Lets talk about Ozzie

[jpeter15]

1 hour ago, Darth Pees said:

Things add up quite well. Ozzie's draft magic ran out, and for the past 5 years we've been stuck with underwhelming rosters with no leaders like Ray and Ed to hold things together. Sure, we have the 8th best record in the NFL since 2008, but now cut that in half and evaluate 2008 - 2012 and 2013 - now and you'll see a massive disparity there.

We have also had more injuries than almost any other team over the past 5 years. Without a doubt we have not had as great drafts as we have in the past but the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Reading through some of these threads you would think the only difference between us and the Browns is Justin Tucker.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

54 minutes ago, jpeter15 said:

We have also had more injuries than almost any other team over the past 5 years. Without a doubt we have not had as great drafts as we have in the past but the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Reading through some of these threads you would think the only difference between us and the Browns is Justin Tucker.

Over the past 5 years we're an average team, and that's with 2014's miraculous season with Kubiak. We are like 1 game below or above .500 in those 5 years. Blame injuries all you want, but sooner or later you can't just throw every season away because a few injuries happen here and there. If you're not drafting well and getting guys who can step up and fill in (injuries happen for every team), that's a hit towards your team. I'm willing to concede 2015's season to injuries, but even before Flacco went down that team was trash. At the time Flacco injured his knee, we were a 2 win team (2-7 going into the STL game, which we won so 3-7 after that). We finished the season with 2 more wins, so it's not even like Flacco going down really hurt our record that year. Hell, we beat the goddamn Steelers with Ryan Mallett at QB.

I guess my point here is that every season has context and an excuse if you want to, the bottom line is that for 4 out of the past 5 years, this team has failed to live up to expectations. That's called a trend, and trends deserve discussion about whey they're happening. If you're going to shrug everything off to luck and injuries, that's fine, I just disagree.