Tag: Drew Brees (Page 12 of 34)

NFL Week 15 MVP power rankings

Boy, this is becoming a two-man race, isn’t it? You could probably wrestle with the Brady/Vick debate for days, and the next two weeks will likely determine the outcome of that. But for now, we have to pontificate…..

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—Well, his team is 12-2 and he leads in QB rating (109.9) with a modest 3561 yards, and 31 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions. It’s hard to argue with that.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—That game against the Giants and that comeback against the Giants are hard for this Big Blue fan to bear (242 yards, 3 TDs, 1 pick, 130 rushing yards and one more TD), but it’s hard not to respect Vick’s season and his own personal resurgence.

3. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—First of all, dude was on the field like 8 days after having his appendix out. Not great stats (184 yards, 1 TD, one pick), but he led his team to a much-needed win and has done that all season.

4. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Imagine what Rivers could have done with a healthy Vincent Jackson and Antonio Gates all season?

5. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons—His numbers are still modest, but he just keeps winning and has orchestrated quite a few late-game comebacks.

6. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—His team lost to the Ravens, but still a strong body of work in 2010 despite being under the radar.

7. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—Almost 1900 total yards and 15 total scores are making this guy a possible #1 fantasy pick in 2011.

8 Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons—Only 8 touchdowns, but 106 catches and 1284 yards both lead the NFL in a career year for Roddy.

9. Trent Cole, Philadelphia Eagles—10 more tackles against the G-men and the leader of a defense that has a lot of heart despite a ton of injuries.

10. Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions—No TDs last week in Tampa, but 10 catches for 152 yards in an impressive win. For my money, Calvin might be the best receiver in the NFL.

2010 Year-End Sports Review: What We Already Knew

Let’s be honest: Sports bloggers know everything. Just ask us. As part of our 2010 Year-End Sports Review, our list of things we already knew this year includes Brad Childress’ biggest fail, Wade Phillips’ demise in Dallas and John Calipari’s troubles. We also knew Kevin Durant was the next great superstar (who didn’t see that coming?), Roger Clemens is the ultimate windbag and that “Matty Ice” knows fourth-quarter comebacks. We should have gone to medical school…

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

LeBron is a frontrunner.

We all were a little surprised that LeBron left Cleveland, but the writing was on the wall. Growing up, LeBron didn’t root for the local teams. He followed the Yankees, Bulls and Cowboys, which in the 1990s constituted the Holy Triumvirate of Frontrunning. He wore his Yankee cap to an Indians game and was seen hobnobbing on the Cowboy sidelines during a Browns game. He says he’s loyal, but he’s only loyal to winners…unless they only win in the regular season, of course.

July 08, 2010 - Greenwich, CONNECTICUT, United States - epa02241974 Handout photo from ESPN showing LaBron James (L), NBA's reigning two-time MVP, as he ends months of speculation and announces 08 July 2010 on ESPN 'The Decision' in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, that he will go to the Miami Heat where he will play basketball next 2010-11 season. James said his decision was based on the fact that he wanted to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Brad Childress’ biggest flaw cost him his job in the end.

There were many reasons why the Vikings decided to fire head coach Brad Childress roughly a year after they signed him to a contract extension. One of the reasons was because he lost with a talented roster. Another was because he never quite figured out how to best utilize Adrian Peterson, which is a sin given how talented AP is. But the main reason “Chilly” was ousted in Minnesota was because he didn’t know how to manage NFL-caliber personalities. He didn’t know how to handle Brett Favre, which led to blowups on the sidelines and multiple face-to-face confrontations. He also didn’t have a clue how to deal with Randy Moss’ crass attitude, so he released him just four weeks after the team acquired him in a trade from New England. Childress was hired in part to help clean up the mess in Minnesota after the whole “Love Boat” scandal. But the problem with a disciplinarian that hasn’t first earned respect is that his demands fall on deaf ears. In the end, Childress’ inability to command respect from his players cost him his job. You know, on top of the fact that he was losing with a talented roster, he didn’t know how to best utilize Adrian Peterson, he…

Love him or hate him, George Steinbrenner will forever be one of baseball’s icons.

You may have hated his brash attitude, the way he ran his team or the way he conducted his business. You may even feel that he ruined baseball. But regardless of how you may have felt about him, there’s little denying that George Steinbrenner will forever be one of Major League Baseball’s icons. Steinbrenner passed away in July of this year. He will forever be a man known for helping revolutionize the business side of baseball by being the first owner to sell TV cable rights to the MSG Network. When things eventually went south with MSG, he created the YES Network, which is currently the Yankees’ very own TV station that generates millions in revenue. During his tenure, he took the Yankees from a $10 million franchise to a $1.2 billion juggernaut. In 2005, the Yankees became the first professional sports franchise to be worth an estimated one billion dollars. While many baseball fans came to despise the way he ran his team (mainly because he purchased high priced free agents with reckless abandon due to the fact that he could and others couldn’t), don’t miss the message he often made year in and year out: The Yankees are here to win. He didn’t line his pockets with extra revenue (albeit he generated a lot of extra revenue for his club) – he dumped his money back into the on-field product. Losing wasn’t acceptable and if the Bombers came up short one year, you could bet that Steinbrenner would go after the best talent in the offseason, regardless of what others thought of the approach. How many Pirates and Royals fans wish they had an owner with the same appetite for victory?

