10 biggest NFL mistakes in 2015

The NFL, its teams, players, and coaches are really no different than all of us. If we look back in a yearbook or old scrapbook, we’re all likely to see some mistakes. Maybe it’s a bad haircut, clothes, or some ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, or something else, but the mistakes are usually pretty glaring. 

One day, these NFL mistakes may be laughed at by the people who made them, just don’t expect it to be any day soon.

10. Dallas Cowboys entering season with Brandon Weeden as backup quarterback

Injuries happen in sports, so the Cowboys certainly can’t be blamed for the Week 2 injury that cost Tony Romo most of his season. But for the second year in a row, Dallas broke camp with Brandon Weeden as their backup quarterback. They got away with it in 2014, but 2015 was a different story.

Weeden entered the 2015 season with career completion percentage of 56%, a passer rating of 72.5, 26 touchdowns, 28 interceptions, and a 5-16 record as a starter. Now, Weeden fans may point out that in 2015, he improved most of those rates, completing 74.6% of his passes, recording a passer rating of 92.2, while throwing two touchdowns and two picks, even if he did go 0-3. Contributing to that 0-3 record were plays like this.

https://twitter.com/mikedyce/status/648197923482796032

A backup quarterback on a contender should be one of two things.

One, someone who can step in and not crash the car. Maybe he won’t be spectacular, but he won’t make the throws that cost his team games. If the team is good enough, the drop in record won’t be so sharp.

Two, a young player, like Jimmy Garoppolo in New England or, more to the point, Brock Osweiler in Denver. That way, if the regular starter is hurt or ineffective, the young guy gets some good run with the first team and even if the team doesn’t win a game, the team gets a sense of what that guy might or not be in the future.

Weeden doesn’t fall under either window. His career record showed that he wasn’t effective at managing games and since he turned 32 in October, it was pretty clear that he’s not the quarterback of anyone’s future.

Jerry Jones may not think “a more gifted passer” is out there, but the Cowboys not only had a dismal 2015, but got no hints as to what the future may hold when Tony Romo is no longer there. Dallas entered the season with Brandon Weeden and it will strongly contribute to a lost season for the team.

9. Buffalo Bills Hiring Rex Ryan

Everything seemed to line up so well here. The Bills’ 9-7 record in 2014 broke a string of three straight 6-10 seasons, and they were replacing Doug Marrone with Ryan, a man who’d coached the Jets to the AFC Championship Game after the 2009 and 2010 seasons. When the schedule was released, the NFL’ Network’s Heath Evans predicted a 12-4 record. While that might have been a stretch, an improvement from 9-7 and a playoff spot sure seemed reasonable.

No dice. With two weeks to go, the Bills stand at 6-8 and they’re not going to the playoffs. Noted Pats fan Bill Simmons couldn’t help but poking fun of his rival’s coach.

Normally, that would be something to anticipate for 2017, not 2016. But before Sunday’s loss, news broke that star defensive end Mario Williams was unhappy and could be gone next season. When a star player and coach don’t get along and the team’s in the process of a step backwards, the coach going isn’t that far-fetched, even if it is only after one year.

This one seemed so right at the time, but it has certainly not been what the Bills expected. Adding insult to injury, the Jets, Ryan’s former team sit an 8-5 and are very much in playoff contention with two weeks to go.

8. Seattle Seahawks trading for Jimmy Graham

This one has just been one gigantic swing-and-a-miss. Drew Brees has definitely missed having Jimmy Graham around, but the New Orleans Saints weren’t exactly expected to be a contender anyway. The Seattle Seahawks were, and still are. But even though the Seahawks will be back in the playoffs, the Jimmy Graham experiment was a complete bust, at least in 2015.

Graham’s season ended with 48 receptions, 605 yards, and only two touchdown receptions, nowhere near the pace of his previous four years, where he had no fewer than 85 receptions, 889 yards, and nine touchdowns. As frustrating as those numbers were, they’re only part of the problem.

To get Graham, the Seahawks traded center Max Unger, and his absence has been noticed. If Russell Wilson is sacked three more times this season, he’ll match his career high. While the Seattle running game has had some big moments, they haven’t been anywhere near the dominant force that they were over the last three years.

Yet another reason that trading for Graham was a bad move is that in addition to Unger, Seattle sent a first-round draft pick the Saints way. It remains to be seen how much that will hurt, but it will certainly not help anything.

The Seahawks haven’t made many mistakes over the last several years compiling this roster, but this decision was not a good one.

7. Philadelphia Eagles eject LeSean McCoy, bring in DeMarco Murray

Unlike these other mistakes, this one has potential for a better ending, as DeMarco Murray could conceivably help the Eagles in a playoff game. It’s just not looking all that likely. While the Philadelphia Eagles are in contention for the NFC East crown, they’re not in that position because of Murray’s great play.

Lately, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles have been featured more than Murray, and at one point the team considered benching him altogether (read about that here) and sent him tumbling down the depth chart.

