Your Top 3 "What If's" going your team's way in franchise history...

[MWil23]

37 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

Answer:

Then one of the most successful NFL franchises of this century never comes into existence, and the sports world is worse off for it.

😊

I mean, if Irsay doesn’t move the Colts it never puts that into motion and everybody wins.

[Ray Reed]

1 hour ago, MWil23 said:

I mean, if Irsay doesn’t move the Colts it never puts that into motion and everybody wins.

Big fax

Buncha drunks (the irsays)

[biggie.]

What if NE went 19-0? The 2007 Patriots are unanimously considered the greatest team of all time. NE probably plays against Indy on the Thursday opener. This avoids KC and Bernard Pollard in the opener thus Matt Cassel never gets extensive starting time and never gets traded to KC.

Without Cassel, KC opts to draft Mark Sanchez who busts even harder. NYJ drafts Josh Freeman instead.

TB misses out on all of the QBs and without Freeman lose to Green Bay and possibly Seattle as well. This puts them drafting second overall for 2010 and they take Suh instead of McCoy. Without Freeman, they don't go 10-6 and continue to being one of the worst teams in the league.

It's very possible Brady's career is significantly shortened. He has admitted that loss is what kept him motivated to keep playing.

What if NE beat Indy in the 2006 AFC Championship? NE beats Chicago in the SB. Peyton's reputation takes an even bigger hit.

We may not trade for Moss and/or Welker.  I think a big reason we made those trades was because Belichick didn't want a repeat of the disastrous Reche Caldwell drop.

What if Drew Bledsoe never got injured in 2001? I'm a firm believer that Belichick would have benched Bledsoe sometime during the season; we all know how ruthless Belichick is and Bledsoe was showing signs of declining. 

Edited February 25, 2023 by biggie.

[TVScout]

What if Landry picked Walter Payton instead of Randy White?

Joe Montana instead of Doug Cosby? 

  (This is true.  They debated it in the war room and decided to wait until the 4th......)

Jerry picking Johnny Football instead of Zack 🤣

 

[INbengalfan]

8 minutes ago, TVScout said:

What if Landry picked Walter Payton instead of Randy White?

Joe Montana instead of Doug Cosby? 

  (This is true.  They debated it in the war room and decided to wait until the 4th......)

Jerry picking Johnny Football instead of Zack 🤣

 

What if Paul Brown would have promoted Bill walsh to HC instead of Tiger Johnson when Paul retired?  That probably puts Montana somewhere else outside of SF as well.  Does Cincy win a few SBs?

[TVScout]

6 hours ago, INbengalfan said:

What if Paul Brown would have promoted Bill walsh to HC instead of Tiger Johnson when Paul retired?  That probably puts Montana somewhere else outside of SF as well.  Does Cincy win a few SBs?

Walsh would have drafted almost all the players onto Cincy that he drafted to SF. I don't know if his team there would have won 5 rings. He certainly would have won 2 or 3.

[Danger]

What if McNabb didn't get sick during Super Bowl 39

 

What if that pass interference call wasn't made at the end of Super Bowl 57

 

What if something with that one Superbowl before I was born.

[Sugashane]

On 2/23/2023 at 8:42 AM, notthatbluestuff said:

As a Bears fan? Trubisky over Mahomes doesn't come to mind?

The most obvious "what if?" is what if literally any other team had drafted Brady? How differently would his career have gone, and how would Belichick be viewed today?

For me its

1- Rodgers over Cedric Benson 1st, that hurt like hell at the time. I was a HUGE fan of Rodgers, liked Thomas Jones a lot, even liked that stupid reverse dropback they occasionally did at Cal when the first two reads were on the left. 🙄  Plus I didn't see the Ricky Williams comps with Benson and being a Gators fan I even thought Grossman was overrated.

2 - But I was driving the Mahomes train hard too, and was let down again. I liked Tru as a prospect a lot, but Mahomes was my guy even when a bunch of people kept calling it a weak QB class compared to the next year. I argued that a LOT   lol  That being said I was really nervous about a defensive guy like Fox handling Mahomes, and didn't like Frodo as the OC.

3 - It may end up being "What if the Bears hired Daboll instead of Eberflus" in a few years as I was really wanting him, but for now I will say "What if Chicago hired Arians instead of Marc Trestman." Really kind of hoped Arians was the guy there too. And that whole concern with Fox/Loggains screwing up Mahomes goes right out the window with Arians at the helm too.

[scar988]

What if Deion Sanders was a Falcon for life and never left and was part of the 1998 run where they went to the SB?

What if the Falcons were able to make 1 less mistake to win SB51?

What if Matt Ryan actually had a defense to help take pressure off of him during his career?

[Jakuvious]

What if Dee Ford was never offsides in 2018?

What if Mike Maslowski never got injured in 2003? (Less people know about this one, so for some context, Maslowski was our MLB in 2003. Not a great player, but kind of the leader and caller for the defense. Good tackler, limited range, but smart dude. Suffered a career ending injury in wee 11 against Cincy. Prior to that, we allowed 17 points per game that year. Afterwards, we allowed 28. No one punted in our playoff game against Indy that year. We had one fumble and that was the difference in a one score game. Was the first competitive Chiefs team where I was really a fan.)

