With the football season underway, I've found myself listening to more ESPN radio lately. While driving for an hour over the past week, I found myself listening to The Will Cain Show. Will Cain is a former conservative analyst, who I tend to find myself disagreeing with on most every matter that is political, so I was curious to hear what the lad had to say regarding the world of sports. Here's what I discovered...
Will Cain is unafraid of going against the grain. This is both interesting and annoying. When he comes across as genuine, it's more of the former. There are times, however, when the guy seems determined to be different just for the sake of being different, comes across as phony, and I start hearing nails against the chalkboard while Ben Stein is yodeling Queen songs.
Admittedly, Cain makes a good point here and there. When Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently signed a mammoth contract extension, the radio host rightly stated, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Look, teams who sign these quarterbacks to huge extensions sacrifice spending money elsewhere and it hurts the team in the long run." Before the extensions to quarterbacks Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Ryan Tannehill, Andrew Luck, and Colin Kaepernick, the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and San Francisco 49ers had made the playoffs 14 of 18 times (77.8%). After the extensions were signed, these same teams have qualified for postseason play just 4 of 18 times (22.2%). That's a monumental difference of 55.6%.
On the flip-side, however, Will Cain is a bigger Dallas Cowboys homer than Brutus is an Ohio State Buckeyes homer. Just yesterday, he argued with a caller about teams who have bright futures ahead of them. The caller said he felt the Tennessee Titans, fresh off a playoff win from a season ago, had a brighter future than Cain's Cowboys, and that Marcus Mariota was a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Cain would have none of it. He said the quarterback comparison wasn't even close and continued to lump the Cowboys alongside the Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, and Philadelphia Eagles as the teams of the future in the predicted-dominant conference in the NFL, the NFC. Let's take a deeper look inside the numbers, shall we?
Dak Prescott is a solid quarterback, but his numbers dropped some in his sophomore season in the NFL, likely due to a loss of skill position players the previous season. If we just want to compare Prescott's sophomore season with Mariota's three, here's how their numbers stack up:
Mariota: 61.8% completion, 1.71 TD:INT, 7.4 ypa, 12.0 ypc, 225.6 ypg, 88.6 rating, 6.5% sack, 5.94 ypr, 21.7 ypg, 0.55 TD:LFMB
Prescott: 62.9% completion, 1.69 TD:INT, 6.8 ypa, 10.8 ypc, 207.8 ypg, 86.6 rating, 6.1% sack, 6.3 ypr, 22.3 ypg, 2:1 TD:LFMB
I'm sorry, but could those numbers be any more similar? Is Dak Prescott a better quarterback than Marcus Mariota? That's highly debatable. But is it as cut and dry as Will Cain suggests? No, not even close.
As far as the future of the Dallas Cowboys is concerned, I don't know what Mr. Cain is basing his opinion off here. Over the past 8 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys have gone a combined 68-60 (.531) and only made the playoffs twice (25.0%). That ranks them 6th and tied for 10th (out of 16) in the conference, respectively. The Detroit Lions have made the postseason more times than the Cowboys over the past 8 years. In the NFL over that time, Dallas ranks 13th and 19th (out of 32), respectively. This has been a very middle-of-the-pack team, a team who missed out on the postseason a year ago. They're now without Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and All-Pro center Travis Frederick, who was sadly diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome earlier this off-season. The Cowboys have a number of question marks on defense, in the passing game, and on the offensive line, which has been their strong suit in recent years. They'll likely be good enough to avoid the NFC East cellar (thanks, Washington), but it's unlikely they'll dominate the rest of the division, let alone conference or league, in the coming years. Will Cain makes some interesting points at times, but when he broaches the subject of the Dallas Cowboys, I'd highly recommend to turn on some music instead of listening to the drivel.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PresDa01.htm
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MariMa01.htm
Will Cain is unafraid of going against the grain. This is both interesting and annoying. When he comes across as genuine, it's more of the former. There are times, however, when the guy seems determined to be different just for the sake of being different, comes across as phony, and I start hearing nails against the chalkboard while Ben Stein is yodeling Queen songs.
Admittedly, Cain makes a good point here and there. When Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently signed a mammoth contract extension, the radio host rightly stated, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Look, teams who sign these quarterbacks to huge extensions sacrifice spending money elsewhere and it hurts the team in the long run." Before the extensions to quarterbacks Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Ryan Tannehill, Andrew Luck, and Colin Kaepernick, the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and San Francisco 49ers had made the playoffs 14 of 18 times (77.8%). After the extensions were signed, these same teams have qualified for postseason play just 4 of 18 times (22.2%). That's a monumental difference of 55.6%.
On the flip-side, however, Will Cain is a bigger Dallas Cowboys homer than Brutus is an Ohio State Buckeyes homer. Just yesterday, he argued with a caller about teams who have bright futures ahead of them. The caller said he felt the Tennessee Titans, fresh off a playoff win from a season ago, had a brighter future than Cain's Cowboys, and that Marcus Mariota was a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Cain would have none of it. He said the quarterback comparison wasn't even close and continued to lump the Cowboys alongside the Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, and Philadelphia Eagles as the teams of the future in the predicted-dominant conference in the NFL, the NFC. Let's take a deeper look inside the numbers, shall we?
Dak Prescott is a solid quarterback, but his numbers dropped some in his sophomore season in the NFL, likely due to a loss of skill position players the previous season. If we just want to compare Prescott's sophomore season with Mariota's three, here's how their numbers stack up:
Mariota: 61.8% completion, 1.71 TD:INT, 7.4 ypa, 12.0 ypc, 225.6 ypg, 88.6 rating, 6.5% sack, 5.94 ypr, 21.7 ypg, 0.55 TD:LFMB
Prescott: 62.9% completion, 1.69 TD:INT, 6.8 ypa, 10.8 ypc, 207.8 ypg, 86.6 rating, 6.1% sack, 6.3 ypr, 22.3 ypg, 2:1 TD:LFMB
I'm sorry, but could those numbers be any more similar? Is Dak Prescott a better quarterback than Marcus Mariota? That's highly debatable. But is it as cut and dry as Will Cain suggests? No, not even close.
As far as the future of the Dallas Cowboys is concerned, I don't know what Mr. Cain is basing his opinion off here. Over the past 8 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys have gone a combined 68-60 (.531) and only made the playoffs twice (25.0%). That ranks them 6th and tied for 10th (out of 16) in the conference, respectively. The Detroit Lions have made the postseason more times than the Cowboys over the past 8 years. In the NFL over that time, Dallas ranks 13th and 19th (out of 32), respectively. This has been a very middle-of-the-pack team, a team who missed out on the postseason a year ago. They're now without Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and All-Pro center Travis Frederick, who was sadly diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome earlier this off-season. The Cowboys have a number of question marks on defense, in the passing game, and on the offensive line, which has been their strong suit in recent years. They'll likely be good enough to avoid the NFC East cellar (thanks, Washington), but it's unlikely they'll dominate the rest of the division, let alone conference or league, in the coming years. Will Cain makes some interesting points at times, but when he broaches the subject of the Dallas Cowboys, I'd highly recommend to turn on some music instead of listening to the drivel.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PresDa01.htm
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MariMa01.htm
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