The College Football Playoff: A Broken System

-by Dylan Webster, host of The Home Stand

  When the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) made the announcement that they would be changing to a playoff system in 2014, I was ecstatic. Major college football finally realized that you can’t determine who deserves a shot at a national championship by using a computer. It needs to be won on the field, against the best competition in the country. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) has shown how effective it can work every year. Unfortunately, the playoff system that was chosen by the FBS, has been garbage.

The whole playoff system is massively flawed. The first issue, the number of teams. Four teams does not a playoff make. It’s absurd that not only do you not allow a member from every Power 5 conference into the playoff, but then expect smaller schools from mid-level conferences to compete against teams like Alabama and Clemson in terms of schedule. The NCAA is actively excluding teams from a championship format and that is simply unacceptable. This is a problem that only exists within the FBS. The FCS playoff system has 24 teams in it. Division 2 has 28. Division 3 has 32. Even the NFL just expanded their playoff field to 7 teams from each conference, making 14 total. So how does the NCAA justify only four teams, unless they’re trying to create the smallest chance of an outside school taking a spot away from one of their cash cows?

    There’s also both the lack of criteria for how a team gets in and also the lack of sticking to whatever criteria you do have. Alabama got into the CFP in 2017 despite not winning their conference or even appearing in the conference championship game. Requirements that previously held out schools like TCU and Baylor in 2014. Ohio State even had the rules bent for them this year as the Big Ten originally said that teams would have to play at least six games to be eligible for the Big Ten Championship game. But the conference adapted the rules when Ohio State’s regular season ended at 5-0 due to games being cancelled by COVID. If the rules have to be changed for a team to make it into your playoff, they probably don’t deserve to be there. Also, your playoff is probably trash.

    The sheer fact that winning football games is not enough for some teams to make it in is the biggest joke of all. Perfect example comes from the 2018 season in which the University of Central Florida went undefeated during the regular season after posting a perfect 13-0 record in 2017. UCF should’ve been a lock for the playoff after winning 25 straight games, including a bowl win over #7 Auburn. But no, the four teams that year were: Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama. UCF would finish #6 in the country after 2 full years of winning. Something no team in the playoff that year could say. Which brings me to the biggest issue, winning doesn’t matter. And if winning doesn’t matter, then what are we doing here? We’re just wasting everyone’s time so that the NCAA can give millions of dollars to Alabama and Clemson every year.

    If you really want the CFP to work and be an actual playoff format there’s only one way to do that. Expansion. Ideally, I would like to expand the field to 16 teams but I realize that’s not totally realistic right now. I’ll happily settle for 8 teams. All of the Power 5 conference winners and then 3 at large bids. You’ll probably still get another SEC school or 2 in the mix (especially this year) but a wider field makes it less likely for the two schools to see each other again. Also, chances are we still end up with the classic Alabama/Clemson matchup we’ve grown accustomed to in the last few years, but at least you can make it a challenge for them. You also can afford to give a spot to a smaller school and see if they can’t make a Cinderella run to the championship game. Everybody wins. And after all, winning is what should be important.

Betrayal in Miami

-by Dan Schweizer, contributing writer

Ryan Fitzpatrick is a force of nature, a hurricane on the football field; when he makes landfall he will absolutely shred the defense in his path, but often veers off to the side and causes minimal damage. What better place for a hurricane to reside than in Miami? The Dolphins were a team with one of the worst offensive lines in the National Football League, that was trading away half its offensive weapons in the midst of a rebuild, and whose fans were chanting “Tank for Tua” when Fitzmagic came to town. Through 8 weeks in 2019 the Dolphins were winless and on pace to get that #1 overall pick, but when they came up against the perpetually bad New York Jets it was time for the ol’ Fitzmagic to shine through as #14 put up 288 yards and 3 TD’s for the team’s first win of the season. As we all know, the Dolphins did not end up with the #1 overall pick for the 2020 NFL Draft but as fate would have it Tua Tagovailoa suffered a major hip injury which made it possible for Miami to take him at #5 overall. Fitzpatrick knew he was a bridge QB; he knew everything I stated back in that third sentence, but he still worked his butt off for his team and THAT is why he has been hurt so badly by Brian Flores’s decision to bench him ahead of their Week 8 matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. 

Let’s start by talking about why Ryan did NOT deserve this benching. The Dolphins (as of this writing) sit at 3-3, are 2nd place in the AFC East, and have not put up less than 24 points since stumbling out of the gate in Week 1 (a 21-11 Loss to New England). Their last two games have been dominant wins against the San Francisco 49ers (43-17) and Jets (24-0) in which #14 was an absolute STUD. In Week 5 Fitz went 22-28, for 350 yards, and 3 TD’s. The Fitzmagic fizzled a little in Week 6, but he still put up 3 TD’s on the day while riding the coattails of a stifling defensive performance. Through 6 games this season Ryan Fitzpatrick sits at 70.1% pass completion (5th in the NFL), 1,535 passing yards, and 10 TD’s to 7 INT’s; those numbers are on pace for 4,000+ passing yards, 26 TD’s, and 18 INT’s which - if we we're talking about Mitch Trubisky or Carson Wentz - is a stellar year. At 37 years old, Fitzpatrick is playing some of the best football of his career, and to top it off he has a team behind him that truly has his back. By all accounts, Fitz was a key component of changing the culture in that Miami locker room and has been an exemplary leader for the team. 

