Why ranking NFL teams now makes absolutely no sense

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: PK=Dumb*ss.

Adalius Thomas broke his arm.

Unless you are going to have a 117 team tournament you need those BCS computers to fill your 2,4,8,16,32,64,anything less than 117 team field. It’s just a matter of where in the process you use the statistical model.

Whether a statistical model will crown the best team the champion depends on how you define the best team. If the best team is the team that would have won the hypothetical NFL style playoffs then a good amount of time the “computers” will exclude a team that would have hypothetically won the championship, but if you define the best team as the team with the best chance of beating any opponent, then the statistical models are better than a single elimination playoffs, because the “better team” the team with the high chance of winning, doesn’t always win. Why do you think the other big 3 sports play playoff series? In a single game the “better team” (the above mentioned team with the best chance of beating any opponent) doesn’t always win. In a series there is more time for luck/chance to balance out. If your concept of the best team is “team with the best chance of beating any opponent” then a series (not viable) or having a statistical model pick a champion not a championship game (I can hear the anti-stats people screaming already) is superior.

I’m not in favor of the statistical model champion, not because I don’t think a well done model wouldn’t give the “team with the best chance of beating any opponent” consistently, but because the purpose of sports is not to find the best team. Sports is entertainment. Finding the best team is just a major storyline. You won’t find a sports fan out there that would be more entertained by a statistical model picking a champ than by a playoffs.

And that is how I disagree with every point in BBS’ college FB comments except for the conclusion.

Just more proof that King is freaking off his rocker.

BBS – I sent you an e-mail yesterday shortly after your fanpost. I haven’t heard back from you. May you’ve just not checked your e-mail. Anyway, whenever you have the chance to get back with me I’d appreciate it.

The Colts have been so remarkably consistent over the past few years that anything less than a Super Bowl seems like a disappointment. The most consecutive 12+ win seasons in NFL history will do that. They’re the safest bet in Pro sports right now. You’re talking about a team whose realistic floor is “12 wins, Wild Card, first round exit” and whose ceiling is “going 16-0 and winning the Super Bowl”, and everything inbetween.

Yes, the NE ranking is stupid. How you can’t put the defending Super Bowl champions #1 is beyond me. But, I’m not a pro sports writer, so what do I know.

dont EVEN GET ME GOING ON THE CHEATING BullCrapSystem. if your name isnt USC, floriduh, texas, LSU, oklahoma, alabama, ohio state or some other name team not considered in the top 2 or 3 of your conf…YOU ARE SCREWED

if your school isnt from the pimped out SEC YOU ARE SCREWED. god forbid if lets just say a michigan state, cal or iowa OR better yet UTAH lost to ole miss AT HOME they would have been thrown to the lions and fell 25 spots for a loss while texas, florida, LSU, USC, etc (we all know who the lucky few are) and the other name teams falls a couple only to be pimped back into that little system of one and two we call the BS system when they beat a mighty directional stomping bag U on the last game of the regular season and they are suddenly BACK on top. again thats a whole different story

I already commented on peter I talk to god and he talks back to me king on the other thread. Ill just copy and paste here

peter king thinks the bears are the 4th best team. above the colts

Im happy he didnt put the colts at no.1 or no.2 because he is as bad as the sports illustrated jinx. I believe he picked the cowboys to play the jags in the superbowl. okay maybe he didnt take the bedazzlers but he pimped them so much during the summer it just seemed like it.

do I think the colts are really no. 5? I think they are one of the two or three best teams. NE no.1. is very questionable since their d has bigger problems than the colts. and lets see how tommy performs newly married. its not his knee that will be the downfall of him. its that nagging jungle women he just married. pitt. we know how hard it is to repeat in the NFL so pitt could pull a dallas. not as far but they overachieved in my mind last year. chicago ahead of the colts? pass the koolaid. the giants only because they lost that idiot reciever and huge injuries on the D line. but this team could very well be no. 1 if they get the reciever need filled by a rookie or somebody else

giants
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colts
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the bears at 4? and who is cutler going to get all these yards throwing to? underestimating denvers strength of an O line is a big mistake in predicting cutler just taking over a no wr offense he has in chicago and keep on producing like an all pro. huge descrepency in offensive talent there. dallas at 9 is a joke.

and cleveland last. even though I think they will have very few wins….I DONT THINK SO. detroit winning 4 games is like the BCS crowing utah the national champions over the gators

New here. I was on 18to88 for a while. They kept referencing this. Stampede is great. I’m so glad to find another quality Colts bastion of fandom.

Anyway, there is no proof ever, that Peter King is really that smart of a football mind. All he does is have access to coaches adn players. Does that really make him knowledgable? Seems not. I mean, for fun, I read his ‘500 best NFL players’ ranking from two years ago, and it gives me the biggest of laughs.

I, and King’s far superior comrade Dr. Z, have a longstanding rule, until they are beaten, its only fair to rank the Champs at number one. Let alone a champ that is returning every meaningful player, and even gets Mendenhall as a bonus.

