The Patriots once again appear to be inevitable

We are down to four teams in the NFL. It is a bonkers time of year. 

Legacies hang in the balance and some already made a name for themselves in both positive and negative ways. A lot of this was predictable, but only because it was unpredictable to start. The NFL is the greatest reality show on television for a reason, after all.

One of the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, or New England Patriots will lift the Lombardi Trophy in a few weeks’ time and each of these franchises has done so, almost within the last decade. Seattle’s last/only title was 2014, the Rams won one in Los Angeles (literally) in 2021, Denver won its last Super Bowl in San Francisco back in 2015, and the Patriots last bathed in confetti in 2018. All of that sucked to read if you are a team who has been downtrodden for some time. Apologies.

It is our job here at The Skinny Post between us, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, to talk about football things even if they make us uncomfortable (Michael is a Chargers fan, RJ is a Cowboys fan) because we are professionals!

Let’s get to professional-ing. 

Are the Patriots inevitable again?

RJ: 

As soon as the Patriots won on Sunday this thought struck me so I tweeted it out. All of the responses noted that they didn’t exactly “win” the game as much as C.J. Stroud lost it for Houston.

Isn’t that the point, though? Taking nothing away New England’s dynastic run (either of them), the most frustrating thing about it was that they always seemed to find a way, even when they weren’t playing their best football. That was their inevitable-ness.

I really don’t care if the Patriots are great again; it is just boring and not enthralling. Many have pointed out that their run this season has come against a lackluster group of quarterbacks and now because of what happened to Bo Nixthe Pats are going to face Jarrett Stidham with a ticket to the Super Bowl on the line! Imagine your team catching that kind of break.

It fuels the idea that they are indeed inevitable. 

Michael: 

I do stand by my opinion on the Patriots prior to the playoffs (slightly fraudulent due to playing very soft schedule) but they’ve absolutely blown past my expectations with a defensive performance that has seen them look like a much better unit in the postseason compared to the regular season.

They are seemingly the team peaking at the most perfect moment compared to everyone else. They’ll be challenged once again by a tough Broncos defense in the AFC Championship game, but after besting the Texans in the previous round, I think New England is on enough of a heater that they won’t flinch under the pressure this Sunday.

Do we not give Seahawks leadership enough credit?

Michael: 

I don’t think so, no. They’ve had some good draft classes under Mike Macdonald, but none of them I’ve looked at and thought “Wow, this is a special group.” The fact they’ve been able to get so much out of their young players in their first few seasons has seemingly set them up for years of success after this campaign.

I also cannot stress enough how impressive it is that they were able to pluck Sam Darnold from the Vikings – following his playoff collapse against the Rams – and then get him right back to playing at the highest level of his career.

RJ: 

This is something I have been thinking about for a while. It is easy to look at the decisions that the Seahawks have made over the last few years and nod in agreement because of what we know now, but they took some serious risks.

John Schneider traded away Russell Wilson and we all thought that the Broncos were going to seriously benefit from that. Again… hindsight.

John Schneider also decided it was time to move on from Pete Carroll and that is also a decision that has aged wonderfully. I get that I am pointing out the obvious here, but really think about it.

How often do we see a general manager push out the franchise quarterback and head coach, the duo who delivered the franchise’s only title by the way, and be proven overwhelmingly right almost immediately? You can even throw in the fact that he chose to move on from Geno Smith (there were a lot of pro-Geno people following his Seattle time) and that he bet on Sam Darnold. Oh… and Mike Macdonald!

The Seahawks and their leadership specifically deserve so much credit. 

Should the NFL change rules for the timing of head coach hirings?

RJ: 

The Buffalo Bills fired Sean McDermott on Monday morning and the only people who must have felt worse about it than Sean McDermott were John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski.

Harbaugh and Stefanski took the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons jobs, respectively, over the weekend, obviously before Buffalo had an opening. Doesn’t that kind of stink?

With all due respect to the Giants and Falcons there is absolutely no way that they would be regarded as better landing spots for a would-be head coach than Buffalo. Quarterbacks matter and they have the reigning MVP in Josh Allen.

We have spent so much time (rightfully) talking about college football and how the timing of certain things has to be changed for the betterment of the sport… should the NFL consider something like not allowing head coaches to join new teams until after the Super Bowl? 

It is an interesting idea. I don’t even know if I think it should come to pass. But it has merit!

Michael: 

So I’m a bit torn on this idea. I think in a completely fair world that every franchise that fires their head coach will all start at the same time to go out and find their new one. However, it’s also sort of fair that the teams who lose earlier in the postseason and had to go home earlier than they would have wanted get to have a head start because they were the worse team at the end of the day.

It’s all part of the strategy of the game, though. The Falcons and Giants felt like they could get a leg up on the competition by blitzing the best available coaches and those coaches obviously felt the love and liked what they had to offer.

But alas, neither of those teams have Josh Allen at quarterback and Harbaugh and Stefanski have each missed the opportunity to land the league’s best open quarterback situation. That’s their own fault for jumping at the first thing handed to them. There’s so many variables that go into it; no one really is at “fault.” It’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Ranking the potential Super Bowl teams

RJ: 

As noted up top I am a Dallas Cowboys fan which means I have no beef with any of the final four teams. This is the best kind of situation if your team is missing out on the Conference Championship Game. Believe me, I am an expert on that.

Right now I want the Seahawks to win it. I love the story and the franchise is just so cool. If I have to pick a second I suppose it would be the Broncos because it would be impressive to see them overcome losing Bo Nix so suddenly.

I’ll take the Rams at third, but Michael and I once did an entire podcast asking if anybody even cared that they won their most recent title. New England doesn’t bother me, but we’ve seen that movie so many times. I’ll pass.

Michael:

This one is pretty easy for me.

The Seahawks are far-and-away the team I most want to see win the Super Bowl.

As a Chargers fan, I do not want to see another team in the AFC West win it all before the LAC do. I am not over seeing the Patriots win a billion championships, some of which included wins over the Chargers en route to the final game. Lastly, there is a battle for LA that the Chargers are still fighting and they are once again little brother with the Rams going further in the playoffs this year yet again.

It’s the Seahawks or bust for me.