Now for the difficult part; why Flores made the right call. When you’re going to make a change at QB, if you CAN wait until the Bye Week that is the best time to make the move. For a rookie, that extra week of prep goes a long way. For the offense, that extra week of finding a rhythm with a new guy under center is huge. Ryan Fitzpatrick is a great leader and he’s also used to being that journeyman QB that gets passed over for the next guy at some point, so you know he will continue to be that leader in the locker room even after the demotion. There are also several deficiencies in your offense already, and you’re not fully out of that rebuild in Miami, so plugging in the future of your franchise at QB allows you to evaluate the talent around him and start planning your off-season moves. This is not a playoffs-or-bust team, so success in 2020 isn’t really on their mind as much as the future is.

Now, let’s talk about why Tua did not NEED to be called up so early. We’ll start by stating the obvious: Tua suffered a dislocated hip and posterior wall fracture on November 16th, 2019. That was 352 days before he will be making his first NFL Start against a vaunted Rams pass rush that includes 2-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald. No professional athlete can live in fear of old injuries, but when that injury almost ended your career less than 1 year ago it should be a thought at the forefront of your mind. Tua is extremely athletic, with a good arm and decent speed, but the kid is not quick - a fact that is evident when you watch him get run down by two defensive linemen leading up to that injury. Aaron Donald? Yeah, that man is QUICK and that man is BIG. To top it off, Miami will be starting rookies at both right guard and right tackle this weekend and with Tua being a Southpaw that means his blindside will be protected by inexperienced linemen hoping to hold off one of the league’s best pass rushers. Good luck.

Let’s look beyond the injury though and look at a semi-controversial comparison method: quarterbacks that didn’t start their rookie seasons vs one’s that did. For the sake of brevity I will be listing notable quarterbacks that did not start for all or most of their rookie year: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes. Now let’s look at some that did start during their rookie years: Mitch Trubisky, Carson Wentz, Johnny Manziel, Josh Rosen, DeShone Kizer, Baker Mayfield, Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert. As you can see the second list is a real mixed bag of results, but heavily weighed against the quarterback while the first list has a substantial success rate (granted, in a small sample size). 

This writer genuinely hopes Tua has a long, great career in the NFL and I would be ecstatic to be proven wrong by Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins, but when you weigh all the evidence it seems to be pointing to foul play down in South Beach. Tua Time is coming too soon and Ryan Fitzpatrick is just the first casualty of an impatient front office, and a fan base that is starving for something to show up and cheer for.

Adam Gase Is a Parasite. But the Jets Need Him

-by Austin Stephens, co-host and producer of The Home Stand

Adam Gase, head coach of the New York Jets, is terrible. Actually, that may be too kind. Adam Gase is an all around absolutely god-awful coach. Probably one of the worst of our generation. He is a cancer; a parasite. He’s the Monstars’ basketball from Space Jam; leeching the talent of great players. It takes someone like Michael Jordan to overcome him. And when there’s a player great enough to do that, Gase will ride the coattails of success for his own gain. So now here he sits at 0-6 on this 2020 season, and the Jets have some decisions to make. But I think they’ve already made it. Gase will stay, for now. Because they need him. Because sometimes a parasite can do a little good before it totally kills you.

Gase got his NFL coaching start as the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos under head coach John Fox in 2013. Gase contributed to a record breaking passing year for the Broncos’ quarterback. Of course, that just so happened to be Peyton Manning, who probably still would have set records with Spongebob Squarepants as his OC. Nevertheless, Gase rode this success to the OC of the Chicago Bears (again under John Fox), and then landed his first head coaching job for the Miami Dolphins in 2015.

In his first year as head coach, Gase led the Dolphins to a 10-6 record, and actually made the playoffs before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wildcard round. Now you may be thinking “Weeell look at that. He’s not so bad. Playoffs in his first year as a head coach.” Okay, fair, but let’s not forget that he went 6-10 and 7-9 the next two seasons. But you know what the most damning thing is? Ryan Tannehill was the quarterback. A guy who’s now one of the top QBs in the league on the undefeated Tennessee Titans. Hindsight is 20/20, but man did Gase really screw that one up. Plus not to mention the fact top players were constantly asking for trades out of Miami under his coaching. All this led to his firing after the 2018 season.