Indeed, he was the Eagles’ fourth string back in their loss to Arizona.

Mind you, this is the same guy who signed a five-year, $40 million deal with Philly in March.

At the time, it didn’t seem like such a bad deal. Remember, in 2014, Murray led the league with 1,845 yards, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Quite a far cry from the  606 yards and only 3.5 yards per carry he’s had in 2015.

Making matters worse, while LeSean McCoy has not had a great year, his 895 yards and 4.4 yards per carry are significantly better totals than what Murray has done. It’s pretty safe to say that things have not gone as planned for the Eagles or Murray.

6. New York Giants sticking with Tom Coughlin

At the end of a disappointing 2014 season, the Giants made the decision to bring Tom Coughlin back. That decision hasn’t proved to be a good one, and even at the time, the explanation offered by CEO John Mara’s didn’t make any sense.

“It’s been a very difficult year for our fans. It’s been an even more difficult year for me, because I don’t stomach this very well,” Mara said, per Nick Powell of NJ.com. “But I do think there is reason for optimism and I think we’ll be a much better team next season.”

Exactly what was the reason for optimism?

In Coughlin’s first eight years manning the Giants’ sideline (2004-2011), the team was 74-54 (.578 winning percentage), made five playoff appearances, won three NFC East titles, and two Super Bowls.

From 2012-2014, they were 22-26 (.458 winning percentage), with no playoff appearances.

Firing Coughlin would not only have been a smart decision, but an easily defended one. The record pointed to clear regression and the Giants could have simply said that as much as Coughlin had done, he’d taken them as far as he could go and the most recent results indicated that it was time for a change. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

Now, the Giants sit at 6-8 and if they’re going to make the playoffs, will need to finish at 2-0 and have the Washington Redskins finish at 0-2.

An NFL team missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons is bad, but in certain circumstances can be forgivable. When a team that’s enjoyed recent success goes through a three-year postseason drought, though, it’s a sign that a change needs to be made.

The Giants ignored that sign and as a result, will probably be watching the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

5. St. Louis Rams trading Sam Bradford for Nick Foles

Unlike bringing in DeMarco Murray to replace LeSean McCoy, this move worked out well for the Eagles. While Sam Bradford hasn’t exactly looked like Tom Brady for Philly, he’s been better than the man he was traded for, Nick Foles.

Foles’ 2,052 yards, 56.4 completion percentage, and 69 passer rating have been bad, but his 10 interceptions against only seven touchdown passes are unacceptable for an NFL quarterback of any era, let alone the pass-happy era we’re currently enjoying. There’s no way that you can be an NFL contender with that kind of play from your quarterback, so it’s no real surprise that the Rams were eliminated in Week 15.

Here’s the problem. The Rams getting eliminated this early should be surprising. They have a championship caliber defense, and in Todd Gurley have one of the best young playmakers in the NFL. Even playing in the NFC West with the Cardinals and Seahawks, with even average play from the quarterbacks, the Rams would at least be contending for a playoff spot.

Make no mistake, the quarterback play hasn’t been the only problem. There’s no way that the Rams should be bringing Jeff Fisher back in 2016 and it can’t be easy to play in a city not knowing if you’ll be there next year. But the quarterback play has been dismal. If they plan on contending, that needs to change.

4. Miami Dolphins Bringing Joe Philbin Back

We’ll give the Dolphins some credit here. They did fire Joe Philbin after a 1-3 start in 2015, but the decision to keep him was rather baffling.

In the three years before Joe Philbin was hired by the Miami Dolphins, they went 20-28, never making the playoffs. In his first three years leading the Dolphins, the team went 23-25, never making the playoffs. Sure, that’s progress, but pretty glacial progress.

After the second-to-last game of the 2014 season, the Dolphins made a puzzling move, offering a more puzzling explanation.

We can forget the Harbaugh part of that for a second, as he was with the 49ers until the following week. But the “decision to keep Joe Philbin before today” is more than a little puzzling.

The “today” that Salguero referenced was a 37-35 home win over the Minnesota Vikings. Given that the Vikings were a 7-9 team in 2014 and didn’t have Adrian Peterson, a two-point win over them wouldn’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence. If the decision was indeed made before that day, then the previous two contests were a 28-13 loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens, and a 41-13 blowout in New England to the Patriots.

If losing by a combined 69-26 to two playoff teams, including one divisional opponent, doesn’t show that a change may be needed, nothing does.

The 2015 season under Philbin was a disaster. Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post detailed problems from Miami’s practices. Many of them stemmed from Practice Squad players getting the better of quarterback Ryan Tannehill in practice, and him in turn belittling them with comments like “Enjoy your practice squad paycheck, enjoy your practice squad trophy.”

Tannehill saying that kind of stuff to teammates of course reflects poorly on him, but a starting quarterback should be a leader of the team. Him talking that way to teammates reflects poorly on the coach.

