Every season the media goes on and on about how great parity in the NFL is. One of the big predictions ever year is, "which team will be the surprise team to make the playoffs." It's always a fun debate but what often goes unspoken is the other side of parity. If there are going to be teams that are surprisingly good every season then that means there will also be teams that are surprisingly bad every year.
Before we get to my top 5 disappointingly bad teams of the 2011-2012 season let's cover a couple of teams I either didn't include or just barely fell short of being ranked. Readers may be expecting to see the San Diego Chargers on this list because of the talent they have on offense. The Chargers fail to live up to expectations every year though so-if it makes any sense-they're disappointing season is not disappointing at all but expected. The end to the Chicago Bears season was disappointing but not by any fault of their own since it was due to injury. Finally, I came close to putting the Green Bay Packers on the list. Crazy to think a team that almost went undefeated was disappointing but specifically what I was going for was that such a fantastic defense played so poorly the following season. How often does a Super Bowl contender have a defense that went from 5th in the NFL to last place?
On to the list...
5. St. Louis Rams
Last season the St. Louis Rams ended the season at 7-9 just one season after being the worst team in the NFL. The 7-9 finish was overachieving for the Rams and they were helped by a bad division. Nobody was expecting an improvement and a 9-7 or 10-6 finish-a step back was expected-but reverting back to the worst team in the NFL has to be considered a disappointment. Sam Bradford went from a promising young quarterback to someone that may be jettisoned somewhere else in favor of Andrew Luck.
4. Indianapolis Colts
An injured player is never a good thing but hopefully the lack of Peyton Manning opened the front office's eyes to the fact that the Colts need a lot more than Manning. I expected the declining Colts to have an average season this year even with Manning so a poor season was not surprising. I don't think anybody could have guessed that the Colts would start 0-13 though.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers actually dropped in the standings by the most games than any of the teams on the list but I was not a big believer in Tampa Bay. I thought the 10-6 record last year was an aberration but they did seem like a nice 8-8 caliber team and others were predicting wild card for the Bucs. Instead the Bucs finished 4-12 and even finished behind last year's worst team, the Carolina Panthers.
2. New York Jets
The 2011-2012 season was Super Bowl or bust for the New York Jets. I guess it's bust then. After beating the New England Patriots in the playoffs two seasons the Jets figured they were the team to beat, even though neither season led to an AFC Championship. Now the Jets won't even get to defend their imaginary crown because they won't even be seen in the 2011-2012 playoffs.
1. Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles went 10-6 last season and looked like a threat in the NFC. Even if the Eagles had simply brought back the same team as last year they would have been the favorite in the NFC East. Instead Philly made the biggest addition of any team when they signed Nnamdi Asomugha. On top of that the Eagles added Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Jason Babin and Vince Young. The Eagles players were touting themselves as "The Dream Team" or the NFL's version of the Miami Heat. The Eagles ended up a disappointing 8-8. It was only two games worse than last year's result but it felt like they were about 10 games worse.
Sources:
All records and standings were found at Yahoo! Sports
The last several generations of Lee Andrew Henderson's family were Pittsburgh born and even though he was born in Alabama he has been a long time fan of the Pirates, Steelers and Panthers. Lee Andrew Henderson can be found on Twitter at @LeeAHenderson
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