Which landed him in his current role as head coach of the New York Jets. The big zero and six New York Jets. The last place, worst team in the league, probably gonna lose sixteen games, New York Jets. (Did I mention they haven’t won a game yet?) He took a great prospect in Sam Darnold and turned him into a puddle. He took Le’Veon Bell, who, at the time he signed, was one of the best running backs in the league, and made him a nonexistent puppy dog. Jarvis Landry, Kenyan Drake, DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki; all guys who have thrived once out from under the thumb of Gase.

Then there’s also the Jamal Adams controversy. Tumultuous contract talks led to Adams demanding a trade, citing in interviews that Gase was not the right leader for the Jets and that he did not build good relationships with people in the building.

The guy does not know how to bring out the best in people. Quite the opposite actually.

He should be fired. The Texans fired Bill O’Brien and won their first game. The Falcons fired Dan Quinn and won their first game. So why hasn’t Gase been fired? Because the Jets don’t want to win, for one very simple reason. Trevor Lawrence, the golden boy atop the draft boards.

It’s a bold strategy. They’re risking everything now for a shot at a better future. And they’re banking on Adam Gase to continue being the little parasite that he is, to give them what they need, before they take their medicine and drop him down the toilet.

Is the Trubisky Era Over?

-by Dylan Webster, host of The Home Stand

We’ve seen the highs. We’ve seen the lows. We’ve seen the good, the bad, AND the ugly. Oh man, we sure have seen the ugly. Mitch Trubisky has had one of the most roller coaster careers that I can recall in my lifetime. Granted he’s only been in the NFL for four years, but it still seems we’ve seen both the floor and the ceiling of Trubisky’s abilities. But it also appears we may have seen the last of him in a Chicago Bears uniform.

As I read numerous articles and listened to countless talking heads discuss the end of the Trubisky era for Chicago, I came across something interesting. Something that really sparked my interest to write this piece. An old quote from Bears general manager Ryan Pace during Trubisky’s introductory press conference in 2017. One where Pace compared the top 3 drafted quarterbacks of that year’s draft (Trubisky, Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes) to a player that he was extremely familiar with during his time in New Orleans. Drew Brees.

“All these top quarterbacks, it’s just their ability to quickly process defense, process coverage, find open targets, not panic under pressure, deliver accurate throws when there’s a noisy pocket and things are collapsing. Those guys all have those traits. Mitch has those traits. Drew has those traits.”

In my opinion, most of that statement is true. Drew Brees is one of the best players in the game right now and obviously has those traits. Deshaun Watson shares those same traits which led him to a national championship at Clemson and continue to serve him as one of the young, rising superstars of the NFL today. Patrick Mahomes has shown he has those traits as well after winning a Most Valuable Player award in his second year, a Super Bowl in his third, and has now turned himself into the new face of the NFL. Mitch Trubisky, unfortunately, has none of these traits.

Trubisky has shown an inability to read the defense before the snap and recognize coverages after. He routinely overlooks or ignores wide open receivers in an effort to force throws into bad spots. He constantly demonstrates his “happy feet” in the pocket and will rush throws to avoid getting hit. His accuracy that was once listed as a strength, is now a weakness. He is not the “poor man’s Drew Brees” or “Brees 2.0” that Bears fans were promised. He’s nowhere close to that. He’s simply just the wrong guy.

Ryan Pace completely botched the evaluation process in a year when it was extremely important to get it right. The quarterback group was extremely weak in 2017. In any draft year, you hope for five or six good prospects at the quarterback position. This year had two. Watson and Mahomes. Many teams had Trubisky at a distant third. This misstep in Pace’s assessment of Trubisky led to the Bears selecting him second overall in the draft. And now with the success that we’ve seen from the other two quarterbacks so far in their young careers, reporters and analysts from around the league are led to label Mitch Trubisky as something that any high-profile draft pick hopes to avoid. A draft bust.

That being said, there is a small part of me that feels bad for Mitch. He’s just a kid that can’t seem to handle the pressure that comes with being an NFL quarterback. In a city that has long been asking for a savior at that position. He’s a good kid. Someone you absolutely want to root for. He’s handled all the ups and downs with poise and grace. He’s taken responsibility for his mistakes and said repeatedly that he needs to be better. But better never seems to come. I can’t say for sure that we’ve seen the limit of Trubisky’s talent, but I also can’t say that he’ll ever be able to tap into that potential and become that quarterback Chicago needs. And for that, it is time to move on.

The question for the future now is what the Bears will do after this season. There should be numerous options for the Bears as they can look through the draft or free agency for some kind of solution to their problems. For Bears fans, it’s another chance to get “the guy” this team has been looking for since Jim McMahon led the ’85 Bears to a Super Bowl win. For Ryan Pace, it’s one final shot to pick the right guy at the most important position in football. No matter what the outcome is, Chicago will once again be grasping at straws this offseason at the quarterback position. Hoping this time, they won’t draw the short one again.