It’s doubtful that anyone in Miami thinks that bringing Philbin back was a good move and while it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing under Dan Campbell, they’re certainly not regretting the move to fire Philbin.

3. San Francisco 49ers send Jim Harbaugh packing, bring Jim Tomsula in

In four seasons with the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh had a 44-19-1 record, made the playoffs three times, reached the NFC Championship Game in all three of those appearances and made one Super Bowl. His worst season was an incredibly frustrating 8-8 campaign in 2014, which was his last. That season was as good as any of the eight seasons the 49ers had before his hiring, and better than seven of the eight.

It’s also going to be better than Jim Tomsula’s first season. The best San Francisco can do under Tomsula is a 6-10 season. Tomsula, who, save for one game as an interim coach in 2010, has never been more than a defensive line coach in the NFL, has looked overwhelmed on the sidelines. A perfect sign of that was that he was 0-for-6 in his first six challenges.

Harbaugh’s departure also coincided with a downfall in the play of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was benched mid-season in 2015.

While the switch from Harbaugh to Tomsula isn’t the only reason for the 49ers’ downfall, we have to remember that the front office held high hopes for this team heading into the season.

The path to 11-5 from 4-10 is challenging.

To make matters worse, Harbaugh has presided over a four-game improvement at the University of Michigan.

The 49ers could have decided to give Harbaugh one more year. They could have brought in someone who’d at least been a coordinator who could hopefully help Kaepernick’s development. They’d probably like a mulligan on this one.

2. Indianapolis Colts making terrible personnel decisions

Unlike these other teams, the Indianapolis Colts may not have one move that stands out as a failure above the rest, but that’s mostly because they’ve failed in so many different places.

Frank Gore and Andre Johnson might both end up in Canton someday. But Gore is 32 at a position where anything north of 30 is considered old, while Johnson is 34. Bringing one of those guys in would have been fine, but bringing both in to play big roles was a mistake.

The Colts drafted receiver Phillip Dorsett in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Receiver wasn’t really an issue for the Colts. Another option would have been an offensive lineman to protect franchise quarterback Andrew Luck. If that doesn’t tickle the fancy of General Manager Ryan Girgson, maybe someone to improve a defense that allowed 45 points in last season’s AFC Championship Game (28 of them in the second half, when the pressure of the balls was not an issue).

Dorsett has struggled to stay on the field and has not caught more than two passes in a single game. The offensive line failed to protect Luck, costing him a lacerated kidney.

In his stead, Matt Hasselbeck has been seriously battered. It’s a minor miracle that he hasn’t been seriously hurt. While the Indianapolis defense allowed only 16 points in Sunday’s loss to the Texans, they allowed 96 total points over the previous two games to the Steelers and, of all teams, the Jaguars.

Just a reminder. This team had advanced a round deeper into the playoffs in each of Luck’s four seasons. If that was going to continue this year, a Super Bowl appearance was needed. Not only does that seem unlikely, but the Colts are one loss or Texans win away from being eliminated in a division that’s currently led by a 7-7 team.

The only “positive” from the Colts season has been one of the funniest plays in NFL history, but it was only positive for those of us who were entertained by the ridiculousness of it all.

https://twitter.com/BrettPats/status/678370157165715458

That’s just one of many decisions that the Colts would like to have back. That can’t happen. While we can safely predict that Andrew Luck will be back next year, I wouldn’t bet money on anyone else.

1. The NFL Refusing to use common sense on its catch rule

All of the previous decisions have hurt one team. This one has hurt every team and the enjoyment of basically every game that’s been played this season.

We all remember the controversial ruling in last season’s Packers vs. Cowboys playoff game, right? It certainly wasn’t the first time a controversial catch, or no-catch, swayed a game, but since it helped sway a playoff game between those two teams, it was the perfect chance for the NFL to implement common sense with a rule change.

In July, we got a pretty promising tweet from Fox’s Mike Pereira, indicating that the rule was indeed changing.

That certainly looked like a catch, but it’s still intriguing. Since Pereira followed that up with several tweets explaining the rule, let’s at least see all of what he had to say.

“A player is considered to be going to the ground if he does not remain upright long enough to demonstrate that he is clearly a runner,” he said via Big Lead. “If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass(with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball until after his initial contact with the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior the ball touching the ground,the pass is complete.”

So much for common sense.

Is there something wrong with a ball being caught as soon as the receiver stops the ball in his hands (or against his body) with two feet down? If that happens in the end zone, it’s touchdown. If it happens on the field of play and the ball then comes loose, it’s a fumble.

If that idea doesn’t work, why not just have a four-year-old watch every game and let that boy or girl be the judge of when a ball has been caught?

The rule changes have only brought more confusion to what should be a simple element of the game. This seems to come up every week, if not in every game. Chances are that it will come up again in the playoffs, and maybe it will be enough to trigger another rule change.

If it is, though, let’s hope it’s a rule change that actually works.