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What are some examples of young promising playoff teams that never got over the hump?


CP3MVP

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This thread is partially inspired by the discourse on social media around the current Texans and Packers. Both teams are led by young Franchise QBs, both young overall but the packers in particular are one of the youngest playoff teams in history. 
 

They both loss but the consensus is they weren’t supposed to be there, they were playing with “house money”(I hate that phrase) and how the best is yet to come. 
 

But not always the case, what are examples of teams that people said were young and promising that never actually got over the hump? They never won a title  or even made a SB. 

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6 minutes ago, Steelersfan43 said:

The dolphins with a young Dan Marino

Yes when they lost that SB the consensus was they would be in several more by the time Dan retired. They missed the playoffs 4 years in a row in his prime 

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Depends on what you consider “the hump”

I’m not sure if the Moon Oilers were young but they never made a conference championship game

There were some good Jaguar teams from the 90s and mid 2000s who never made a Super Bowl

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Most of them didn't/won't make a single super bowl. There isn't going to be linear upward growth in success and things change fast in the NFL. What you hope is that it develops into a team that reliably gets to the playoffs with some hope and breaks through one of those times.

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Texans with Watson? In the 2019 playoffs they beat the Bills & had a 24-0 lead over the Chiefs. Things unravelled from there in like the worst way possible and they had a really bad 4 year stretch....they've righted the ship with Ryans & Stroud for now

Falcons with Matt Ryan? I remember after 2008 everyone thought he was the next big thing. He made the NFCCG twice (2012 & 2016) & SB once (2016)

Packers with Rodgers? Maybe it doesn't count since they did win it all in 2010. But after that SB, everyone thought this was the beginning of a new dynasty. Especially because they went 15-1 the following season. Then they went one & done to the Giants & haven't even made a SB since, although they came close with 4 NFCCG appearances 

Edited by 49ersfan
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2016 Oakland Raiders

Derek Carr led the Raiders to a 12-3 record (finished 12-4) and a lot of people, including myself, thought he was on track to be a top-5 QB.  He finished 3rd in MVP voting that year.  They also had Amari Cooper and Khali Mack, two highly regarded prospects who were living up to their potential.  With 3 young players at key positions all looking like they could be All-Pro talent, coming off that kind of season, almost everyone had the Raiders penciled in as a team that could potentially win big in the following seasons.

Then Carr got hurt to end the year, Mack and Cooper got traded in the years that followed, and Raiders haven't come close to a season that good again.  It would be like if Stroud flatlined as a QB and the Texans traded Nico Collins and Will Anderson within the next 2 years, and never made the playoffs for another 5-6 years.

Early 2010s Bengals with Dalton and Lewis are a good example too.  That was a pretty young team.  5 consecutive wildcard round losses.  Wonder how much better they would have fared in 2015 if Dalton never got hurt.

Edited by iknowcool
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The Packers and Lions are both great candidates for this.

These two in the NFCN probably had once in ten years type of schedule luck to play the worst division in both the AFC and NFC while also getting 2nd and 3rd place schedules.

Those fans will be thrilled all off-season, but the harsh reality is that they will likely need immense improvement just to offset that schedule luck to get back to where they were this season.

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The 2017 Rams teams led by Goff. Was the youngest team in the NFL and the furthest they got was to the Superbowl. McVay wisely got rid of Goff bc he felt like Goff couldn’t lead the Rams to a Superbowl title. Stafford could and did. 
 

The thing about these young promising teams is that they eventually have to win. As Brian Billick famously said, potential will get you fired. So if these teams go years and years with nothing to show for all the promise they showed early and often then people will get fired. So the Texans and Packers have to continue to build off of this season but eventually they will have to achieve the ultimate goal of a Superbowl.

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