In all fairness if the Jags fans are trying to say that the Jags are a little better than we are while the Fins fans are trying to say we're better...then its the Fins fans that are being homers.
I mean come on, newsflash people the Jags made it to the playoffs last year and had what, a 12-4 or 11-5 record? They did that with David Garrard at the helm a bunch of the time too.
Their defense is better than ours right now, period. I don't care how you slice it or spin it. The Jags had a #6 ranked scoring defense and a #6 ranked yardage defense in 2005. We were #15 and #18 in those categories. I know we completely revamped the secondary and that's great, we should see some benefit to that, but not enough benefit to put us on the same level with the Jags defense.
And when it comes to offense, you really have to figure in Joey H. for Daunte C. on about 40% of our offensive downs in 2006. That's the reality of Daunte's knee rehab, and that does not necessarily give us a better QB situation than they have with Byron...who is a very good QB imo. Actually he and Daunte compare in style too as far as passing ability, with Daunte obviously having the legs to go with it where Byron does not. But, in 2006, Daunte won't really have those legs anymore anyway. As passers, both are pretty accurate with cannon arms, but inconsistent as decision makers to where they need a lot of their decisions made for them at the coaching level. Until Daunte gets his legs back, IMO he and Byron Leftwich are like twins.
Chambers is probably better than anyone they have...for now. Matt Jones is someone you really have to watch out for. By the time he's done, he will do to defenses what Randy Moss did in Minnesota.
And if they are optimistic that Marcedes Lewis will be a similar TE to Randy McMichael...I think they have reason to be. He's a great pass catcher and very athletic in the same way that Randy is athletic...which is to say not straight-line speed athletic but great body control and jumping ability. Right now Randy is an infinitely better blocker than Marcedes...because Randy made some HUGE strides in his blocking IMO in 2005, which flew very much under the radar of print media. Marcedes still looks hopeless at blocking sometimes...so he's not the complete TE that Randy is.
Ronnie Brown > Fred Taylor easily. Ronnie Brown > Maurice Drew, also easy. But Ronnie Brown + Sammy Morris > Fred Taylor + Maurice Drew? NOT SO EASY...the Jags have the equal talent in the RB unit to boost their ground game consistency without sacrificing much, if any overall production by rotating Taylor and Drew.
Miami doesn't have that at all. We're completely lopsided in RB talent. Every carry that Sammy Morris gets is in reality one less carry for the better-talented Ronnie Brown. This makes Sammy's carries a necessary evil to simply give Ronnie a rest and keep him healthy and fresh.
On the other hand, for the Jags, every carry that Maurice Drew isn't one less carry for Fred Taylor, because the reality is that in 2005 Taylor and Drew might very well be equally-talented. Therefore, every carry you give Maurice Drew represents an opportunity to get Drew hot if Taylor is not particularly hot.
That's how it worked for us with Ricky & Ronnie. Ricky shared carries with Ronnie and when Ricky was not so hot, chances were Ronnie was...and when Ronnie was not so hot, chances were Ricky was...and then sometimes they were both hot...and sometimes but rarely, both cold.
If you think about it, let's say Ronnie Brown had a 50% chance on any given Sunday of being hot, a 25% chance he's lukewarm, and a 25% chance he's cold...and let's say Ricky had the exact same profile.
Then teaming up the two backs mathematically guarantees that at least one of the two backs will be hot 75% of all games. During the other 25%, both would be lukewarm in 6.25% of the games, both would be cold in 6.25% of the games, and one would be lukewarm with the other cold in 12.5% of the games.
The key to note is that so long as both backs are about equally talented, no overall production is lost or gained by rotating them. The only thing gained is better consistency.
