usually limping into the post-season results in first round disaster, but that wasn’t in the Cards.
Miami’s 1-15 record last year finally came back to bite them; the lack of playoff experience really showed against Baltimore. Will the Dolphins be able to keep it up next year?
The same can be said for Matt Ryan–his brilliant season finally crashed to an end. Unlike the Dolphins, I have no doubt he’ll be back.
Donovan McNabb’s benching may have been the best thing possible for both the Eagles quarterback and Philadelphia’s season.
Would Indianapolis have been favored if San Diego did haven’t the worst of luck their first two games and were a 10-6 team instead of an 8-8 one?

What do you think?

January 12, 2009 -- Divisional Round Dish (0)
January 24, 2009 -- U Kan Koach in the NFL (.com)! (3)
January 16, 2009 -- NFL Playoff Picking (3)
December 14, 2008 -- Playoff Picture Still Murky (0)
November 25, 2008 -- EnEfElquality (0)

Are NFL Payrolls Inversely Proportional to On-Field Success?

Nate Barlow — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:43:28 +0000

Not exactly, but a brief look at the payrolls of the 32 NFL teams reveals some surprising numbers. Two of the lowest salaried teams, the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots (29th and 30th, respectively), have, as we all know, been two of the most successful franchises in recent years; the team with the highest payroll, the abysmal Oakland Raiders, one of the absolute worst. Only slightly better on the playing field is the fourth-highest salaried team, the Cleveland Brown.

Despite these surprising stats, NFL payrolls are by no means inversely proportional to on-field success. The woeful Kansas City Chiefs have the lowest combined payroll of any NFL team; the excellent Pittsburgh Steeler squad is #6. In fact, there seems to be a relatively even distribution of salaries across the NFL success vector.

Compare those numbers to the success of Major League Baseball’s highest paid teams. Although spending a lot never guarantees having a championship-caliber team in any sport–the ultra-expensive New York Yankees didn’t make the playoffs while the dirt-cheap Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant–overall the higher-salaried baseball teams tend to have better won-loss records than their lower-paying counterparts (five of the eight highest-paid teams were in the playoffs this year). But in the NFL, no such payroll to on-field success comparison can be made.

So, what then do these numbers mean? Only that strong management trumps high payrolls in reaching the Super Bowl every time… and that really strong management can even bring home the Lombardi Trophy on a budget.

February 10, 2009 -- Poor Economy Doing It to Manny and the Mets (1)
December 21, 2008 -- The Hate List (9)
January 2, 2009 -- Hello, 2009 – Bye Bye Best Of 2008 (0)
November 14, 2008 -- Cassel Comes of Age (0)
April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)

Deep Into Sports » indianapolis

What We Learned From the Wild Card Round

Are NFL Payrolls Inversely Proportional to On-Field Success?