What if Lin Elliott could kick a field goal in 1995?

 

Frankly, I could do like a dozen of these, because our history post-Len Dawson and pre-Patrick Mahomes was nothing but really stupid playoff losses. So we could do the Colts comeback in 2013 where Charles got injured. The loss to the Titans where they called a Derrick Johnson sack/forced fumble as stopped by forward progress. I think that was 2017. The Travis Kelce footlocker comment game where they called holding on Eric Fisher on a 2 point conversion to tie the game up. That had to have been 2016? Can't think of a singular play in 2015, but it was a one score loss to New England so I'm sure there was something there. I think Lowery missed a FG in the 1 point loss to Miami in 1990. Maybe we'd have beat Denver in 1997 with Gannon over GrBac. And then there's plenty of injury what ifs as well. Berry, Charles, Houston all had hall of fame careers at least somewhat derailed by major injuries. Same with Holmes and Green back in the early 2000s. The 2020 superbowl wasn't even a matchup due to the OL injuries. Tony Moeaki, obviously.

[7DnBrnc53]

1. What if Dan Reeves was fired after the 1990 season (when Denver went 5-11)? 

This wasn't rumored, but it should have happened. They never would have won a SB if Reeves stayed after 1992. 

2. What if the Broncos drafted Drew Brees in 2001?

Right before his death, John Elway's father Jack was a scout with the Broncos. He banged the table for Brees, and Shanny took Willie Middlebrooks. 

3. What if Shanahan called a punt with 2:00 left in the first half in Denver's Week 16 matchup with Buffalo in 2008? 

Instead of punting, Shanny decided to have a slumping Matt Prater try a 54-yard FG in the cold. He missed, and the Bills went down and made it 13-10 before half. If the Broncos punt, they don't give the Bills any momentum, and maybe they get the ball back somehow and score before the half. 

That loss cost them the AFC West title, and Shanahan his job. The franchise would have been totally different if they won that game. 

Edited March 1, 2023 by 7DnBrnc53

[7DnBrnc53]

On 2/24/2023 at 6:51 PM, biggie. said:

What if NE beat Indy in the 2006 AFC Championship? NE beats Chicago in the SB. Peyton's reputation takes an even bigger hit.

We may not trade for Moss and/or Welker.  I think a big reason we made those trades was because Belichick didn't want a repeat of the disastrous Reche Caldwell drop.

That's what I was thinking (about Moss and Welker). Also, if Indy still doesn't win a SB with Manning the next year (like in OTL, or our timeline), you have to wonder if Irsay is thinking about blowing it up by 2008 (maybe trading Manning to Denver for Cutler and a few draft picks [he he] and forcing Dungy to retire a year earlier). 

On 2/24/2023 at 6:51 PM, biggie. said:

What if Drew Bledsoe never got injured in 2001? I'm a firm believer that Belichick would have benched Bledsoe sometime during the season; we all know how ruthless Belichick is and Bledsoe was showing signs of declining. 

I have heard varying stories about this. Six years ago, Mike Florio (not the most credible source) interviewed Charlie Weis, and asked him if there was a plan to switch to Brady by 2002. Weis said that there was no plan to switch to Brady at all. 

[biggie.]

2 hours ago, 7DnBrnc53 said:

That's what I was thinking (about Moss and Welker). Also, if Indy still doesn't win a SB with Manning the next year (like in OTL, or our timeline), you have to wonder if Irsay is thinking about blowing it up by 2008 (maybe trading Manning to Denver for Cutler and a few draft picks [he he] and forcing Dungy to retire a year earlier). 

I have heard varying stories about this. Six years ago, Mike Florio (not the most credible source) interviewed Charlie Weis, and asked him if there was a plan to switch to Brady by 2002. Weis said that there was no plan to switch to Brady at all. 

Zero chance even a deranged and liquored up lunatic like Irsay would trade Peyton sans a 06 SB.

Edited February 28, 2023 by biggie.

[7DnBrnc53]

14 hours ago, biggie. said:

Zero chance even a deranged and liquored up lunatic like Irsay would trade Peyton sans a 06 SB.

Probably not. However, you wonder if there would have been a fire sale with other players if they didn't win in 06 or 07. 

[lancerman]

22 hours ago, 7DnBrnc53 said:

Probably not. However, you wonder if there would have been a fire sale with other players if they didn't win in 06 or 07. 

Tough to say because my initial instinct is to say "well if the Pats beat the Colts in 06, they don't go ham in free agency and get the loaded 07 team, which would make the 06 Colts the best team in football that year and they'd have a shot at the undefeated season". 

But then I remembered 07 was the start of the Colts choking against the Chargers for years and the Patriots weren't even the reason they got bounced from the playoffs. 

The Colts would still be good, but I wonder if going into 2008 and possibly 2009 (because with Brady out in 08 the Pats weren't a factor in Indy's success) without a title would change the calculus on what they do. Especially with Harrison winding down.