The Broncos? 6-0? Really?

Are the Broncos a good team? Their 6-0 record says yes, the entire football watching public outside of Colorado says otherwise. Their end of season meltdown last year, off-season coaching change, and the departure of Jay Cutler have all lowered the expectations of the 2009 Broncos. But the numbers don’t lie. You can call it luck – the same luck that has blessed this franchise for the better part of a decade, but this team gets it done. Kyle Orton is a modern day Trent Dilfer, Knowshon Moreno is one of the top young running backs in the NFL, and Brandon Marshall though 6 games should be considered as an early MVP candidate. Their throw-back uniforms are a reminder of why they stopped wearing them in the first place, but this version of the Broncos looks better than last years and will make it more difficult for the Bolts to come back from yet another pitiful start.

And that's the Brutal Truth!

Top 10 Out-of-Place Football Personalities

While Brett Favre showed his former team that he can still play Monday night, seeing him in a Vikings uniform makes him the most out of place football personality that I have ever seen. Here is the rest of the list.

10. Joe Montana – as a Chief
9. Brett Favre – as a Jet
8. Dennis Miller – as a broadcaster
7. Al Davis – as an owner
6. Jerry Rice – as a Raider
5. Mike Ditka – on the Saints sidelines
4. Kurt Warner – as an MVP
3. Emmitt Smith – as a Cardinal
2. Mike Tice – as a head coach
1. Brett Favre – as a Viking

Are The Dolphins Better Without Chad?

There is no question in my mind that when healthy, Chad Pennington is a very good NFL Quarterback. The man who once threw Touch Downs to Randy Moss while at Marshall first showed what he can do in the NFL while revitalizing the J-E-T-S. The comparisons he drew to Joe Montana early in his career were quickly forgotten has he proved to be more fragile than an Oakland Raiders winning streak. Nevertheless, while he will sooner set the NFL record for Comeback Player of The Year Awards than Touchdowns, he can still march a typical NFL team down the field with the best of them. (As long as that team does not rely on an efficient 2 minute drill to win a game). That being said, The Dolphins are not your typical offence. Their ability to win games during the Sporano/Parcells era has been entirely based on their strategy of confusing opposing defenses by implementing the “Wildcat”. Pennington only seems to be a distraction from what Miami does best offensively. With him yet again, done for the season, they should pick up their first win against The Bills this week while starting a far less competent QB.

And that’s the Brutal Truth!

Where Have You Gone, Carson Palmer?

It seems like a lifetime ago that the former Trojan, in only his 3rd NFL season and 2nd as a starter, was already considered to be a top 5 quarterback in the league. He led the Bengals to the top spot in the AFC North and led his team to the playoffs to face the eventual Super Bowl Champion Steelers. He severely injured his knee in the games which 4 years later seems to have been the springboard to a downward spiral that has made him more irrelevant to the football watching public than a Dan Patrick commentary. While the injury was serious, the former Heisman winner and first overall pick has always been a pocket QB and therefore should have been able to rehabilitate quickly. When the Bengals take the field tomorrow against the once again defending champion Steelers, which Carson Palmer will we see? The one who led the league in TD passes in 2005, or the one who has since taken more bad drives than Donte Stallworth? It will certainly be to his advantage that his college roommate, Troy Polamalu, will be watching from the sidelines.

We Have A Following!

Wow, it turns out people are actually reading my blog, how does that work? What started off as a homework assignment from my journalist wife so that she wouldn’t have to hear my rants on Sunday has turned into a weekly passion. The best part is people are paying attention to what I have to say even though I know nothing about football. Now I know how Wade Phillips must feel in his weekly press conference.

ELI DOES IT

For a man who has gone through his football playing life as “Archie’s Other Son”, or “Peyton’s Younger Brother”, Eli Manning has quietly transformed into an elite NFL Quarterback. Once thought to be an over-rated quarterback who relied heavily on name recognition, Eli is now enhancing the legacy of football’s first family. On a night that was supposed to celebrate the opening of “Jerry Land”, Eli spoiled the mood by doing what he has done continuously since the 2007 playoffs. He has one of the league’s most lethal combinations of athleticism, elusiveness, football IQ, and clutch performance capabilities, and at this rate it won’t be long before the Colt’s QB starts being known as “The Other Manning”.

Welcome Back, Tom

Like a world class opera conductor, Tom Brady huddled up his orchestra, took the stage, kept his composure, and did what he does best…win football games. Opera fans know exactly how every concerto is going to end, yet they still get excited at its climactic finish, and that’s exactly how the mood was in Foxborough on Monday Night. Anyone who has watched football this decade knew what was going to happen. It didn’t matter that the Patriots were down by 10 in the waning minutes of the game, and it didn’t matter that it was Tom Brady’s first full game since 2007. Yet when Brady threw one touchdown and then another, though we all knew somehow that it was going to happen, it was still as exciting as it can get in week 1 of the NFL season.

On a side note, is it me, or do the Bills always find a way to lose prime time games that they have no business losing?

Draft Your QB Wisely

Is there a day in the year more exciting than NFL Kickoff? Today football fans everywhere carried themselves like a kid on Christmas Morning, and now as we all get ready to watch the World Champs host the team with last year’s best record, we will all be continuously reminded of the importance of properly spending a first round draft pick on a Quarterback. The Steelers will be starting “Big” Ben Roethlisberger, who since being selected 11th overall by the Steelers in 2004, has lead Pittsburgh to its 5th and record 6th Super Bowl Championship while rising to the call as the new face of the franchise. His Tennessee counterpart will be the 36 year old Kerry Collins (who has had more NFL teams than DUIs), while Vince Young, the 3rd overall pick of 2006 will watch from the sidelines as the backup. Much like Roethlisberger, Young got off to a solid start in the NFL and started most of his games as a rookie, but a plethora of questionable decisions both on and off the field have left his future as a star in this league up in the air.

While neither Young nor Roethlisberger were opening day starters as rookies, this year both Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez, both top 5 picks, will lead their teams onto the field on Sunday. As expected, the media will most likely draw comparisons between them on a weekly basis as was done last year with Matt Ryan and the former Fightin’ Blue Hen, Joe Flacco. However, while their stats will be thrown in our face on a game by game basis, the intangibles that separate the top Quarterbacks from the rest of the pack will likely be ignored. Neither one of them have played a game yet and it is way to early to make any sort of prediction, but the first overall pick reminds me a lot more of Ryan Leaf than Tom Brady and while a 1-win season in Detroit would sadly be an improvement over last year, I expect him to win fewer games as a starter there than Charlie Batch did in his career. Sanchez on the other hand brings his California Cool to New York where expectations will be higher than Ricky Williams. However, in what I saw from him in both college and preseason he has the poise to last in this league for many years.

And that’s the Brutal Truth!