I love how PK says “whats the difference between the 2007 pats and the 09 pats.” Its great King is referencing a team that did not even win the damn super bowl that year. I’m all for them being the 07 pats again, easily the most overrated team of all time.

With the exception of the Superbowl year, the Colts strike out in the playoffs. Unless they get to play Denver every year, in every playoff round, they stink it up. I’m sorry, but they do. And it’s not just the defense either, which gets most of the blame. We’re subjected to the Peyton Face every year, for goodness sakes.

Winning a Superbowl is very, very difficult, but considering our personnel, you would think they would have gotten to more Superbowls, maybe not win them, but at least get to more than one.

Not 4 hours had passed since my Steelers had won the Super Bowl and Chris Berman and all those idiots on NFL Live on ESPN were already babbling and gushing over next year’s prospective Super Bowl winner: The Patriots of course. If you want nonstop Brett Favre, Cowboys, Patriots and TO coverage it is the network for you. Brady has been out an entire year, has had his knee barely healed and they think he is going to automatically revert back to form. I can’t wait till Tommy and Belichick get taken down a notch next year..maybe you Colts can help?

The difference between the 07 and 09 Pats are (Question mark rating from ? to ???!) :

1. Tom Brady’s ACL tear – An injury most media say the odds are stacked against you to recover from unless your name is Tom Brady. (?!)
2. Laurence Maroney went from “eh” to suck and went on IR. (?)
3. No Asante Samuel ()
4. No Ellis Hobbs (?)
5. No Mike Vrabel (?)
6. No Rodney Harrison ()
7. Bruschi is 36 years old and obviously a shadow of his former self ()
8. Adalius Thomas is not only 32, but there’s no denying he never came close to what they thought he would ()
9. These are their RBs : Maroney, Faulk, Morris, Green-Ellis, Taylor, Cuff, White, Kettani (?!?!?!?!?!)

That’s just off the top of my head.

Considering the Patriots won their Super Bowls on the back of their defense, I’d say losing pretty much your entire secondary, your best LB, one LB sucked since he got there, and you have to start your 36 year old fading LB because your 3rd rounder tore his ACL there’d be questions….let me rephrase…SIGNIFICANT questions about your team going into 09. Not to mention, the difference between the 07 team and the 09 team is (um, what’s another word for “radical” or “what the hell are you talking about?”) a little more than nothing.

I’m not even saying where they should be ranked, but that argument is flat out stupid. The Colts, who actually gained much more prospective talent than they lost, aren’t a good enough team to overcome coaches leaving. But the Patriots can lose their coaches, their entire secondary, their LBs are either old or suck aside from Mayo, they barely got by with their running back by committee (which is another term for we can’t really tell which one of these dudes sucks the least so let’s try them all), and they missed the playoffs facing the AFC and NFC West last season. Think about that for a second. They missed the playoffs facing Seattle, Arizona, St. Louis, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego (who beat them down), Oakland, and Kansas City. Really, think about that for a second.

But now, ohhhh boy buddy, you get a dude coming off an ACL injury that had to be operated on multiple times, you’ve LOST much more talent than you’ve gained (or at the very least won’t be ready to contribute as much as the players they’re replacing NEXT season) along with yet another coordinator. However, according to King and his Tom Brady nut-swingers (sorry if I offend), Belichick has waved his magic wand over a steaming pile of crap and turned them into pro bowlers yet again.

News Flash*** Both the Colts, and specifically the Steelers, have won more Super Bowls than the Patriots in the second half of the decade and have both retained younger, and better players than the Patriots have. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact.

Not saying the Colts or even the Steelers deserve to be 1, but I know for damn sure the Patriots shouldn’t. I didn’t bother reading that one, but didn’t he have the Bears ahead of the Colts? Yeah, that should pretty much tell you all you need to know about how his mind works. I’m actually surprised he had us at what, 5th or 6th?

Just based off what I’ve seen go on during the offseason, and not really looking too much into it, I’d probably rate the top 5 as :

1. Eagles – 1 game away and they are without a doubt significantly better
2. Steelers – Can’t deny they’re the Champions
3. Colts – I’ll take questions about coaching over players and potential when you have Peyton at QB. Quite simply put, our areas of weakness (aside from the OL which may be only due to injury) have POTENTIALLY become strengths. You take a team that wins 12 or more games 6 years in a row and put as much attention as the FO has on our main weakness while maintaining the majority of our players? The potential talent gained has far exceed what we’ve lost at this point.
4. NYG – Even though I don’t think 2 rookies replaces Burress, they did draft 2 really good prospects and have one of the deepest defensive lines in the NFL while retaining Jacobs and adding a back that I consider better than Ward in Andre Brown
5. Chargers – This is the toughest one because I hate them right now, but it’s hard to not put them here with Merriman coming back and Cromartie not playing with a broken hip. If the Texans had done better in the draft (Sorry, Barwin doesn’t fit your scheme and Cushing fits a 3-4 much better than a 4-3) I might’ve said them or the Saints.

Of course I could’ve pissed on my keyboard and come up with a better analysis than King normally does. Sorry if that’s to graphic, he brings it out in me.