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.
MIN major adds: WR Addison, CB Murphy, DE Davenport, TE Oliver, DE Lowry
MIN major losses: RB D. Cook, LB Za'D Smith, DT Tomlinson, WR Thielen, CB Peterson, LB Kendricks
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PHI major adds: DT Carter, OG Steen, LB N. Smith, SAF S. Brown, RB Swift
PHI major losses: DT Hargrave, OT Dillard, RB Sanders, OG Seumalo, LB Edwards, SAF Epps, SAF Gardner-Johnson, QB Minshew
QB (2x): I respect Kirk Cousins, but he's no Jalen Hurts. Easy win for the Eagles off the bat.
Philly is out to a (2-0) lead.
O-Line: The Vikings have an underperforming line from 2022, while the Eagles have arguably the best O-Line in the game year-to-year in recent years.
Eagles running away (3-0).
CBs: There's hope with the Vikings corners…Byron Murphy added to a group of young hopefuls, but they're no match for Slay-Bradberry-Maddox.
Philly blows out the Vikings (4-0) to advance to the NFC Finals.
HC/Organization: People respect the Eagles as a team that's Super Bowl worthy and a solid organization, but the Vikings have graded as a top organization for players to play for and I'll take Kevin O'Connell over Nick Sirianni any day.
Vikings get on the board too little, too late…Philly leads (4-1).
Weapons: RB advantage = Eagles. TE advantage = Eagles. WR advantage…a 'push', Justin Jefferson is great, but Philly retaliates with the Brown-Smith duo. Overall advantage to the Eagles.
Philly now leads (5-1)
Kicker: Jake Elliott is solid…Greg Joseph is possibly solid, but Elliott has kicked (successfully) in way more important games in his career than Joseph could even dream of.
Eagles close it out (6-1) and move on to the NFC Finals.
Upcoming Matchups (next round):
PHI advances to the NFC Finals
NO v. SF in the NFC Final Four
CIN v. KC in the AFC Finals
