INTRO: A new idea I had in order to help me go through the NFL team's rosters and examine all the personnel and coaching changes, etc., one-by-one. I'm going to look at two teams head-to-head in seven key categories (my bias on what is 'key'). The team that gets my vote in each category gets a 'win'…the first team to 4 wins moves on to the next round. Just a quick, hopefully fun, way to take the temperature of each team heading into the 2023 preseason.
The seven categories…it's actually six because one category is so important that it's worth double:
1-2) The quarterbacks comparison…the winner of this gets 2 wins, or if too close to call it could be a 1-1 split.
3) O-Line -- Judging which team has the better O-Line…the most critical aspect of a team after the QB.
4) Cornerbacks -- After O-Line, I think the most critical position is shutdown corners (or not having any).
5) Head Coach/Organization -- A battle of which coaches will get in the way less, to some degree but also an edge given to teams that will attract free agents or be a desired destination in trades…and what teams are filling the stadium for home games, etc. Everything rolled into one judgment call.
6) Offensive Weapons -- Which team has the better, scarier RB-WR-TE group.
7) Kicker -- If it comes down to #7, of course the kicker should make the determination...as the kicker often determines the winner of a 59+ minute war prior with a last second make/miss.
As we lead into each category and tap a winner -- I'm also listing the major add/loss for each team in the offseason so far, just to eyeball it as a list.
Is this a brilliant way to judge teams over another? Who knows! But it struck me as something fun to do while studying each team this preseason, after the majority of offseason moves have been made.
We're going to go division-by-division pitting the teams based on their 2022 records/finish in division. We'll keep going until we wind up with the final two/the Super Bowl and crown a winner in this fake contest.
Just for fun and examination of notes...
Offseason moves:
BUF major adds: TE Kincaid, OG O. Torrence, LB D. Williams, RB D. Harris, WR Harty, OG McGovern
BUF major losses: LB Edmunds, RB Singletary
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NYJ major adds: QB Rodgers, WR Lazard, DE Shepherd, WR Hardman, OC Tippmann, DE W. McDonald, RB Abanikanda
NYJ major losses: DT Rankins, QB M. White
Best-of-seven:
QB (2x): Aaron Rodgers is an obvious upgrade for NYJ, but he is not in Josh Allen's class anymore. Double win for Buffalo.
Bills lead (2-0) out of the gates.
O-Line: Buffalo has a more stable LT (Dion Dawkins) and OC (Mitch Morse). Adding OG O'Cyrus Torrence via the draft and OG Connor McGovern via free agency was a nice offseason boost. The Bills are just more secure in the key spots and more proven than the Jets at O-Line.
If Mekhi Becton could break out, then the Jets have an upside, but as of now the safe bet/winner is the Buffalo O-Line.
BUF leads (3-0).
CBs: The Jets get on the board in this matchup with Sauce Gardner coming in as a rookie and quickly becoming (arguably) the best CB in the game. His CB mate D.J. Reed was terrific last season too. The Jets were fantastic against the pass last season.
Buffalo has formerly great Tre'Davious White, trying to get back 'right' from his ACL in 2021 and rookie Kaiir Elam left a lot to be desired in his debut.
BUF leads (3-1)
HC/Organization: The Bills feel like they walk away with this matchup, but for the past two years the Bills have been slipping in personnel and losing coordinators while the Jets have been having good drafts and decent free agent periods. It's close, but you have to give the edge to the better organization and fanbase the past couple years during the Robert Saleh era -- give it to the Bills.
And with that, the Bills win the series and move on (4-1).
Weapons: Buffalo has the best overall WR here with Stefon Diggs, but the Jets have the next best two WRs between these two teams (Wilson, Lazard). It's close to a push either way. The Jets have a slight edge at RB depth, if/when Breece is in the mix. It's close, but edge to the Jets at RB. But then the TEs in Buffalo blow away the Jets group and thus makes me give the Bills the overall nod here.
Bills now lead (5-1) but have already locked up the series win.
Kicker: No brainer in 2023…Tyler Bass is a better kicker than Greg Zuerlein.
Bills finish out a (6-1) win…winning the series and moving on to the division finals.
