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Taking A Look At Five Bottom-Feeders...© Shane Andy Youngblood
Dec 8, 1999
If you are one of the unfortunate NFL teams who are not in line for a chance to play in the Super Bowl in Atlanta, you have a couple of options as the season winds down:
1) Assess the personnel that you have and break down game film to rectify the mistakes that made the difference in being a 6-10 team as opposed to a 10-6 team.....or
2) Rather than breaking down film, take the wrecking ball to your roster and inject some life into a stagnant lineup.
Here is a glance at five NFL squads who will have a Lazy-Boy view of the Super Bowl from the privacy of their own living rooms:
1) Baltimore Ravens: Generally, when your defense is this good, you compete for championships. No such luck this year as the tough-luck Ravens will end the year thinking of what could have been. Four three-point losses has slammed the door on any playoff prospects, but this is not a team devoid of talent. The young defense is the quickest stop unit in the NFL, led by Pro Bowl middle linebacker Ray Lewis, who appears a lock to lead the team in tackles for the next ten years. Surround him with recent draft picks linebacker Peter Boulware and cornerback Chris McAllister and you have the nucleus of what will soon become a perennial playoff contender, providing that Baltimore management can keep them all together.
If you are wondering why the offense hasn't been mentioned, well, it is because they are unnoteworthy. Seriously, offensive whiz Brian Billick was counting on much larger fireworks from free agent signal-caller Tony Banks and speedster Jermaine Lewis. While Banks has been banged up for much of the year, Lewis has become invisible without a viable quarterback candidate to get him the ball. The duo showed flashes of greatness in a 41-14 romp over division leading Tennessee, but it is hard to imagine this team taking it to the next level with Banks calling the shots. It would be shocking if Billick didn't go after a quarterback in the offseason via free agency or draft.
2) Chicago Bears: This is a competitive Bears' squad that, despite the record, has only been blown out twice. They possess quality wins over Kansas City, Minnesota and Green Bay which is the sign of a team that at the very least, believes in their system.
The problem with the Bears is that they have too many players who are merely serviceable rather than difference makers. This is especially evident on offense where starting wide receivers Curtis Conway and Bobby Engram have lost receptions to emerging deep-threat Marcus Robinson, who has stretched defenses enough to make tailback Curtis Enis a viable threat on the ground. Enis, the second-year back out of Penn State, has slowly begun to show glimpses of the explosiveness he displayed in college. He is a pounder, who will be most effective with 25 or more carries a game. What the Bears need from the upcoming off-season is players who will cause opponent's coordinators to stay up late, whether it be on the offensive or defensive side. A dominating pass-rushing end, another deep threat to go with Robinson, a mobile quarterback.....these are the kind of players that Chicago must obtain to get over the hump.
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