Aristotle’s NFL

Aristotle, the ultimate thinking man.  Football, the ultimate sport of man.  When going through this past week’s NFL action, we wondered what better way to dissect the games than to have humanity’s ultimate authority on all things philosophy and logic chime in and help us?  At first this seemed like a stretch.  Why would Aristotle take tame out of his busy day of answering life’s biggest questions to comment on some NFL topics for AVS?  However, the more we asked and asked (and eventually begged),he finally agreed to help us with this column…with one stipulation.  Aristotle is a man of questions.  He does this as a learning tool for himself and for others.  So the only way he would agree to help us with this column was to include a bunch of questions in the column, true to form.

This is his one and only appearance on AVS, so enjoy it while you can.  Straight from the virtually-bankrupt country of Greece, these questions are from the great Aristotle himself.

We’ll call it the thinking man’s NFL column.

Fire up the Trade Machine

We rarely see major NFL trades, especially in-season.  That’s why the news that Trent Richardson was traded away for a first round pick created such uproar.  Now that everyone has had time to digest the trade, it looks like a sure-fire win for Cleveland.  RB is a position of decreasing importance in the NFL and Trent has proven to be nothing short of mediocre throughout his first season and first 5 games.  We’re sure there won’t be many more major trades this year, but what if there were?  Fireup the trade machine.

Cleveland sends its first round pick and the newly acquired Colts’ first round pick to the New York Giants for Eli Manning.  The Giants are out of it this year.  They have issues on both lines, at LB, and in the secondary, plus they have some major free agents this year (keep reading).  The Browns are stockpiling picks so they can move up and get their quarterback of the future in the upcoming draft.  Why not send two first round picks for a proven, Super Bowl winning quarterback?  What would the Giants do in the draft with 3 first round picks?  And more importantly, who says no to this deal first?  Thanks, Aristotle.

Atlanta sends a 4th round pick to the Giants for Justin Tuck.  Atlanta, at 1-4, is not out of it yet.  They have their bye next week to heal up.  After the bye, the Falcons play the Bucs, Cardinals, and Panthers.  They will be favored to win all 3 of those games.  Why not send a 4th round pick for Tuck?  Would Tuck be re-energized now that he was paired with Umenyioura again?  Why wouldn’t the Giants do this?

49ers send a 3rd round pick to the Giants for Hakeem Nicks.  Nicks is a free agent after this year and the Giants are unsure whether they will make an honest attempt to re-sign him.  He has had lingering injury concerns and they just committed a large amount of money to Victor Cruz.  Why not shop him for the rest of this year?  The Giants could always make a serious attempt to sign him in the offseason anyway.  The 49ers could then line up a playoff squad of Nicks and Crabtree on the outside, Boldin in the slot, and Vernon Davis as a move TE.  Who would stop them?

Big Ben to the Texans for a first and a third or a first and Matt Schaub.  Now Aristotle is starting to get interesting.  Matt Schaub clearly isn’t the answer for the Texans.  He is good enough to get them to the playoffs year in and year out but isn’t good enough to bring home the bacon.  Why not take a risk on Big Ben, a proven Super Bowl winning quarterback?  Would the Steelers take a first and a third for him?  Why wouldn’t the Steelers, who are in the same boat as the Giants with holes everywhere, take back a first and a third?  Wouldn’t it be better for them just to bottom out this year?

New England sends a 1st round pick to the Browns for Josh Gordon. The Pats have tried and tried and tried to stockpile picks and use more selections in the middle rounds of the draft than in the first round.  This has led to a turnstile at WR and they are searching for answers now morethan ever.  Josh Gordon is an elite talent who would be better than anyone the Pats could select at WR in the draft.  Why not finally get that first round talent at WR?  Why wouldn’t the Browns, who are trading away pieces, move Gordon?  Is Gordon really worth a first round pick?

What kinda soda?

The past two NFL drafts have changed the landscape of the NFL for the next 10 years.  We have seen more franchise quarterbacks selected in the first few rounds than any time in recent memory.  Oh, but things could have been much different.  Take a look:

2011

1.       Cam Newton – Panthers.  What if they hit on any other WR draft picks like Dwayne Jarrett or Brandon LaFell?  How good would Cam be?
8.    Jake Locker – Titans.
10. Blaine Gabbert – Jaguars.  What if they selected anyone but him?  Just wait it gets better.
12. Christian Ponder – Vikings.  What if he didn’t have Adrian Peterson behind him?  Would he even be in the NFL?
35. Andy Dalton – Bengals.  What if Kaep was the selection?  Would Kaep put them over the top on a roster stacked with talent?
36. Colin Kaepernick – 49ers.  What if he didn’t land with Jim Harbaugh?

2012

1.       Andrew Luck – Colts.  No questions asked.
2.       RGIII – Redskins.  What if the Browns moved up to take him?  What if the Rams stayed at 2 and selected him?  His rookie year could have been vastly different.
8.    Ryan Tannehill – Dolphins.  What if the Browns at 3 selected him and not Trent Richardson?
22. Brandon Weeden – Browns.  What if he wasn’t 231 years old already?
70. Bryan Anger – PUNTER – Jaguars.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
75. Russell Wilson – Seahawks.  What if he didn’t land in the perfect situation?

One and One only…

If we told you only one team in the following scenarios is going to make the playoffs and the other one will miss it, which would you choose?  Our selections are in bold.

Pick only one to make the playoffs: Jets/Falcons
Pick only one to make the playoffs: Eagles/Cardinals
Pick only one to make the playoffs: Bears/Lions
Pick only one to make the playoffs: Chiefs/Cowboys
Pick one to win the Super Bowl: Broncos or 49ers/Seahawks

Your move, Plato.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*