A Few Preseason Observations

The NFL Preseason is usually something you should avoid watching. You'll end up thinking players who never even reach the field in the regular season are superstars and that all your starters suck. Let me completely contradict myself and give you a few observations I have had so far.

The Wildcat – Does anyone else think it's hilarious how much publicity the Wildcat offense the Jets are going to implement has received? I get that anything Tim Tebow does is going to be the biggest thing that ever happened but does anyone remember when several teams implemented this offense a few years ago with pretty poor results? Rex Ryan seems to think teams will have to really prepare for it with Tebow as quarterback but I'm pretty sure they'll just assume it's a running play because Tebow can't throw the ball. If the Jets use this gimmick to great success this year I'll be extremely surprised.

Eli Manning and the Giants get no respect – Keeping with the New York theme, I'm a little shocked at how few people are picking the Giants to win the NFC East this year. I get the Eagles have a very good roster and by rule the Cowboys have to be overrated, but I do not see how either of these teams are clear cut better than the Giants. Did anyone watch Eli Manning play last year? In football I always go with the best quarterback and the Giants clearly have that going for them.

The worst part is the analysts point to the Giants losing Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham as the reasons they're going to struggle. If you watched the Giants last year you'd know that Jacobs might have been the worst running back in football and that Manningham averaged about one drop/mistake per game. Manningham had a good playoffs and got a big deal because of it. The Giants will not struggle to replace either of these guys. If critics were smart and actually watched the Giants last year they'd know that their offensive line was one of the worst in football last year and their secondary outside of Corey Webster, is question mark. Why actually do research on teams though?

Rash Conclusions – I saw Herm Edwards on Sportscenter and he literally said that after one preseason game he knows both RGIII and Andrew Luck will be elite in the NFL. Again, I do not know how going against vanilla defenses during preseason has anything to do with being a quarterback during the regular season. This reminds me of last preseason when John Beck of the Redskins threw 4 under 10 yard routes and Jon Gruden said he proved that he's the longterm starter of the Redskins on that drive. THESE GAMES ARE MEANINGLESS! Why does only Michael Wilbon see this? I'm not saying that Luck and RGIII won't be good because they'll probably both become very good but come on, they've done nothing yet.

Fights in training camp – Obviously, this was a big deal after the Jets had a brawl in Cortland, New York and the media asked if this team was out of control. Seriously, there I can't think of too many training camps where a fight didn't break out. The Patriots had several this year but you didn't hear about them at all right? These are always non stories trying to get people fired up about their respective teams. It's a competitive sport with like 90 super strong athletes competing for roster spots. Do you really not expect a few fights to break out?

The Browns – I just feel sorry for Cleveland sports fans. They trade up to get Trent Richardson and he has two surgeries on his knee and it will probably be a lingering problem for him at least throughout this season. They draft 28 year old Brandon Weeden and he's just looked atrocious. Oh, and the team was purchased by a Steelers fan. (Not sure that this actually means anything. Would he just run the team into the ground out of spite?) This is a team that's one real exciting player going into the season (Trent Richardson) likely will miss Week 1. Looking at the rest of the team it looks like another real long season for another Cleveland sports team. Has any city had darker times economically and sports wise simultaneously like this? It's getting out of hand.