Most Likely to Fall Off: Bears or Colts?

Appearing in a Super Bowl one year does not guarantee that you'll be even a playoff team next year ... ask the Steelers. Both the Steelers and the Seahawks slipped a little bit after their Super Bowl XL appearances. Sometimes it's injuries, sometimes a team gets a little full of themselves, sometimes a team's veteran leadership doesn't return to the team and instead opts to spend a year spouting trite, meaningless cliches on NBC.

So which of this year's XLI participants is more likely to slip next year?

I don't think it's going to be the Colts ... mainly because they've been so good for so long. I'm not saying they'll win the Super Bowl next year, but unless Jim Sorgi decides to kidnap and murder Peyton Manning, it's hard to imagine that the Colts won win 10+ games next year.

As MDS went over earlier today, they're not likely to have a ton of roster turnover. They're not an old team at the key positions (Marvin Harrison doesn't age like normal human beings, and Peyton Manning has never had any use for athleticism), so that shouldn't hurt them. The one thing I see derailing them could be the departure of Tony Dungy, but it's my guess that he'll be back.

So that leaves the Bears, and there's no reason to believe that their defense won't maintain, or even improve, they will have some other issues to deal with.

They've got to hope that Ron Rivera doesn't get the Cowboys job. If he does, that could set the defense back a little bit, having to adjust to a new coaches strategies and philosophies.

And then, of course, there's the quarterback position. It's all anyone wants to talk about ... if they replace Rex Grossman, there will be a ton of pressure on the new guy (and there really isn't much out there on the free agent market), and if they don't ... well, I don't know if Rex Grossman, or anyone, could take an entire offseason of questions like, "Hey Rex, why do you suck so bad?"

Lovie Smith's got a lot of work to do in the off-season to make sure the Bears can even get back to the level where they are right now.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-05-2007 @ 11:53PM

ALLCAPS said...

The Colts have some serious cap issues this off-season, and some key free agents on the defensive side. Freeney, June, and Harper are all up for some dough. It would take some massive restructuring of existing contracts to keep the core together.

There will be a bunch of teams this off-season with money to burn, looking to make a splash. An impact guy like Freeney would be ideal. Indy can just kiss him goodbye.

2-06-2007 @ 4:47PM

George B Vieto said...

The Colts and the Bears will return to the playoffs that's for sure since the Teams of Extraordinary Gentlemen love their coaches and will run through the Wall of China to win games. Unless the star players of the Colts and Bears have swollen heads and lose their intensity to return to the Super Bowl my money is on the Colts to lose in the championship game or early rounds to the Patriots. Since the Patriots are fuming over the loss to their nemesis.

2-06-2007 @ 4:40AM

insomniac said...

How dare you call Jim Sorgi a murderer! Jim Sorgi is a great man who gives back to his community. He carries little old ladies on his back to the local church where Tony Dungy calls bingo. He visits homeless people and shows them the most comfortable way to sit on a bench. Sometimes he even throws on a #18 jersey and visits an orphanage while pretending to be Peyton Manning.

But if Jim Sorgi were a murderer, he should murder YOU. Because you have NO CLASS or RESPECT for the sanctity of all things Indianapolis.

Sorry about that. I was just reading your recent comments, and it looked like it would be fun to be self-righteous and judgmental with no appreciation for sarcasm whatsoever. And you know what? It kinda was.

2-06-2007 @ 9:34AM

Betty Jo Day said...

I was just reading the comments of some guy by the name of Whitlock who seems to think he is wiser and smarter than the rest of us. But, more than that he is disparaging of Manning, Dungy, and the Colts in general. I do agree with him that Adai and Rhodes were the co-MVPs, not Manning. But, I guess since they only had one Cadillac they couldn't have co-MVPs. But, even if Manning was the most valuable, his regular season performance made it possible for them to get to the playoffs. So Whitlock can go fly a kite.