God I hate the F’ing Whiners! (Living in the Bay Area, I am within spitting distance of three teams that I hate more than my ex-wife: the Whiners, the Faiders, and the Midgets that call themselves the Giants.)

While driving the other day, I happened to catch a bit of the Fitz and Brooks show here in the Bay Area. I hate listening to homer radio jocks (yes, even when I lived in LA and me being a LA homer) but I wanted to hear their opinion on the draft - especially the Whiners’ draft. Luckily, Mike Sando was the guest, and he was talking to Fitz about the NFC West teams’ drafts. Fitz was trying to justify A.J. Jenkins and LaMichael James as homerun hitters and Sando really didn’t disagree. I don’t either because both are explosive players. Sando then went on about why it was ridiculous to grade drafts right after they just happened. Much like what we’ve said here on TST.

Then Sando dropped these stats:

From 2004 to 2010, there were 19 teams that went 13-3 or better, ALL had fewer victories the following year. The average drop in wins was 4.1 (13.5 to 9.4 wins). The ‘03 and ‘04 Patriots were the only team that didn’t have a drop in wins going 14-2 in back to back seasons. 13 teams had a 13-3 record since ‘04 they averaged only 8.3 wins the next year. Only 3 of them finished better than 9-7.

Since 1978, 61 teams (the first year of the 16 game schedules) have had records of 13-3 or better. None finished better the following season, and only 5 had the same record. He didn’t say the average drop in wins since ’78 and I’m too lazy to go back that many years. Now he was dropping these stats off the top of his head on live radio, so I don’t know how accurate they are but hell I’ll take it. 4.1 drop in wins!

Now the only stat that scares me is how bad the Whiners were on 3rd down conversions and red zone scoring. I think they were last or near last in both categories. Can they fix that this year? I hope not. Also, their defense can’t be as dominant this year, can it? They had a lollipop schedule last year, so that probably made their D look better than it was, right? Hell, we almost beat them that last game! With a tougher schedule, will they come back to earth? I hope so.

Looking at the stats above, more losses could be in their future since they didn’t make that many changes this offseason (outside of Moss and Manningham) and their draft was questionable. I don’t think they will have a losing record but they will drop some games. Maybe 10-6 or 9-7?

The optimist in me says the NFC West will be competitive. What do you think?

You can listen to the podcast at:

http://www.knbr.com/ShowsSchedule/FitzandBrooks/tabid/594/Default.aspx

Click on the 4/30-ESPN NFC West Blogger Mike Sando on the Fitz and Brooks Show

Thanks to Douglas for editing this post for me.