VITO'S VIEWS

This is the time of year when most teams see the upcoming season through rose-colored glasses.

It is a time for optimism, not pessimism.

But the Cleveland Browns, coming off a two-year record of 1-31 and an 0-16 debacle last year, have been a bit over the top in the series “Hard Knocks.’’

When Dez Bryant came for a visit (and wasn’t signed), coach Hue Jackson, who has somehow survived this 1-31 start even though the team brought in a new GM in John Dorsey, told Bryant: “Twenty-one days baby, the Pittsburgh Steelers right here at home in front of the Dawg Pound. It will be unbelievable. This will be the greatest turnaround in sports history.’’

Don’t be surprised if it isn’t.

Continue reading “‘Hard Knocks’ shows the Browns are still a clown show”

The NFL careers of Saquon Barkley and Sam Darnold are likely to be linked for a long time.

They were the second and third players picked in the NFL Draft, and both will play in New York – Barkley for the Giants and Darnold for the Jets – where they will be under intense media scrutiny in the nation’s largest media market.

In a win-now mode and hoping to get a few more years out of Eli Manning, the Giants took the running back.

The Jets, who had traded up to get the third pick, then grabbed Darnold to be their quarterback of the future.

Barkley figures to have a more immediate impact. He’ll start the opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars — if he’s healthy. He ran 39 yards on his first carry from scrimmage in the first preseason game against Cleveland, but suffered a mild hamstring strain after making a fingertip catch of a pass in practice on Aug. 13. The Giants say he is day to day.

Continue reading “Giants might come to regret taking Barkley over Darnold”

The Philadelphia Eagles seemed set at the quarterback position this year when they decided to keep Nick Foles.

They brought back Foles a year ago on a two-year deal at $13 million as an insurance policy in case Carson Wentz was injured.

They cashed in that policy when Wentz went down late in the year and Foles led them to a Super Bowl victory.

Suddenly, Foles’ value went up.

But Foles couldn’t go anywhere because he’s under contract this year at $7 million, and the Eagles decided not to trade him.

Continue reading “Eagles facing a lot of intruiging decisions at quarterback”

In football and in life, few people have hit the lottery the way Steve Smith Sr. has.

Smith played 16 years in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens, gaining 14,271 receiving yards and 81 receiving touchdowns while making five Pro Bowls and earning two All-Pro honors.

“Pretty good, right?’’ he said in a letter that was posted on NFL.com.

But the letter wasn’t about his success on the field. It was to reveal that Smith suffered from depression despite all of his success on the field.

It’s easy to think the people suffer from depression are dealing with failure. But it happens to successful people, too.

Continue reading “Here’s hoping Steve Smith’s depression reveal helps others in similar straits”

It would seem likely that a Super Bowl loser would have a good shot at returning to the Super Bowl the following year and winning it.

They have the incentive of overcoming the loss the previous year to give them motivation.

And that’s what often happened in the early days of the Super Bowl.

The Dallas Cowboys lost to the then-Baltimore Colts in the fifth Super Bowl, then beat the Miami Dolphins in the sixth one. The Dolphins then came back in 1972 and had their unbeaten season and won the seventh Super Bowl.

Believe it or not, that is the last time a Super Bowl loser has won it the next year.

Continue reading “History says the Patriots won’t win the Super Bowl this year — or even return to it”

The Buffalo Bills have been looking for a franchise quarterback since Jim Kelly retired after the 1996 season.

Thirteen passers have started five or more games for the Bills since Kelly retired — and none of them could fill Kelly’s shoes.

Now they have three candidates to become the 14th starter in that procession this year. Will one of them finally be The Answer?

It’s too early to tell, but the Bills’ nightmare scenario is that none of the three turns out to be the long-term answer, even though they made a big investment at the position in the offseason.

The 13^th was Tyrod Taylor, who took them to the playoffs with a 9-7 mark last year, but sealed his fate with a poor performance in the postseason loss at Jacksonville and was traded to Cleveland, where he is now the starter.

Continue reading “Bills counting on more question marks to finally end their QB drought”

So how did the Jacksonville Jaguars go from 3-13 to the AFC title game in one year?

The conventional wisdom is that drafting Leonard Fournette as the triggerman of their run-first offense made the difference along with their tenacious defense.

Fournette rushed for 1,040 yards and added 302 pass receiving yards while playing in just 13 games, and he did it by running against eight men in the box 49 percent of the time — the most in the NFL.  And he was more elusive than his reputation, evading 74 tackles and gaining 420 yards on those plays

The Jaguars were so enamored of their run-first offense that they doubled down on it this year, making guard Andrew Norwell the centerpiece of their free-agent class to bolster the blocking up front.

They seem ready to try the same strategy again.

Continue reading “Jaguars’ run-first philosophy worked last year, but it’s still a gamble”

It’s time for the NFL to stop letting Donald Trump bully them on the anthem issue.

They should get together with the NFL Players Association and issue a statement saying the NFL and the union set the league policies according to what they feel is best for the owners and the players without outside interference.

That would be a reference to Trump without mentioning his name.

They then should announce the two sides have agreed that the players have the right to peacefully protest before and after the games.

They would only prohibit protests during the game.

Continue reading “The NFL needs to start tuning out Trump and his relentless idiocy”

Al Davis used to say the shelf live for an NFL coach was about a decade.

This is probably because Davis was the Oakland Raiders and didn’t want a coach staying too long and upstaging him.

Yet the problem with staying too long is that most coaches win with just one quarterback — and once the quarterback leaves, so do their title years.

Although Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three difference quarterbacks, most winners of multiple Super Bowls won with just one.

For example, Paul Brown’s titles came with Otto Graham, Chuck Noll’s with Terry Bradshaw and Tom Landry’s with Roger Staubach.

Continue reading “Could this be the end of the line for Belichick and the Patriots dynasty?”

Doing the popular thing is not always the right thing.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s decision to virtually ignore Terrell Owens at the induction ceremony because he is refusing to attend falls in that category.

It was a popular move because it was an in your face answer to Owens’ refusing to show, probably because he was snubbed the first two years he was ineligible.

The move cements Owens’ reputation as an immature, me-first kind of guy who was often a cancer on the teams he played for.

He wore out his welcome so often that he played for five teams despite his talent.

Continue reading “Hall of Fame is botching it with in-kind snub of Owens”