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NFL Week 14 MVP power rankings

Now, I feel like I knew what I was talking about by moving Tom Brady up to #1. The man is simply a man possessed this year to win a title. I mean, it’s been, what? Five years since his Pats did win. Yep. Those guys are in a zone. Here are the weekly power rankings…..

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—In a blizzard, Brady completed 27 of 40 passes (67.5%) for 369 yards, 2 TDs and zero picks. Against the Bears’ defense. Someone needs to check to see if Brady actually IS human.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—He’s only played 10 full games, but his overall numbers are sick—averaging 251 yards per game passing, and another 48 yards per game rushing, with 17 passing TDs and 7 more rushing, with only 4 interceptions.

3. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—The fact that the Chiefs didn’t have Cassel available last Sunday and got blown out in San Diego is the pure definition of MVP.

4. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—At what point do we start paying attention to Brees and his Saints?

5. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Here come the Chargers. Sorry, Todd Haley, they are gonna find a way to spoil your postseason aspirations.

6. Matt Ryan/Roddy White/Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons—Sure, they have the best record in the NFC, but Ryan’s numbers aren’t quite backing up MVP vote consideration, so I thought it made sense to group these three together for now.

7. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—Leads in rushing yards (1330), rushing scores (13), and is right behind LeSean McCoy in receiving yards for running backs (504) with 2 more TDs. Just sick, and it’s only too bad the Texans can’t play defense.

8. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—He leaves the game, the Packers lose to the Lions. See # 3—Cassel, Matt. Same situation.

9. Trent Cole, Philadelphia Eagles—Leads all DE’s in solo tackles (46) and has 9 sacks, but for some reason he doesn’t get much love.

10. Justin Tuck/Osi Umenyiora, New York Giants—Tuck leads all DE’s with 46 total tackles and has 9 sacks; Osi has 40 tackles and 10 sacks. No wonder these guys have been knocking quarterbacks silly.

NFL Week 13 MVP power rankings

There was a bit of a Peyton Manning sighting last night, as well as a Chris Johnson sighting. But not enough to jump on board here.

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—With all due respect to Michael Vick, the dude with the long hair made a mockery out of one of the league’s top defenses on Monday night and has a 109.5 QB rating through 12 games.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—With two games against an improved Dallas team, one against the Giants and one against Minnesota, it will determine both Philly’s season and Vick’s MVP status.

3. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons—His numbers don’t rank him near Brady, Rivers or Manning, but he is Matty Ice for a reason, and his team is 10-2 for a reason.

4. Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons—A mini scoring drought has dropped Mr. White a few spots

5. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—He’s got MJD, CJ2K, JMC and AP chasing him. What is this, Star Wars? No worries, AF1 will hang on for the rushing title these next few weeks.

6. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—Lately, you get the feeling the Saints can just score at will when they need to. They did it late against the Cowboys and the Bengals, led by this guy.

7. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Something’s afoot in San Diego, dude.

8. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—3243 yards, 23 TDs, 9 picks. If the Pack was better than 8-4, Rodgers would be up higher on this list.

9. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—The “other” Matty Ice

10. Trent Cole, Philadelphia Eagles—Leads all DE’s in solo tackles (46) and has 9 sacks, but for some reason he doesn’t get much love.

NFL Week 12 MVP power rankings

Now we’re into December, the month that separates the contenders from the also-rans—for both the playoff hunt and the race for NFL MVP.

1. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—Where do you think the Eagles would be if Kevin Kolb had been the starter all year? Not 8-4 and on top of the NFC East. Hence we give to you your projected MVP.

2. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—Of course, you can surely make a fine argument for this guy too.

3. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers—Sometimes you have to know when to just hand the ball off and manage the game, and Rivers proved last Sunday he can do that, too, and win. His team is just slightly on fire.

4. Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons—On pace for 122 catches, 1550 yards and 10 scores. The receptions alone would put White in the company of folks like Marvin Harrison, Herman Moore, Cris Carter and Jerry Rice.

5. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—Just continues to flat out dominate the ground—including this past Thursday’s game—on pace for 2278 total yards and 20 total TDs. That’s LT in his prime-esque.

6. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons—Falcons are on fire and Matty Ice hasn’t thrown a pick since Week 7.

7. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—He’s right up there in yards (3321), TDs (23) and team wins (8).

8. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—Cooled off just a bit since the start of the season, but defense has made that possible for this total pro.

9. Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs—2307 yards, 22 TDs, 4 picks…..and his team is in first place in the AFC West.

10. Clay Matthews, Green Bay Packers—Still averaging better than a sack a game.

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