Worst Division in the NFL 2006 Season
June 5, 2008
There has been debate aplenty with respect to what most would consider the 2006 NFL’s worst division. Every division within the NFL has an excellent team and a brutal team. We all know that what is considered the worst division will always vary depending on who you ask and the year that the question is asked. Based on what happened last year, I believe that one can only come up with two possibilities: the NFC West, which was the only division last year to have three teams with winning percentages under .500… and my choice:
The AFC East: New England, Miami, Buffalo and the New York Jets
There is no question that the NFC West, with the exception of the Seattle Seahawks, was in the toilet last season. The St. Louis Rams had their coach missing most of the year, showed their age, had a million injuries and had front-office bickering. The Arizona Cardinals big time underachieved, with their best weapon being their kicker. The San Francisco 49ers had no quarterback, and you can’t win without one. However, with the expected resurgence of the Cardinals, please let me introduce you to the AFC East, the NFL’s worst division.
The Patriots can never be counted out with arguably the best head coach in the game still on the staff in Bill Belichick and probably the best quarterback in the game in Tom Brady. But this team lost a load of important pieces last offseason, and it really hurt them in coming up with a 10-6 record… and this offseason, they have lost even more, with two players who contributed heavily to their championships now gone in K Adam Vinatieri and LB Willie McGinest. If any team can overcome huge losses, it’s New England, but it just may be too much at this point.
The Dolphins scored a win in obtaining Daunte Culpepper at quarterback after ending the 2005 season with six consecutive wins. But if you are looking for promising things in the future, you may want to look elsewhere. Four of those six wins to end the season came against Oakland, Buffalo, the Jets and Tennessee… each team had no more than five wins. And Miami still finished 9-7. If you do the math, you’ll see an overachiever in the Dolphins. Culpepper has become fragile after incurring a devastating knee injury last season, and he has very little to work with offensively. Do not look for fireworks.
The Bills were hurt last year with inconsistent play at quarterback and injuries to major players on the defensive side of the ball, and during this offseason, they lost experienced veterans in WR Eric Moulds, S Lawyer Milloy and DT Sam Adams. Moulds was their best receiver last season, and he was replaced by Peerless Price, who did little in Atlanta in 2004 and much less for Dallas last year. The Bills have a poor lot with their options at the quarterback position, recently naming J. P. Losman the starter. To me, he is mediocre at best, and you should look for him to be replaced by backup Kelly Holcomb, another mediocre tosser, once again in the very near future.
Bringing up the rear in this poor division is the Jets, who pretty much have no chance in hell of making the playoffs. The Jets lost everyone in the offseason, including three players who attended a total of 13 Pro Bowls: CB Ty Law, C Kevin Mawae and DE John Abraham. They have just found out that their best player, RB Curtis Martin, will not be available for the first six weeks at least, if anytime this season at all, due to his knee problem. They are starting two rookies on the offensive line, which is a recipe for immediate disaster, and they have a head coach no one has heard of. Don’t expect to hear that famous “J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS” chant around New York for quite some time.
